UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Chula  Vista 
Public  Library 


10124 


THE    AR:  NTENNI"  'T 


PICTORIAL  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


UNITED  STATES. 


THE  DISCOVERT 

OF  THE 

AMERICAN  CONTINENT 

10  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 

EMBRACING 

'  <\  Account  of  the  Mound  Builders;  the  American  Indians;  the  Discoveries  and  Fxplorations  of  the  Norsemen. 

Spaniards,  English  and  French;  the  Settlement  of  the  New  World  ;  the  Gradual  Growth  of  the  Colonies; 

The  French  and  Indian  Wars  ;  the  Struggle  of  the  Revolution  ;  the  Establishment  of  the  American 

Republic;  the  Second  War  with  England;  the  Mexican  War;  the  Long  Period  of  Peace;  the 

History  of  the  Great  Civil  War;  the  Reconstruction  of  the  Union  ;  the  Centennial  of  our 

Independence;  the  Assassination  and  Death  of  President  Garfield  ;  the  Inauguration 

of  President  Arthur,  and  down  to  the  Present  Time. 

BY  JAMES  D.  MCCABE, 

AtTHOR  OF  "\  MANUAL  OF  GENERAL  HISTORY,"  "PATHWAYS  OF  THF.  HOLY  LAND,"  "THE  GRF.AT  REPVBLtr," 
"THE  PICTORIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD,"  ETC.,  ETC. 

EMBELLISHED  WITH  OVER  500  FINE  HISTORICAL  ENGRAVINGS  AND  PORTRAITS. 


sued  by  subscript!'  >n  only,  and  not  for  sale  in  the  book  stores.     Residents  of  any  State  desiring  a  copy 
should  address  the  Publishers,  and  an  Agent  will  call  upon  them. 


PUBLISHED  BY 
THE    NATIONAL    PUBLISHING    CO., 

PHILADELPHIA,  PA ,  CHICAGO,  ILL,  ST.  LOUS,  Ml) .  AND  ATLANTA,  GA. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1ST',  by 

J.     R.    JONES, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


Copyrighted  by 

J.    R.   JONES. 
1877. 


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PREFACE. 


HERE  is  nothing  more  worthy  of  a  man's  study  than  the 
history  of  his  country.  In  our  own  land,  however,  the 
means  of  pursuing  such  a  study  are  limited.  Our  great 
cities  contain  large  and  valuable  public  libraries,  and 
}he  collections  of  our  historical  societies  are  rich  and  very  com- 
plete ;  but  these-are  accessible  only  to  the  communities  in  which 
hey  are  located,  and  are  practically  useless  to  the  majority  of 
the  American  people.  The  great  works  of  Bancroft  and 
Hildreth  cover  but  a  portion  of  our  history,  and  are  removed 
from  the  reach  of  the  masses  by  reason  of  their  costliness. 
Besides  these,  the  larger  number  of  the  works  treating  of  Ameri- 
can history  are  compendiums,  or  outlines  intended  for  the  use 
irf  schools,  and  are  therefore  unsatisfactory  to  the  adult  reader. 
The  demand  for  a  popular  History  of  the  United  States  which 
shall  fill  a  place  between  these  greater  and  smaller  works  has 
led  the  author  to  the  preparation  of  this  volume.  He  has 
endeavored  to  popularize  the  story  of  the  nation,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  negJect  nothing  that  could  in  the  least  contribute 
to  a  clear  and  comprehensive  understanding  of  the  subject.  He 
has  sought  to  trace  the  history  of  the  Republic  from  the  dis- 
covery of  the  American  continent  to  the  present  day,  and  has 
endeavored  especially  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  reader  upon 
the  various  influences  which  have  aided  in  moulding  our 
national  character,  and  have  produced  those  distinctive  political 
and  moral  national  traits  which  we  call  "  American  Institu- 

462979 


4  PREFACE. 

tions."  He  has  endeavored  to  write  from  a  broad  national 
standpoint,  and  to  cultivate  in  the  minds  of  his  readers  that 
feeling  of  national  patriotism  which  must  ever  be  the  safeguard 
of  our  country. 

It  is  a  fitting  time  to  consider  the  story  of  the  past,  to  learn 
the  lessons  which  it  touches,  and  to  ponder  the  warnings  which 
it  conveys  for  the  future.  On  the  4th  of  July,  187G,  the 
United  States  of  America  completed  the  first  century  of  their 
national  existence.  The  people  of  this  country  can  look  hack 
upon  this  period  with  pride,  and  in  this  feeling  may  justly 
embrace  the  whole  course  of  our  history.  Less  than  four 
hundred  years  ago  America  was  an  unknown  wilderness.  Less 
than  three  centuries  ago  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  England, 
and  was  thus  secured  for  the  language  and  the  free  influences 
of  the  all-conquering  Anglo-Saxon  race.  It  was  a  precious 
heritage  which  was  thus  secured  for  liberty;  a  land  stretching 
from  the  frozen  regions  of  the  north  to  the  sunny  skies  of  the 
tropics,  from  the  stormy  Atlantic  to  the  calm  Pacific ;  a  land 
embracing  every  variety  of  climate,  and  a  soil  capable  of 
producing  almost  every  product  of  the  earth,  from  the  stunted 
herbage  of  the  frozen  regions  to  the  luxuriant  fruits  of  the 
tropics.  The  earth  is  rich  in  mineral  deposits,  from  the 
homely,  but  invaluable,  veins  of  coal,  to  beds  of  the  most 
brilliant  and  precious  minerals.  It  pours  out  in  streams,  oil  for 
burning,  gas  that  may  be  used  fresh  from  the  natural  springs, 
salt  that  requires  but  the  heat  of  the  sun  for  its  perfection,  and 
beds  of  pure  soda  that  cover  the  earth  like  the  dust  in  the 
highways.  In  short,  all  that  is  needed  for  the  preservation 
and  comfort  of  animal  and  human  life  exists  in  this  favored 
land  in  the  greatest  profusion. 

Such  is  the  land  designed  by  God  for  the  home  of  liberty. 
The  people  to  whom  He  has  intrusted  it  have  not  abused  His 


PREFACE.  f, 

goodness.  In  the  short  space  of  two  centuries,  the  American 
people  have  grown  from  a  small  handful  of  hardy  adventurers 
to  a  "mighty  continental  nation,"  increasing  with  a  rapidity 
that  is  almost  marvellous.  They  have  built  up  their  countr, 
on  a  scale  of  magnificence  of  which  they  are  justly  proud. 
They  have  covered  it  with  powerful  and  free  States,  and  splen- 
did cities,  connected  by  a  network  of  railways,  telegraphs, 
navigable  rivers,  and  canals,  which  bind  all  the  scattered  parts 
into  one  solid  whole.  They  have  made  a  commerce  and  a 
system  of  manufactures  before  which  the  fabled  wealth  of  Tyre 
sinks  into  insignificance.  The}''  have  created  a  literature 
which  commands  the  respect  of  the  world ;  they  have  illus- 
trated their  history  with  deeds  of  arms  not  less  splendid  than 
their  more  peaceful  achievements,  and  have  given  to  the  world 
names  in  every  walk  of  life  that  will  never  die.  They  have 
shown  that  liberty  and  power  can  go  hand  in  hand ;  they  have 
made  themselves  a  nation  in  which  God  is  feared,  and  of  which 
Christianity  is  the  basis,  in  which  ignorance  and  vice  are 
despised,  and  in  which  the  great  lesson  that  liberty  is  possible 
only  to  an  educated  and  virtuous  people  is  being  practically 
demonstrated. 

This  is  a  grand  history — a  record  of  the  highest  achievements 
of  humanity — the  noblest,  most  thrilling,  and  glorious  story 
ever  penned  on  earth.  Yet  the  fact  remains  that  the  great 
masa  of  the  American  people  are  but  imperfectly  acquainted 
with  it.  There  is  a  real  need  that  we  should  know  better  than 
we  do  what  we  have  done.  It  is  only  by  a  thoughtful  study  of 
our  past  that  we  can  safely  provide  for  the  perils  of  the  future. 
We  have  triumphed  over  adversity,  and  we  are  now  called 
upon  to  bear  the  test  of  success.  He  can  be  no  good  citizen 
who  is  ignorant  of  his  country's  history. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  volume  no  authority  of  importance 


«  PREPACK 

lias  been  overlooked ;  the  author  has  carefully  searched  every 
source  of  information  open  to  him;  and  has  availed  himself  of 
every  fact  that  could  throw  new  light  upon,  or  impart  addi- 
tional interest  to,  the  subject  under  consideration. 

In  the  narration  of  military  events,  he  has  preferred  to  give 
each  campaign  as  a  whole  rather  than  to  mingle  several  by 
presenting  the  events  in  chronological  order.  At  the  same 
tiiris  he  has  sought  to  preserve  the  inter-relation  of  events  in 
one  field  of  operations  to  those  in  the  others. 

An  honest  effort  has  been  made  to  do  justice  to  both  sections 
in  the  relation  of  the  events  of  the  civil  war,  and  it  is  believed 
that  each  will  admit  the  fairness  and  accuracy  of  the  narrative. 
The  author  has  made  no  attempt  to  intrude  his  own  political 
views  upon  the  reader,  and  has  constantly  kept  in  mind  the 
purpose  which  has  guided  his  labors — to  write  a  national  history 
free  from  sectional  or  partisan  bias,  which  shall  be  acceptable 
to  the  whole  country. 

The  book  is  offered  to  the  public  in  the  sincere  hope  that  it 
may  induce  its  readers  to  take  to  heart  the  lessons  which  our 
history  teaches,  and  to  set  a  higher  value  upon  the  precious 
heritage  of  constitutional  liberty  which  our  fathers  won  for  us 
with  their  blood,  and  handed  down  to  us  in  trust  for  our 
children's  children. 

In  order  that  the  work  may  present  a  complete  account  of 
the  achievements  of  the  century,  a  detailed  description  of  the 
International  Centennial  Exhibition  is  given  in  the  form  of  an 
Appendix.  It  is  believed  that  this  will  materially  increase  the 
value  of  the  book,  since  it  offers  \o  the  reader,  in  a  convenient 
and  compact  form,  a  memorial  of  the  great  crowning  event  of 
our  first  century  of  national  existence. 

July  Uth,  1879. 


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SIGNATURES  OF  THE  SIGNERS  Or   THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PRIMITIVE  INHABITANTS. 

Earliest  Inhabitants  of  the  United  States— The  Mound  Builders— Remarkable  Works 
constructed  by  them — Evidences  of  a  Primitive  Civilization — Indications  of  the  An- 
tiquity of  this  Period — The  American  Indians — Divisions  of  the  Country- among 
the  Tribes — Names  and  Location  of  the  various  Tribes — Organization  and  Goverr 
ment  of  the  Indians— Their  Dress,  Manners,  and  Customs— Villages— Indian  In- 
ventions  The  War  Dance — Legends  of  the  Norsemen  respecting  the  Discovery  of 

America ** 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE  VOYAGES   OF   COLUMBUS. 

Maritime  Enterprise  in  the  Fifteenth  Century— Theories  respecting  the  Earth's 
Surface— Christopher  Columbus— His  early  Life— His  Theory  of  a  Western  Pas- 
sage to  India— His  Struggles  to  obtain  the  means  of  making  a  Voyage— Is  aided 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Spain— His  first  Voyage— Discovery  of  America- 
Reception  in  Spain— His  second  Voyage— Settlement  of  Hayti— Third  Voyage  of 
Columbus— He  reaches  the  Mainland— Discovery  of  Gold  in  Hayti— Troubles  in 
the  Colony — Columbus  sent  to  Spain  in  Irons — Indignation  of  the  Queen- --Last 
Voyage  of  Columbus— His  Shipwreck— Returns  to  Spain— Refusal  of  Ferdinand  to 
comply  with  his  Promises— Death  of  Columbus— Amerigo  Vespucci— Origin  of  the 
name  AMERICA ^ 

CHAPTER   III. 

ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH   DISCOVERIES. 

Discovery  of  the  North  American  Continent  by  John  Cabot— Voyages  of  Sebastian 
Cabot— The  English  fail  to  follow  up  these  Discoveries— Efforts  of  the  French  to 
explore  America— Voyage  and  Discoveries  of  Verfazzani— Cartier  explores  the  St 
Lawrence— Reaches  Montreal— Efforts  to  found  a  Colony  on  the  St.  Lawrence- 
Failure—  Roberval's  Colony— Trading  Voyages— Explorations  of  Champlain— • 
Colonization  of  Nova  Scotia— Founding  of  Quebec— Discovery  of  Lake  Champlain 
—Arrival  of  the  Jesuits  in  Canada — Death  of  Champlain - 57 


g  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  SPANIARDS   IN   AMERICA. 

Settlement  of  the  West  Indies— Discovery  of  the  Pacific  Ocean— Voyage  of  Magellan 
—Discovery  of  Florida— Ponce  de  Leon's  Search  for  the  Fountain  of  Youth— 
Vazquez  de  Ayllon  Kidnaps  a  Cargo  of  Indians— Effort  of  Paraphilo  de  Narvaez  to 
Conquer  Florida— A  Terrible  March— The  Voyage  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico— Fate 
of  the  Fleet— Escape  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca  and  his  Comrades— Discovery  of  New 
Mexico— Ferdinand  de  Soto— Obtains  leave  to  Conquer  Florida— Sails  from  Spain 
—Arrival  in  Cuba— Departure  for  Florida— Landing  at  Tampa  Bay— Events  of  the 
first  Year— De  Soto  enters  Georgia— Descends  the  Alabama— Battle  of  Mavilla— 
Destruction  of  Chickasaw— Sufferings  of  the  Spaniards— Discovery  of  the  Mississippi 
—The  Spaniards  Cross  the  Great  River— De  Soto  in  Arkansas— Reaches  the  Missi:-- 
sippi  again— Sickness  and  Death  of  De  Soto— His  Burial— Escape  of  his  Followers 
to  Mexico— The  Huguenot  Colony  in  Carolina— Its  Failure— The  French  Settle  in 
Florida— Wrath  of  Philip  II.— Melendez  ordered  to  Exterminate  the  Huguenots- 
Foundation  of  St.  Augustine— Massacre  of  the  French  at  Fort  Carolina— The  Ven- 
geance of  De  Gourges. 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE   FIRST   ENGLISH   COLONY. 

The  English  Claim  to  America— Voyages  of  Frobisher— Exploits  of  Sir  Francis 
Drake — Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert — Intends  to  found  a  Colony  in  America — Is  lost 
at  Sea— Sir  Walter  Raleigh  obtains  a  Patent  of  Colonization — Discoveries  of 
Amidas  and  Barlow — Raleigh  sends  out  a  Colony  to  Virginia — Settlement  on 
Roanoke  Island — Its  Failure — Arrival  of  Grenville — Second  Effort  of  Raleigh  to 
Colonize  V'rginia — Roanoke  Island  again  Settled— The  "City  of  Raleigh" — Vir- 
ginia Dare — Fate  of  the  Colony — Death  of  Raleigh — Other  Voyages  of  the  English.. 

CHAPTER    VI. 

THE  SETTLEMENT  OP  VIRGINIA. 

Formation  of  the  London  Company — Conditions  of  its  Charter — Departure  of  the 
first  Colony — Quarrels  during  the  Voyage — Arrival  in  the  Chesapeake — Settlement 
of  Jamestown — Formation  of  the  Government — 'Character  of  Captain  John  Smith- 
Exploration  of  the  James  River — Newport  and  Smith  visit  Powhatan — Smith 
Admitted  to  the  Government — Explores  the  Chickahominy — Is  Captured  and  Sen- 
tenced to  Death — Is  Saved  by  Pocahontas — Gains  the  Friendship  of  Powhatan  for 
the  Colony — Returns  to  Jamestown — His  Decisive  Measures — Return  of  Newport — 
Smith  Explores  the  Chesapeake  Bay — The  new  Emigrants — Smith  compels  them 
to  Labor — Smith  is  Wounded  and  compelled  to  return  to  England — Disasters  to 
the  Colony — Arrival  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates — Jamestown  Abandoned — Arrival  of 
Lord  Delaware — The  Return  to  Jamestown — A  Change  for  the  Better— New 
Settlements — Sir  Thomas  Gates  arrives  with  Reinforcements — Capture  of  Poca- 
hontas by  Captain  Argall — She  is  Baptized — Marries  John  Rolfe — Sir  Thomas 
Dale's  Administration — Yeardley  Governor — The  first  Legislative  Assembly — 
Representative  Government  established  in  America — The  Colonists  obtain  Wives — 
Changes  in  the  Government 


CHAPTER    VII. 

PROGRESS   OP  THE   VIRGINIA   COLONY. 

Introduction  of  Negro  Slavery  into  Virginia — Efforts  of  the  Assembly  to  Restrict 
Shivery — The  Indians  Attempt  the  Destruction  of  the  Colony — Terrible  Sufferings 
of  the  Whites— Aid  from  England — The  Indian  War  Begun— King  James  Revokes 
the  Charter  of  the  London  Company — Charles  I.  Desires  a  Monopoly  of  the 
Tubacco  Trade — Action  of  the  Assembly — Sir  William  Berkeley's  First  Adminis- 
tration— Severe  Measures  against  Dissenters — Close  of  the  Indian  War — Death  of 
Opechancanough — Emigration  of  Royalists  to  Virginia — Virginia  and  the  Common- 
wealth— Treaty  vrith  England — The  Assembly  Asserts  its  Independence  of  the 
Governor — The  Restoration — Berkeley  Chosen  Governor  by  the  Assembly — His 
Hypocrisy 113 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

VIRGINIA   AFTER   THE   RESTORATION. 

Characteristics  of  the  Virginians — Causes  of  the  Success  of  the  Royalists — Growth  of 
the  Aristocratic  Class— Berkeley  decides  against  the  People — The  Aristocratic 
Assembly  Claims  the  Right  to  sit  Perpetually — Deprives  the  Common  People  of 
their  Liberties — Revival  of  the  Navigation  Act  by  Charles  II. — The  King  bestows 
Virginia  as  a  Gift  upon  his  Favorites — Protests  of  the  Assembly — Growing  Hostility 
of  the  Virginians  to  the  Colonial  Government — The  Indian  War — The  Governor 
Refuses  to  allow  the  Colonists  to  Defend  themselves — Nathaniel  Bacon — He 
Marches  against  the  Indians — Rebellion  of  the  People  against  Berkeley  and  the 
Assembly — The  Convention — Repeal  of  the  Obnoxious  Laws — Berkeley's  Duplicity 
— The  People  take  up  Arms — Flight  of  Berkeley — Destruction  of  Jamestown — 
Death  of  Bacon — Causes  of  the  Failure  of  the  Rebellion — Berkeley's  Triumph — 
Execution  of  the  Patriot  Leaders — Berkeley's  Course  Condemned  by  the  King — 
Death  of  Berkeley — The  Unjust  Laws  Re-enacted — Lord  Culpepper  Governor — His 
Extortions — James  II.  and  Virginia — Effects  upon  Virginia  of  the  Revolution  of 
1688— William  and  Mary  College  Founded 121 

CHAPTER   IX, 

THE  COLONIZATION   OP   MARYLAND. 

Extent  of  the  Territory  of  Virginia — Clayborne'a  Trading-Posts  established — Sir 
George  Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore — Becomes  interested  in  American  Colonization- 
Obtains  a  Grant  of  Maryland — Terms  of  the  Charter — A  Colony  sent  out — Arrival 
in  the  Chesapeake — St.  Mary's  Founded — Character  of  the  Colony — Friendly  Rela- 
tions established  with  the  Indians — First  Legislature  of  Maryland — Trouble  with 
Clayborne — Rapid  Growth  of  the  Colony— Progress  of  Popular  Liberty — Policy 
respecting  the  Treatment  of  the  Indians— Clay  home's  Rebellion — Law  granting 
Religious  Toleration  enacted — Condition  of  Maryland  under  the  Commonwealth — 
The  People  declared  Supreme — Lord  Baltimore  recovers  his  Proprietary  Rights — 
Characteristics  cf  the  Colony — Ripid  Increase  in  Population — Charles  Calvert, 
Governor — Death  of  t'lie  second  Lord  Baltimore — Roman  Catholics  disfranchised — 
Maryland  becomes  a  Royal  Province — Triumph  of  the  Protestants — Annapolis 
made  the  Seat  of  Government — Restoration  of  the  Proprietary  Government — Con- 
tinued Prosperity  of  Maryland 1C8 


10  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  PILGRIM   FATHERS. 

Ki^o  of  the  Puritans— Their  Increase  in  England— They  are  Persecuted  by  the 
English  Church  and  Government — Conduct  of  James  I. — His  Hatred  of  Puritan- 
ism—Puritans take  Refuge  in  Holland — The  Congregation  of  John  Robinson — They 
Escape  to  Holland— The  Pilgrims— Their  Sojourn  at  Leyden— They  wish  to  Emi- 
gra»j  to  Virginia— Failure  of  their  Negotiations  with  the  London  Company — They 
form  a  Partnership  in  England — A  Hard  Bargain — Departure  of  the  Pilgrims  from 
Holland— Voyage  of  the  "  Mayflower  " — Arrival  in  New  England — The  Agreement 
on  board  the  "  Mayflower  "—Carver  chosen  Governor — Settlement  of  Plymouth — 
The  first  Winter  in  New  England— Sufferings  of  the  Pilgrims— Arrival  of  new 
Emigrants — Continued  Suffering — Assignment  of  Lands— Friendly  Intercourse 
with  Indians— Samoset  and  Squanto — Visit  of  Massasoit — A  Threat  of  War — 
Bradford's  Defiance — Weston's  Men — A  Narrow  Escape — The  Colonists  Purchase 
the  Interests  of  their  English  Partners — Lands  Assigned  in  Fee  Simple — The 
Colony  Benefited  by  the  Change — Government  of  Plymouth — Steady  Growth  of  the 
Colony 14? 

CHAPTER  XI. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   AND   RHODE   ISLAND. 

Settlement  of  New  Hampshire — The  English  Puritans  determine  to  form  a  new 
Colony  in  America — The  Plymouth  Council — A  Colony  sent  out  to  Salem  under 
Endicott — Colonization  of  Massachusetts  Bay  begun — A  Charter  obtained — Conces- 
sions of  the  King — Progress  of  the  Salem  Colony — The  Charter  and  Government 
of  the  Colony  removed  to  New  England — Arrival  of  Governor  Winthrop — Settle- 
ment of  Boston — Sufferings  of  the  Colonists — Roger  Williams — His  Opinions  give 
offence  to  the  Authorities — The  Success  of  the  Bay  Colony  established — Growth  oi 
Popular  Liberty — The  Ballot  Box — Banishment  of  Roger  Williams, — He  goes  into 
the  Wilderness — Founds  Providence — Growth  of  Williams's  Colony — Continued 
growth  of  Massachusetts — Arrival  of  Sir  Henry  Vane — Is  elected  Governor — Mrs. 
Anne  Hutch  inson — The  Antinomian  Controversy — Mrs.  Hutchinson  banished— s 
Settlement  of  Rhode  Island— Murder  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 166 

CHAPTER  XII. 

COLONIZATION   OF  CONNECTICUT. 

The  Dutch  Claim  the  Connecticut  Valley — They  build  a  Fort  at  Hartford — (Werryr* 
Winslow  makes  a  Lodgment  in  Connecticut  for  the  English — Withdrawal  of  the 
Dutch— The  First  Efforts  of  the  English  to  Settle  Connecticut— Emigration  of 
Hooker  and  his  Congregation— They  Settle  at  Hartford— Winthrop  builds  a  Fort 
at  Saybrooke— Hostility  of  the  Indians— Visit  of  Roger  Williams  to  Miantonomoh 
—A  Brave  Deed— The  Pequod  War— Capture  of  the  Indian  Fort— Destruction  of 
the  Pequod  Tribe— Effect  of  this  War  upon  the  other  Tribes— Connecticut  Adopts  a 
institution— Its  Peculiar  Features— Settlement  of  New  Haven.. ISC 


CONTESTS.  11 

CHAPTER  Kill. 

THE   UNION   OF   THE   NEW   ENGLAND   COLONIES. 

Feeling  of  the  Colonies  towards  England — Hostility  of  the  English  Government  to 
New  England — Efforts  to  Introduce  Episcopacy — Massachusetts  Threatens  Resist- 
ance— The  Revolution  in  England — Establishment  of  Free  Schools  in  New  Eng- 
land—Harvard College — The  Printing  Press — The  Long  Parliament  Friendly  to 
New  England — The  United  Colonies  of  New  England — Rhode  Island  obtains  a 
Charter — .Maine  Annexed  to  Massachusetts — The  Quakers  are  Persecuted — Efforts 
to  Christianize  the  Indians — John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians 188 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

NEW  ENGLAND   AFTER  THE  RESTORATION. 

Arrival  of  the  News  of  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II. — The  Regicides  in  New  England 
—They  are  Protected — Revival  of  the  Navigation  Acts — Effect  of  this  measure  upon 
the  New  England  Colonies — Massachusetts  delays  the  Proclamation  of  the  King — 
Connecticut  obtains  a  Charter — Union  of  New  Haven  with  the  Connecticut  Colony 
— Rhode  Island  given  a  new  Charter — Massachusetts  settles  her  difficulties  with 
the  Crown — Changes  in  the  Government — High-handed  acts  of  the  Royal  Commis- 
sioners— Troubles  with  the  Indians — Injustice  of  the  Whites — King  Philip's  War 
— A  Forest  Hero — An  Incident  in  the  Attack  upon  Hadley — Sufferings  of  the  Colo- 
nies— Destruction  of  the  Narragansetts — Death  of  Philip — Close  of  the  War — Eng- 
land asserts  her  right  to  Tax  the  Colonies — Massachusetts  buys  Gorges'  claims  to 
Maine — New  Hampshire  made  a  separate  Province — James  II.  revokes  the  Charter 
of  Massachusetts — Dudley  and  Randolph  in  New  England — Androa  appointed 
Governor-General — His  Tyranny — He  demands  the  Charter  of  Connecticut — It  is 
carried  away  and  Hidden — The  Charter  Oak — Fall  of  James  II. — The  people  of 
Massachusetts  take  up  Arms — Andros  arrested — Effects  of  the  Revolution  upon 
New  England 198 

CHAPTER   XV. 

WITCHCRAFT   IN   MASSACHUSETTS. 

.lesults  of  the  Failure  of  Massachusetts  to  Resume  her  Charter — The  New  Charter — 
Loss  of  the  Liberties  of  the  Colony — Union  of  Plymouth  with  Massachusetts  Bay — • 
Belief  in  Witchcraft— The  History  of  Witchcraft  in  Massachusetts — The  Case  of 
the  Goodwin  Children — Cotton  Mather  espouses  the  Cause  of  the  Witches— 
^Samuel  Parris — -He  Originates  the  8alem  Delusion— A  Strange  History- — A  Special 
Court  Appointed  for  the  Trial  of  the  Witches — The  Victims — Execution  of  the  Rev. 
George  Burroughs— Cotton  Mather's  Part  in  the  Tragedies — The  General  Court 
takes  Action  in  behalf  of  the  People — End  of  the  Persecution — Failure  of  Cotton 
Mather's  Attempt  to  Save  his  Credit 216 


£2  CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE  8ETTLKMKNT   OF   NEW    YOKK. 

Voyages  of  Hei»ry  Hudson — He  is  Employed  by  the  Dutch— Discovery  of  the  Hud- 
son River — Karly  Dutch  Voyages — Adrian  Block — Fate  of  Hudson — The  Dutch 
build  a  Fort  on  Manhattan  Island — Settlement  of  New  Amsterdam — The  Province 
named  New  Netherlands — Fort  Nassau — Peter  Minims  Governor — The  Dutch  Set- 
tlement of  Delaware — Wouter  Van  Tvviller — Kieft  Governor — His  Unjust  Treat- 
ment of  the  Indians — Massacre  of  the  Indians  at  lloboken — The  Indian  War — Stuy- 
vesant  Appointed  Governor — Disputes  with  the  English  in  Connecticut — The  Swede* 
Settle  Delaware — Stuyvesant  Captures  the  Swedish  Forts — Growth  of  New  Amster- 
dam— Disputes  between  the  People  and  Governor — Growing  Spirit  of  Popular  Lib- 
erty— The  People  Appeal  to  the  States  General — Capture  of  New  Netherlands  by 
the  English — The  Name  of  the  Province  changed  to  New  York — Results  of  the 
English  Conquest — Progress  of  New  Jersey — Andros  Governor  of  New  York— He 
Fails  to  Establish  his  Authority  over  Connecticut — New  York  allowed  an  Assem- 
bly— Discontent  of  the  People — Leister's  Rebellion — Execution  cf  Leisler  and 
Milbourne — Fletcher  Govern  ir — His  Attempt  to  obtain  Command  of  the  Connect- 
icut Militia — Episcopacy  Established  in  New  York — The  Freedom  of  the  Press 
Sustained — New  Jersey  a  R<  yal  Province 228 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

COLONIZATION   OF    PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  Quakers — Their  Origin  and  Doctrines— William  Penn — Becomes  a  Quaker — Is 
Persecuted  for  his  Religious  Opinions — Becomes  Interested  in  American  Coloniza- 
tion— Purchases  West  Jersey  from  the  Proprietor — Conceives  the  Idea  of  Founding 
a  Free  State  in  America— Purchases  Pennsylvania  from  Charles  II.— Conditions  of 
his  Charter— Sends  out  a  Colony — Arrival  of  Penn  in  America — Philadelphia 
Pounded— Penn's  Treaty  with  the  Indians— Religious  Toleration  Guaranteed — 
Penn's  Relations  with  his  Colonists— Rapid  Growth  of  Pennsylvania  in  Popula- 
tion and  Prosperity— William  Penn  and  James  II.— Renewal  of  Penn's  Troubles 
—William  III.  Declares  Pennsylvania  a  Royal  Province — Penn  is  Vindicated  and 
Restored  to  his  Proprietary  Rights— His  Return  to  Pennsylvania- -Character  of 
the  Settlers  of  the  Province— Penn  Goes  Back  to  England— Efforts  to  deprive  him 
of  his  Possessions — His  Death 255 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

SETTLEMENT  OF   THE  CAROLINAS. 

Gradual  Settlement  of  North  Carolina  from  Virginia— Charles  II.  grants  Carolina 
to  Clarendon  and  others— The  "Grand  Model"— An  Ideal  Aristocracy  Proposed 
for  Carolina— The  Authority  of  the  Proprietaries  Established  in  North  Carolina- 
Continued  Settlement  of  that  Region— Characteristics  of  the  Early  Settlers  of 
North  Carolina— The  People  Reject  the  Grand  Model— Hostility  of  England  to  the 
Colonial  Commerce— Insurrection  in  North  Carolina— Slothel  Governor— Settle- 
ment of  South  Carolina— Charleston  Founded— The  Proprietary  Constitutions 
Rejected  by  South  Carolina— Rapid  Growth  of  the  Colony— Introduction  of  Slavery 
—Characteristics  of  the  Early  Settlers  of  South  Carolina— Effor>-  »o  Enforce  the 


coy  TEXTS.  13 

Navigation  Acts— Resistance  of  the  People — The  Proprietaries  Abandon  their  Con- 
stitutions— Archdale's  Reforms — Religious  Intolerance — Establishment  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  South  Carolina — Action  of  the  Crown — Continued  Pros- 
perity of  South  Carolina — Governor  Moore  Attacks  St.  Augustine — Failure  of  the 
Effort — The  Spaniards  are  Repulsed  in  an  Attempt  to  Capture  Charleston — Indian 
War  in  North  Carolina — The  Tuscaroras  Driven  Northward — War  with  the  Yem- 
massees — Destruction  of  their  Power — Separation  of  the  Carolinas 270 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

SETTLEMENT   OF   GEORGIA. 

General  James  Edward  Oglethorpe — His  Efforts  to  Reform  Prison  Discipline  of  Eng- 
land— Proposes  to  Found  a  Colony  in  America  for  the  Poor  and  for  Prisoners  for 
Debt — A  Charter  Obtained  from  the  King — Colonization  of  Georgia — Savannah 
Settled — First  Years  of  the  Colony — Labors  of  Oglethorpe — Arrival  of  New  Emi- 
grants— Augusta  Founded — The  Moravian  Settlements — The  Wesleys  in  America — 
George  \Vhitefield — War  between  England  and  Spain — Ogle  horpe  Invades  Florida 
— Failure  of  the  Attack  upon  St.  Augustine — The  Spaniards  Invade  Georgia — Ogle- 
thorpe's  Stratagem — Its  Success — Battle  of  "Bloody  Marsh"- — Close  of  the  War — 
Charges  against  Oglethorpe — His  Vindication — His  Return  to  Europe — Changes  in 
the  Colonial  Government — Introduction  of  Slavery  into  Georgia — Prosperity  of  the 
Colony 286 

CHAPTER   XX. 

THE   FRENCH    IN   THE    VALLEY   OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

Origin  of  the  Hostility  of  the  Iroquois  to  the  French — Settlement  of  Canada — Plans 
of  the  French  respecting  the  Indians — The  Jesuits — Their  Work  in  America — 
Success  of  their  Missions — The  Early  Missionaries — Foundation  of  a  College  at 
Quebec — Efforts  of  the  Jesuits  to  Convert  the  Iroquois — Father  Jogues — Death  of 
Ahasistari — Father  Alloiiez — The  Missions  on  the  Upper  Lakes — Father  Marquette 
— His  Exploration  of  the  Upper  Mississippi — Death  of  Marquette — La  Salle — 
Efforts  of  France  to  Secure  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi — La  Salle  Descends  the 
Mississippi  to  its  Mouth — His  Effort  to  Colonize  the  Lower  Mississippi — The  First 
Colony  in  Texas — Its  Failure — Death  of  La  Salle — Lemoine  d'Ibberville — Settle- 
ment of  Louisiana — Colony  of  Biloxi — Settlement  of  Mobile — Crozat's  Monopoly 
— Founding  of  New  Orleans — Detroit  Founded — Slow  Growth  of  the  French  Colo- 
nies— Occupation  of  the  Ohio  Valley  by  the  French — Wars  with  the  Indians — Ex- 
termination of  the  Natchez  Tribe — War  with  the  Chickasaws 2&8 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

THE   ENGLISH   AND    FRENCH   COME  IN   CONFLICT. 

Relations  between  the  English  and  the  Five  Nations— The  Hostility  of  the  Latter  to 
the  French — King  William's  War — Destruction  of  Dover — The  Jesuit  Missionaries 
incite  the  Indians  to  attack  the  English — Expedition  arrai-nst  Quebec — Attack  on 
Dustin's  Farm — Peace  of  Ryswick — Hostility  of  the  English  to  Roman  Catholics — 
Quec-;i  Anne's  War — Burning  of  Deerfield — Eunice  Williams — Cruelties  of  the 
French— Kfii>rt  of  New  England  to  Conquer  Acadia — .Capture  of  Port  Royal — 


14  CONTENTS. 

Failure  of  the  Expedition  against  Quebec— King  George's  War— Expedition 
against  Louisburg— Ita  Composition— Arrival  of  the  Fleet  at  Cape  Breton— Good 
Conduct  of  the  Provincials— Capture  of  Louisburg— Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle— 
i'lijint  Treatment  of  the  Colonies  by  England— Sentiment  of  the  Americana 
toward*  England 318 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE   FRENCH   AND   INDIAN   WAR. 

England  Claims  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio— Organization  of  the  Ohio  Company— The 
French  extend  their  Posts  into  the  Ohio  Country — Washington's  Mission  to  the 
French  at  Fort  Duquesne — His  Journey — Reception  by  the  French — His  Journey 
Home— A  Perilous  Undertaking— Organization  of  the  Virginia  Forces— Washing- 
ton made  Second  in  Command— The  French  Drive  the  English  from  the  Head 
of  the  Ohio — Fort  Duquesne  Built  by  them — Washington  Crosses  the  Mountains 
— The  Fight  at  Great  Meadows — Beginning  of  the  French  and  Indian  War — Sur- 
render of  Fort  Necessity  to  the  French — Unjust  Treatment  of  the  Colonial  Officers 
— Congress  of  the  Colonies  at  New  York — Franklin's  Plan  of  a  Union  of  the  Colo- 
nies—Its Failure — Keasons  of  the  British  Government  for  Rejecting  it— England 
assumes  the  Direction  of  the  War — Arrival  of  General  Braddock — Plan  of  Cam- 
paign—Obstinacy of  Braddock — He  Passes  the  Mountains — Defeat  of  Braddock — 
Heroism  of  Washington — Retreat  of  Dunbar  beyond  the  Mountains — Vigorous 
action  of  Pennsylvania — Armstrong  defeats  the  Indians  and  burns  the  town  of 
K manning 331 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 

THE   FRENCH   AND   INDIAN   WAR CONTINUED. 

Expedition  against  Acadia — Brutal  Treatment  of  the  Acadians — They  are  Expelled 
from  their  Country — A  Sad  Story — Fate  of  the  Acadians — Johnson  at  Lake  George 
— March  of  Dieskau — Battle  of  Lake  George — Failure  of  Shirley's  Expedition — 
Arrival  of  the  Earl  of  Loudon — Montcalm  in  Canada — Capture  of  Oswego  by  the 
French — Outrages  of  the  Earl  of  Loudon  upon  New  York  and  Philadelphia — Ex- 
pedition against  Louisburg — How  the  Earl  of  Loudon  Beat  the  French — Capture  of 
Fort  William  Henry  by  Montcalm — Massacre  of  the  Prisoners  by  the  Indians — 
Efforts  of  Montcalm  to  save  them — The  Royal  Officers  attempt  to  cover  their  Fail- 
ures by  outraging  the  Colonies 353 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR — CONCLUDED. 

A  Chang-  'cr  the  Better— William  Pitt  Prime  Minister— Vigorous  Measures  Adopted 
— Recall  of  the  Earl  of  Loudon — Capture  of  Louisburg — Abercrombie  on  Lake 
Georye— Advances  against  Ticonderoga— Death  of  Lord  Howe— Failure  of  the 
English  attack  upon  Ticonderoga— Disgraceful  conduct  of  Abercrombie — His  Retreat. 
— Capture  of  Fort  Frontenac — Advance  of  General  Forbes— Grant's  Defeat — The 
Virginians  again  save  the  Regulars— Capture  of  Fort  Duquesne — Washington  retires 
from  the  Army— Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  occupied  by  the  English— Capture 
of  Fort  Niagara— The  Expedition  against  Quebec— Failure  of  the  first  Opera- 


CONTENTS.  15 

tions — Despondency  of  Wolfe — He  Discovers  a  Landing-place — The  Army  scales 
the  Heights  of  Abraham — Montcalm's  Surprise — Battle  of  the  Plains  of  Abraham 
— Death  of  Wolfe — Defeat  of  the  French — Death  of  Montcalm — Surrender  of 
Quebec — Capture  of  Montreal — Treaty  of  Paris — Canada  ceded  to  England — France 
loses  all  her  American  Possessions — The  Cherokee  War — Hostility  of  the  Indians 
to  the  English — Pontiac's  War — Death  of  Pontiac — Bouquet  relieves  Fort  Duquesne 
—Results  of  the  War 369 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

CAUSES   OF   THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 

Injustice  of  Great  Britain  towards  her  Colonies — The  Navigation  Acts — Effects  of 
these  Laws  upon  the  Colonies — Great  Britain  seeks  to  destroy  the  Manufactures  of 
America — Writs  of  Assistance — They  are  Opposed  —  Home  Manufactures  En- 
couraged by  the  Americans — Ignorance  of  Englishmen  concerning  America — Great 
Britain  claims  the  Right  to  Tax  America — Resistance  of  the  Colonists — Samuel 
Adams — The  Parsons'  Cause — Patrick  Henry — England  persists  in  her  Determina- 
tion to  Tax  America — Passage  of  the  Stamp  Act — Resistance  of  the  Colonies — Meet- 
ing of  the  First  Colonial  Congress — Its  Action — William  Pitt — Repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act — Franklin  before  the  House  of  Commons — New  Taxes  imposed  upon  America 
— Increased  Resistance  of  the  Colonies — Troops  quartered  in  Boston — The  "  Mas- 
sacre"— The  Non-Importation  Associations — Growth  of  Hostility  to  England — 
Burning  of  the  "Gaspe"" — The  Tax  on  Tea  retained  by  the  King — Destruction  of 
Tea  at  Boston — Wrath  of  the  British  Government — Boston  Harbor  Closed — Troops 
Quartered  in  Boston — The  Colonies  come  to  the  Assistance  of  Boston — Action  of 
the  Virginia  Assembly — General  Gage  in  Boston — The  Regulating  Act — Its  Failure 
— Gage  seizes  the  Massachusetts  Powder — Uprising  of  the  Colony — Meeting  of  the 
Continental  Congress — Its  Action — Addresses  to  the  King  and  People  of  England — 
The  Earl  of  Chatham's  Indorsement  of  Congress — The  King  remains  Stubborn 390 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

THE    AMERICAN    REVOLUTION. 

Gage  fortifies  Boston  Neck — He  summons  the  General  Court — Recalls  his  Proclama- 
tion— The  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts — It  takes  Measures  for  Defence — 
Tiie  Militia  Organized — The- Minute  Men — Friends  of  America  in  England — Gage 
resolves  to  seize  the  Scores  at  Concord — Midnight  March  of  the  British  Troops — The 
Alarm  given — Skirmishes  at  Lexington  and  Concord — Retreat  of  the  British — A 
terrible  March — Uprising  of  New  England — Boston  Invested — Dunmore  seizes  the 
Virginia  Powder — Is  mado  to  pay  for  it — Uprising  of  the  Middle  and  Southern 
Colonies — The  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence — Capture  of  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point — Meeting  of  the  Second  Continental  Congress — Congress  resolves  , 
to  sustain  Massachusetts — Renewed  Efforts  for  Peace — Congress  assumes  the  General 
Government  of  the  Colonies — A  Federal  Union  Organized — Its  Character — A  Con-  :• 
tinental  Army  formed — George  Washington  appointed  Commander-in-chief — Gen- 
eral Officers  appointed — Condition  of  the  Army  before  Boston — Inaction  of  Gage — 
Battle  of  Breed's  Hill — A  glorious  Defence — The  Battle  equivalent  to  a  Victory  in 
its  effects  upon  the  Country — Arrival  of  Washington  at  Cambridge — He  takes  Com- 
mand of  the  Army — He  reorganizes  the  Army — Difficulties  bf  the  undertaking — 
The  Invasion  of  Canada  resolved  upon — March  of  Montgomery  and  Arnold — Rapid 


Succenet  of  Monlgomery— He  capture*  Montreal— March  of  Arnold  through  the 
Wilderne*— Arrival  l>rforr  (Jiu-lH-c  — Forms  a  Junction  with  Montgomery— The 
Siege  i.f  ijii.-ln-< — The  Ice  Forts— Failure  of  the  Attack— Death  of  Montgomery- 
Retreat  of  i In-  American*  from  Canada— Lord  Dunmore's  War  in  Virginia — 
Destruction  of  Norfolk— The  Thirteen  United  Colonies— Burning  of  Falmouth — 
Naval  Matter* — Action  of  Great  Britain — The  War  to  be  carried  on — The  Hessians.  421 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

THE   DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE. 

The  Siege  of  Boston — Difficulties  of  the  American  Army — Activity  of  the  Privateers 
— Clinton's  Expedition — Colonel  Knox  arrives  from  Ticonderoga  with  Cannon — 
Seizure  of  IWeliester  Heights  by  Washington — The  British  Evacuate  Boston — 
Koyalist  Plots  in  New  York — Paper  Money  Issued  by  Congress — Gates  sent  to  the 
North  -The  British  Attack  Charleston— Battle  of  Fort  Moultrie — The  Howes  in 
New  York  Bay — Change  in  the  Character  of  the  War — Growing  Sentiment  in  Favor 
of  Independence — Virginia  Proposes  that  the  Colonies  Assert  their  Independence — 
Action  of  Congress — The  Declaration  of  Independence — Articles  of  Confederation 
Adopted  by  Congress — Lord  Howe's  Efforts  at  Conciliation — Addresses  a  Letter  to 
Washington — Battle  of  Long  Island — Defeat  of  the  Americans — Retreat  from  Long 
Island — Evacuation  of  New  York  by  the  Americans — Loss  of  Fort  Washington — 
NV  ishington  Retreats  through  New  Jersey — He  Crosses  the  Delaware — Darkest 
Period  of  the  War — Washington's  Determination  to  Continue  the  War — Lord 
Howe's  Proclamation — Its  Effect — Congress  at  Baltimore — Carleton  Invades  New 
York — Defeats  Arnold  on  Lake  Champlain — Carleton  Retires  into  Canada — Battle 
of  Trenton — Happy  Effects  of  the  Victory — Congress  confers  Dictatorial  Powers 
upon  Washington — Commissioners  sent  to  France.... /  ,0 

CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

THE   YEAR    1777. 

Howe  attempts  to  Crush  Washington— Battle  of  Princeton — The  British  Confined  to 
the  Seaboard— Recovery  of  New  Jersey  —The  American  Army  in  Winter  Quarters 
at  Morristown — Effects  of  the  American  Successes — Difficulty  of  Procuring  Troops 
—  Washington  Refuses  to  Exchange  Prisoners— His  Course  Approved  by  Congress 
—Measures  of  Congress— Naval  Affairs— Tryon  Burns  Danbury— Gallantry  of  Arnold 
—Troubles  in  the  Northern  Departments-Congress  Adopts  a  National  Flag—"  The 
Stars  and  Stripes"— Course  of  France  towards  the  United  States— France  decides  to 
Assist  the  Americans— Lafayette— His  arrival  in  America — Capture  of  the  British 
General  Prescott— Howe  threatens  Philadelphia— Washington  moves  Southward- 
Battle  of  the  Brandy wiiu—  Washington  Retreats  to  the  Schuylkill— Wayne's  Defeat 
at  Paoli— Philadelphia  Evacuated  by  the  Americans— It  is  Occupied  by  the  British 
-Battle  of  Germantown— The  British  Attack  the  Forts  on  the  Delaware— They 
arc  Ah-indum-d  l,y  the  Americans— Burgoyne's  Army  in  Canada— Advance  of  Bur- 
goyne  into  N,-w  York— Investment  of  Ticonderoga— It  is  Abandoned  by  the  Ameri- 
Thc  Retreat  to  Fort  Edward— Bnrgoyne  reaches  the  Hudson— Murder  of 
a  McCrea— Siege  of  Fort  Schuyler— Battle  of  Bennington— Critical  Situation  of 
Burpoyiie— Gates  in  Command  of  the  American  Army— Battles  of  Behmus'  Heights 
and  Stillwater-^Surrender  of  Burgoyne's  Army— Clinton  in  the  Highlands 483 


CONTEXTS.  t  1 7 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

AID    FROM    ABROAD. 

Sufferings  of  the  Army  at  Valley  Forge — Appeals  of  Washington  to  Congress — The 
British  in  Philadelphia — The  Conway  Cabal — Its  Disgraceful  Failure — Efforts  to 
Improve  the  Army — Worthlessness  of  Continental  Bills — General  Lee  Exchanged 
— Effect  of  Burgoyne's  Surrender  upon  England — The  King  is  Forced  to  Agree  to 
Measures  of  Conciliation — Action  of  France — Louis  XVI.  Recognizes  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States — Alliance  Between  the  United  States  and  France — 
Failure  of  the  British  Measures  of  Conciliation — Clinton  Evacuates  Philadelphia — 
Battle  of  Monmouth — General  Lee  Dismissed  from  the  Army — Attack  upon  New- 
port— Its  Failure — Withdrawal  of  the  French  Fleet  to  the  West  Indies — Outrage* 
of  the  British  on  Long  Island  Sound — Massacre  of  Wyoming — The  Winter  of 
1779-80 — The  Army  in  Winter  Quarters — Robert  Morris — Condition  of  Congress — 
Georgia  Subdued  by  the  British — Prevost  Attempts  to  take  Charleston — Siege  of 
Savannah — Its  Failure — Capture  of  Stony  Point — Capture  of  Paulus  Hook — The 
Indians  Punished — Naval  Affairs — Exploits  of  John  Paul  Jones— Evacuation  of 
Newport — Settlement  of  Kentucky — Conquest  of  the  Illinois  Country  by  George 
Rogers  Clarke — Settlement  of  Tennessee 512> 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

THE  CLOSE   OF  THE  WAR. 

Severity  of  the  Winter  of  1779-80 — Sufferings  of  the  American  Army — Clinton  Sails 
for  the  Carolinas — Colonel  Tarleton — Capture  of  Charleston — Conquest  of  South 
Carolina — Gates  in  Command  of  the  Southern  Army — Battle  of  Camden — Exploits 
of  Marion  and  Sumter — Advance  of  Cornwallis — Battle  of  King's  Mountain — Gates 
Succeeded  by  General  Greene — Knyphausen's  Expeditions  into  New  Jersey — 
Arrival  of  the  French  Fleet  and  Army — Arnold's  Treason — The  Plot  for  the  Be- 
trayal of  West  Point — Arrest  of  Major  Andre" — Flight  of  Arnold — Execution  of 
Andre" — Mutiny  of  the  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  Troops — Measures  of  Con- 
gress— Arnold  Captures  Richmond,  Virginia — Battle  of  the  Cowpens — Masterly  Re- 
treat of  General  Greene — Cornwallis  Baffled — Battle  of  Guilford  Court  House — 
Cornwallis  at  Wilmington — Battle  of  Hobkirk's  Hill — Siege  of  Ninety-Six — Execu- 
tion of  Colonel  Ha\  ne — Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs — Washington  Decides  to  Attack 
New  York — The  French  Army  on  the  Hudson — Financial  Affairs — Resumption  of 
Specie  Payments — Message  from  the  Count  De  Grasse — Cornwallis  at  Yorktown — 
The  American  Army  Moves  Southward — Siege  of  Yorktown — Surrender  of  Corn- 
wallis— Effect  of  the  News  in  England — Indian  Troubles — Efforts  in  England  for 
Peace — Negotiations  Opened — Treaty  of  Paris — End  of -the  War — The  Army  Dis- 
banded— Washington  Resigns  his  Commission 536 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE   ADOPTION  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION — WASHINGTON'S  ADMINIS- 
TRATION. 

Unsettled  Condition  of  the  Country — Failure  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation — Desire 
for  Reform — Meeting  of  the  Federal  Convention  at  Philadelphia — The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States — Adoption  of  a  Decimal  Currency — The  Northwest  Territory' 


1»  CONTENTS. 

— Wwhlngton  Elected  President— Hi«  Journey  to  New  York— Establishment  of  the 
New  Government— The  First  Cabinet— Finahcial  Measures— Removal  of  the  Capi- 
tal agreed  upon— The  Government  at  Philadelphia— The  First  Census— The  In- 
dian* of  th<.  Nortliwi-st  <  onquered— Re-election  of  Washington— Division  of  Par- 
lie*-  Tin  I  >,  ,,<  U  Involution— The  United  States  Neutral— Citizen  Genet— Efforts 
to  Commit  the  rnii.-d  States  to  the  Frencli  Alliance— Genet's  Recall  Demanded— 
The  "  Whiskey  Insurrection"— Jay's  Treaty  with  England— Opposition  to  it— Ne- 
gotiations with  Algiers— Political  Disputes— Hostility  to  Washington— His  Fare- 
well Addrew— Ite  Effect  upon  the  Country— Election  of  John  Adams  to  the  Presi- 
dency—Admission of  Vermont,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee — Retirement  of  Wash- 
ington— Results  of  his  Administration 570 

CHAPTER   XXXII. 

THE  ADMINISTRATIONS   OF  JOHN   ADAMS   AND   THOMAS   JEFFERSON. 

Inauguration  of  John  Adams — Aggressions  of  France  upon  the  United  States — The 
American  Commissioners  Insulted  by  the  French  Government — The  Alien  and  Se- 
dition Laws — The  United  States  Prepare  for  War  with  France — France  Signifies 
her  Willingness  to  Treat — New  Commissioners  appointed — Settlement  of  the  Dis- 
pute— Hostilities  at  Sea — Capture  of  the  "  Insurgente"  and  "  Vengeance" — Death  of 
Washington — Removal  of  the  Capital  to  Washington  City — The  Second  Census — 
Inauguration  of  Thomas  Jefferson — The  President's  Message — His  First  Measures 
— Admission  of  Ohio — Louisiana  Purchased  by  the  United  States — War  with  the 
Barbary  Powers — Burning  of  the  "  Philadelphia" — Re-election  of  Mr.  Jefferson — 
Aaron  Burr  Kills  Alexander  Hamilton  in  a  Duel — Burr's  Subsequent  Career — 
Fulton's  Steamboat — Outrages  of  England  and  France  upon  American  Commerce 
— American  Vessels  Searched  and  American  Seamen  Impressed  by  England — 
Efforts  to  Settle  these  Questions — Affair  of  the  "  Chesapeake  "  and  "  Leopard  " — 
The  Embargo — Results  of  this  Measure — Losses  of  the  Eastern  States — Election 
of  James  Madison  to  the  Presidency — Repeal  of  the  Embargo — Retirement  of  Mr. 
Jefferson 5£<j 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  MADISON — THE  SECOND  WAR  WITH 

ENGLAND. 

Inauguration  of  Mr.  Madison— Negotiations  with  Mr.  Erskine — Their  Failure — Seiz- 
ure of  American  Vessels  in  France — Sufferings  of  American  Ship- Owners — Great 
Britain  Stations  her  Ships  of  War  off  American  Ports — Affair  of  the  "  President" 
and  "Little  Belt" — Trouble  with  the  Northwestern  Indians — Tecumseh — Battle  of 
Tippecanoe— Meeting  of  the  Twelfth  Congress — Measures  for  Defence — Admission 
of  Louisiana  into  the  Union — Death  of  George  Clinton — The  British  Ultimatum — 
War  Declared  against  Great  Britain— Opposition  to  the  War— The  British  Offer 
of  Settlement  Rejected— The  War  for  "Free  Trade  and  the  Sailors'  Rights"— Mr. 
Madison  Re-elected— Campaign  of  1812— Preparations  for  the  Invasion  of  Canada 
— General  Hull  Surrenders  Detroit  to  the  British — Loss  of  the  Northwestern  Fron- 
tier— Failure  of  the  Attack  on  Queenstown — Exploits  of  the  Navy— Capture  of  the 
"Guerriere"  by  the  "  Constitution  "—The  Privateers— Russia  offers  to  Mediate 
between  the  United  States  and  England — Financial  AHairs— Harrison's  Campaign 
— Mauaacre  at  the  River  Raisin— Defence  of  Forte  Meigs  and  Stephenson— PerryJ« 


10 

Victory  on  Lake  Eric — Battle  of  the  Thames — Death  of  Tecumseh — Recovery 
of  the  Northwest — Capture  of  York — British  Attack  on  Sackett's  Harbor  Repulsed  . 
'  — 'Removal  of  General  Dearborn — Failure  of  the  Campaign  on  the  Lower  Lakes 
— The  Creek  War — Jackson's  Victories — Naval  Affairs — The  British  Outrages  in 
Chesapeake  Bay — Negotiations  for  Peace — Capture  of  Fort  Erie — Battles  of  Chip- 
pewa  and  Lundy's  Lane — Siege  of  Fort  Erie — Successes  of  the  Americans — Advance 
of  Prevost — Battle  of  Plattsburgh — Macdonough's  Victory  on  Lake  Champlain — 
Battle  of  Bladensburg — Capture  of  Washington — Destruction  of  the  Public  Build- 
ings by  the  British — Attack  on  Baltimore — Death  of  General  Roas — "  The  Star- 
Spangled  Banner" — The  British  Attack  on  the  New  England  Coast — Opposition 
of  New  England  to  the  War — The  Hartford  Convention — The  British  in  Florida 
— General  Jackson  expels  them — Jackson  at  New  Orleans — Arrival  of  the  British 
Expedition  off  the  Coast — Vigorous  Measures  of  Jackson — Battle  of  New  Orleans 
< — Defeat  of  the  British — Naval  Affairs — The  Treaty  of  Peace — The  Barbary  Powers 
Humbled— The  Tariff— The  Bank  of  the  United  States— Admission  of  Indiana- 
James  Monroe  elected  President 600 

CHAPTER   XXXIV. 

ADMINISTRATIONS   OF   JAMES   MONROE  AND  JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS. 

Inauguration  of  Mr.  Monroe — His  Tour  through  the  Eastern  States — Admission  of 
Mississippi  into  the  Union — Troubles  with  the  Indians — General  Jackson's  Vigorous 
Measures  against  the  Spaniards  in  Florida — Purchase  of  Florida  by  the  United 
States— Illinois  becomes  a  State — The  First  Steamship — Maine  admitted  into  the 
Union — The  Slavery  Question — The  Missouri  Compromise — Admission  of  Missouri 
as  a  State — The  Fourth  Census — Re-election  of  Mr.  Monroe — The  Tariff — Protec- 
tive Policy  of  the  Government — Recognition  of  the  Spanish  Republics — The  Mon- 
'  roe  Doctrine — Visit  of  Lafayette  to  the  United  States — Retirement  of  Mr.  Monroe1 
'• — John  Quincy  Adams  elected  President — His  Inauguration — Rapid  Improvement 
of  the  Country — Increase  of  Wealth  and  Prosperity — Internal  Improvements — The 
Creek  Lands  in  Georgia  ceded  to  the  United  States — Death  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
and  John  Adams — The  Anti-Masons — The  Tariff  of  1828 — Andrew  Jackson  elected 
President  of  the  United  States 646 

CHAPTER   XXXV. 

ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON  AND  MARTIN  VAN  BUREN. 

Character  of  Andrew  Jackson — Indian  Policy  of  this  Administration — The  President 
Vetoes  the  Bill  to  Renew  the  Charter  of  the  United  States  Bank — Debate  between 
Hayne  and  Webster — Jackson's  Quarrel  with  Calhoun — Death  of  ex-President  Mon- 
roe— The  Cholera — Black  Hawk's  War — Re-election  of  President  Jackson — The 
Tariff — Action  of  South  Carolina — The  Nullification  Ordinance — Firmness  of  the 
President — The  Matter  settled  by  Compromise— Patriotism  of  Henry  Clay — The 
Removal  of  the  Deposits — The  Seminole  War  begun — Great  Fire  in  New  York 
— Settlement  of  the  French  Claims — Arkansas  admitted  into  the  Union — The 
National  Debt  Paid — Death  of  ex-President  Madison — Martin  Van  Buren  elected 
President — Michigan  admitted  into  the  Union — The  Panic  of  1837 — Causes  of  it- 
Suspension  of  Specie  Payments — Great  Distress  throughout  the  Union— The  Sub- 
Treasury — Repudiation  of  State  Debts — The  Canadian  Rebellion — The  President's 


20  CONTENTS. 

Scminolc  W.r  ended-The  Anti-Slavery  Party-Resolution,  of  Con- 
respecting  Slavery— William  Henry  Harrison  elected  President— The  Sixth 


660 

CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  WILLIAM  HENRY  HARRISON  AND  JOHN  TYLER. 

An  Extra  Seamon  of  Congress  Summoned— Death  of  President  Harrison— John  Tyler 
become*  Pmudent  of  the  United  State*— Meeting  of  Congress— The  Bankrupt  Law 
—President  Tyler  Vetoe*  the  Bills  to  Revive  the  United  States  Bank— His  Quar- 
rel with  his  Party— The  "  Tyler  Whigs"— The  Tariff  of  1842— The  Treaty  of  Wash- 
ington—The United  States  will  not  Tolerate  the  Exercise  of  the  Right  of  Search 
— Dorr1*  Rebellion— The  Mormons— Invention  of  the  Electric  Telegraph— Explo- 
fiion  on  the  "  Princeton  "—Effort*  to  Secure  the  Annexation  of  Texas— Early  History 
of  Texas — The  Texan  War  of  Independence — Battle  of  San  Jacinto — Texan  Inde- 
pendence Established — Texas  Applies  for  Admission  into  the  Union — Opposition  to 
the  Measure — Significance  of  the  Vote  at  the  Presidential  Election — James  K.  Polk 
Elected  President — Texas  admitted  into  the  Union — Iowa  and  Florida  become  States.  681 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

ADMINISTRATION   OF  JAMES   K.   POLK — THE   WAR  WITH    MEXICO. 

The  Oregon  Question — Position  of  President  Polk  respecting  it — The  Question  Settled 
— Treaty  for  Settlement  of  Claims  against  Mexico — Mexico  Resents  the  Annexa- 
tion of  Texas — General  Taylor  Ordered  to  Texas — He  Advances  to  the  Rio  Grande 
— Battles  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma — The  War  with  Mexico  Begun — 
Invasion  of  Mexico — Occupation  of  Matamoras — Action  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment— Taylor  Advances  into  the  Interior — The  Storming  and  Capture  of  Monterey 
— The  Armistice — Return  of  Santa  Anna  to  Mexico — President  Polk  Duped — Santa 
Anna  Seizes  the  Mexican  Government — General  Wool  Joins  General  Taylor — 
Troops  Taken  from  Taylor's  Army — Advance  of  the  Mexicans — Battle  of  Buena  Vista 
— Conquest  of  California  by  Fremont  and  Stockton — Occupation  of  Santa  FC* — New 
Mexico  Conquered — Doniphan's  March — Occupation  of  Chihuahua — Sailing  of 
Scott'*  Expedition — Reduction  of  Vera  Cruz — Santa  Anna  Collects  a  New  Army — 
Battle  of  Cerro  Gordo — Occupation  of  Puebla  by  Scott— Trouble  with  Mr.  Trist — 
Vigorous  Measures  of  Santa  Anna— Scott  Advances  upon  the  City  of  Mexico— El 
Peflon  Turned—  Battles  of  Contreras  and  Churubusco — Capture  of  Molino  del  Rey 
— Storming  of  Chapultepec — Capture  of  the  City  of  Mexico — Siege  of  Puebla 
Raised— Flight  of  Santa  Anna— Treaty  of  Peace  Negotiated— Close  of  the  War- 
Acquisition  of  California  and  New  Mexico— Discovery  of  Gold  in  California- 
Rapid  Emigration  to  the  Pacific— Death  of  John  Quincy  Adams— The  Wilmot 
Proviso— Revival  of  the  Slavery  Question— General  Taylor  elected  President 695 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ZACHARY  TAYLOR  AND  MILLARD  FrLLMORE. 

Character  of  General  Taylor— Department  of  the  Interior — Death  of  ex-President 
Polk— The  Slavery  Agitation— Views  of  Clay  and  Webster— California  asks  adrai*- 
•ion  into  the  Union— Message  of  President  Taylor— The  Omnibus  Bill— Efforts  of 
Henry  Clay— A  Memorable  Debate— Webster's  "Great  Union  Speech"— Death  of 


CONTENTS.  21 

John  C.  Calhoun — Death  of  President  Taylor — Millard  Fillmore  becomes  President 
— Passage  of  the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850 — Death  of  Henry  Clay — Dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  Compromise — The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  Nullified,  by  the  Northern 
States — The  Nashville  Convention — Organization  of  Utah  Territory — The  Seventh 
Census — The  Expedition  of  Ix>pez  against  Cuba — The  Search  for  Sir  John  Franklin 
— The  Grinnell  Expedition — Dr.  Kane's  Voyages — Inauguration  of  Cheap  Postage — 
Laying  the  Corner-stone  of  the  new  Capitol — Death  of  Daniel  Webster — Arrival  of 
Kossuth — The  President  Rejects  the  Tripartite  Treaty — Franklin  Pierce  elected 
President— Death  of  William  R.  King 736 

CHAPTER   XXXIX. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   FRANKLIN    PIERCE. 

Dispute  with  Mexico — The  Gadsden  Purchase — Surveys  for  a  Pacific  Railway — The 
Japan  Expedition — Treaty  with  Japan — The  Koszta  Affair — The  "  Black  Warrior" 
seized  by  the  Cuban  Officials — The  "  Ostend  Conference  " — Dismissal  of  the  British 
Minister — The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill — History  of  the  Bill — Its  Passage  by  Congress 
— History  of  the  Struggle  in  Kansas — Conflict  between  the  Pro-Slavery  and  Free 
Soil  Settlers — Lawrence  Sacked — Civil  War — The  Presidential  Campaign  of  1856 
— James  Buchanan  elected  President  of  the  United  States — Rapid  increase  of  the 
Republican  Party 749 

CHAPTER   XL. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   JAMES   BUCHANAN. 

Inauguration  of  Mr.  Buchanan — The  Mormon  Rebellion — The  Financial  Crisis  of  1857 
— Laying  of  the  Atlantic  Telegraphic  Cable — Minnesota  admitted  into  the  Union — 
The  San  Juan  Affair — Admission  of  Oregon  into  the  Union — The  Kansas  question 
— The  Leconapton  Constitution — Its  defeat — The  Wyandotte  Constitution — Admis- 
sion of  Kansas  into  the  Union — The  John  Brown  Raid — Prompt  action  of  the  Gov- 
ernment— Brown  and  his  Companions  surrendered  to  the  State  of  Virginia — Their 
Trial  and  Execution — Presidential  Campaign  of  1860 — Rupture  of  the  Democratic 
party — Abraham  Lincoln  elected  President  of  the  United  States  —Secession  of  South 
Carolina— Reasons  for  this  Act — Secession  of  the  other  Cotton  States— Major  Ander- 
son occupies  Fort  Sumter — Trying  position  of  the  General  Government — Course 
of  Mr.  Buchanan— The  "  Star  of  the  West "  fired  upon  by  the  South  Carolina  Bat- 
teries— Organization  of  the  Confederate  Sta'es  of  America — Jefferson  Davis  elected 
President  of  the  Southern  Republic— The  Peace  Congress — Its  Failure. 761 

CHAPTER   XL/. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN — THE  CIVIL  WAR, 

Inauguration  of  President  Lincoln — His  History — The  Confederate  Commissioners 
at  Washington — Attack  upon  Fort  Sumter  by  the  Confederates — The  President  calls 
for  Troops — Response  of  the  North  and  West — Secession  of  the  Border  States — 
Opening  Events  of  the  "War  in  Virginia — Withdrawal  of  West  Virginia — Admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  sepnrnte  State — Meeting  of  Congress — The  West  Virginia  Cam- 
paign— Battle  of  Bull  Run — The  "War  in  Missouri — Kentucky  Occupied — The 
Blockade — Capture  of  Port  Royal — The  "Trent"  Affair  -Insurrection  in  East  Ten- 


22  CONTENTS. 

pgaec  State  of  Affaire  at  the  Opening  of  the  Year  1862-Edwin  M.  Stanton  made 
Secretary  of  War— Capture  of  Fort*  Henry  and  Donelson— The  Confederates  fall 
back  from  Kentucky— Battle  of  fcjhiloh— Cupture  of  Island  No.  10— Evacuation 
of  Corinth— Capture  of  "Memphis— Bragg's  Kentucky  Cami>aign— His  Retreat  into 
Tcnnemee — ButtU-s  of  lnk:i  and  Corinth— Battle  of  Murfreesboro',  or  Stone  River — 
Grant's  Campaign  against  Vicksburg— Its  Failure— The  War  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi—Battle of  Pea  Ridge — Capture  of  Roanoke  Island— Capture  of  New  Orleans 
— Surrender  of  Fort  Pulaski— The  War  in  Virginia— Johnston  s  Retreat  from  Cen- 
treTille— Battle  between  the  "  Monitor''  and  "  Virginia"— The  Move  to  the  Peninsula 
— Johnston  Retreats  to  the  Chickahominy — Battle  of  Seven  Pines — Jackson's  Suc- 
eenes  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia—  The  Seven  Days'  Battles  before  Richmond— Battle 
of  Cedar  Mountain  — Defeat  of  General  Pope's  Army— Lee  Invades  Maryland 
— Capture  of  Harper's  Ferry — Battles  of  South  Mountain  and  A ntietam— Retreat 
of  Lee  into  Virginia — McClellan  Removed— Battle  of  Fredericksburg- 77V 

CHAPTER   XL//. 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN — THE  CIVIL  WAR — • 

CONCLUDED. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation — Battle  of  Chancellorsville — Death  of  Stonewall 
Jackson — Invasion  of  the  North  by  Lee's  Army — Battle  of  Gettysburg — Retreat  of 
Lee  into  Virginia — Grant's  Army  crosses  the  Mississippi — Battle  of  Champion  Hills 
— Investment  of  Vicksburg — Surrender  of  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson — Battle 
of  Chickamauga — Rosecrans  shut  up  in  Chattanooga — Grant  in  command  of  the 
Western  Armies — Battles  of  Lookout  Mountain  and  Mission  Ridge — Defeat  of 
Bragg's  Army — The  Campaign  in  East  Tennessee — Retreat  of  Longstreet — Capture 
of  Galveston — Attack  on  Charleston — Capture  of  Fort  Wagner — Charleston  Bom- 
barded— State  of  Affairs  in  the  Spring  of  1864— The  Red  River  Expedition— Grant 
made  Lieutenant-General — Advance  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac — Battles  of  the 
Wilderness,  Spottsylvania,  and  Cold  Harbor — Sheridan's  Raid — Death  of  General 
J.  E.  B.  Stuart — Battle  of  New  Market — Early  sent  into  the  Valley  of  Virginia — 
Butler's  Army  at  Bermuda  Hundreds — Grant  crosses  the  James  River — The  Siege 
of  Petersburg  begun — Early's  Raid  upon  Washington — Sheridan  defeats  Early  at 
Winchester  and  Fisher's  Hill— Battle  of  Cedar  Creek— The  final  Defeat  of  Early's 
Army — Sherman's  Advance  to  Atlanta — Johnston  removed — Defeat  of  Hood  before 
Atlanta — Evacuation  of  Atlanta — Hood's  Invasion  of  Tennessee — Battle  of  Franklin 
— Siese  of  Nashville — Hood  defeated  at  Nashville — His  Retreat — Sherman's 
"March  to  the  Sea" — Capture  of  Savannah — Battle  of  Mobile  Bay— Attack  on 
Fort  Fisher — The  Confederate  Cruisers — Sinking  of  the  "Alabama  "  by  the  "  Kear- 
sarge  " — Re-election  of  President  Lincoln — Admission  of  Nevada  into  the  Union — 
The  Hampton  Roads  Peace  Conference — Capture  of  Fort  Fisher — Occupation  of 
Wilmington — Sherman  advances  through  South  Carolina — Evacuation  of  Charles- 
ton— Battles  of  Averasboro'  and  Bentonville — Sherman  at  Goldsboro' — Critical 
situation  of  Lee's  Army — Attack  on  Fort  Steadman— Sheridan  joins  Grant — 
Advance  of  Grant's  Army— Battle  of  Five  Forks — Attack  on  Petersburg — Evacua- 
tion of  Richmond  and  Petersburg — Retreat  of  Lee's  Army — Richmond  occupied — 
SURRENDER  of  General  Lee's  Army — Rejoicings  in  the  North — Assassination  of 
President  Lincoln — Death  of  Booth — Execution  of  the  Conspirators — Johnston  Sur- 
renders— Surrender  of  the  other  Confederate  Forces — Capture  of  Jefferson  Davis 

Close  of  the  War 


CONTENTS.  2% 

CHAPTER   XL///. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

The  New  President— Keturn  of  the  Army  to  Civil  Life— The  Public  Debt— The 
Reconstruction  Question — Action  of  the  President — He  declares  the  Southern  States 
Readmitted  into  the  Union — The  Fifteenth  Amendment — Meeting  of  Congress — 
The  President's  Acts  Annulled — Reconstruction  Policy  of  Congress — The  Four- 
teenth Amendment — The  Freedman's  Bureau  and  Civil  Rights  Bills— Tha  Tenure 
of  Office  Act — Admission  of  Nebraska  into  the  Union — The  Southern  States  Organ- 
ized as  Military  Districts — Admission  of  Southern  States  into  the  Union — The 
Fourteenth  Amendment  Ratified — President  Johnson's  Quarrel  with  Secretary 
Stanton — Impeachment  of  the  President — His  Acquittal — Release  of  Jefferson  Davis 
— Indian  War — The  French  in  Mexico — Fall  of  the  Mexican  Empire — Laying  of 
the  Atlantic  Telegraph— Purchase  of  Alaska— Naturalization  Treaty  with  Germany 
— Treaty  with  China — Death  of  General  Scott — Death  of  ex-President  Buchanan — 

General  Grant  Elected  President — The  Fifteenth  Amendment 865 

" 

CHAPTER   XLIV. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

Early  Life  of  President  Grant — Completion  of  the  Pacific  Railway — Death  of  ex-Presi- 
dent Pierce: — The  Fifteenth  Amendment 'Ratified — Prosperity  of  the  Country — The 
Enforcement  Act— The  Test-oath  Abolished— The  Constitutionality  of  the  Legal- 
Tender  Act  Affirmed — Death  of  Adrniral  Farragut — Death  of  General  Lee — The 
Income  Tax  Repealed — The  Alabama  Claims — Treaty  of  Washington — The  Geneva 
Conference — Award  in  favor  of  the  United  States — The'  San  Juan  Boundary  Ques- 
tion settled — Efforts  to  annex  St.  Domingo — Burning  of  Chicago — Forest  Fires — ' 
The  Civil  Disabilities  removed  from"  the  Southern  People — Re-election  of  General 
Grant — Death  of  Horace  Greeley — Great  Fire  at  Boston — The  Modoc  War— Mur- 
der of  General  Canby  and  the  Peace  Commissioners — Execution  of  the  Modoc 
Chiefs — The  Cuban  Revolution — Capture  of  the  "Virginius" — Execution  of  the 
Prisoners — Action  of  the  Federal  Government — The  Panic  of  1873 — Bill  for  the 
Resumption  of  Specie  Payments — The  Centennial  Exhibition — The  Sioux  War — 
Death  of  General  Custer-- Presidential  Election — Controversy  dver  it — The  Elec- 
toral Commission — Count  of  the  Vote — Hayes  declared  elected 879 

CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   RUTHERFORD   B.   HAYES. 

Inauguration  of  President  Hayes — A  Sketch  of  the  new  President — Civil  Service  Re- 
form— Settlement  of  the  troubles  in  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana — Withdrawal  of 
the  Troops 920 

CHAPTER  XLV/. 

CONCLUSION 927 

APPENDIX. 

THE  CENTENNIAL  EXHIBITION ~ 935 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1.  Steel  Portrait  of  George  Washington Frontitpita 

2.  The  Declaration  of  Independence 

3.  Front  View  of  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  D.  C 

4.  Signatures  of  the  Signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 

5.  Memorial  Hall  or  Art  Gallery— International  Centennial  Exhibition 

6.  Main  Building  of  the  International  Exhibition 

7.  The  United  States  Treasury,  Washington,  D.  C 

8.  The  new  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C 

9.  Signing  the  Declaration  of  Independence  by  the  Continental  Congress, 

July  4th,  1776 

10.  Birdseye  View  of  New  York  city 

11.  Indian  Village  in  Winter -. 35 

12.  Navajo  Boy 36 

13.  Pueblo  Indian  at  Prayer 38 

14.  Converted  Indian  Woman 39 

15.  A  Dead  Town  of  the  Moquis  Indians 40 

16.  Indian  of  the  Plains 41 

17.  Group  of  Indians  of  New  Mexico 43 

18.  Lower  Falls  of  the  Yellowstone,  Wyoming  (350  feet  in  height) 44 

19.  Christopher  Columbus • 46 

20.  Bronze  Door  commemorating  the  Deeds  of  Christopher  Columbus 49 

21.  The  Landing  of  Columbus 51 

22.  General  View  of  the  Yosemite  Valley,  California 58 

23.  Bridal  Veil  Fall,  Yosemite  Valley 59 

24.  Sentinel  Rock,  Yosemite  Valley 61 

25.  First  Winter  of  the  French  in  Canada 64 

26.  Rock  Pinnacles  above  Tower  Falls,  Yellowstone  River 66 

27.  Scene  on  the  St.  Lawrence 67 

28.  The  Coast  of  Florida 69 

'29.  Spaniards  enslaving  the  Indians. 73 

39.  Spanish  Exploring  Party  Discovering  New  Mexico 73 

31.  The  Spaniards  exploring  the  Valley  of  the  Colorado 74 

32.  Ferdinand  de  Soto 75 

33.  Natchez  in  1875 79 

34.  The  Spaniards  descending  the  Mississippi  after  the  Death  of  De  Soto 80 

35.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 87 

36.  The  Coast  of  North  Carolina. 89 

37.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Virginia, 95 

38.  Captain  John  Smith 98 

V. 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  25 

39.  Pocahontas  rescuing  Captain  Smith 100 

40.  Pocahontas 102 

41.  Building  of  Jamestown 104 

42.  Wife  of  a  Chief 107 

43.  Destruction  of  the  Virginia  Settlements  by  the  Indians 123 

44.  Ruined  Church  Tower  on  the  Site  of  Jamestown 130 

4-5.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Maryland 137  • 

46.  Lord  Baltimore 138 

47.  Missionary  Preaching  to  the  Indians 139 

48.  A  Converted  Indian 141 

49.  The  "  Mayflower"  in  Plymouth  Harbor 154 

50.  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims 158 

51.  The  first  Church  in  New  England 160 

52.  A  New  England  Homestead 165 

53.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Massachusetts 1 67 

54.  A  primitive  New  England  Village 168 

55.  Roger  Williams 172 

56.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Rhode  Island 175 

57.  Landing  of  Roger  Williams  at  Providence 176 

58.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Connecticut 181 

59.  Yale  College 185 

60.  Valley  of  the  Connecticut 187 

61.  Harvard  College 190 

62.  An  American  Free  School 191 

63.  Newport,  R.  1 197 

64.  King  Philip 204 

65.  Attack  upon  Brookfield  by  the  Indians 207 

66.  Coat  of  Arms  of  New  Hampshire 210 

67.  Wadsworth  hiding  the  Charter 212 

68.  The  Charter  Oak 213 

69.  Coat  of  Arms  of  New  York 229 

70.  First  Settlement  cf  New  York '. 232 

71.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Delaware 233 

72.  The  Battery  and  Castle  Garden,  New  York,  in  1875 242 

73.  The  City  Hall  Park,  New  York,  in  1875 243 

74.  Coat  of  Arms  of  New  Jersey 244 

75.  Broadway,  New  York,  in  1875 246 

76.  Nassau  Street,  New  York,  in  1875 251 

77.  The  Post  Office,  New  York,  in  1875 , 253 

78.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Pennsylvania 256 

79.  William  Penn 258 

80.  Perm's  Treaty  with  the  Indians 261 

81.  Penn  laying  out  the  Plan  of  Philadelphia 262 

82.  Settlement  of  Philadelphia 263 

83.  Penn's  Treaty  Monument 264 

84.  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  in  1875 265 

85.  University  of  Pennsylvania 266 

86.  Masonic  Temple,  Philadelphia,  in  1875 268 

87.  Coat  of  Arms  of  North  Carolina 271 

88.  A  Settler's  Cabin 275 

89.  Coat  of  Arms  of  South  Carolina 276 

90.  Attack  of  the  Spaniards  on  Charleston  in  1706 282 


..,;  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

91.  Torture  of  Lawson  by  th 

92.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Georgia 


O  „    1 

91.  Torture  of  Lawson  by  the  Tuacaroras  ..................................... 


93.  Oglethorpe  .............................................................  J 

94.  A  Southern  Plantation  ............................................. 

.  itlit-ring  Sugar-cane  .................................................. 

96.  The  Great  Canon  and  Lower  Falls  of  the  Yellowstone  ............  .  ..........   -!)(J 

;i7.   1  >iiluth,  at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior  ...........................    ..........   3 

98.  Dubuque,  Iowa  ........................................................  3 

99.  Alton,  Illinois  .........................................................  3 

100.  Falls  of  SU  Anthony  ....................................................  312 

!••:.   1  1  umboldt  Palisades,  Pacific  Railway  ......................................  315 

102.  Burning  of  Dover  .......................................................  319 

1  03.  Burning  of  Deerfield,  Massachusetts  .......................................  S23 

134.  Return  of  the  Daughter  of  Eunice  Williams  to  the  Indians  ...................  325 

105.  The  Bronze  Door  in  the  National  Capitol  commemorating  the  Events  of  the  Life 

of  George  Washington  ...............................................   334 

106.  The  Washington  Statue  in  Union  Square,  New  York  ........................  337 

107.  Washington's  Journey  to  the  Ohio  ........................................  338 

108.  The  Half  King  .........................................................  340 

109.  Washington  and  Gist  crossing  the  Alleghany  ...............................   341 

110.  Benjamin  Franklin  ......................................................   345 

111.  Wills'  Creek  Narrows,  Maryland  .........................................  348 

112.  Braddock's  Defeat.  ......................................................  351 

1  1  3.  Retreat  of  Braddock'a  Army  ................  .  ..................  ...........  352 

114.  Burning  of  Kittanning  by  General  Armstrong  .............................  354 

1  15.  Scene  on  the  Colorado  .................................................  360 

116.  Site  of  Fort  William  Henry  on  Lake  George  ..............................  365 

117.  Wolfe's  Attack  on  Louisburg  ......................................    ......  371 

118.  Abercrombie's  Expedition  on  Lake  George  .........................      .....  372 

119.  Attack  on  Ticonderoga  .................................................   373 

120.  Investment  of  Fort  Frontenac  ............................................  374 

121.  Birdseye  View  of  Pittsburgh  .................  ...........................  377 

122.  Ruins  of  Fort  Ticonderoga  .........................................    •  ----  379 

123.  General  James  Wolfe  ...................................................   381 

124.  Death  of  General  Wolfe  before  Quebec  ....................................   383 

125.  Pontiac  ................................................................  387 

126.  Samuel  Adams  ..............................................  .'  .......  ,  ,  -   394 

127.  Patrick  Henry  .........................................................     396 

128.  George  the  Third  .......................................................  399 

129.  Stamp  Act  Official  beaten  by  the  People  ....................................  40? 

130.  Faneuil  Hall  in  1775  ............  ....  .....................................  400 

131.  The  Boston  Massacre  ....................................................  407 

132.  Destruction  of  Tea  in  Boston  Harbor.  ....V«(4.W.i  ...........................  412 

133.  John  Hancock  ...................  ........  ..........................  .  414 

134.  Carpenter's  Hall,  Philadelphia  .....  ......................................  417 

135.  Harbor  of  New  York  in  1875  .............................................  419 

t36.  The  Minute  Man  ......................  ........................  .  42?? 

137.  The  Battle  of  Lexington,  April  19,  1775  ...................................  424 

138.  British  Troops  on  Concord  Common  .......................................   425 

139.  The  Fight  at  Concord  Bridge  .............................................  427 

140.  Retreat  of  the  British  from  Lexington  .....................................  428 

141.  Capture  of  Ticonderoga  by  Allen  ..........................  .  425 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  27 

J  42.  Independence  Hall  in  1776 431 

143.  Washington 434 

144.  General  Israel  Putnam « 435 

145.  Bunker  Hill  Monument 437 

146.  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill 441 

147.  Arnold's  March  to  Quebec 445 

148.  General  Richard  Montgomery ' 446 

149.  General  Henry  Knox 451 

150.  Siege  of  Boston 452 

151.  Washington  watching  the  British  evacuate  Boston , 453 

152.  Medal  struck  by  Congress  in  Honor  of  the  Recapture  of  Boston 455 

153.  Attack  on  Fort  Moultrie 457 

154.  Sergeant  Jasper  at  Fort  Moultrie 458 

155.  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia,  in  1875 460 

156.  Interior  of  Independence  Hall 461 

157.  View  in  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Colorado  river 463 

158.  Old  Bell  of  Independence  Hall 464 

159.  Declaration  of  Independence  proclaimed  in  Philadelphia 465 

160.  General  John  Sullivan 470 

161.  The  Retreat  from  Long  Island 471 

162.  Retreat  of  Washington  across  New  Jersey 475 

163.  General  Charles  Lee 476 

164.  Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware 480 

165.  Battle  of  Trenton 481 

166.  College  of  New  Jersey,  at  Princeton 484 

167.  Battle  of  Princeton 485 

168.  United  States  Navy  Yard,  Brooklyn 488 

169.  General  Philip  Schuyler 491 

170.  Lafayette 493 

171.  Lafayette  offering  his  Services  to  Dr.  Franklin 494 

172.  Scene  on  the  Wissahickon 495 

173.  Battle  of  the  Brandywine 496 

174.  The  Sclmylkill,  at  Philadelphia 497 

175.  The  Battle  of  Germantown — Chew's  House. 499 

176.  Attack  on  Red  Bank 500 

177.  Albany,  New  York,  in  1875 501 

178.  Siege  of  Fort  Schuyler 503 

179.  Bnrgoyne's  Encampment  on  the  Hudson 504 

180.  General  John  Stark 505 

181.  Battle  of  Bennington 506 

182.  General  Horatio  Gates 508 

183.  Burgoyne's  Retreat '  510 

1 84.  Surrender  of  BurgoA»ie 511 

185.  Sufferings  of  the  Troops  at  Valley  Forge 514 

186.  Sir  Henry  Clinton 520 

1 87.  Surrender  of  Savannah 524 

188.  General  Benjamin  Lincoln 526 

189.  General  Anthony  Wayne 528 

190L  Storming  of  Stony  Point 529 

1Q1.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Henry  Lee 530 

192.  John  Paul  Jones 531 

193.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Kentucky 531 


2g  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

194.  Daniel  Boone. "  5 

195.  General  George  Rogers  Clarke, °™ 

196.  Frankfort,  Kentucky °  , 

197.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Tennessee 53° 

198.  Charleston,  Soutli  Carolina,  in  1876 °37 

199.  General  Francis  Marion 

200.  Battle  of  K  ing's  Moun  tain M2 

'201.  G em-nil  Nathaniel  Greene. ^44 

202.  Arnold 546 

203.  Amlrf *• 

204.  Capture  of  Major  Andre* 54{ 

/Oo.  West  Point  in  1 875 5f 8 

206.  Battle  of  the  Cowpens. 55/2 

207.  General  Daniel  Morgan 553 

208.  Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs. 556 

209.  Continental  Bills. 559 

210.  Scene  in  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson 560 

21 1.  Burning  of  New  London,  Connecticut,  by  Arnold 562 

212.  Lafayette  storming  the  Redoubt  at  Yorktown 563 

213.  Surrender  of  Cornwallis 564 

214.  The  Bowery,  New  York,  in  1875 567 

215.  Washington  resigning  his  Commission 5G8 

216.  Great  Seal  of  the  United  States 572 

217.  Washington  receiving  the  Intelligence  of  his  Election , 573 

218.  President  Washington 574 

219.  Battle  of  the  Maumee 576 

220.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Vermont 580 

221.  Mount  Vernon 581 

222.  John  Adams 584 

223.  Boston  in  1875 586 

224.  The  Susquehanna  above  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania 588 

225.  Thomas  Jefferson .  589 

226.  The  White  House,  Washington  City 590 

227.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Ohio ... 592 

228.  Lafayette  Square,  New  Orleans , . . . . 593 

229.  A  New  Jersey  Fruit  Farm 597 

230.  James  Madison 601 

231.  Falls  of  the  Genesee,  at  Rochester,  New  York 602 

232.  Superior  Street,  Cleveland,  Ohio 603 

233.  Oswego,  Nr-w  York,  in  1875 606 

234.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Louisiana 607 

235.  Canon  of  the  Lodore  and  Greene  Rivers,  Wyoming  T-rritory 608 

236.  Woodward  Avenue,  Detroit,  Michigan f 611 

237.  Commodore  Hull 614 

238.  Commodore  Bainbridge 615 

239.  Defence  of  Fort  Meigs 617 

240.  Defence  of  Fort  Stephenson 618 

241.  Death  of  Tecumseh 6:9 

242.  Death  of  General  Pike ...  620 

243.  Attack  upon  Sackett's  Harbor .  621 

244.  Niagara  Falls Q25 

240.  General  Winfield  Scott  in  1814 ,623 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  29 

246.  Battle  of  Lundy's  Lane 627 

247.  Siege  of  Fort  Erie 628 

248.  Scene  of  the  Battle  of  Lake  Champlain 629 

249.  Macdonough's  Victory  on  Lake  Champlain 630 

250.  View  on  the  Greene  River  at  the  Crossing  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 632 

251.  The  General  Post-office,  Washington  City 634 

252.  Battle  Monument.  Baltimore,  erected  in  Memory  of  those  who  fell  at  North  Point .  63-1: 

253.  Jackson  Square,  New  Orleans. 637 

254.  The  Plain  of  Chalmette— Scene  of  the  Battle  of  New  Orlorcis 63iJ 

255.  Rattle  of  New  Orleans 640 

256.  The  "  Hornet "  and  the  "  Penguin  " 642 

257.  Commodore  Decatur 643 

258.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Indiana. ... 645 

259.  James  Monroe 646 

260.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Mississippi , . , 647 

261.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Illinois ...... 648 

262.  Coat  of  Arms  jf  Alabama . , 649 

263.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Maine 649 

264.  Cotton  Plantation 650 

265.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Missouri. 654 

266.  John  Quincy  Adams . , 656 

267.  Daniel  Webster 659 

268.  Andrew  Jackson 661 

269.  State  House  at  Raleigh,  North  Carolina 662 

270.  State  House,  Concord,  New  Hampshire 663 

271.  Scene  in  the  Mammoth  -Jave,  Kentucky . . , - ' 6C4 

272.  General  Atkinson's  Defeat  of  Black  Hawk 665 

273.  John  C.  Calhoun 667 

274.  Henry  Clay 6«8 

275.  Great  Fire  in  New  York 670 

276.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Arkansas <.....  671 

277.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Michigan 672 

278.  Martin  Van  Buren 672 

279.  Milwaukee,  "Wisconsin,  in  1875 673 

280.  Easton,  Pennsylvania —  675 

281.  Rafting  Lumber  in  Maine 677 

282.  Battle  of  Okeechobee 678 

283.  William  Henry  Harrison 681 

284.  John  Tyler 682 

285.  Davenport,  Iowa 683 

286.  Evansville,  Indiana 685 

287.  Madison,  Wisconsin 687 

288.  Old  Fort  Bentnn,  Montana 689 

.289.  Fort  Alamo — San  Antonio,  Texas. 691 

290.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Texas 682 

201.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Iowa 694 

292.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Florida 694 

293.  James  K.  Polk 696 

'^94.  Portland,  Oregon,  in  1875— From  east  side  of  Willamette 697 

'^95.  Street  in  Olympia,  Washington  Territory 698 

296.  Battle  of  Palo  Alto 701 

297.  Death  of  Major  Ringgold , 702 


30  LIST   01     I  LH'.-T  RATIONS. 


29&  StJoneph,  Missouri  .................................................... 

»ft  Defeat  of  the  Mexican  Eight  Wing  at  Buena  Vista  ..........................   <  12 

300.  General  Taylor  tlianking  Captain  Bragg  at  Buena  Vista.  .....................   713 

301.  Fremont  ...............................................................  J14 

802.  Point  Arena  Lighthouse—  Coast  of  California.  .  ............................     715 

803.  Southwest  from  Santa  Fe"  .................................................  717 

804.  East  Side  of  Plaza—  Santa  F&  ............................................  718 

:«>.->.  Doniphan  making  a  Treaty  with  the  Navajoefl  ..............................  719 

306,  "  The  Journey  of  Death  "—  Crossed  by  Doniphan's  Command  ..............  ...  721 

807.  Sacramento,  California,  in  1876  ...........................................  722 

808.  General  Winfield  Scott  ...................................................  723 

809.  Battle  of  Cerro  Gordo  ....................................................  724 

810.  American  Army  entering  Puebla,  .........................................  725 

31  1.  Storming  of  Chapultepec  .................................................  729 

.SI  J.      iptureof  the  Belen  Gate  ................................................   731 

813.  Hydraulic  Mining  ......................................................  732 

81  4.  The  Emigrant*'  Camp  on  the  Plains  en  route  to  California  ...................  733 

315.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Wisconsin  ...............................................   734 

316.  Zachary  Taylor  ..........................................................   737 

31  7.  Shoshonee  Falls,  Idaho.  .  ................................................  739 

318.  Birdseye  View  of  San  Francisco  ..........................................  742 

31  9.  Millard  Fillmore  .....................................................  ...  743 

320.  Coat  of  Arms  of  California  ...............................................  744 

321.  Brigham  Young  ........................................................  745 

322.  Franklin  Pierce.  ........................................................  749 

323.  First  Hotel  in  Lawrence  .................................................  756 

324.  The  People  of  Lawrence  determined  to  resist  ..................  .............  757 

325.  James  Buchanan  ........................................................   762 

326.  Mormon  Tabernacfe  :  Endowment  House  in  the  Distance,  ....................  763 

827.  Salt  Lake  City  (from  the  north)  ...........................................  764 

828.  Brigham  Young's  Residences,  Salt  Lake  City  ...............................  765 

829.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Minnesota  ...............................................  766 

830.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Oregon  ..................................................  767 

83L  Coat  of  Arms  of  Kansas  ..................................................  768 

832.  Capitol  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  Place  of  Meetingof  the  first  Confederate  Congress  776 

833.  Jefferson  Davis  .........................................................  777 

834.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  ..................................................  773 

835.  Abraham  Lincoln  ..................................  780 

836.  Arrival  of  President  Lincoln  at  the  Capitol  .................................  781 

837.  State  House,  Springfield,  Illinois  .................................  782 

838.  Fort  Sumter  ...................................  783 

339.  Harper's  Ferry  .....................  !...........]...!.!...!....  785 

S40.  Coat  of  Arms  of  West  Virginia  .............................  .786 

841.  State  House,  Columbus,  Ohio  ...........................  788 

342.  General  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard  ..................  790 

343.  St  Louis,  1875  ...................................  792 

344.  General  Sterling  Price  .............................  705 

845.  Major-General  F.  Sigel  ..........................  793 

346.  Major-General  N.  Lyon  ...............................  794 

(47.  State  House,  Indinnapoli*,  Indiana  .....................  795 

848.  Lientenant-General  Polk  ...........................  79^ 

149.  James  M.  Mascn  » 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  31 

402.  Major-General  O.  O.  Howard 850 

403.  Admiral  Porter 850 

404.  The  Landing  at  Mobile,  Alabama. 851 

405;  Admiral  Winalow. 852 

406.  Brigadier-General  A.  Terry 853 

407.  Brigadier-General  Schofield 854 

408.  Lieutenant-General  W.  Hardee . 854 

409.  Major-General  H.  G.  Wright 855 

410.  Major-General  Warren 855 

411.  Lieutenant-General  A.  P.  Hill. 856 

412.  Major-General  E.  O.  Ord 857 

413.  Surrender  of  General  Lee - 859 

414.  Monument  to  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Fnirmount  Park,  Philadelphia. 861 

41 5.  Hon.  W,  H.  Seward 862 

416.  Lieutenant-General  E.  Kirby  Smith 862 

417.  Interview  between  Generals  Sherman  and  Johnsion 863 

418.  Judah  P.  Benjamin 864 

419.  Andrew  Johnson 866 

420.  City  Hall,  Portland,  Maine 867 

421.  Chestnut  Street  Bridge  over  the  Schuylkill,  Philadelphia. 870 

422.  The  Patent  Office,  Washington  City 872 

423.  Lake  Street,  Chicago 873 

424.  Major-General  George  W.  Custer 875 

425.  Ulysses  S.  Grant 880 

426.  President  Grant  leaving  the  White  House  to  be  inaugurated 881 

427.  Cheyennes  reconnoitring  the  first  Train  on  the  Pacific  Railroad 882 

428.  The  Bureau  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C 884 

429.  The  Burning  of  Chicago 887 

430.  Horace  Greeley 888 

431.  President  Grant  passing  through  the  Rotunda  to  take  the  Oath  of  Office 891 

432.  The  Lava  Beds 893 

433.  Scene  in  the  New  \ork  Stock  Exchange  during  the  Panic  of  1873 895 

434.  New  York  Stock  Exchange.. 896 

435.  Coat  of  Arms  of  Colorado - 897 

436.  Opening  Ceremonies  International  Centennial  Exhibition 898 

437.  View  of  the  Intersection  of  Ninth  and  Chestnut  Streets,  Philadelphia 905 

438.  Scene  on  the  Hudson  River  in  1875 

439.  St.  Paul,  Minnesota 

440.  View  on  the  Colorado  River 

441.  Bird's-eye  View  of  the  Centennial  Buildings,  Fairmount  Park,  Philadelphia.  .  . 

442.  Centennial  Depot.  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  Opposite  Machinery  Hall 

443.  Centennial  Medal — Obverse. . . 

444.  Centennial  Medal — Reverse i 

445.  Transcontinental  Hotel,  Opposite  Main  Building 

446.  The  Globe  Hotel,  Opposite  Entrance  to  the  Main  Building 

447.  Grand  Exposition  Hotel 

448.  The  Total  Abstinence  Centennial  Fountain 

449.  The  United  States  Hotel,  Near  the  Main  Exhibition  Building 

450.  Girard  Avenue  Bridge ...    

451.  View  of  the  Schuylkill  from  Laurel  Hill,  showing  the  Falls  Bridge 

452.  Connecticut  State  Building 

453.  Ohio  State  Building 


LIST   OF  JLLUSTRATfONS. 

. .  V. 

454.  The  Book  Trade  Exhibit 

455.  Maiwachusetto  State  Building 

456.  New  York  Sute  Building 

457.  Studio  of  the  National  Photographic  Company 

458.  New  Jewey  State  Building 

459.  Arkanww  Slate  Building. 

4i.ii.  Interior  of  the  Main  Building.   

4«1.  Eastern  Entrance  to  the  Swedish  Court 

4o-J.  Kntrance  to  the  Spanish  Court 

n i ranee  to  the  Egyptian  Court. 

4iU.   Knimnce  to  the  Brazilian  Court 

4<;:>.  The  Spanish  Building 

466    The  Carriage  Building 

467.  Interior  of  a  Parlor  Car  Exhibited  in  the  Carriage  Building , 

468.  Machinery  Hall,  International  Exhibition 

469.  The  Corliss  Engine  in  Machinery  Hall 

470.  Agricultural  Building— International  Exhibition 

471.  Interior  of  Agricultural  Hall 

472.  The  Wisconsin  State  Building 

473.  Horticultural  Hall— International  Exhibition 

474.  Stairway  in  Horticultural  Hall 

475.  The  Forcing-House,  Horticultural  Hall 

476.  Eagle  used  in  Ornamentation  of  Memorial  Hall : 

477.  Italian  Statuary  in  the  Annex  to  the  Art  Gallery 

478.  Photographic  Art  Gallery ; 

479.  United  States  Government  Building 

480.  Main  Entrance  to  the  Exhibition  Grounds 

481.  The  Grangers'  Centennial  Encampment 

482.  Post  Hospital  of  the  United  States  Army 

483.  Maryland  State  Building 

484.  Cook's  World's  Ticket  Offices,  Centennial  Grounds 

485.  Delaware  State  Building 

486.  Pennsylvania  State  Building 

487.  Colorado  and  Kansas  State  Building 

488.  The  British  Buildings '. 

489.  The  German  Restaurant 

490.  Building  of  the  German  Empire 

491 .  Swedish  School-House 

4li:i.  The  Japanese  Dwelling 

493.  lu-stmirant  of  the  Trois  Freres  Proven9^aux 

4!>1.  Grand  American  Restaurant 

4 '.)•">.  Judges'  Hall — International  Exhibition 

•Hill.  The  Southern  Restaurant 

4!»7    Building  of  the  Department  of  Public  Comfort 

The  Singer  Sewing  Machine  Building 

499.  The  American  Newspaper  Building 

600.  Building  of  the  Campbell  Press  Company 

601.  View  in  the   Main  Exhibition  Building,  showing   the  Spanish,  Egyptian  and 

Danish  Courts 

602.  View  in  Agricultural  Hall,  showing  the  Brazilian  Exhibits 

603.  Scene  in  Agricultural  Hall,  showing  the  Tobacco  Exhibit 


THE 

PICTORIAL'  HISTORY 


OF    THE 


UNITED    STATES. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PRIMITIVE    INHABITANTS. 

Earliest  Inhabitants  of  the  United  States — The  Mound  Builders — Remarkable  Works 
constructed  by  them — Evidences  of  a  Primitive  Civilization — Indications  of  the  Antiq- 
uity of  this  Period — The  American  Indians — Divisions  of  the  Country  among  the 
Tribes — Names  and  Location  of  the  various  Tribes — Organization  and  Government  of 
the  Indians — Their  Dress,  Manners,  and  Customs — Villages — Indian  Inventions — The 
AVar  Dance — Legends  of  the  Norsemen  respecting  the  Discovery  of  America. 

» 

iE  do  not  know  who  were  the  inhabitants,  or  what  was  the  history 

of  North  America  previous  to  its  discovery  and  settlement  by 
the  Europeans.  That  it  was  at  some  remote  period  occupied  by 
a  more  civilized  and  powerful  race  than  the  Indians  found  by 
the  first  explorers,  is  very  certain ;  but  who  they  were,  what  was 
their  history,  or  what  the  cause  of  their  extinction,  are  among  the 
profoundest  mysteries  of  the  past.  Traces  as  distinct  as  those  which 
mark  the  various  physical  changes  which  the  continent  has  undergone, 
exist  to  show  that  these  primitive  inhabitants  were  both  numerous  and 
far  advanced  in  civilization  ;  but  this  is  all  that  we  know  concerning 
them. 

In  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  large  mounds  and  other  structures  of  earth  and  stone,  but 
chiefly  of  earth,  remain  to  show  the  magnitude  of  the  works  constructed 
by  these  people,  to  whom  the  name  "  Mound  Builders "  is  generally 
applied.  Some  of  these  earth-works  embrace  as  much  as  fifteen  or  sixteen 
miles  of  embankment.  As  no  domestic  animals  existed  in  this  country 
3  33 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

At  this  period,  these  works  must  have  been  constructed  by  bringing  the 
rarth  ued  for  them  by  hand ;  a  fact  which  shows  that  the  primitive 
population  was  a  large  one.  The  construction  of  the  works  proves  that 
they  had  considerable  engineering  skill.  The  square,  the  circle,  tho 
ellipse,  and  the  octagon  are  all  used  in  these  structures;  being  ah 
combined  in  a  single  system  of  works  in  some  places.  The  proportions 
are  alwavs  ,„ •rfect.  The  square  is  always  a  true  square,  and  the  circle  a 
true  circle.  Many  implements  and  ornaments  of  copper,  silver,  and 
precious  stones— such  as  axes,  chisels,  knives,  bracelets,  beads,  and  pieces 
of  thread  and  of  cloth,  and  well-shaped  vases  of  pottery— have  been 
found  in  these  mounds,  and  show  the  extent  of  the  civilization  of  the 
"Mound  Builders."  In  the  region  of  Lake  Superior  are  found  old 
copper  mines  worked  by  these  ancient  people.  In  one  of  these  mines 
there  was  discovered  an  immense  block  of  copper  weighing  nearly  six 
tons.  It  had  been  left  in  the  process  of  removal  to  the  top  of  the  mine, 
nearly  thirty  feet,  '  ve,  and  Avas  supported  on  logs  of  wood  which  were 
partly  petrified.  The  stone  and  copper  tools  used  by  the  miners  were 
disco  .red  lying  about  as  they  had  been  left  by  their  owners  ages  before. 
At  the  mouth  of  this  mine  are  piles  of  earth  thrown  out  in  digging  it, 
and  out  of  these  embankments  trees  are  growing  which  are  nearly  four 
hundred  years  old.  At  Marietta,  Ohio,  there  is  a  mound  bearing  trees 
eight  hundred  years  old.  The  age  of  the  mounds  is  necessarily  equal 
to  that  of  the  trees.  How  much  older  they  are  is  unknown. 

This  mysterious  race  had  perished  long  before  the  discovery  of  the 
continent  by  Columbus.  Whether  the  "Mound  Builders"  were  the 
ancestors  of  the  American  Indians  is  uncertain  ;  but  it  is  not  likely  that 
they  were.  The  two  races  were  unlike  in  habits,  and  the  Indians  neither 
constructed  such  works  as  the  mounds,  nor  gave  any  evidence  of  the  skill 
or  industry  necessary  to  their  construction.  The  Indians  themselves  had 
no  recollection  of  any  previous  race  in  this  country,  although  they 
preserved  their  traditions  with  care.  Various  conjectures  have  been 
made  as  to  the  origin  and  character  of  the  "  Mound  Builders,"  but  it  is 
useless  to  give  them  here.  We  have  no  means  of  arriving  at  a  definite 
or  satisfactory  conclusion  concerning  this  lost  race.  We  only  know  that 
they  existed  and  erected  the  great  works  which  alone  attest  their  presence 
in  this  country,  perhaps  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago. 

At  the  time  of  its  discovery  by  the  whites  the  Indians  were  the  sole 
human  occupants  of  the  continent,  which  was  covered  with  vast  woods 
and  plains  abounding  with  game  of  every  description,  the  pursuit  of 
which  formed  the  principal  occupation  of  the  natives,  and  furnished  them 
with  food  and  clothing. 


36 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Though  nominally  divided  into  tribes  and  "nations,"  the  Indians  were 
really  one  great  family  in  physical  appearance,  manners,  customs,  religion, 
ami  in  tin-  observance  of  their  social  and  political  systems.  The  division 
into  tribes  was  the  result  of  their  difference  in  language.  Each  tribe  had 
n  dialect  peculiar  to  itself  and  distinct  from  those  of  the  others.  The 
tribes  were  for  the  most  part  hostile  to,  and  were  constantly  engaged  in 
war  with,  each  other.  They  were  generally  divided  into  eight  nations, 
>jx  aking  eight  radically  distinct  languages.  These  were: 

I.  Tlie  Algonquins,  who  inhabited  the  territory  now  comprised  in  the 
six  New  England  States,  the  eastern  part  of  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vaniujXew  Jersey,  Del- 
aware, Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina 
as  far  south  as  Cape 
Fear,  a  large  part  of 
Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see, and  nearly  all  of 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin, 
and  Minnesota.  This 
nation  was  subdivided 
into  the  following 
tribes:  the  Kniste- 
naux,  Ottawas,  Chip- 
pewas,  Sacs  and  Foxes, 
Menomohees,  Miamis, 
Piankeshaws,  Pota- 
watomies,  Kickapoos, 
Illinois,  Shawnees, 
Powhatans,  Corees, 

Nanticokes,    Lenni-Lenapes   or    Delawares,   Mohegans,   Narragansetts, 
Pequods  and  Abenakis. 

II.  The  Iroquois,  who  occupied  almost  all  of  that  part  of  Canada 
south  of  the  Ottawa,  and  between  Lakes  Ontario,  Erie,  and  Huron,  the 
greater  part  of  New  York,  and  the  country  lying  along  the  south  shore 
Erie,  now  included  in  the  States  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania. 
This  territory,  it  will  be  seen,  was  completely  surrounded  by  the  domains 
of  their  powerful  and  bitter  enemies,  the  Algonquins.  The  nation  was 
subdivided  into  the  following  tribes:  the  Senecas,  Cayugas,  Ouonda«rasf 
Sneidas,  and  Mohawks.  These  five  were  afterwards  called  by  the 
English  the  "Five  Nations."  In  1722,  they  admitted  the  Tuscaroras 


NAVAJO  BOY. 


PRIMITIVE  INHABITANTS.  37 

into  their  confederation,  and  were  afterwards  called  the  "  Six  Nations." 
The  nation  called  itself  collectively  the  Konoskioni,  or  "  Cabin  Builders." 
The  Algonquins  termed  them  Mingoes ;  the  French,  Iroquois ;  and  the 
English,  Mohawks,  or  Mingoes. 

III.  The   Catawbas,  who  dwelt  along  the  banks  of  the  Yadkin  and 
Catawba  rivers,  near  the  line  which  at  present  separates  the  States  of 
North  and  South  Carolina. 

IV.  The  Cherokees,  whose  lands  were  bounded  on  the  east  by  the 
Broad  river  of  the  Carolinas,  including  all  of  northern  Georgia. 

V.  The  Uchees,  who  dwelt  south  of  the  Cherokees,  along  the  Savannah, 
the  Oconee,  and  the  head-waters  of  the  Ogeechee  and  Chattahoochee. 
They  spoke  a  harsh  and  singular  language,  and  are  believed  to  have 
been  the  remnant  of  a  once  powerful  nation. 

VI.  The  Mobilian  Nation,  who  inhabited  all  of  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina  not  mentioned  in  the  above  statements,  a  part  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  and  all  of  Florida,  Alabama  and  Mississippi.     Their  territory 
was  next  in  extent  to  that  of  the  Algonquins,  and  extended  along  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  from  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  the  Mississippi  river.     The 
nation  was  divided  into  three  great  confederations — the  Creeks  or  Musco- 
gees,  the  Choctaws,  and  the  Chickasaws — and  was  subdivided  into  a 
number  of  smaller  tribes,  the  principal  of  which  were  the  Seminoles  and 
Yemassees,  who  were  members  of  the  Creek  Confederation. 

VII.  The  Natchez,  who  dwelt  in  a  small  territory  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  along  the  banks  of  the  Pearl  river.     They  were  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  the  tribes  of  the  Mobilian  language,  yet  remained  until  their 
extinction  a  separate    nation,  speaking  a  distinct  language  peculiar  to 
themselves,  and  worshipping  the  sun  as  their  God.     They  are  believed 
to  have  been  the  most  civilized  of  all  the  savage  tribes  of  North  America. 

VIII.  The  Dacotahs  or  Sioux,  whose  territory  was  bounded  on  the 
north  by  Lake  Winnipeg,  on  the  south  by  the  Arkansas  river,  on  the 
east  by  the  Mississippi,  and  on  the  west  by  the  Rocky  mountains.     The 
nation  was  divided  into  the  following  branches :  the  Winnebagoes,  living 
between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Mississippi;  the  Assiniboins,  living  in  the 
extreme  north  ;  the  Southern  Sioux,  living  between  the  Arkansas  and  the 
Platte ;  and  the  Mintarees,  Mandans,  and  Crows,  who  lived  west  of  the 
Assiniboins. 

The  great  plains,  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  the  Pacific  coast  were 
held  by  the  powerful  tribes  of  the  Pawnees,  Comanches,  Apaches,  Utahs, 
Black  Feet,  Snakes,  Nezperces,  Flatheads,  and  California  Indians. 

Each  tribe  was  divided  into  classes  or  clans,  which  were  distinguished 
by  a  mark  tattooed  on  the  breast.  This  mark  was  called  the  totem,  and 


3g  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

was  generally  the  representation  of  an  animal  or  bird.  The  Indians 
believed  that  all  animals  had  protecting  spirits,  and  each  class  was 
opposed  to  be  protected  by  the  spirit  of  the  animal  it  chose  for  its  totem. 
(  K. -r  each  class  was  a  chief,  and  the  head  of  the  tribe  was  a  chief  or 
«achem,  who  was  usually  a  man,  but  sometimes  a  woman.  The  Indians 
had  in.  written  laws,  but  the  customs  and  traditions  of  the  tribe  took  the 
place  of  these.  The  religious  belief  of  the  Indians  was  simple.  They 
adored  a  Great  Spirit — some  tribes  had  many  gods— and  believed  in  a 
future  state.  The  brave  were  admitted  to  the  happy  hunting-grounds 
of  the  spirit  world,  but  cowards  were  excluded  from  them.  The  weapons 
of  a  warrior  were  buried  with  him  that  he  might  use  them  in  his  spirit 

home.  Their  heaven  lay  far  beyond 
the  mountains  of  the  setting  sun.  It 
was  a  land  rich  in  game,  and  abound- 
ing in  fertile  meadows  and  sparkling 
streams.  There  the  warrior,  released 
from  the  cares  and  hardships  of  life, 
passed  the  ages  of  eternity  in  the  chase; 
and  there  parting  from  friends,  suffer- 
ing, fatigue,  hunger,  and  thirst  were  un- 
known. The  Indian  heard  voices  of 
spirits  in  the  wind,  and  saw  them  in 
the  stars.  The  shades  of  his  ancestors 
were  constantly  hovering  over  him, 
stimulating  him  to  brave  deeds,  and 
keeping  fresh  in  his  mind  the  duty  of 
avenging  them  upon  the  enemies  they 
had  left  behind. 

The  dress  of  the  savages  consisted 
of  the  skins  of  animals,  which  were 
prepared  by  smoking  them.  After  the 
settlement  of  the  colonies  they  added 

a  blanket  to  this  dress.  Their  garments  were  decorated  with  skins  and 
feathers,  and  on  special  occasions  they  painted  their  faces  with  various 
bright  colors.  In  the  warm  weather  they  wore  scarcely  any  clothing. 
Their  houses  or  wigwams  were  formed  of  poles  set  firmly  in  the  ground 
and  bent  toward  each  other  at  the  top.  These  were  covered  with 
chestnut  or  birch  bark.  Some  of  the  tribes  had  large  houses,  often  thirty 
feet  high  and  over  two  hundred  feet  long,  which  accommodated  a  number 
of  families.  Some  of  the  Indian  villages  were  laid  off  regularly  and  were 
permanent;  others  were  broken  up  with  each  migration  of  the  tribe. 


Pl.'KBLO   INDIAN   AT   PBAYER. 


PRIMITIVE  INHABITANTS. 


39 


All  the  Indians,  however,  pursued  a  roving  life,  passing  from  point  to 
point  in  search  of  game  and  the  means  of  subsistence.     Some  of  the  tribes 
lived  by  hunting  only ;  others  added  to  this  pursuit  the  cultivation  of 
maize  or  Indian  corn,  beans,  tobacco,  hemp,  and  pumpkins.     The  food 
of  the  Indians  was  coarser  and  less  nourishing  than  that  of  the  Europeans; 
and  they  were  consequently  inferior  to  the  latter  in  bodily  strength.' 
They  surpassed  them  in  endurance,  however,  and  could  bear  tests  which 
the  whites  could  not.     They  were  swift  runners,  and  could  accomplish 
long  distances  in  this  way.     It  was  a  common  thing  for  a  good  runner 
to  run  seventy  or  eighty  miles  in  a  single  day.     They  were  thoroughly 
proficient  in  the  craft  of  the  woodsman.     Sounds  and  sights  which  had 
no  meaning  to  the  white  man  were  eloquent  to  them ;  and  they  surpassed 
the  latter  in  keenness  of  hearing 
and   of  vision.     They   communi- 
cated with  each  other  by  signs  or 
marks   on  rocks  and   trees.     For 
money  they  used  wampum  beads ;  ^ 
and  belts  made  of  this  wampum 
were  used  to  record  treaties  and 
other  important  events.     They  had 
no  intoxicating  drinks  before  the 
arrival   of  the  whites;   but   used 
tobacco,   which    they   smoked    in 
pipes  made  of  clay.     They  were 
expert   marksmen   with    the   bow 
until  they  learned  the  use  of  fire- 
arms from  the  whites,  when  they 
lost    much  of  their   ancient  skill 
with  this  weapon. 

"The  most  ingenious  inventions 

of  the  Indians,"  says  Colonel  Higginson,  "  were  the  snow-shoe  and  the 
birch  canoe.  The  snow-shoe  was  made  of  a  maple-wood  frame,  three  or 
four  feet  long,  curved  and  tapering,  and  filled  in  with  a  network  of  deer's 
hide.  This  network  was  fastened  to  the  foot  by  thongs,  only  a  light, 
elastic  moccasin  being  worn.  Thus  the  foot  was  supported  on  the  surface 
of  the  snow ;  and  an  Indian  could  travel  forty  miles  a  day  upon  snow- 
shoes,  and  could  easily  overtake  the  deer  and  moose,  whose  pointed  hoofs 
cut  through  the  crust.  The  peculiar  pattern  varied  with  almost  every 
tribe,  as  did  also  that  of  the  birch  canoe.  This  was  made  of  the  bark  of 
the  white  birch,  stretched  over  a  very  light  frame  of  white  cedar.  The 
whole  bark  of  a  birch  tree  was  stripped  off  and  put  round  the  frame 


CONVERTED  INDIAN  WOMAN. 


40 


A  DEAD  TOWS  OF  THE  MOQUIS  INDIAK8- 


PRIMITIVE  INHABITANTS. 


41 


without  being  torn.  The  edges  were  sewed  with  thongs  cut  from  the 
roots  of  the  cedar,  and  were  then  covered  with  pitch  made  from  the  gum 
of  trees.  If  torn,  the  canoe  could  be  mended  with  pieces  of  bark, 
fastened  in  the  same  way.  The  largest  of  these  canoes  was  thirty  feet 
long,  and  would  carry  ten  or  twelve  Indians.  They  were  very  light,  and 
could  be  paddled  with  ease.  They  were  often  very  gracefully  shaped, 
and  drew  very  little  water 

"  The  Indians  had  great  courage,  self-control,  and  patience.  They 
were  grave  and  dignified  in  their  manners  on  important  occasions ;  in 
their  councils  they  were  courteous  to  one  another,  and  discussed  all  impor- 
tant questions  at  great  length.  They  were  often  kind  and  generous,  and 
sometimes  even  forgiving ;  but  they  generally  held  sternness  to  be  a  virtue, 
and  forgiveness  a  weakness.  They  were  especially  cruel  to  captives, 
putting  them  to  death  with  all  manner  of  tortures,  in  which  women  took 
an  active  part.  It  was  the  custom  among  them  for  women  to  do  most  of 
the  hard  work,  in  order  that  the 
bodies  of  the  men  might  be  kept 
supple  and  active  for  the  pur- 
suits of  the  chase  and  war. 
When  employed  on  these  pur- 
suits, the  Indian  men  seemed 
incapable  of  fatigue ;  but  in  the 
camp  or  in  travelling  the  women 
carried  the  burdens ;  and  when 
a  hunter  had  carried  a  slain  deer 
on  his  shoulders  for  a  long  dis- 
tance, he  would  throw  it  down 
within  sight  of  the  village,that  his 
•squaw  might  go  and  bring  it  in. 

"  Most  of  the  Indian  tribes  lived  in  a  state  of  constant  warfare  with 
one  another.  When  there  was  a  quarrel  between  tribes,  and  war  seemed 
ready  to  break  out,  strange  ceremonies  were  used.  Some  leading  chief 
would  paint  his  body  black  from  head  to  foot,  and  would  hide  himself  in 
the  woods  or  in  a  cavern.  There  he  would  fast  and  pray,  and  call  upon 
the  Great  Spirit ;  and  would  observe  his  dreams  to  see  if  they  promised 
good  or  evil.  If  he  could  dream  of  a  great  war-eagle  hovering  before 
him  it  would  be  a  sign  of  triumph.  After  a  time  he  would  come  forth' 
from  the  woods  and  return  among  his  people.  Then  he  would  address 
them,  summon  them  to  war,  and  assure  them  that  the  Great  Spirit  was 
on  their  side.  Then  he  would  bid  the  warriors  to  a  feast  at  his  wigwam. 
There  they  would  find  him  no  longer  painted  m  black,  but  in  bright  and 


INDIAK  OF  THE  PLAINS. 


42  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

gaudy  colors,  called  « \var  paint.'  The  guests  would  also  be  dressed  in 
paint  and  leathers,  and  would  seat  themselves  in  a  circle.  Then  wooden 
tn  ndicrs,  containing  the  flesh  of  dogs,  would  be  placed  before  them, 
while  the  chief  would  sit  smoking  his  pipe,  and  would  not  yet  break  his 
long  and  exhausting  fast. 

"After  the  feast,  the  war-dance  would  follow,  perhaps  at  night,  amid 
the  blaze  of  fires  and  lighted  pine  knots.  A  painted  post  would  be 
driven  into  the  ground,  and  the  crowd  would  form  a  wide  circle  round 
it.  The  war  chief  would  leap  into  the  open  space,  brandishing  his 
hatchet,  and  would  chant  his  own  deeds  and  those  of  his  fathers,  acting 
out  all  that  he  described  and  striking  at  the  post  as  if  it  were  an  enemy. 
Warrior  after  warrior  would  follow,  till  at  last  the  whole  band  would  be 
dancing,  shouting,  and  brandishing  their  weapons,  striking  and  stabbing 
nt  the  air,  and  filling  the  forest  with  their  yells. 

"  Much  of  the  night  would  pass  in  this  way.  In  the  morning  the 
warriors  would  leave  the  camp  in  single  file,  still  decorated  with  paint 
and  feathers  and  ornaments ;  and,  as  they  entered  the  woods,  the  chief 
would  fire  his  gun,  and  each  in  turn  would  do  the  same.  Then  they 
would  halt  near  the  village,  would  take  off  their  ornaments  and  their 
finery,  and  would  give  all  these  to  the  women,  who  had  followed  them 
for  this  purpose.  Then  the  warriors  would  go  silently  and  stealthily 
through  the  forest  to  the  appointed  place  of  attack.  Much  of  their  skill 
consisted  in  these  silent  approaches,  and  in  surprises  and  stratagems,  and 
long  and  patient  watchings.  They  attached  no  shame  to  killing  an 
unarmed  enemy,  or  to  private  deceit  and  treachery,  though  to  their 
public  treaties  they  were  always  faithful.  They  were  desperately  brave, 
and  yet  they  saw  no  disgrace  in  running  away  when  there  was  no  chance 
of  success." 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America  the  Indians  were  rapidly. 
disappearing.  Their  relentless  wars  and  frequent  pestilences  were 
sweeping  them  away.  Contact  with  the  white  race  has  hastened  the 
work  of  destruction.  Many  of  the  tribes  exist  now  but  in  name,  and 
those  which  remain  are  growing  smaller  in  numbers  with  each  generation ; 
and  it  would  seem  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  last  trace  left 
of  the  red  man  in  America  will  be  his  memory. 

Whether  any  white  men  ever  trod  the  shores  of  America  previous  tc 
die  coming  of  Columbus  is  a  disputed  question.  It  would  seem, 
however,  that,  several  centuries  previous  to  his  discovery,  a  Norwegian 
vessel  from  Iceland  to  Greenland  was  driven  out  of  her  course  by  storms 
to  the  coast  of  Labrador  or  Newfoundland.  The  national  pride  of  the 
Icelanders  and  the  Danes  has  led  them  to  accept  as  literal  history  the 


44 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


traditions  of  their  race  concerning  this  voyage,  and  they  have  given  it  a 
,1,  finite  date.  According  to  them  this  voyage  took  place  in  A.  D.  986, 
Mini  WM  followed  in  1001  by  a  voyage  of  Lief  Erickson,  an  Icelandic 
iKivi-ator,  wh(»  is  said  to  have  discovered  America,  reaching  Labrador 
first,  and  then  sailing  southward  to  Newport  and  New  York  harbors.- 
This  voyage  is  said  to  have  led  the  way  to  the  further  exploration  cf  the 


LOWER  FALLS  OP  THE  YELLOWSTONE,  WYOMING, 
(350  FEET  IN  HEIGHT.) 

coast  as  far  south  as  the  capes  of  Virginia,  and  to  the  planting  of  colonies, 
which  soon  perished,  in  Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia.  That  some 
Icelandic  voyagers  visited  the  American  continent  previous  to  the  expedi- 
tion of  Columbus  is  most  likely;  but  we  cannot  accept  the  definite  and 
explicit  statements  of  the  writers  in  question  j  at  least  in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge  upon  this  subject. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   VOYAGES   OF   COLUMBUS. 

Ma'  Itime  Enterprise  in  the  Fifteenth  Century — Theories  respecting  the  Earth's  Surface- 
Christopher  Columbus — His  early  Life — His  Theory  of  a  Western  Passage  to  India — 
His  Struggles  to  obtain  the  means  of  making  a  Voyage — Is  aided  by  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  of  Spain — His  first  Voyage — Discovery  of  America — Reception  in  Spain — His 
second  Voyage — Settlement  of  Hayti — Third  Voyage  of  Columbus — He  reaches  the 
Mainland — Discovery  of  Gold  in  Hayti — Troubles  in  the  Colony — Columbus  sent  to 
Spain  in  Irons — Indignation  of  the  Queen — Last  Voyage  of  Columbus — His  Shipwreck 
— Returns  to  Spain — Refusal  of  Ferdinand  to  comply  with  his  Promises — Death  of 
Columbus — Amerigo  Vespucci — Origin  of  the  name  AMERICA. 

HE  fifteenth  century  witnessed  a  remarkable  awakening  of  human 
thought  and  enterprise,  one  of  the  most  important  features  of 
which  was  the  activity  in  maritime  undertakings  which  led  to 
the  discovery  of  lands  until  then  unknown  to  the  civilized  world. 
The  invention,  and  the  application  to  navigation,  of  the  mariner's 
compass,  had  enabled  the  seamen  of  Europe  to  undertake  long  and  distant 
voyages.  The  Portuguese  took  the  lead  in  the  maritime  enterprises  of 
this  period,  the  chief  object  of  which  was  to  find  a  route  by  water  from 
Europe  to  the  Indies.  The  equator  had  been  passed  ;  Bartholomew  Diaz 
had  even  doubled  the  Cape  of  Storms,  and  had  established  the  course  of 
the  eastern  coast  of  Africa  ;  and  it  was  hoped  by  some  of  the  most  daring 
thinkers  that  the  distant  ports  of  India  could  be  reached  by  sailing 
around  this  cape.  Others,  still  bolder,  believed  that  although  the  earth 
was  really  a  sphere,  it  was  much  smaller  than  it  is,  and  that  the  central 
portion  of  its  surface  was  occupied  by  a  vast  ocean  which  washed  the 
shores  of  what  they  regarded  as  its  solitary  continent,  on  either  side,  and 
that  by  sailing  due  west  from  Europe,  the  shores  of  India,  China,  or 
Japan  would  be  reached. 

Among  those  who  held  this  opinion  was  Christopher  Columbus.  He 
was  a  native  of  Genoa,  in  Italy,  was  born  about  the  year  1435,  and  was 
the  son  of  a  weaver  of  cloth.  His  ancestors  had  been  sailors,  for  which 
calling  he  at  an  early  age  evinced  a  preference.  He  received  a  common- 
school  education,  and  afterwards  went  to  the  University  of  Pavia,  where 
be  studied  geometry,  astronomy,  geography,  and  navigation.  He  stayed 

45 


46 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


at  Pavia  bnt  a  short  time;  only  long  enough  to  gain  a  decided  relish  for 
tin-  inutlM-inatical  studies  in  which  he  afterwards  excelled.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  went  to  sea  with  a  relative,  and  followed  the  calling  of  a 
sailor  until  he  had  completed  his  thirtieth  year.  During  this  period  h? 
had  married,  and  by  this  marriage  he  had  become  possessed  of  the  papers 
of  the  former  husband  of  his  wife,  who  had  been  a  distinguished  Portu- 
guese navigator.  He  had  learned  but  little  at  school,  but  he  had  been  a 
close  student  all  his  life,  and  had  stored  his  mind  with  a  valuable  fund 
of  information.  This  habit  of  study  he  never  abandoned,  and  his 

extensive  knowledge, 
added  to  his  years  of 
practical  experience, 
made  him  one  of  the 
most  learned  naviga- 
tors of  his  day. 

In  1470,  being  then 
about  thirty  years  old, 
Columbus  took  up  his 
residence  in  Portugal, 
which  was  then  the 
centre  of  maritime  en- 
terprise in  Europe.  He 
continued  to  make  voy- 
ages to  the  then  known 
parts  of  the  world,  and 
while  on  shore  engaged 
in  the  work  of  making 
and  selling  maps  and 
charts.  The  papers 
given  him  by  his  wife 

were  now  of  the  greatest  service  to  him.  He  entered  eagerly  into  the 
speculations  of  the  day  concerning  .the  shortest  passage  to  the  Indies,  and 
his  studies,  fortified  by  his  experience,  induced  him  to  believe  that  there 
was  land  beyond  the  western  seas,  which  could  be  reached  by  sailing  in 
that  direction.  This  land  he  believed  to  be  the  eastern  shores  of  Asia. 
He  was  confirmed  in  his  belief  by  his  correspondence  with  the  learned 
Italian  Toscanelli,  who  sent  him  a  map  of  his  own  projection,  in  which 
the  eastern  coast  of  Asia  was  laid  down  opposite  the  western  coast  of 
Europe,  with  only  the  broad  Atlantic  between  them.  Other  things  also 
confirmed  him  in  what  had  now  become  the  profoundest  conviction  of  his 
life.  Sailors  who  had  been  to  the  Canary  islands  told  him  they  had  seen 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS. 


THE  VOYAGES  OF  COLUMBUS.  47 

land  far  to  the  westward  of  those  islands.  A  piece  of  wood  strangely 
carved  had  been  thrown  by  the  waves  upon  the  Portuguese  coast  after  a 
long  westerly  gale,  and  had  been  seen  by  the  brother-in-law  of  Columbus. 
An  old  pilot  related  to  him  the  finding  of  a  carved  paddle  at  sea,  a 
thousand  miles  to  the  westward  of  Europe.  Pine  trees  had  been  cast 
ashore  at  Madeira,  and  at  the  Azores  he  learned  that  the  bodies  of  two 
men,  whose  features  and  dress  showed  that  they  belonged  to  no  nation  of 
Europe,  had  been  thrown  on  the  land  by  the  waves. 

Having  settled  it  in  his  own  mind  that  there  was  land  to  the  westward, 
Columbus  was  eager  to  go  in  search  of  it.  He  was  not  possessed  of  suffi- 
cient means  to  accomplish  this  at  his  own  expense,  and  began  his  efforts 
to  interest  some  European  state  in  the  enterprise.  His  first  application 
was  addressed  to  his  native  country,  the  Republic  of  Genoa.  He  met 
with  a  refusal,  and  then  turned  to  Venice,  with  a  like  result.  His  next 
effort  was  to  enlist  the  Portuguese  king,  John  II.,  in  his  scheme.  Here 
he  was  subjected  to  delays  and  vexations  innumerable,  and  once  the 
Portuguese  sovereign  attempted  to  make  a  dishonorable  use  of  the 
information  given  by  Columbus  in  support  of  his  theory.  Disgusted 
with  the  conduct  of  this  sovereign,  Columbus,  after  years  of  waiting, 
abandoned  the  hope  of  obtaining  his  assistance,  and  applied  to  Henry 
VII.  of  England,  from  whom  he  received  a  decided  refusal. 

Quitting  Lisbon  in  1484,  Columbus  went  to  Spain,  intending  to  lay 
his  plans  before  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  sovereigns  of  that  country. 
He  could  scarcely  have  chosen  a  more  unpropitious  time.  The  Spanish 
nation  was  engaged  in  the  Moorish  war,  which  had  exhausted  the 
treasury,  and  which  absorbed  the  attention  of  the  sovereigns  to  the 
exclusion  of  every  other  matter.  He  spent  seven  years  in  endeavoring 
to  interest  the  government  in  his  plans.  "During  this  time  Columbus 
appears  to  have  remained  in  attendance  on  the  court,  bearing  arms 
occasionally  in  the  campaigns,  and  experiencing  from  the  sovereigns  an 
unusual  degree  of  deference  and  personal  attention."  At  last,  wearied 
with  the  long  delay  to  which  he  had  been  subjected,  he  pressed  the  court 
for  an  answer,  and  was  told  by  the  sovereigns  that,  "  although  they  were 
too  much  occupied  at  present  to  embark  in  his  undertaking,  yet,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  war,  they  should  find  both  time  and  inclination  to  treat 
with  him."  He  accepted  this  answer  as  a  final  refusal,  and  prepared  to 
go  to  France  to  ask  the  assistance  of  the  king  of  that  country,  from 
whom  he  had  received  a  friendly  letter. 

Travelling  on  foot,  he  stopped  at  the  monastery  of  Santa  Maria  de 
Rabida,  near  Palos,  to  visit  the  Prior  Juan  Perez  de  Marchena,  who  had 
befriended  him  when  he  first  came  to  Spain.  The  prior,  learning  his 


4g  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

infntion  to  quit  Spain,  persuaded  him  to  remain  until  one  more  effort 
could  be  made  to  enlist  the  government  in  his  plans.  Leaving  Columbus 
at  the  convent,  Juan  Perez,  who  had  formerly  been  the  queen's  confessor, 
mounted  his  mule  and  set  off  for  the  Spanish  camp  before  Granada.  He 
was  readily  granted  an  interview  by  Queen  Isabella,  and  he  urged  the 
suit  of  Columbus  with  all  the  force  of  eloquence  and  reasoning  of  which 
he  was  master.  His  appeal  was  supported  by  several  eminent  persons 
whom  Columbus,  during  his  residence  at  the  court,  had  interested  in  his 
project,  and  these  represented  to  the  queen  the  impolicy  of  allowing 
Columbus  to  secure  the  aid  of  a  foreign  power  which  would  reap  the 
benefits  of  his  discoveries,  if  he  were  successful.  The  result  was  that  the 
sovereigns  consented  to  reopen  the  negotiation,  and  Columbus  was  invited 
to  return  to  the  court,  and  was  furnished  with  a  sum  of  money  to  enable 
him  to  do  so. 

Columbus  promptly  complied  with  the  royal  mandate,  and  reached  the 
camp  in  time  to  witness  the  surrender  of  Granada.  Amidst  the  rejoicings 
which  attended  this  event,  he  was  admitted  to  an  audience  with  the  king 
and  queen,  and  submitted  to  them  the  arguments  upon  which  he  based 
his  theory.  Isabella  was  favorably  disposed  toward  the  undertaking,  but 
Ferdinand  looked  coldly  upon  it.  Columbus  demanded,  as  the  reward 
of  his  success,  the  title  and  authority  of  admiral  and  viceroy  over  all 
lands  discovered  by  him,  with  one-tenth  of  the  profits,  and  that  this  dig- 
nity should  be  hereditary  in  his  family.  The  archbishop  of  Granada 
Advised  the  king  to  reject  the  demands  of  Columbus,  which  he  said 
u savored  of  the  highest  degree  of  arrogance,  and  would  be  unbecoming 
in  their  highnesses  to  grant  to  a  needy  foreign  adventurer."  Columbus 
firmly  refused  to  abate  his  pretensions,  and  abruptly  left  the  court, 
"resolved  rather  to  forego  his  splendid  anticipations  of  discovery,  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  career  so  long  sought  was  thrown  open  to  him, 
than  surrender  one  of  the  honorable  distinctions  due  to  his  services."  His 
friends,  however,  remonstrated  with  the  queen,  and  reminded  her  that  if 
his  claims  were  high,  they  were  at  least  contingent  on  success.  By 
representing  to  her  the  certainty  of  his  being  employed  by  some  other 
potentate,  and  his  peculiar  qualifications  for  success,  and  by  reminding 
her  of  her  past  generous  support  of  great  and  daring  enterprises,  the;- 
roused  her  to  listen  to  the  impulses  of  her  own  noble  heart.  "  I  will 
assume  the  undertaking,"  she  exclaimed,  "  for  my  own  crown  of  Castile, 
and  am  ready  to  pawn  my  jewels  to  defray  the  expenses  of  it,  if  the  funds 
in  the  treasury  shall  be  found  inadequate."  Louis  de  St.  Angel,  the 
receiver  who  had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  bringing  about  this  deci- 
sion of  the  queen,  offered  to  advance  the  necessary  funds  from  the 


SHE  BRONZE  DOOB  IN  THE  NATIONAL  CAPITOL,  COMMEMORATING  THE  EVENTS 
OF  THE  LIFE  OF  CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS. 

4  49 


50  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

revenues  of  Aragon.  That  kingdom,  however,  was  indemnified  againsf 
loss,  and  all  the  charges  and  profits  of  the  expedition  were  reserved  ex- 
clusively for  Castile. 

A  messenger  was  despatched  in  haste  after  Columbus.  He  overtook 
him  a  few  leagues  from  Granada,  and  delivered  the  royal  order  to  return. 
On  the  17th  of  April,  1492,  a  formal  agreement  was  signed  between 
Columbus  and  the  Spanish  sovereigns.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  "as 
lords  of  the  ocean-seas,  constituted  Christopher  Columbus  their  admiral, 
viceroy,  and  governor-general  of  all  such  islands  and  continents  as  he 
should  discover  in  the  Western  ocean,  with  the  privilege  of  nominating 
three  candidates,  for  the  selection  of  one  by  the  crown,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  each  of  these  territories.  He  was  to  be  vested  with  the  exclusive 
right  of  jurisdiction  over  all  commercial  transactions  within  his  admiralty. 
He  was  to  be  entitled  to  one-tenth  of  all  the  products  and  profits  within 
the  limits  of  his  discoveries,  and  an  additional  eighth,  provided  he  should 
contribute  one-eighth  part  of  the  expense.  By  a  subsequent  ordinance, 
the  official  dignities  above  enumerated  were  settled  on  him  and  his  heirs 
forever,  with  the  privilege  of  prefixing  the  title  of  Don  to  their  names, 
which  had  not  then  degenerated  into  an  appellation  of  mere  courtesy." 

A  fleet  of  three  vessels  was  assembled  in  the  little  harbor  of  Palos  in 
Andalusia.  Two  of  these  Avere  furnished  by  the  government,  and  one  by 
Columbus,  aided  by  his  friend,  the  Prior  of  La  Rabida,  and  the  Pinzons, 
"  a  family  in  Palos,  long  distinguished  for  its  enterprise  among  the  mari- 
ners of  that  active  community."  The  admiral  had  some  difficulty  in 
equipping  his  vessels,  for  his  voyage  Avas  regarded  by  the  sailors  of  the 
country  as  rash  and  perilous  in  the  extreme.  At  length,  however,  a 
-sufficierit  crew  Avas  obtained.  One  hundred  and  twenty  persons  were  en- 
listed in  the  expedition.  The  three  vessels  Avere  all  small.  The  "  Santa 
Maria,"  the  largest,  Avas  ninety  feet  long,  was  decked  all  over,  had  four 
masts,  and  carried  a  crew  of  sixty-six  seamen.  The  "Pinta"  and 
:<Xina"  were  smaller,  and  Avere  Avithout  decks.  All  the  vessels  were 
provisioned  for  a  year.  The  admiral  was  instructed  to  keep  clear  of  the 
African  coast,  and  other  maritime  possessions  of  Portugal. 

At  length  all  things  were  in  readiness,  and,  Columbus  and  his  whole 
crew  having  confessed  themselves  and  received  the  sacrament,  the  fleet 
sailed  from  Palos  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  the  3d  of  August,  1492. 
A  month  later  the  Canary  islands  Avere  reached.  A  brief  delay  was 
made  there  to  refit,  and  then  the  vessels  turned  their  prows  to  the  west- 
Avard,  and  sailed  out  into  the  unknown  seas.  As  the  night  came  on,  the 
sailors,  imagining  they  had  seen  the  land  for  the  last  time,  gave  Avay  to 
tears.  Columbus  soothed  their  fears,  and  held  his  course.  At  length  he 


THE   VOYAGES  OF  COLUMBUS. 


51 


fell  in  with  the  trade  winds,  which  wafted  him  steadily  toward  the  west. 
The  sailors  were  greatly  alarmed  at  this,  and  declared  that  if  the  wind 
did  not  change  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to  reach  home  again. 
The  variation  of  the  compass  also  alarmed  them,  and  their  murmurs  in- 
creased to  almost  open  mutiny.  It  required  all  the  firmness  of  the 
admiral  to  restrain  them,  and  to  keep  them  from  abandoning  the  enter- 
prise and  returning  to  Europe. 

Ten  weeks  of  anxiety  and  disappointment  had  passed  since  the  depar- 
ture of  the  fleet  from  Palos ;  but  still  no  land  was  seen.  There  were  un- 
mistakable signs  that  laud  was  near,  such  as  the  flight  of  land  birds 


THE   LANDING   OF  COLUMBUS. 


around  the  ship,  the  finding  of  a  bush  floating  on  the  waters  with  fresh 
berries  upon  it,  and  the  frequent  discovery  o(  land  weeds  upon  the  waves. 
Often  the  lookout  would  startle  the  fleet  by  the  cry  of  land,  but  as  often 
the  supposed  shore  would  prove  to  be  only  a  bank  of  clouds  low  do\vn 
upon  the  western  horizon.  Still  the  ships  held  their  westward  course, 
and  at  length  the  sailors  broke  into  open  mutiny,  and  demanded  that  the 
fleet  should  return  home.  They  were  even  ready  to  throw  the  admira) 
overboard  if  he  refused  to  grant  their  demands. 

Columbus  alone  had  been  calm  and  hopeful  throughout  the  voyage 
He  was  resolved  to  succeed  or  perish  in  the  attempt  to  find  the  land 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  success  of  the  mutiny  would  have  destroyed  all  his  hopes,  and  as  the 
events  of  earh  Mi.vrrdinjr  day  strengthened  him  in  his  conviction  that 
they  were  rapidly  approaching  land,  he  condescended  to  plead  with  his 
men,  and  obtained  from  them  a  promise  to  obey  him  for  a  few  days 
longer.  The  next  night  the  land  breeze,  laden  with  the  rich  perfumes 
of  tropical  flowers,  convinced  the  wear)' crews  that  the  admiral  was  right, 
and  that  the  long  wishcd-for  shore  was  indeed  near.  The  ships  were 
nnlcivd  to  lie  to  for  the  night  lest  they  should  go  ashore  in  the  darkness. 
No  one  slept  on  board  that  night.  About  ten  o'clock,  Columbus  saw  a 
light  moving  along  the  shore,  as  if  it  were  a  torch  carried  in  a  man's 
hand.  He  called  Martin  Alonzo  Pinzon,  one  of  his  captains,  and  pointed 
it  out  to  him.  Pinzon  confirmed  the  admiral's  opinion,  and  all  waited  in 
the  most  intense  eagerness  for  the  approach  of  the  morning. 

With  the  first  light,  on  the  morning  of  Friday,  the  12th  of  October, 
1492,  a  gun  from  one  of  the  vessels  announced  that  land  was  indeed  in 
sight,  and  the  rising  sun  revealed  to  the  delighted  seamen  a  large  island, 
luxuriant  in  foliage  and  of  very  beautiful  appearance,  lying  about  six 
miles  away,  with  crowds  of  natives  running  along  the  beach.  As  the 
great  admiral  stood  with  folded  arms,  and  heaving  breast,  gazing  upon 
the  world  which  his  genius  had  discovered,  the  penitent  sailors  crowded 
about  him,  and,  kissing  his  garments,  implored  his  pardon  for  their  re- 
bellious conduct  during  the  voyage. 

The  fleet  stood  in  and  anchored  near  the  shore.  The  boats  were 
manned,  and  the  admiral,  clad  in  rich  scarlet,  and  bearing  the  royal 
banner  of  Spain,  and  accompanied  by  his  captains,  each  of  whom  bore  a 
green  banner  inscribed  with  a  cross,  went  ashore.  As  he  set  foot  on  the 
land,  Columbus  knelt  reverently  and  kissed  the  ground,  and  then  rising 
and  drawing  his  sword,  took  possession  of  the  island  in  the  name  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  King  and  Queen  of  Spain.  The  island  was  one 
of  the  Bahama  group,  and  was  called  by  the  natives  Guanahani.  Colum- 
bus named  it  San  Salvador.  He  explored  the  island,  and  then  sailing  on 
discovered  Cuba,  Hayti,  and  other  West  India  islands.  He  believed 
these  islands  to  lie  off  the  coast  of  Asia  and  to  form  a  part  of  the  Indies. 
F.»r  this  reason  he  called  the  natives  Indians,  a  name  which  they  have 
since  l«>rne. 

I  laving  built  and  garrisoned  a  small  fort  called  La  Navidad,  in  Hayti, 
ilumliw  took  on  board  seven  of  the  natives,  and  laid  in  a  stock 'of 
Iniifc,  plants,  and  a  number  of  animals,  as  proofs  of  his  success  and 
• -miens  of  the  products  of  the  country,  and  then  set  sail  on  his  return 
A  storm  compelled  him  to  seek  refuge  in  the  Tagus.     He 
u-      received  with  distinguished  courtesy  by  John  II.,  who  was  now  not 


•      THE    VOYAGES  OF  CO  L  I'M  It  US.  50 

•a  little  mortified  at  having  thrown  away  so  glorious  an  opportunity  in 
rejecting  the  application  of  the  admiral  years  before.  Leaving  Lisbon, 
Columbus  sailed  to  Palos,  where  he  arrived  on  the  15th  of  March,  1493, 
seven  months  and  eleven  days  after  his  departure,  from  that  port.  His 
arrival  was  greeted  with  enthusiasm.  From  Palos  he  set  out  for  the 
3ourt  at  Barcelona. 

Every  step  of  the  journey  to  Barcelona  was  a  triumphal  progress. 
Multitudes  thronged  the  way,  eager  to  gaze  upon  him.  He  was  received 
with  the  most  distinguished  honors  by  the  sovereigns,  and  the  whole 
court  joined  in  a  Te  Deuni  of  thankfulness  for  the  success  of  his  voyage. 
The  king  and  queen  confirmed  his  appointment  of  viceroy  or  governor- 
general  of  all  the  countries  he  had  discovered,  or  should  discover,  and 
conferred  titles  of  nobility  upon  his  family,  with  permission  to  use  a  coat 
of  arms.  These  honors,  though  conferred  with  a  lavish  hand,  had  all 
been  fairly  won  ;  but  they  aroused  the  jealousy  of  the  Spanish  nobility, 
and  made  for  Columbus  enemies  who  filled  the  remainder  of  his  life  with 
sorrow  and  care. 

A  second  expedition,  consisting  of  seventeen  ships  and  fifteen  hundred 
men,  was  now  fitted  out,  and  sailed  from  Cadiz,  under  the  command  of 
Columbus,  on  the  25th  of  September,  1493.  On  this  voyage  he  discov- 
ered Jamaica  and  many  of  the  Caribbee  islands.  He  found  that  his  colony 
in  Hayti  had  been  destroyed  by  the  savages  in  revenge  for  their  outrages; 
but,  undismayed  by  this,  he  planted  a  new  town,  whi^h  he  called  Isabella, 
in  honor  of  the  queen.  From  this  time  the  permanent  settlement  of  the 
island  continued  without  interruption. 

In  1498  Columbus  made  a  third  voyage,  and  in  this  expedition  discov- 
ered the  mainland  of  the  American  continent  near  the  mouth  of  Orinoco, 
and  explored  the  coast  of  the  provinces  since  called  Para  and  Cumana. 
He  was  not  aware  of  the  true  nature  of  his  discovery,  however,  but  sup- 
posed that  the  South  American  coast  was  a  part  of  a  large  island  belong- 
ing to  Cathay  or  Farther  India. 

In  the  meantime  gold  had  been  discovered  in  Hayti,  which  island  the 
Spaniards  had  named  Hispaniola,  or  Little  Spain.  The  colonists  neglect- 
ing all  the  more  useful  avocations,  applied  themselves  to  the  search  for 
gold,  and  crowds  of  worthless  adventurers  were  drawn  over  from  Spain 
by  the  hope  of  acquiring  sudden  wealth.  They  inflicted  the  greatest 
hardships  upon  the  natives,  and  when  Columbus  arrived  at  Hispaniola 
from  the  South  American  coast,  he  found  the  affairs  of  the  colony  in  the 
most  deplorable  state.  The  wrhole  settlement  rebelled  against  him,  and 
the  rebels,  not  content  with  refusing  to  acknowledge  his  authority,  sent 
numerous  complaints  to  Spain,  charging  him  with  tyranny  and  misgov- 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

muncnt.  The  sovereigns  at  length  sent  over  a  commissioner  named 
Bobttdilla,  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  He  was  a  narrow- 
minded  and  incompetent  man,  and  instead  of  investigating  the  charges 
against  the  admiral,  arrested  him,  and  sent  him  back  to  Spain  in  irons. 
When  the  officers  of  the  ship  which  bore  him  back  home  wished  to  re- 
rnova  his  fetters,  he  refused  to  allow  them  to  do  so,  saying,  "  I  will  wear 
them  as  a  memento  of  the  gratitude  of  princes."  The  news  of  this  out- 
rage filled  the  people  of  Spain  with  honest  indignation.  "All  seemed  to 
feel  it  as  a  national  dishonor,"  says  Prescott,  "  that  such  indignities  should 
be  heaped  upon  the  man,  who,  whatever  might  be  his  indiscretions,  had 
done  so  much  for  Spain,  and  for  the  whole  civilized  world."  Queen  Isa- 
bella at  once  ordered  his  fetters  to  be  struck  off,  and  he  was  summoned  to 
court,  reinstated  in  all  his  honors,  and  treated  with  the  highest  considera- 
tion. Isabella  gained  from  the  king  a  promise  to  aid  her  in  doing  justice 
to  the  admiral,  and  in  punishing  his  enemies;  but  Ferdinand,  who  could 
never  bear  to  do  a  generous  or  noble  act,  evaded  his  promise,  and  the 
admiral  failed  to  receive  the  recompense  he  was  justly  entitled  to. 

In  1504  Columbus  sailed  on  his  fourth  voyage;  his  object  this  time 
being  to  find  a  passage  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  by  which 
he  might  reach  India.  He  explored  the  Gulf  of  Honduras,  and  saw  the 
continent  of  North  America,  but  was  compelled  by  a  mutiny  of  his  cre\* 
and  by  severe  storms  to  abandon  his  attempt  and  return  to  the  northward. 
He  was  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  Jamaica,  where  he  remained  more 
than  a  year.  Returning  to  Spain  in  November,  1505,  he  found  his  best 
friend,  Queen  Isabella,  on  her  death-bed.  The  enemies  whom  his  great 
success  had  raised  up  for  him  were  numerous  and  powerful,  while  he  was 
now  old  and  broken  in  health.  He  vainly  sought  from  Ferdinand  a  faith- 
ful execution  of  the  original  compact  between  them ;  but  though  he  re- 
ceived fair  words  and  promises  in  abundance  from  the  king,  Ferdinand 
steadily  refused  to  comply  with  the  just  demands  of  the  admiral.  At 
last,  worn  cut  with  care  and  disappointments,  Columbus  died  at  Vallaclolid, 
on  the  20th  of  May,  1506,  being  about  seventy  years  old.  He  was  buried 
with  great  pomp  in  the  convent  of  St.  Francis,  at  Valiadolid.  In  1513 
his  remains  were  removed  to  the  monastery  of  Las  Cuevas,  at  Seville,  and 
Ferdinand  caused  this  inscription,  which  cost  him  nothing  and  expressed 
his  excuse  for  his  conduct  towards  the  dead  man,  to  be  placed  upon  his 
tomb :  "To  Castile  and  Leon  Columbus  gave  a  New  World  !"  In  1536 
the  body  of  the  great  admiral  was  conveyed  with  appropriate  honors  to 
St.  Domingo.  Upon  the  cession  of  that  island  to  France  in  1795,  the 
l>ody  was  removed  to  Cuba,  and  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Havana. 
Not  yet  have  the  ashes  of  the  Discoverer  of  America  found  their  true  res<  - 


THE   VOYAGES  OF  COLUMBUS.  55 

ing  place.     That  place  is  under  the  great  dome  of  the  Capitol  of  the 
Republic,  for  whose  existence  he  prepared  the  way. 

Though  Columbus  reached  the  continent  of  South  America  on  his  third 
voyage,  he  was  not  the  first  European  who  beheld  the  mainland  of  the 
,  western  world.  In  the  winter  of  1497-98,  Amerigo  Vespucci,  or  Aineri- 
cus  Vespucius,  a  Florentine  navigator,  made  a  voyage  to  the  West  Indies 
and  the  South  American  coast,  thus  reaching  the  mainland  of  the  conti- 
nent nearly  a  year  before  Columbus.  Returning  to  Europe  he  published 
an  account  of  his  discoveries.  This  was  the  first  account  of  the  new 
world  published  in  Europe,  and  some  years  later  a  German  geographer 
gave  to  the  continent  the  name  of  "Ameriti  Terra ,". or  the  land  discovered 
by  Americus.  From  this  time  the  name  AMERICA  was  applied  to  the 
western  continent.* 

*  In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  March,  1875,  Mr.  Jules  Marcou  gives  some  very  striking 
reasons  for  regarding  the  name  America  as  derived  from  an  indigenous  word  originally 
applied  to  a  range  of  mountains  in  Central  America.  "Americ,  Amerrique,  or  Amerique," 
he  says,  "is  the  name  in  Nicaragua  for  the  highland  or  mountain  range  that  lies  between 
Juigalpa  and  Libertad,  in  the  province  of  Chontales,  and  which  reaches  on  the  one  side 
into  the  country  of  the  Carcas  Indians,  and  on  the  other  into  that  of  the  Ramas  Indians.  .  .  . 
The  names  of  places  in  the  Indian  dialects  of  Central  America  often  terminate  in  ique,  or 
ic,  which  seems  to  mean  'great,'  'elevated,'  'prominent,'  and  is  always  applied  to  dividing 
ridges,  or  to  elevated  mountainous  countries,  but  not  to  volcanic  regions.  .  .  . 

"  The  question  to  be  decided  is,  whether  the  word  Americ  or  Amerrique,  designating  a 
part  of  the  terra  fa-ma  discovered  by  Cristoforo  Colombo,  on  his  fourth  and  last  voyage  to 
the  new  world,  was  known  to  the  great  navigator,  and  consequently  could  have  been 
repeated  by  him  or  by  the  companions  of  his  voyage.  There  is  no  certainty  of  this ;  for  the 
word  is  not  found  in  the  very  brief  account  he  has  left  us.  But  as  the  origin  of  the  word 
Americ  has  been  until  now  an  enigma,  in  spite  of  the  different  interpretations  of  it  that 
have  been  given,  and  as  Vespuchy  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  name,  entirely  unknown  to 
him — the  inventor  of  the  word  Americi  or  America  being  a  printer  and  bookseller  in  a 
email  town  in  the  Vosges  mountains — it  is  perhaps  well  to  review  the  facts,  and  to 
show  where  lies  the  greatest  probability  for  a  true  solution  of  the  origin  of  this  word 
America 

"  There  is  the  strongest  evidence  that  this  word,  denoting  the  range  and  the  rocks  of 
Amerrique,  Amerique,  or  Americ,  is  an  indigenous  word,  the  terminal  ique  or  ic  being  com- 
mon for  the  names  of  locality,  in  the  language  of  the  Lenca  Indians  of  Central  America,  a 
part  of  Mexico ;  and  that  this  name  has  been  perpetuated  without  alteration  since  the  dis- 
covery of  the  new  world,  by  the  complete  isolation  of  the  Indians  who  live  in  this  part  of 
the  continent,  who  call  their  mountains  by  the  same  word  to-day  as  they  did  in  1502,  when 
(Colombo  visited  them,  Amerrique,  Amerique,  or  Americ.  These  mountains  are  auriferous; 
at  their  foot  lie  the  gold  mines  of  Libertad  and  Santo  Domingo,  and  further,  the  gold  of 
the  alluvium  or  the  placers  is  entirely  exhausted,  which  can  only  be  explained  by  a  previ- 
ous washing  by  the  Indians  themselves  ;  at  present  the  gold  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  veins 
of  the  quartz  rock. 

"  Colombo  says  the  Indians  named  several  localities  rich  in  gold,  but  he  does  not  give 
the  names  in  his  very  curtailed  account,  contenting  himself  with  citing  the  name  of  the 
Ciamba ;  but  it  is  highly  probable  that  this  name  Americ  or  Amerrique  was 


5(j.  HISTORY    OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

often  pronounced  by  the  Indians  in  answer  to  the  pressing  demands  of  the  Europeans  of  the 
*-xi>edition.  The  eagerness  for  gold  was  such  among  the  first  navigators  that  it  formed  their 
t-nief  preoccupation  everywhere;  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  to  their  continual  questions 
08  to  the  place  where  the  gold  was  found  that  the  Indians  wore  as  ornaments,  the  icply 
would  be  from  Americ,  this  won!  signifying  the  most  elevated  and  conspicuous  part  of  the 

interior,  the  upper  country,  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  province  of  Ciamba 

"  Wr  niav  Mippoae  that  Colombo  and  his  companions  on  their  return  to  Europe,  when  re- 
Juting  their  adventures,  would  boast  of  the  rich  gold  mines  they  had  discovered  through  the 
Indians  of  Nicaragua,  and  say  they  lay  in  the  direction  of  Americ.  This  would  make 
jKipular  the  word  Americ,  as  the  common  designation  of  that  part  of  the  Indies  in  which 
the  richest  mines  of  gold  in  the  new  world  were  situated. 

"The  word  Americ,  a  synonym  for  this  golden  country,  would  become  known  in  the 
H*':i[K»rts  of  the  West  Indies  and  then  in  those  of  Europe,  and  would  gradually  penetrate  into 
the  interior  of  the  continent,  so  that  a  printer  and  bookseller  in  St.  Die",  at  the  foot  of  the 
Vosges,  would  have  heard  the  word  Americ  without  understanding  its  true  meaning  as  an 
indigenous  Indian  word,  but  would  become  acquainted  with  it  in  conversations  about  these 
famous  discoveries,  as  designating  a  country  in  the  New  Indies  very  rich  in  mines  of  gold. 

"  Ilylacomylusof  St.  Die",  ignorant  of  any  printed  account  of  these  voyages  but  those  of 
Albericus  Vespncius — published  in  Latin  in  1505,  and  in  German  in  1506 — thought  he  saw 
in  the  Christian  name  Albericus  the  origin  of  this,  for  him,  altered  and  corrupted  word, 
Americ  or  Amerique,and  renewing  the  fable  of  the  monkey  and  the  dolphin  who  took  the 
Pineus  for  a  man,  called  this  country  by  the  only  name  among  those  of  the  navigators  that 
had  reached  him,  and  which  resembled  the  word  Americ  or  Amerique. 

"  In  order  to  accomplish  this  it  was  necessary  to  change  considerably  the  Christian  name 
of  Vespucius,  and  from  Albericus,  Alberico,  Amerigo,  and  Morigo — which  are  the  differ- 
ent ways  of  spelling  the  first  name  of  Vespuzio,  or  Vespuchy,  or  Vespucci — he  made 
Americus!  thus,  according  to  my  view,  it  is  owing  to  a  grave  mistake  of  Hylacomylus  that 
the  aboriginal  name  of  the  new  world,  Americ  or  Anierique,  has  been  Europesnized  and 
connected  with  the  son  of  Anastasio  Vespuzio." 

The  reader  is  referred  to  the  article  in  question  for  the  arguments  by  which  the  writer 
sustains  his  very  ingenious  theory,  wliich  we  have  given  in  substance  in  his  owo  words  in 
the  above  extract. 


CHAPTER    III. 

ENGLISH   AND   FRENCH   DISCOVERIES. 

Discovery  of  the  North  American  Continent  by  John  Cabot — Voyages  of  Sebastian  Cabot 
— The  English  fail  to  follow  up  these  Discoveries — Efforts  of  the  French  to  explore 
America — Voyage  and  Discoveries  of  Verrazzani — Cartier  explores  the  St.  Lawrence — 
Reaches  Montreal — Efforts  to  found  a  Colony  on  the  St.  Lawrence — Failure — Roberval's 
Colony — Trading  Voyages — Explorations  of  Champlain — Colonization  of  Nova  Scotia 
— Founding  of  Quebec — Discovery  of  Lake  Chaiuplain — Arrival  of  the  Jesuits  in 
Canada — Peath  of  Champlain. 

) 

[N  the  meantime  the  success  of  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus  had 

stimulated  other  nations  to  similar  exertions.  The  English  court 
had  experienced  a  feeling  of  keen  regret  that  the  petition  of 
Columbus  had  been  refused,  and  when  John  Cabot,  a  native  of 
Venice,  then  residing  at  Bristol,  applied  for  leave  to  under- 
take a  voyage  of  exploration  his  request  was  readily  granted.  On  the 
5th  of  March,  1496,  a  patent  or  commission  was  granted  to  him  and  his 
three  sons  by  Henry  VII.,  authorizing  either  of  them,  their  heirs  or  their 
agents,  to  undertake  with  a  fleet  of  five  ships,  at  their  own  expense,  a 
voyage  of  discovery  in  the  eastern,  western,  or  northern  seas.  Though 
they  were  to  make  the  attempt  at  their  own  cost,  they  were  to  take  pos- 
session of  the  countries  they  should  discover  for  the  king  of  England. 
They  were  to  have  the  exclusive  privilege  of  trading  to  these  countries, 
but  were  bound  to  return  to  the  port  of  Bristol,  and  to  pay  to  the  king 
one-fifth  el'  thy  profits  of  their  trade. 

Early  in  1407  Cabot  sailed  from  Bristol,  accompanied  by  his  son, 
Sebastian.  The  object  of  his  voyage  was  not  only  the  discovery  of  new 
lands,  but  the  finding  of  a  northwest  passage  to  Asia.  He  sailed  due 
west,  and  on  the  24th  of  June,  1497,  reached  the  coast  of  Labrador,  He 
thus  discovered  the  mainland  of  the  North  American  continent,  fully 
fourteen  months  before  Columbus  reached  the  coast  of  South  America, 
and  nearly  a  year  before  Amerigo  Vespucci  made  his  discovery.  He 
explored  the  coast  to  the  southward  for  over  a  thousand  miles,  made 
frequent  landings,  and  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  the 
English  king.  Returning  home,  he  was  received  with  many  marks  of 
honor  by  Henry  VII.,  and  was  called  the  "Great  Admiral"  by  the  people. 

57 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  59 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1497,  the  Cabots  undertook  a  new  voy- 
age, and  the  king,  pleased  with  the  success  of  the  first  venture,  became 
a  partner  in  the  enterprise,  and  assumed  a  portion  of  the  expense.  The 
object  of  this  voyage  was  to  trade  with  the  natives,  and  to  ascertain  if  the 
country  was  suited  to  colonization.  The  expedition  sailed  from  Bristol 
in  May,  1498,  and  was  commanded  by  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  reached  the 
Labrador  coast  about  four  hundred  miles  north  of  the  point  discovered 
by  his  father.  He  found  the  country  cold  and  barren,  though  it  was  but 
the  beginning  of  the  summer,  and  sailed  southward.  "The  coast  to 
which  he  was  now  borne  was  unobstructed  by  frost.  He  saw  there  stags 
larger  than  those  of  England,  and  bears  that  plunged  into  the  water  to 
take  fish  with  their  claws.  The  fish  swarmed  innumerably  in  such 
shoals  they  seemed  to  affect  even  the  speed  of  his  vessels,  so  that  he  gave 
to  the  country  the  name  of  Bacallaos,  which  still  linger,  on  the  east  side 
of  Newfoundland,  and  has  passed  into  the  language  of  the  Germans  and 
the  Italians,  as  well  as  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish,  to  designate  the  cod. 
Continuing  his  voyage,  according  to  the  line  of  the 'shore,  he  found  the 
natives  of  those  regions  clad  in  skins  of  beasts,  but  they  were  not  without 
the  faculty  of  reason,  and  in  many  places  were  acquainted  with  the  use 
of  copper.  In  the  early  part  of  his  voyage  he  had  been  so  far  to  the 
north  that  in  the  month  of  July  the  light  of  day  was  almost  continuous; 
before  he  turned  homewards,  in  the  late  autumn,  he  believed  he  had 
attained  the  latitude  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  the  longitude  of 
Cuba."*  On  his  homeward  voyage  he  noticed  the  Gulf  Stream. 

This  was  the  last  voyage  from  England  made  by  Sebastian  Cabot.  On 
the  death  of  Henry  VII.,  he  took  service  with  Ferdinand  of  Spain,  and 
under  him  and  his  grandson,  Charles  V.,  he  made  many  voyages,  and 
was  for  nearly  sixty  years  the  foremost  man  in  Europe  in  maritime 
enterprises.  He  explored  the  eastern  coast  of  South  America,  and  in  his 
efforts  to  find  the  northwest  passage  sailed  within  twenty  degrees  of  the 
North  Pole,  and  explored  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America  from  Hud- 
son's straits  to  Albemarle  sound.  He  was  in  many  things  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  his  day,  and  besides  his  own  discoveries  con- 
tributed generously  by  his  advice  and  encouragement  to  those  of  others. 
"  He  gave  England  a  continent,  and  no  one  knows  his  burial  place." 

The  English  made  no  effort  to  take  advantage  of  the  discoveries  of  the 
Cabots.  They  sent  a  few  vessels  every  year  to  fish  on  the  banks  of 
Newfoundland,  but  pursued  even  this  industry  without  vigor.  The 
other  nations  were  more  energetic  and  showed  a  keener  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  the  new  lands.  The  French  were  especially  active  in  this 

*  Bancroft. 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


61 


rospect.  Their  vessels  engaged  in  the  fisheries  far  outnumbered  those 
of  the  English,  and  many  plans  were  proposed  in  France  for  the  coloniz- 
ation of  these  regions.  In  1523,  Francis  I.  employed  a  Florentine 
named  John  Verrazzani,  an  experienced  navigator,  to  undertake  the  dis- 
covery of  a  northwest  passage  to  India.  Verrazzani  sailed  on  the  "!  ?th 
of  January,  1524,  and,  after  a  stormy  voyage  of  fifty  days,  reached  the 
American  coast  in  the  latitude  of  Wilmington,  North  Carolina.  Failing 
to  find  a  good  harbor,  he  sailed  southward  for  150  miles,  and  then  turned 
northward,  examining  the  coast  as  he  proceeded.  Verrazzani  was  sur- 
prised and  delimited  by  the  appearance  of  the  new  country  and  it 
inhabitants.  The  latter  welcomed  with  hospitality  the  strangers  whom 
they  had  not  yet  learned  to  fear,  and  the  Europeans,  on  their  part,  re- 
garded with  wonder  the  "russet "-colored  natives  in  their  dress  of  skins 
'ornamented  with  feathers.  Judging  from  the  accounts  which  they 
carried  to  Europe,  the  voyagers  regarded  the  country  as  a  sort  of  terres- 
trial paradise.  "Their  imagination  could  not  conceive  of  more  delightful 
fields  and  forests ;  the  groves  spreading  perfumes  far  from  the  shore, 
gave  promise  of  the  spices  of  the  East ;  and  the  color  of  the  earth  argued 
un  abundance  of  gold."  The  harbors  of  New  York  and  Newport  were 
carefully  explored,  and  in  the  latter  the  voyagers  remained  fifteen  days. 


They  then  proceeded  along  the  New  England  const  to  Nova  Scotia,  and 
Btill  farther  to  the  north.  They  found  the  natives  here  less  friendly 
than  those  farthe*1  south.  A  Portuguese  commander,  Gaspar  Cortereal, 
had  ^isited  their  coast  a  few  years  before,  and  had  carried  away  some  of 

•i-i.^Jw    MiimKnr.    oi->,1    vt\\A     +Jinm    infrv    do  irnr-tr 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE  V SITED  STATES. 

Returning  to  France,  Vcmu/ani  published  an  account  of  his  voyage. 
Thi-  narrative  forms  the  earliest  original  description  now  in  existence  of 
the  American  coast,  and  added  very  much  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Euro- 
,>ean9  concerning  this  country.  France  at  a  subsequent  period  based 
up,,,,  Verrazzani's  discoveries  her  claim  to  the  whole  coast  of  America 
from  Newfoundland  to  South  Carolina. 

The  struggle  in  which  Francis  I.  was  engaged  with  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  prevented  him  from  taking  advantage  of  these  discoveries, 
and  nothing  was  done  with  regard  to  them  by  the  French  until  ten  years 
later,  when  Chabot,  Admiral  of  France,  induced  King  Francis  to  make 
another  effort  to  explore  and  colonize  America.  An  expedition  was 
fitted  out,  placed  under  the  command  of  James  Cartier,  a  mariner  of  St. 
Malo,  and  despatched  in  April,  1534,  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the 
American  coast  with  a  view  to  colonizing  it.  A  quick  voyage  of  twenty 
days  carried  Carder  to  Newfoundland.  Having  passed  through  the 
Straits  of  Belleisle,  he  crossed  the  gulf  and  entered  a  bay  which  he  named 
Des  Chaleurs,  from  the  extreme  heats  he  experienced  there.  He  pro- 
ceeded along  the  coast  as  far  as  the  small  inlet  called  Gaspe",  where  he 
landed  and  took  formal  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of  the  king 
of  France.  Leaving  Gaspd  bay,  Cartier  discovered  the  great  river  of 
Canada,  and  sailed  up  the  stream  until  he  could  see  the  land  on  either 
bide.  His  explorations  consumed  the  months  of  May,  June  and  July. 
Being  unprepared  tc  pass  the  winter  in  America,  the  fleet  sailed  for 
Europe  early  in  August,  and  reached  St.  Malo  in  safety  in  about 
thirty  days. 

The  reports  of  Cartier  concerning  America  aroused  the  deepest  interest 
in  France,  and  it  was  determined  by  the  government  to  proceed  at  once 
to  the  founding  of  a  colony  in  the  new  world.  A  fleet  of  three  well- 
equipped  ships  was  fitted  out,  and  volunteers  from  some  of  the  noblest 
families  in  France  were  not  lacking.  The  whole  company  repaired  to 
the  cathedral,  where  they  received  the  bishop's  blessing,  and  on  the  19th 
of  May,  1535,  the  expedition  sailed  from  St.  Malo.  The -voyage  was 
long  and  stormy,  but  Newfoundland  was  reached  at  length.  Passing 
through  the  Straits  of  Belleisle,  they  entered  the  gulf  lying  west  of  New- 
foundland on  the  10th  of  August,  the  festival  of  St.  Lawrence  the 
Martyr,  and  gave  to  the  gulf  the  name  of  that  saint,  which  was  subse- 
quently applied  to  the  great  river  emptying  into  it.  The  voyagers 
ascended  the  stream  to  the  island  since  called  Orleans.  There  the  fleet 
anchored,  while  Cartier  proceeded  farther  up  the  river  to  the  chief  Indian 
settlement  on  the  island  of  Hochelega.  It  was  the  delightful  season  of 
•Slepternber,  and  the  country  was  beautiful  and  inviting,  Cartier  "sccnded 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  6C 

a  hill  at  the  foot  of  which  the  Indian  settlement  lay,  and  gazed  with 
admiration  at  the  magnificent  region  which  spread  out  before  him.  He 
named  the  hill  Mont  Real,  or  Royal  mount,  a  name  which  is  now 
borns  by  the  island  and  by  the  great  city  which  marks  the  site  of  Indian 
village. 

The  balminess  of  the  autumn  induced  Cartier  to  hope  that  the  climate 
would  prove  as  mild  as  that  of  France ;  but  a  rigorous  winter,  which 
was  rendered  horrible  by  the  prevalence  of  scurvy  among  the  ships' 
crews,  disheartened  the  whole  expedition.  The  winter  was  spent  at  the 
Isle  of  Orleans,  and  in  the  early  spring  Cartier  erected  a  cross  on  the 
shore,  to  which  was  affixed  a  shield  inscribed  with  the  arms  of  France 
and  a  legend  declaring  Francis  I.  the  true  and  rightful  king  of  the 
country.  The  fleet  then  sailed  for  France,  and  arrived  at  St.  Malo  on  the 
6th  of  July,  1536.  Cartier  published  a  truthful  account  of  his  voyage, 
setting  forth  the  severity  of  the  Canadian  climate  and  the  absence  of 
mines  of  precious  metals.  His  report  checked  for  the  time  the  enthu- 
siasm with  which  the  French  had  regarded  America,  and  for  four  years 
the  plan  of  colonizing  the  new  country  was  laid  aside. 

Some  ardent  spirits,  however,  still  believed  in  the  possibility  of  plant- 
ing successful  colonies  in  the  new  world  and  bringing  that  vast  region 
under  the  dominion  of  France.  Among  these  was  Francis  de  la  Roque, 
lord  of  Roberval,  a  nobleman  of  Picardy.  He  was  appointed,  by  King 
Francis,  Viceroy  of  the  territories  on  or  near  the  gulf  and  river  of  St. 
Lawrence,  to  which  the  high-sounding  name  of  Norimbega  was  given, 
and  was  empowered  to  colonize  it.  The  assistance  of  Cartier  was  neces- 
sary to  such  an  undertaking,  and  he  had  the  additional  advantage  of 
possessing  the  entire  confidence  of  the  king.  Roberval  was  forced  to 
employ  him,  and  Cartier  was  given  authority  by  the  king  to  search  the 
prisons  and  take  from  them  such  persons  as  he  needed  for  the  expedition. 
Roberval  and  Cartier,  however,  failed  to  agree,  and  their  dissensions 
defeated  the  object  of  the  undertaking.  Cartier  sailed  from  St.  Malo  in 
May,  1541,  and  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence  to  a  point  near  the  present 
city  of  Quebec,  where  he  built  a  fort.  The  winter  was  passed  in  idleness 
and  discord,  and  in  the  spring  of  1542  Cartier  abandoned  the  attempt, 
and  sailed  away  for  France  with  his  ships  just  as  Roberval  arrived  with 
a  large  reinforcement. 

Roberval  was  unable  to  accomplish  more  than  Cartier.  His  nev 
subjects  had  been  largely  drawn  from  the  prisons,  and  they  gave  him 
considerable  trouble,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  efforts  resorted  to  to  keep 
them  quiet.  One  of  them  was  hanged  for  theft  during  the  winter,  several 
vvere  put  in  irons,  and  a  number  of  men  and  women  were  whipped 


64 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES.  G5 

After  remaining  in  Canada  for  a  year,  Roberval  became  disheartened, 
and  re-embarked  his  subjects  and  returned  to  France. 

Nearly  thirty  years  passed  away,  during  vhich  the  French  made  no 
effort  to  secure  to  themselves  the  region  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  Their 
fishermen,  however,  continued  to  frequent  the  American  waters.  By  the 
.•lose  of  the  sixteenth  century  one  hundred  and  fifty  vessels  were  engaged 
in  the  fisheries  of  Newfoundland,  and  voyages  for  the  purpose  of  trading 
with  the  Indians  had  become  common.  In  1598,  the  Marquis  de  la 
Roche,  a  nobleman  of  Brittany,  attempted  to  plant  a  colony  on  the  Isle 
of  Sable.  The  colonists  consisted  of  criminals  from  the  prisons  of  France, 
and  the  effort  proved  a  failure. 

In  1600,  Chauvin  obtained  a  patent  from  the  crown,  conferring  upon 
him  a  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade,  and  Pontgravd,  a  merchant  of  St.  Malo, 
became  his  partner  in  the  enterprise.  Two  successful  voyages  were  made 
to  Canada,  and  Chauvin  intended  founding  a  colony  there.  His  death, 
in  1602,  prevented  the  execution  of  this  plan. 

In  1603,  a  company  of  merchants  of  Rouen  was  organized,  and  Samuel 
Champlain,  an  able  and  experienced  officer  of  the  French  navy,  w*a 
placed  in  charge  of  an  expedition,  and  sent  to  Canada  to  explore  the 
country.  He  was  in  every  way  qualified  for  the  task  committed  to  him, 
and  after  making  a  thorough  and  systematic  examination  of  the  region 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  fixing  upon  Quebec  as  the  proper  site  for  a  fort, 
returned  to  France  and  laid  before  his  employers  his  report,  which  is  still 
valuable  for  its  accurate  description  of  the  country  and  the  manners  cf 
the  natives. 

Soon  after  Champlain's  return  to  France  a  patent  was  issued  to  Des 
Monts,  conferring  upon  him  the  sole  right  to  colonize  the  vast  region 
lying  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-sixth  parallels  of  latitude.  As  this 
territory  embraced  the  St.  Lawrence  region,  the  Rouen  company  were 
unable  for  the  present  to  accomplish  anything.  Des  Monts  proceeded 
with  his  preparations,  and  in  March,  1604,  an  expedition  consisting  of 
two  ships  was  sent  out  to  Acadie  or  Nova  Scotia.  The  summer  was 
passed  in  trading  with  the  Indians  and  cxplorirg  the  coast,  and  in  the 
autumn  tha  colonists  made  a  settlement  on  the  island  of  St.  Croix,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  of  the  same  name.  In  the  spring  of  1605,  they 
abandoned  this  settlement  and  removed  to  Port  Royal,  now  known  as 
Annapolis.  Efforts  were  made  to  find  a  more  southern  location  in  the 
latter  part  of  1605  and  1603,  but  the  expeditions  sent  out  for  this  purpose 
were  driven  back  by  storms  or  wrecked  among  the  shoals  of  Cape  Cod, 
and  the  colonists  decided  to  remain  at  Port  Royal.  Thus  the  perma- 
nency of  the  colony  was  established.  Some  years  later  a  number  of  Jesuit 
5 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  DISCOVERIES. 


67 


missionaries  were  sent  out  to  Port  Royal.  These  labored  diligently 
among  the  tribes  between  the  Penobscot  and  the  Kennebec,  and  not  only 
spread  the  Christian  faith  among  them,  but  won  for  the  French  the 
constant  affection  of  the  savages.  During  all  her  contests  with  the 
English  in  America,  these  tribes  remained  the  faithful  and  unwavering 
allies  of  France.  In  1613,  a  French  colony  was  planted  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  Mount  Desert.  The  settlement  was  named  St.  Sauveur,  and  be- 
came another  centre  of  missionary  enterprise  among  the  savages  of  Maine, 
In  the  meantime  the  French  merchants  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  a 
revocation  of  the  impolitic  monopoly  of  DCS  Monts.  A  company  of 
merchants  of  St.  Malo  and  Dieppe  was  formed,  and  an  expedition  was 


SCENE  ON  THE  ST.  LAWRENCE. 

sent  out  to  Canada  under  Champlain,  who  "  aimed  not  at  the  profits  of 
trade,  but  at  the  glory  of  founding  a  state."  On  the  3d  of  July,  1608, 
the  city  of  Quebec  was  begun  by  the  erection  of  one  or  two  cottages,  In 
1609,  Champlain,  with  but  two  Europeans,  joined  a  party  of  Hurons 
from  Montreal,  and  Algonquins  from  Quebec,  in  an  expedition  agairst 
the  Five  Nations.  He  ascended  the  Sorel,  explored  tlie  lake  which  is 
now  called  by  his  name,  and  examined  a  considerable  part  of  northern 
New  York.  The  religious  disputes  of  France  spread  to  the  colony,  and 
Champlain  was  obliged  to  use  all  his  energy  and  authority  to  overcome 
the  evils  which  these  inflicted  upon  the  infant  settlement.  He  succeeded 
in  overcoming  them,  and  by  his  energy  and  perseverance  the  fortunes  of 
Quebec  were  placed  beyond  the  reach  of  failure.  Champlain  died  in 
1635,  and  was  buried  in  "New  France/'  of  which  he  is  justly  called 
"  the  father. 


CJU  F1  ER   IV. 

THt   SPANIARDS  IN   AMERICA. 

Settlenrr*  of  'Jie  West  Indies— Discovery  of  the  Pacific  Ocean— Voyage  of  Magellan- 
Discovery  of  Florida— Ponce  de  Leon's  Search  for  the  Fountain  of  Youth— Vasqaez  de 
Ayllon  Kidnai*  a  Cargo  of  Indians-Effort  of  Painphilo  de  Narvaez  to  Conquer  Florida 
—A  Terrible  March— The  Voyage  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico— Fate  of  the  Fleet— Escape 
cf  Cabeza  <Ie  Vaca  and  his  Comrades— Discovery  of  New  Mexico— Ferdinand  de  Soto— 
Obtains  leave  to  Conquer  Florida— Sails  from  Spain— Arrival  in  Cuba— Departure  for 
Florida— Landing  at  Tampa  Bay— Events  of  th.  fi-st  Year— De  Soto  enters  Georgia- 
Descends  the  Alabama— Battle  of  Mavilla— Destnict; _>n  of  Chickasaw— Sufferings  of  the 
Spaniards— Discovery  of  the  Mississippi— The  Spaniards  Cross  the  Gn  Xiver— De 
Soto  in  Arkansas— Reaches  the  Mississippi  again— Sickness  and  Death  of  De  Soto— His 
Burial— Escape  of  his  Followers  to  Mexico— The  Huguenot  Colony  in  Carolina— Its 
Failure— The  French  Settle  in  Florida— Wrath  of  Philip  II—  Melendez  ordered  to 
nninate  the  Huguenots— Foundation  of  St.  Augustine— Massacre  of  the  French  at 
Fort  Carolina— The  Vengeance  of  De  Gourges. 

|HILE  the  French  were  seeking  to  obtain  a  footing  in  the  north, 
the  Spaniards  were  busy  in  the  south.  In  the  first  years  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  more  important  of  the  West  India  islands 
were  subdued  and  colonized,  and  from  these  expeditions  were 
from  time  to  time  sent  out  to  explore  the  .shores  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  The  southern  part  of  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan  was  explored, 
and  a  colony  was  established  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  One  of  the 
governors  of  this  colony  was  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa.  In  1513,  while 
searching  the  isthmus  for  gold,  he  discovered  the  Pacific  ocean,  and  took 
possession  of  it  in  the  name  of  the  king  of  Spain.  In  1520,  a  Portu- 
guese navigator  named  Magellan,  employed  by  the  king  of  Spain, 
passed  through  the  straits  south  of  Cape  Horn,  which  bear  his  name,  and 
entered  the  Western  ocean,  which  he  named  the  Pacific  because  it  was  so 
calm  and  free  from  storms.  He  died  on  the  voyage,  but  his  ship  reached 
the  coast  of  Asia,  and  leturmxl  thence  to  Spain  by  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  thus  making  th  >,  first  vo;  age  around  the  world,  and  establishing 
its  spherical  form  beyond  dispute. 

In  1513,  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  who  had  been  a  companion  of  Columbus 
on  his  second  voyage,  and  had  been  governor  of  Porto  Rico,  fitted  out 
three  ships  at  his  own  expense  to  make  a  voyage  of  discovery.     He  had 
08 


THE  SPANIARDS  IN  AMERICA.  69 

heard  the  reports  which  were  then  commonly  believed  by  his  country- 
men, that  somewhere  in  the  new  world  was  a  fountain  flowing  in  the 
midst  of  a  country  sparkling  with  gold  and  gems,  whose  waters  would 
give  perpetual  youth  to  the  man  who  should  drink  of  and  bathe  in  them. 
Ponce  de  Leon  was  an  old  man,  and  he  longed  to  taste  again  the  pleasures 
and  the  dreams  of  youth.  He  gave  a  willing  ear  to  the  stories  of  this 
wonderful  fountain,  and  in  March,  1513,  set  sail  from  Porto  Rico  in 
search  of  it.  He  sailed  among  the  Bahamas,  but  failed  to  find  it,  and  on 
Easter  Sunday,  which  the  Spaniards  call  Pascua  Florida,  land  was  dis- 
covered. It  was  supposed  to  be  an  island,  but  was  in  reality  the  long 


THE   COAST   OF   FLORIDA 


southern  peninsula  of  the  United  States.  De  Leon  gave  it  the  name  cf . 
Florida — which  it  has  since  borne — partly  in  honor  of  the  day,  and 
partly  because  of  the  beauty  of  its  flowers  and  foliage.  The  weather  was 
very  bad,  and  it  was  some  days  before  he  could  go  ashore.  He  landed 
near  the  site  of  St.  Augustine,  and  took  possession  of  the  country  for 
Spain  on  the  8th  of  April,  1513.  He  remained  many  weeks  on  the 
coast,  exploring  it,  and  sailing  southward,  doubled  Cape  Florida  and 
cruised  among  the  Tortngas.  He  failed  to  find  the  fountain  of  youth, 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

and  returned  in  despair  to  Porto  Rico.  The  king  of  Spain  rewarded  his 
discovery  by  appointing  him  governor  of  Florida,  on  condition  that  he 
should  colonize  the  country.  A  few  years  later  he  attempted  to  plant  a 
colony  in  Florida,  but  was  attacked  by  the  Indians,  who  were  very 
hostile,  and  driven  to  his  ships  with  the  loss  of  a  number  of  his  men. 
Ponce  de  Leon  himself  received  a  painful  wound,  and  returned  to  Cuba 
to  die.  He  had  staked  his  life  upon  the  search  for  perpetual  youth  ;  he 
found  only  a  grave. 

Between  the  years  1518  and  1521,  the  expeditions  of  Hernando  Cortez 
against  Mexico,  and  of  Francesco  Pizarro  against  Peru,  were  despatched 
from  Cuba.  They  resulted  in  the  conquest  of  those  countries  and  their 
colonization  by  Spain.  These  expeditions,  however,  form  no  part  of  this 
narrative,  and  we  cannot  dwell  upon  them. 

The  native  population  of  the  West  Indies  died  out  rapidly  under  the 
cruel  rule  of  the  Spaniards,  and  it  soon  became  necessary  to  look  else- 
where for  a  supply  of  laborers  for  the  plantations  and  the  mines.  In 
1520,  Lucas  Vasquez  de  Ay  lion,  at  the  head  of  a  company  of  seven 
Spaniards,  fitted  out  a  fleet  of  two  slave-ships  from  St.  Domingo  or  His- 
paniola,  for  the  deliberate  purpose  of  seizing  the  natives  of  the  mainland 
and  selling  them  as  slaves.  The  vessels  went  first  to  the  Bahamas,  from 
which  they  sailed  to  the  Xorth  American  coast,  reaching  it  at  or  near  St. 
Helena  sound,  in  the  present  State  of  South  Carolina.  The  Indians  had 
not  yet  learned  to  fear  the  whites,  and  were  utterly  unsuspicious  of  the 
fate  which  awaited  them.  They  were  timid  at  first,  but  this  feeling  was 
soon  overcome  by  the  distribution  of  presents  among  them.  Their  confi- 
dence being  won,  they  received  the  Spaniards  with  kindness,  and  at  their 
request  visited  the  ships  in  great  numbers.  When  the  decks  of  the  ves- 
sels were  covered  with  the  unsuspecting  natives  Vasquez  made  sail,  and 
standing  out  to  sea  steered  for  the  West  Indies,  regardless  of  the  entreaties 
of  the  natives  who  were  thus  torn  from  their  friends  and  relatives  on  the 
shore.  A  retributive  justice  speedily  avenged  this  crime.  A  violent 
storm  arose  and  one  of  the  ships  foundered  with  all  on  board.  A  pesti- 
lence broke  out  in  the  remaining  vessel,  and  swept  away  many  of  the 
captives.  Returning  to  Spain,  Vasquez  boasted  of  his  infamous  deed,, 
and  even  claimed  a  reward  for  it  at  the  hands  of  the  Emperor  Charles 
V.,  who  acknowledged  his  claim,  and  appointed  him  governor  of  Chicora, 
as  South  Carolina  was  called,  with  authority  to  conquer  that  country 
Vasquez  spent  his  entire  fortune  in  fitting  out  an  expedition,  and  reached 
the  coast  of  Chicora  in  1525.  There  he  met  with  nothing:  but  misfortune. 

o 

His  largest  ship  was  stranded  in  the  Combahee  river,  then  called  by  the 
whites  the  River  Jordan,  and  so  many  of  his  men  were  killed  by  the 


THE  SPANIARDS  IN  AMERICA.  71 

Indians  that  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  undertaking.  He  returned  to 
Europe  to  die  of  grief  and  mortification  for  his  failure.  "It  maybe," 
says  Bancroft,  "that  ships  sailing  under  his  authority  made  the  discovery 
of  the  Chesapeake  and  named  it  the  Bay  of  St.  Mary  ;  and  perhaps  even 
entered  the  Bay  of  Delaware,  which  in  Spanish  geography  was  called 
Saint  Christopher's." 

In  1526,  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez  obtained  from  the  Emperor  Charles 
V.  authority  to  explore  and  conquer  all  the  country  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  River  of  Palms.  He  was  very  wealthy,  and  spent  his  entire 
estate  in  preparations  for  the  expedition.  There  was  no  lack  of  volun- 
teers, and  many  younger  sons  of  nobles  joined  him,  hoping  to  find  fame 
and  fortune  in  the  new  world.  Among  the  adventurers  was  Cabeza  do 
Vaca,  the  historian  of  the  expedition,  who  held  the  second  place  in  it  as 
treasurer.  Narva*1',  sailed  from  the  Guadalquivir  in  June,  1527,  touched 
at  St.  Domingo,  and  passed  the  winter  in  Cuba.  In  the  spring  of  1528, 
he  was  driven  by  a  strong  south  wind  to  the  American  coast,  and  on  the 
14th  of  April  his  fleet  cast  anchor  in  Tampa  bay.  A  week  later,  he  landed 
and  took  possession  of  the  peninsula  of  Florida  in  the  name  of  Spain. 

The  natives  showed  unmistakable  signs  of  hostility,  but  they  exhibited 
to  the  governor  samples  of  gold,  which  he  believed,  from  their  signs, 
came  from  the  north.  In  spite  of  the  earnest  advice  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca> 
he  determined  to  go  in  search  of  the  precious  metal.  He  directed  his 
ships  to  meet  him  at  a  harbor  with  which  his  pilot  pretended  to  be  ac- 
quainted, and  then,  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  men,  forty  of  whom 
were  mounted,  set  off  into  the  interior  of  the  country.  No  one  knew 
whither  he  was  going,  but  all  believed  that  each  step  led  them  nearer  to 
the  land  of  gold.  The  beauty  of  the  forest,  the  richness  of  its  vegetation, 
and  the  size  of  its  gigantic  live-oaks,  filled  them  with  wonder  and  admira- 
tion, and  the  variety  and  abundance  of  the  birds  and  wild  beasts  of  the 
country  excited  their  surprise ;  but  they  found  neither  the  gold  nor  the 
splendid  cities  they  had  fondly  believed  they  were  about  to  discover. 
The  forest  grew  denser  and  more  intricate  at  every  step,  and  the  rivers 
were  broad  and  deep,  with  swift  currents,  and  could  be  crossed  only  by 
means  of  rafts,  which  were  constructed  with  great  difficulty.  The  march 
lay  through  swamps,  in  which  the  Indian  warriors  harassed  the  strangers 
painfully,  and,  their  provisions  becoming  exhausted,  they  began  to  suffer 
with  hunger.  Late  in  June  they  reached  Appalachee,  whicli  they  had 
supposed  was  a  large  and  wealthy  city.  They  found  it  only  a  hamlet 
of  some  forty  poor  wigwams;  but  remained  there  twenty-five  days,  search- 
ing the  neighboring  country  for  gold  and  silver,  and  finding  none;  suffer- 
ing all  the  while  from  hunger,  and  the  attacks  of  the  Indians. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

It  was  plain  now  even  to  the  governor  that  there  was  no  gold  to  be 
found  in  this  region,  and  every  nerve  was  strained  to  hasten  the  march 
to  the  harbor  where  they  had  appointed  to  meet  the  ships.     There  was 
but  one  impulse  now  in  the  whole  expedition — to  escape  from  the  terrible 
country  which  was  proving  so  fatal  to  them.     After  a  painful  march 
they  reached  a  l>ay  which  they  called  the  Baia  de  Caballos,  now  the  har- 
lx>r  of  St.  Marks.     The  ships  could  not  be  seen,  and  it  was  resolved  at 
once  to  build  boats  and  attempt  to  reach  some  of  the  Spanish  possessions 
'»v  sea.     The  horses  were  slain  to  furnish  food,  and  several  hundred 
bushels  of  corn  were  seized  from  the  Indians.     Subsisting  upon  these 
supplies,  the  Spaniards  beat  their  spurs,  stirrups,  cross-bows,  and  other 
implements  into  saws  and  axes  and  nails,  and  in  sixteen  days  built  five 
boats,  each  more  than  thirty  feet  long.     Pitch  for  the  calking  of  the 
boats  was  made  from  the  pine  trees,  and  the  fibre  of  the  palmetto  served 
as  oakum.     Ropes  were  made  of  twisted  horse-hair  and  palmetto  fibres, 
and  the  shirts  of  the  men  were  pieced  together  for  sails.     Fifty  men  had 
been  lost  on  the  march,  and  on  the  22d  of  September  the  survivors,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  in  number,  began  their  perilous  voyage.     They  followed 
the  shore,  encountering  many  dangers,  and  suffering  greatly  from  hunger 
and  thirst.     On  the  30th  of  October  they  discovered  one  of  the  mouths 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  on  the  5th  of  November  a  storm  scattered  the  lit- 
tle fleet.     Cabeza  de  Vaca's  boat  was  wrecked  upon  an  island  which  is 
believed  to  be  that  of  Galveston.      Castillo's  boat  was  driven  ashore 
farther  10  the  cast,  but  he  and  his  crew  were  saved  alive.     Of  the  fate  of 
the  other  boats  nothing  is  known  with  certainty.     Of  those  who  were 
cast  ashore,  all  but  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  Dorantes,  Castillo,  and  Estevanico, 
a  negro,  died  of  exposure  and  hardship.     These  four  were  detained  cap- 
tives among  the  Indians  for  nearly  six  years. 

At  the  end  of  this  period,  Cabeza  induced  his  companions  to  join  him 
in  an  attempt  to  escape.  In  September,  1534,  they  set  out,  naked,  igno- 
rant of  the  way,  and  without  any  means  of  sustaining  life.  In  this  con- 
dition these  men  accomplished  the  wonderful  feat  of  traversing  the  conti- 
nent. The  journey  occupied  upwards  of  twenty  months,  and  extended 
from  the  coast  cf  Texas  to  the  Canadian  river,  and  thence  into  New 
Mexico,  from  which  they 'continued  their  way  to  the  village  of  San 
Miguel,  in  Sonora,  near  the  Pacific  ocean.  They  reached  this  village  in 
May,  1536,  and  found  themselves  again  among  their  countrymen.  They 
were  escorted  to  Compostella  by  Spanish  soldiers,  and  from  that  place 
were  forwarded  to  the  City  of  Mexico  by  the  authorities. 

The  reports  of  Cabeza  and  his  companions  made  the  viceroy  Memloxa 
anxious  to  send  on*  an  expedition  to  explore  New  Mexico,  which  waa 


^^^rvHBif  I  '  Vif*  -  -  ^HBENt  »    K 

W$M 


SPANIARDS  ENSLAVING  THE  INDIANS. 


SPANISH   EXPLORING  PARTY  DISCOVERING  NEW  MEXICO. 


73 


T4 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  aTATES. 


believeo  m 
be   richer   in 
wealth   and 
splendid 
cities  than 
Mexico    it- 
self. A  Fran- 
ciscan   f  r  i  a  r 
boasted    that 
he    had    vis- 
ited a  region  in  the  interior 
named    Cibola,  the   Land 
of  Buffaloes,  in    which   were 
seven    splendid    cities.      He    de- 
clared that  the  laud  was  rich  in 
silver  and  gold,  and   that  his  In- 
dian guides  had  described  to  him  a 
region  still  wealthier.     The  friar's 
story  was  religiously  believed,  and 
an  expedition  set  out  in  153P,  un- 
der command  of  Francisco  Vasquez 
Coronado,  the  governor  of  New  Ga- 
licia.     The  expedition  explored  the 
region  of  the   Colorado,  examined 
the  country  now   known   03   New 
Mexico,  and  penetrated  as  far  east 
as    the    present    State   of   Kansas, 
Corouado   found   neither  gold   nor 
precious  stones,  and  the  only  cities 
he  discovered  were  the  towns  of  the 
Zuni  Indians  of  New  Mexico.     He 
reported  to  the  viceroy  on  his  return 
to  Mexico  that  the  region  was  not 
fit  to  be  colonized,  and  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  country  through  which 
he  marched  is  so  accurate  as  to  chal- 
lenge the  admiration  of  every  suc- 
ceeding traveller. 

Still  the  Spaniards  refused  to  abandon  the  belief  that  fabulous  wealth 
was  to  be  found  in  the  interior  of  the  continent ;  and  even  those  who 
had  borne  a  part  in  the  conquest  of  Mexico  end  Peru  rave  credit  to  the 


THE  SPAXIAHD8   EXPLORING   THE   VALLEY 
OF  THE  COLORADO. 


THE  SPANIARDS  1A   AMERICA.  75 

wild  stories  that  were  told  concerning  the  undiscovered  regions.  Among 
those  who  gave  such  implicit  faith  to  these  stories  was  Ferdinand  de 
Soto,  of  Xeres,  a  veteran  soldier,  who  had  served  with  distinction  with 
Pizarro  in  the  conquest  of  Peru,  and  had  amassed  a  considerable  fortune 
from  the  spoils  of  that  province.  The  fame  and  wealth  acquired  by  him 
in  this  expedition  opened  the  way  to  other  successes  in  Europe.  He  was 
honored  with  the  favor  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  and  received  UK- 
hand  of  a  noble  lady  in  marriage.  Eager  to  distinguish  himself  still 
further,  he  determined  to  attempt  the  conquest  of  Florida.  He  de- 
manded and  received  from  the  emperor  permission  to  undertake  this  at 
his  own  cost,  and  was  also  made  governor  of  Cuba  and  of  all  the  terri- 
tories he  should  conquer.  As  soon  as  he  made  known  his  intentions 
applications  for  leave  to  serve  in  the  expedition  poured  in  upon  him. 
Many  of  the  volunteers  were  of  noble  birth,  and 
sold  their  lands  and  other  property  to  equip 
themselves  for  the  undertaking.  De  Soto  selected 
six  hundred  well-equipped  men  from  the  number 
who  had  volunteered,  and  in  1538  sailed  from 
Spain  to  Cuba,  where  he  was  welcomed  with  great 
rejoicings.  A  vessel  was  despatched  from  Cuba 
to  find  a  harbor  in  Florida  suitable  for  the  land- 
ing of  the  expedition.  On  its  return  it  brought 
two  Indian  captives,  who  perceiving  what  was 
wanted  of  them,  told  by  signs  such  stories  of  the 
wealth  of  the  country  as  greatly  delighted  the  FKUWNAND  DE  SOT0. 
governor  and  his  companions.  Volunteers  in 

Cubt.  swelled  the  ranks  of  the  expedition  to  nearly  one  thousand  men, 
of  whom  three  hundred  were  horsemen. 

In  May,  1539,  leaving  his  wife  to  govern  the  island,  De  Soto  sailed 
with  his  fleet  for  Florida,  and  a  fortnight  later  landed  at  Espiritu  Santo, 
now  Tampa  bay.  Everything  had  been  provided  which  the  foresight  of 
an  experienced  commander  deemed  necessary,  and  De  Soto,  in  order  to 
remove  any  temptation  to  retreat,  sent  his  ships  back  to  Cuba.  He  never 
dreamed  of  failure,  for  he  believed  that  at  the  most  the  task  before 
him  would  not  be  more  difficult  than  those  which  had  been  accom- 
plished by  Cortez  and  Pizarro.  After  a  brief  halt  at  Tampa  bay  the 
march  into  the  interior  was  begun.  It  was  long  and  tedious,  and 
was  full  of  danger.  The  Indians  were  hostile,  and  the  guides  con- 
stantly led  the  Spaniards  astray,  and  plunged  them  into  difficult 
swamps.  The  guides  were  instantly  given  to  the  bloodhounds,  and 
torn  in  pieces  by  the  ferocious  animals ;  but  not  even  thi»  dreadful  pun' 


?6  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

M.mcnt  was  sufficient  to  prevent  a  renewal  of  such  acts.  Before  the 
cJoee  of  tlie  first  season  the  whole  company,  save  the  governor,  had 
become  convinced  that  (heir  hope  of  finding  gold  was  vain,  and  they 
besought  De  Soto  to  return  to  Cuba.  He  sternly  refused  to  abandon  the 
effort  and  pushed  on  to  the  country  of  the  Appalachians,  east  of  the 
Flint  river,  and  not  fur  from  the  Bay  of  Appalachee.  The  winter  was 
pa>M-d  in  this  region,  and  a  scouting  party  during  this  season  discovered 

Pensacola. 

In  the  sprino-  of  1540  the  march  was  resumed.  An  Indian  guide 
promised  to  conduct  the  Spaniards  to  a  country  abounding  in  gold  and 
governed  by  a  woman,  and  he  described  the  process  of  refining  gold  so 
accurately  that  De  Soto  believed  his  story.  It  is  possible  that  the  Indian 
may  have  referred  to  the  gold  region  of  North  Carolina.  One  of  the 
iruidcs  told  the  governor  plainly  that  he  knew  of  no  such  country  as  his 
companion  had  described,  and  De  Soto  had  him  burned  for  what  he  sup- 
posed was  his  falsehood.  The  Indians,  terrified  by  his  fate,  from  this 
time  invented  all  manner  of  fabulous  stcries  to  excite  the  cupidity  of  the 
Spaniards.  De  Soto,  with  a  singular  perversity,  held  to  his  belief  that 
he  would  yet  realize  his  hopes,  and  continued  to  push  on  long  after  his 
men  had  become  disheartene  1 ;  and  so  great  was  his  influence  over  them 
that  in  their  deepest  despondency  he  mauaged  to  inspire  them  with  some- 
thing of  his  own  courage  and  hopefulness. 

Instead  of  conciliating  the  Indians,  the-  Spaniards  seized  their  pro- 
visions, and  provoked  their  hostility  in  numberless  ways.  They  treated 
their  captives  with  the  greatest  cruelty.  They  cut  off  the  hands  of  the 
poor  Indians,  burned  them  at  the  stake,  or  turned  them  over  to  the  blood- 
hounds, who  tore  them  in  pieces.  They  were  chained  together  by  the 
neck,  and  forced  to  carry  the  baggage  and  provisions  of  the  troops.  The 
march  was  now  into  the  interior  of  Georgia,  as  far  as  the  headwaters  of 
the  Chattahoochee,  from  which  the  Spaniards  passed  to  the  headwaters  of 
the  Coosa.  Here  they  turned  to  the  southwest,  and  marched  through 
Alabama  to  the  junction  of  the  Alabama  and  Tombigbee  rivers.  At  this 
point  there  was  a  large  and  strongly  fortified  town  called  Mavilla,  or 
.M<>l»ilc,  a  name  which  has  since  been  given  to  the  river  and  bay.  The 
town  consisted  of  "eighty  handsome  houses,  each  sufficiently  capacious 
to  contain  a  thousand  men.  They  were  encompassed  by  a  high  wall, 
made  of  immense  trunks  of  trees,  set  deep  in  the  ground  and  close 
thcr,  strengthened  with  cross-timbers  and  interwoven  with  large 
vines."  It  was  the  middle  of  October  when  Mavilla  was  reached,  and 
the  Spaniards,  tired  of  living  in  the  open  country  so  long,  wished  to 
occupy  the  town.  The  Indians  resisted  them,  and  a  desperate  battle 


THE  SPANIARDS  IX  AMERICA.  77 

ensued,  which  was  won  by  the  Spanish  cavalry.  The  victory  cost  the 
whites  dear,  however,  for  the  town  was  burned  during  the  battle,  and 
with  it  all  the  baggage  of  the  Spaniards  was  consumed.  The  Indians 
fought  with  a  desperate  bravery,  and  numbers  of  them  were  slain  and 
burned  to  death  in  the  town.  The  Spaniards  had  18  killed  and  150 
.wounded;  12  horses  were  killed,  and  72  wounded. 

Ships  had  arrived  in  the  meantime,  according  to  appointment,  at 
Pensacola,  and  by  them  De  Soto  received  letters  from  his  wife.  He 
would  send  no  news  home,  however.  He  had  not  yet  realized  the  objects 
of  the  expedition,  and  he  determined  to  send  no  news  of  himself  to  his 
countrymen  until  he  had  found  or  conquered  some  rich  country.  Turn- 
ing his  back  resolutely  upon  the  ships,  the  governor  resumed  his  march 
to  the  northwest.  By  the  middle  of  December  he  reached  the  north- 
western part  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  and  finding  a  deserted  village  in 
the  country  of  the  Chickasaws,  occupied  it  as  the"  winter  quarters  of  the 
expedition.  December,  1540,  the  winter  was  severe,  and  the  ground  was 
covered  with  snow,  but  the  corn  was  still  standing  in  the  fields,  and  this 
furnished  the  Spaniards  with  food.  Their  force  was  now  reduced  to  five 
hundred  men,  and  it  was  evident  to  all,  except  the  governor,  that  they 
would  never  find  the  cities  or  the  wealth  they  had  set  out  to  seek. 

With  the  opening  of  the  spring  of  1541  a  new  disaster  befell  the 
Spaniards.  De  Soto,  as  had  been  his  custom  with  the  other  tribes, 
demanded  of  the  Chickasaw  chief  two  hundred  men  to  carry  the  baggage 
of  the  troops.  The  demand  was  refused,  and  that  night  the  Indians, 
deceiving  the  sentinels,  set  fire  to  the  village.  The  bewildered  Spaniards 
were  aroused  from  their  slumbers  to  meet  a  fierce  attack  of  the  savages. 
The  latter  were  repulsed  after  a  hard  fight,  but  the  whites  were  left  in  an 
almost  helpless  condition.  The  little  they  had  saved  from  the  flames  at 
Mavilla  was  destroyed  in  the  burning  village.  Armor  and  weapons  were 
rendered  worthless,  and  scarcely  any  clothing  was  saved.  The  troops 
were  forced  to  resort  to  dresses  of  skins  and  of  the  long  moss  of  the 
country  woven  into  mats.  In  this  condition,  they  suffered  greatly  from 
the  cold.  To  supply  the  weapons  destroyed  forges  were  erected,  and  tho 
swords  were  retempered,  and  new  lances  made. 

Renewing  their  march  the  Spaniards  pushed  on  still  farther  west,  and 
about  the  2d  of  May  reached  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  at  a  point  a 
short  distance  below  the  present  city  of  Memphis.  They  were  the  first 
white  men  to  gaze  upon  the  mighty  flood  of  this  noble  river,  but  De  Soto 
had  no  admiration  to  express  for  it.  It  was  only  an  obstacle  in  his  west- 
ward march,  and  would  require  greater  eiforts  for  its  passage  than  any 
stream  he  had  yet  encountered.  A  month  was  passed  on  the  banks  of 


7g  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  river  in  constructing  Urges  large  enongli  to  hold  three  horsemen 
each.  At  length  they  were  completed,  and  the  Spaniards  were  trans- 
ported in  safety  to  the  opposite  shore.  The  natives  received  them  kindly, 
and  presented  them  with  food,  and  regarding  them  as  the  children  of 
their  god,  the  sun,  brought  to  them  their  sick  to  be  healed,  and  their 
blind  to  be  restored  to  sight.  The  blunt  soldier,  cruel  as  he  had  been  to 
the  savages,  shrank  from  claiming  the  power  of  heaven.  "Pray  only  to 
God,  who  is  in  heaven,  for  whatsoever  ye  need,"  he  answered. 

De  Soto  remained  forty  days  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  during  this  time  an  exploring  party  was  sent  to  examine  the  country 
to  the  north.  They  reported  that  this  region  was  thinly  inhabited  by 
hunters,  who  lived  by  chasing  the  bison,  which  abounded  in  this  region. 
The  governor  then  turned  to  the  west  and  northwest,  and  advanced  200 
miles  farther  into  the  interior  of  the  continent,  probably  to  the  highlands  of 
the  White  river.  Then  turning  southward,  he  passed  through  a  succession 
of  Indian  tribes  who  lived  by  cultivating  the  soil,  and  who  enjoyed  n 
civilization  superior  to  that  of  their  nomadic  brethren.  The  winter  wns 
passed  near  the  Hot  Springs  of  Arkansas.  The  Indians  west  of  the 
Mississippi  were  treated  with  the  same  cruelties  that  had  marked  the 
conduct  of  the  Spaniards  towards  the  savages  east  of  that  stream.  "Any 
trifling  consideration  of  safety  would  induce  the  governor  to  set  fire  to  a 
hamlet.  He  did  not  delight  in  cruelty,  but  the  happiness,  the  life,  and 
the  rights  of  the  Indians  were  held  of  no  account." 

In  the  spring  of  1542,  De  Soto  determined  to  descend  the  Washita  to 
its  mouth,  and  endeavor  to  reach  the  sea.  At  last,  after  a  most  arduous 
march,  in  which  he  frequently  lost  his  way  amid  the  swamps  and  bayous 
of  the  region,  he  reached  the  Mississippi.  The  chieftain  of  this  region 
could  not  tell  him  the  distance  to  th"  sea,  but  informed  him  that  the 
country  along  the  lower  river  was  a  vast  and  uninhabited  swamp.  An 
exploring  party  was  sent  to  descend  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  returned, 
after  penetrating  about  thirty  miles  in  eight  days,  to  confirm  the  Indian's 
report.  Reaching  the  vicinity  of  Natchez,  the  governor  found  the 
Indians  prepared  to  contest  his  occupation  of  that  town.  He  attempted 
to  overawe  them  by  claiming  to  be  the  child  of  the  sun,  their  chief  deity. 
The  chieftain  answered  him  scornfully:  "You  say  you  are  the  child  of 
the  sun.  Dry  up  the  river,  and  I  will  believe  you.  Do  you  desire  tc 
see  me?  Visit  the  town  where  I  dwell.  If  you  come  in  peace,  I  will 
receive  you  with  special  good  will ;  if  in  war,  I  will  not  shrink  one  foot 
oack/'  The  savages  were  becoming  more  dangerous  every  day,  and  the 
Spaniards  less  able  to  resist  their  assaults. 

De  Soto  was  no-y  conquered.     It  was  at  last  as  plain  to  him  as  it  had 


THE  SPANIARDS  IN  AMERICA. 


79 


been  all  along  to  his  followers  that  the  expedition  was  a  failure.  He 
had  spent  three  years  in  roaming  over  the  continent,  and  he  had  found 
neither  the  cities  nor  the  wealth  he  had  hoped  for.  His  magnificent 
anticipations  had  disappeared ;  his  little  army  was  reduced  to  a  mere 
handful  of  the  splendid  force  that  had  left  Cuba ;  and  he  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  region  from  which  he  could  see  no  escape.  A  deep  melancholy 
took  the  place  of  the  stern  pride  that  had  hitherto  marked  his  demeanor, 
and  his  heart  was  torn  by  a  conflict  of  emotions.  His  health  gave  way 
rapidly,  and  he  was  seized  with  a  violent  fever.  When  informed  by  his 
medical  attendant  that  his  end  was  at  hand,  he  expressed  his  resignation 
to  the  will  of  God,  and  at  the  request  of  his  men  appointed  Louis  de 
Mocoso  his  successor,  and  advised  him  to  continue  the  expedition.  He 


NATCHEZ  IN   1875. 

died  on  the  ach  of  June,  1542.  In  order  to  conceal  his  death  from  the 
savages,  who  had  come  to  regard  him  as  immortal,  his  body  was  wrapped 
in  a  mantle,  and  in  the  silence  of  midnight  was  rowed  out  into  the 
middle  of  the  Mississippi.  There,  amid  the  darkness  and  the  wailing 
requiems  of  the  priests,  the  mortal  remains  of  Ferdinand  dc  Soto  were 
committed  to  the  great  river  he  had  discovered. 

The  Spaniards  at  once  prepared  to  disregard  the  advice  of  their  dead 
leader,  and  resolved  to  set  out  across  the  country  for  Mexico,  believing  it 
less  dangerous  to  go  by  land  than  by  sea.  They  roused  the  whole 
country  against  them  by  their  barbarous  treatment  of  the  people,  and, 
having  proceeded  upwards  of  300  miles  west  of  the  Mississippi,  were 
driven  back  to  that  stream  by  the  savages.  It  now  became  necessary  tc 
build  vessels  and  descend  the  river.  Seven  of  these  were  constructed 


THE  8PAXLiRJ)S  L\  AMKnK'A.  81 

with  great  difficulty,  and  amidst  the  constant  hostility  of  the  Indians. 
They  were  frail  barks,  without  decks,  and  in  order  to  construct  them  the 
Spaniards  were  obliged  to  beat  their  weapons,  and  even  their  stirrups, 
spurs  and  bridles  into  saws,  axes  and  nails.  During  this  period  they 
suffered  greatly  from  the  lack  of  clothing,  for  it  was  the  winter  season. 
They  obtained  provisions  by  plundering  the  granaries  of  the  neighboring 
tribes,  and  thus  dooming  many  of  the  savages  to  death  by  starvation. 
On  the  1st  of  July,  1543,  they  embarked  in  their  vessels,  their  number 
being  now  reduced  to  about  250,  and  began  the  descent  of  the  river. 
Their  progress  was  harassed  at  every  mile  by  the  Indians,  who  covered 
the  stream  with  their  canoes  and  kept  up  an  almost  constant  assault  upon 
the  fleet.  On  the  18th  of  July,  the  vessels  entered  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  by  the  10th  of  September  the  Mexican  coast  was  reached.  The 
vessels  succeeded  in  gaining  the  Spanish  settlement  of  Panuco,  where  the 
survivors  were  hospitably  received  by  their  countrymen. 

The  failure  of  Narvaez  and  De  Soto  prevented  the  Spaniards  from 
making  any  further  attempt  for  many  years  to  colonize  the  Florida  coast. 
The  next  effort  to  found  a  settlement  in  that  region  was  by  the  French. 
The  religious  wars  which  had  distracted  France  for  so  many  years  made 
the  great  Huguenot  leader,  Coligny,  Admiral  of  France,  anxious  to 
provide  in  the  new  world  a  refuge  to  which  his  persecuted  brethren  of 
the  faith  might  fly  in  times  of  danger,  and  be  free  to  worship  God  after 
the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience.  He  succeeded  in  obtaining  authority 
for  this  undertaking  from  Charles  IX.,  and  in  1562  an  expedition  was 
despatched  to  America  under  the  command  of  Jean  Ribault,  a  Protestant. 
Ribault  was  instructed  to  avoid  the  more  rigorous  climate  of  Canada, 
and  to  select  a  southern  location  for  the  colony.  Land  was  made  in 
May,  1562,  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  and  the  fleet  pro- 
ceeded along  the  coast  and  anchored  in  what  is  now  Port  Royal  harbor, 
in  the  State  of  South  Carolina.  Ribault  was  de!;ghted  with  the  noble 
harbor,  which  he  believed  to  be  the  outlet  of  a  large  river,  and  with  the 
beauty  and  richness  of  the  country.  A  fort  was  built  on  an  island,  in 
the  harbor,  and  called  Carolina,  which  name  was  also  applied  to  the 
country,  in  honor  of  Charles  IX.  of  France.  A  force  of  twenty-five 
men  was  left  to  garrison  the  fort,  and  Ribault  returned  to  France  to 
report  his  success  and  bring  out  reinforcements  for  the  colony.  He 
reached  France  in  the  midst  of  the  civil  war,  which  prevented  any  atten- 
tion being  paid  to  the  colony.  The  garrison  of  Fort  Carolina  waited  in 
vain  for  the  promised  reinforcements  and  supplies,  and  at  last,  becoming 
disheartened,  built  a  brigantine  and  set  sail  for  their  own  country.  Their 
provisions  soon  gave  out,  and  they  began  to  suffer  the  hor rocs  of  famine.. 
6 


82  HISTORY  01-   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

When  they  were  nearly  exhausted,  they  were  rescued  by  an  English 
vessel,  which  set  the  most  feeble  upon  the  coast  of  France,  but  carried 
the  remainder  to  England.  In  both  countries  the  colonists  spread  their 
accounts  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  Carolina. 

In  1564,  there  was  a  lull  in  the  struggle  between  the  contending 
parties  in  France,  and  Coligny  took  advantage  of  it  to  renew  his  efforts 
to  colonize  America.  Three  ships  were  furnished  by  the  king,  and  were 
placed  in  command  of  Laudonniere,  who  had  accompanied  Eibault  in  the 
first  expedition.  Emigrants  volunteered  readily,  and  the  required 
number  was  soon  completed.  In  order  to  obtain  reliable  information 
concerning  the  country,  Coligny  sent  out  with  the  expedition  a  skilful 
painter,  James  le  Moyne,  called  Des  Morgues,  with  orders  to  make 
accurate  colored  sketches  of  the  region.  The  fleet  sailed  on  the  22d  of 
April,  1564,  and  on  the  22d  of  June  reached  the  coast  of  Florida. 
Avoiding  Port  Royal,  the  site  of  the  first  colony,  the  colonists  chose  a 
location  in  Florida,  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  John's,  then  called  the 
River  May.  A  fort  was  built,  and  called,  like  the  first,  Carolina. 

The  colony  was  begun  with  prayers  and  songs  of  thanksgiving,  but 
the  bulk  of  the  colonists  were  by  no  means  religious  men.  Their  true 
character  soon  began  to  appear.  They  wasted  the  supplies  they  had 
brought  with  them,  as  well  as  those  they  succeeded  in  extorting  from 
the  Indians,  whom  they  alienated  by  their  cruelties.  Mutinies  were 
frequent.  The  majority  of  the  men  had  joined  the  enterprise  in  the  hope 
of  acquiring  sudden  wealth,  and,  finding  their  hopes  vain,  resolved  to 
abandon  the  colony.  They  compelled  Laudonniere  to  sign  an  order 
flowing  them  to  embark  for  New  Spain,  under  the  pretext  of  wishing 
to  avoid  a  famine,  and  at  once  equipped  two  vessels  and  began  a  career 
of  piracy  against  the  Spaniards.  Their  vessels  were  soon  captured,  and 
the  pirates  were  sold  as  slaves.  A  few  escaped  in  a  boat  and  took  refuge 
at  Fort  Carolina.  Laudonniere  caused  them  to  be  hanged ;  but  their 
outrages  had  already  drawn  upon  the  colony  the  bitter  hostility  of  the 
Spaniards. 

Famine  now  began  to  be  felt  by  the  little  settlement,  and  as  month 
after  month  passed  by  the  sufferings  of  the  colonists  increased.  The 
natives,  who  were  at  first  friendly,  had  been  rendered  hostile  by  the 
rruel  treatment  they  had  received  from  the  French,  and  no  provisionc- 
could  be  obtained  from  them.  On  the  3d  of  August,  1565,  Sir  John 
Hawkins,  an  English  commander,  arrived  with  several  ships  from  the 
West  Indies,  where  he  had  just  sold  a  cargo  of  negro  slaves  whom  he 
bad  kidnapped  in  their  native  Africa.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first 
Englishman  who  engaged  in  this  infamous  traffic.  Ho  proved  himself  a 


THE  SPANIARDS  IN  AMERICA.  8O 

generous  friend  to  the  suffering  colonists,  however,  and  supplied  them 
with  provisions  and  gave  them  one  of  his  own  ships.  They  had  suffered 
too  much  to  be  content  with  this,  and  were  resolved  to  abandon  the 
settlement.  They  were  on  the  point  of  embarking  in  the  ship  furnished 
them  by  Sir  John,  when  a  fleet  of  several  vessels  was  discovered  standing 
into  the  river.  It  was  the  squadron  of  Ribault,  with  reinforcements  and 
all  the  supplies  necessary  for  founding  a  permanent  settlement.  The 
despair  of  the  colonists  was  changed  to  rejoicing,  and  all  were  now  willing 
to  remain  in  the  colony. 

When  the  news  of  the  planting  of  the  French  colony  in  Florida 
reached  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  he  was  greatly  incensed.  Florida  was  a 
part  of  his  dominions,  and  he  rot  only  resented  the  intrusion  of  the 
French,  but  could  not  tolerate  the  idea  of  allowing  a  Protestant  colony 
to  enjoy  its  settlement  in  peace.  He  determined  at  once  to  exterminate 
the  heretics,  and  for  this  purpose  employed  Pedro  Melendez  de  Avil&s, 
an  officer  who  had  rendered  himself  notorious  for  his  cruelty  when  en- 
gaged against  the  pirates  and  in  the  wars  of  Spanish  America.  His  son 
and  heir  having  been  shipwrecked  among  the  Bermudas,  Melendez 
desired  to  return  to  America  to  search  for  him.  Philip,  who  knew  his 
desperate  character,  suggested  to  him  the  conquest  of  Florida,  and  an 
agreement  was  entered  into  between  the  king  and  Melendez,  by  which 
the  latter  was  to  invade  and  conquer  Florida  within  three  years,  and 
establish  in  that  region  a  colony  of  not  less  than  500  persons,  of  whom 
100  should  be  married  men,  twelve  priests  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  four 
members  of  the  order  of  the  Jesuits.  Melendez  also  agreed  to  transport 
to  Florida  all  kinds  of  domestic  animals,  and  500  negro  slaves.  All  this 
was  to  be  done  by  Melendez  at  his  own  cost,  and  he  was  secured  by  the 
king  in  the  government  of  the  province  for  life  with  the  privilege  of 
naming  his  successor,  and  was  granted  large  estates  in  the  province  and  a 
comfortable  salary.  Though  the  destruction  of  the  French  colony  was 
not  named  in  the  agreement,  Philip  and  Melendez  understood  each  other 
on  that  point.  The  cry  was  at  once  raised  in  Spain  that  the  heretics 
must  be  exterminated,  and  Melendez  had  no  trouble  in  obtaining  recruits. 
Twenty-five  hundred  persons  gathered  under  his  orders,  "soldiers, 
sailors,  priests,  Jesuits,  married  men  with  their  families,  laborers  and 
mechanics,  and,  with  the  exception  of  300  soldiers,  all  at  the  cost  of 
Melendez." 

The  expedition  sailed  in  June,  1565,  but  the  vessels  were  parted  by  a 
storm,  and  Melendez  reached  Porto  Rico  in  August  with  but  a  third  of 
his  force.  Unwilling  to  lose  time,  however,  he  sailed  at  once  to  the 
mainland,  and  arrived  off  the  coast  of  Florida  on  the  28th  of  August 


g4  HISTORY  OF  ME   UNITED  STATES. 

On  the  2d  of  September  he  discovered  a  fine  harbor  and  river,  and 
M.-lected  this  place  as  the  site  of  his  colony.  He  named  the  river  and 
buy  in  honor  of  St.  Augustine,  on  whose  festival  he  had  arrived  off  the 
Florida  eoi^t.  A.-fertaiiiing  from  the  Indians  the  position  of  the 
French,  he  sailed  to  the  northward,  and  on  the  4th  of  September  arrival 
oil'  Fort  Carolina,  where  a  portion  of  Ribault's  fleet  lay  anchored  in  the 
it>;ul>t«:ad.  The  French  commander  demanded  his  name  and  the  object 
of  his  visit.  He  was  answered:  "I  am  Meletulcx  of  Spain,  sent  with 
strict  orders  from  my  king  to  gibbet  and  behead  all  the  Protestants  in 
these  regions.  The  Frenchman  who  is  a  Catholic  I  will  spare;  every 
heretic  shall  die."  The  French  fleet  being  unprepared  for  battle,  cut  its 
cables  and  stood  out  to  sea.  Melendez  gave  chase,  but  failed  to  overtake 
it.  Returning  to  the  harbor  of  St.  Augustine,  he  went  on  shore  on  the 
8th  of  September,  and  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the  name  of 
Philip  II.  of  Spain,  who  was  proclaimed  monarch  of  all  North  America, 
A  solemn  mass  was  said,  and  the  foundations  of  the  town  of  St. 
Augustine  were  laid.  Thus  was  established  the  first  permanent  town 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  This  task  accomplished,  Melendez 
prepared  to  attack  Fort  Carolina  by  land. 

Ribault  had  returned  with  his  ships  to  Fort  Carolina  after  escaping 
from  the  Spaniards.  A  council  of  war  was  held,  and  it  was  debated 
among  the  French  whether  they  should  strengthen  their  works  and  await 
the  approach  of  the  enemy,  or  proceed  to  St.  Augustine  and  attack  them 
with  the  fleet.  Ribault  supposed  that  Melendez  would  attack  the  fort  by 
sea,  and  favored  the  latter  plan,  but  his  officers  opposed  his  design.  Dis- 
regarding their  advice  Ribault  put  to  sea,  but  had  scarcely  cleared  the 
harbor  when  a  violent  storm  wrecked  his  entire  fleet  on  the  Florida  coast. 
Nearly  all  the  men  reached  the  shore  unharmed,  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  south  of  Fort  Carolina. 

The  wreck  of  the  French  fleet  was  known  to  Melendez,  and  he  resolved 
to  strike  a  blow  at  once  at  the  fort,  which  he  knew  to  be  in  a  defenceless 
state.  Leading  his  men  through  the  forests  and  swamps  which  lay 
l>etween  the  two  settlements,  he  surprised  and  captured  the  fort  on  the 
21st  of  September.  Every  soul  within  the  walls,  including  the  aged,  the 
women  and  children,  was  put  to  death.  A  few  escaped  to  the  woods 
before  the  capture  of  the  fort,  among  whom  were  Laudonniere,  Challus, 
and  Le  Moyne.  Their  condition  was  pitiable.  They  could  expect  no 
mercy  from  the  Spaniards,  and  death  awaited  them  in  the  forest.  A  few 
g-.ive  themselves  up  to  the  Spaniards,  and  were  at  once  murdered ;  the 
remainder  succeeded  in  gaining  the  sea-shore,  where  they  were  rescued  by 
two  French  vessels  which  had  remained  in  the  harbor,  and  escaped  the 
These  immediately  stilled  for  France. 


ZXE  SPANIARDS  IN  AMERICA.  85 

The  number  of  persons  massacred  by  the  Spaniards  at  Fort  Carolina 
H^iounted  to  nearly  two  hundred.  When  the  victims  were  all  dead,  SIPSS 
was  said,  a  cross  raised,  and  a  site  selected  for  a  church.  Then  Meleadez 
set  out  to  find  the  survivors  of  the  shipwrecked  fleet.  They  were  dis- 
covered in  a  helpless  condition,  worn  out  with  fatigue,  hunger,  and  thirst. 
Melendez  promised  to  treat  them  with  kindness  if  they  would  surrender 
to  him,  and  trusting  to  his  plighted  word,  they  placed  themselves  in  his 
hands.  They  were  at  once  seized  and  bound,  and  marched  towards  St 
Augustine.  As  they  approached  the  settlement  a  signal  was  given,  and 
the  Spaniards  fell  upon  them  and  massacred  all  but  a  few  Catholics  and 
some  mechanics,  who  were  reserved  as  slaves.  French  writers  place  the 
number  of  those  who  perished  in  the  two  massacres  at  nine  hundred. 
The  Spaniards  give  a  smaller  number.  On  the  scene  of  his  barbarity 
Melendez  set  up  this  inscription  :  "  I  do  not  this  as  unto  Frenchmen,  but 
as  unto  Lutherans." 

In  1566  Melendez  attempted  to  plant  a  colony  on  the  shores  of  the 
Chesapeake  bay,  but  the  vessel  despatched  for  this  purpose  met  such  con- 
trary winds  that  the  crew  abandoned  the  effort  to  reach  the  bay,  and 
sailed  for  Spain.  Melendez  the  next  year  returned  to  Spain,  having 
spent  his  fortune  in  establishing  the  colony  of  St.  Augustine,  from  which 
he  had  derived  no  benefit. 

The  massacre  of  the  French  and  the  destruction  of  the  colony  at  Fort 
Carolina  excited  not  even  a  remonstrance  from  the  French  court,  which 
Was  blinded  to  its  true  interests  by  its  religious  bigotry.  The  Huguenots 
and  the  better  part  of  the  nation  felt  keenly  the  wrong  the  country  ha^ 
suffered,  and  Dominic  de  Gourges,  a  gallant  gentleman  of  Gaseony, 
determined  to  avenge  it.  Selling  his  ancestral  estate,  he  equipped  three 
vessels,  and  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  sailed  for  Florida,  in 
August,  1567.  He  surprised  and  captured  a  Spanish  fort  near  the  site 
of  Fort  Carolina,  and  took  the  garrison  prisoners.  He  spent  the  winter 
here,  and  finding  himself  too  weak  to  maintain  his  position  sailed  for 
J  ranee  in  May,  1568.  Before  doing  so,  however,  he  hanged  his  pris- 
oners, and  set  up  over  them  the  inscription :  "  I  do  not  this  us  untc 
Spaniards  or  mariners,  but  as  unto  traitors,  robbers,  and  nmrderers."( 
His  expedition  .was  disavowed  by  the  French  government,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  conceal  himself  to  escape  arrest  after  his  return  to  France. 

France  now  abandoned  her  efforts  to  colonize  the  southern  part  of 
North  America,  and  relinquished  her  pretensions  to  Florida.  Spain,  on 
the  other  hand,  gave  more  attention  to  this  region,  and  emigrants  from  her 
dominions  were  encouraged  to  settle,  and  new  colonies  were  formed  within 
its  limits.  In  the  West  Indies,  and  in  Mexico,  Central  and  South  America, 
Spain  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  was  supreme. 


CHAPTER   V. 

• 

THE   FIRST  ENGLISH   COLONY.- 

The  English  Claim  to  America — Voyages  of  Frobisher — Exploits  of  Sir  Francis  Drake-- 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert — Intends  to  found  a  Colony  in  America — Is  lost  at  Sea — Sir 
Walter  lialeigh  obtains  a  Patent  of  Colonization — Discoveries  of  Amidas  and  Barlow — 
Raleigh  sends  out  a  Colony  to  Virginia — Settlement  c,n  Roanoke  Island — Its  Failure — 
Arrival  of  Grenville — Second  Effort  of  Raleigh  to  Colonize  Virginia — Roanoke  Island 
again  Settled— The  "  City  of  Raleigh  " — Virginia  Dare — Fate  of  the  Colony — Death 
of  Raleigh — Other  Voyages  of  the  English. 

HOUGH  England  had  made  no  effort  to  colonize  America  during 
the  long  period  we  have  been  considering,  she  never  abandoned 
her  claims  to  that  region,  claims  which  were  based  upon  the  dis- 
coveries  and  explorations  of  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot.  The 
voyages  of  her  fishermen  to  Newfoundland  kept  the  country 
fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  seafaring  Englishmen,  and  from  time  to  time 
voyages  were  made  to  the  American  coast  for  the  purpose  of  trading  with 
the  savages.  Under  Elizabeth,  who  pursued  the  wise  policy  of  fostering 
her  navy,  a  race  of  hardy  and  daring  sailors  grew  up  in  England,  and 
carried  the  flag  of  their  country  into  every  sea.  In  this  reign  Martin 
Frobisher  with  two  small  ships  made  a  voyage  to  the  frozen  regions  of 
Labrador  in  search  of  the  northwest  passage.  He  failed  to  find  it,  bm 
penetrated  farther  north  than  any  European  had  yet  gone,  A.  D.  1576. 
His  second  voyage  was  made  the  next  year,  and  was  undertaken  in  the 
hope  of  finding  gold,  a*;  one  of  the  stones  he  had  brought  home  on  his 
first  cruise  had  been  pronounced  by  the  refiners  of  London  to  contain  the 
precious  metal.  The  fleet  did  not  advance  as  far  north  as  Frobisher  had 
done  on  his  first  attempt,  as  a  large  mass  of  yellow  earth  was  found 
which  was  believed  to  contain  gold.  The  ships  were  loaded  with  this, 
and  all  sail  was  made  for  home,  only  to  find  on  reaching  England  that 
their  cargo  was  but  a  heap  of  worthless  dirt.  A  third  voyage  with 
fifteen  ships  was  attempted  in  1578,  but  no  gold  was  found,  and  the 
extreme  northern  latitudes  were  ascertained  to  be  too  bleak  for  colo- 
uization. 

Uetween   the  years  1577  to  1580   Sir   Francis    Drake   sailed    to  the 
Pacific,  and  by  levying  exactions  upon  the  Spanish  settlements  on  the 
86 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  COLONY.  87 

western  coast  of  America  acquired  an  immense  treasure.  As  Bancroft 
well  observes,  this  part  of  Drake's  career  "  was  but  a  splendid  piracy 
against  a  nation  with  which  his  sovereign  and  his  country  professed  fa 
be  at  peace."  Having  acquired  this  enormous  wealth  Drake  applied 
himself  to  the  more  useful  task  of  discovery.  Crossing  the  equator  he 
sailed  northward,  as  far  as  the  southern  part  of  Oregon,  in  the  hope  of 
findino-  a  northern  passage  between  the  oceans.  The  cold  seemed  very 
great  to  voyagers  just  from  the  tropics,  and  he  abandoned  his  attempt 
and  returned  southward  to  a  harbor  on  the  coast,  of  Mexico.  Here  he 
refitted  his  ship,  and  then  returned  to  England  through  the  seas  of  Asia, 
having  circumnavigated  the  globe,  a  feat  which  had  been  accomplished 
only  by  the  ship  of  Magellan. 

It  was  not  the   splendid  but   demoralizing  achievements  of  Drake, 
which  led  the  way  to  the  establishment  of  the  English  power  in  America. 
That  was  the  work  of  the  humble  fishermen  who  sailed  on  their  yearh 
voyages  to  the  banks  of   Newfoundland.     The 
progress  of  this  valuable   industry  was   closely 
watched  by  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  who  believed 
that  a  lucrative  trade  might  be  opened  with  the 
new  world  by  the  planting  of  a  colony  within  its 
limits.    He  obtained  authority  from  Queen  Eliza- 
beth to  establish  such  a  colony  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  fisheries.     In  1578  he  sailed  to  America  on 
a  voyage  of  discovery,  and    in  August  of  that 
year   landed   at   St.  Johns,  Newfoundland,  and 
took  formal  possession  of  the  country  for  Eng- 
land.    He  then  sailed  to  the  southward,  explor-     SiB  WALTER  RALEIGH. 
ing  the  coast,  but  lost  his  largest  ship  with  all  on 

board.  This  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  return  home,  as  the  two 
vessels  which  remained  to  him  were  too  small  to  attempt  a  protracted 
voyage.  One  of  them,  called  the  "Squirrel,"  was  a  mere  boat  of  ten 
tons.  Unwilling  to  expose  his  men  to  a  danger  which  he  would  not 
face,  Sir  Humphrey  took  passage  in  the  "Squirrel"  instead  of  in  the  larger 
and  safer  vessel.  On  the  homeward  voyage  the  ships  encountered  a  ter- 
rific storm.  In  the  midst  of  the  gale  the  people  on  the  "  Hind,"  the 
larger  ship,  saw  Sir  Humphrey  sitting  at  the  stern  of  his  little  vessel, 
which  was  laboring  painfully  in  the  heavy  seas.  He  was  calmly  reading 
a  book,  perhaps  that  sublimest  of  books,  from  which  he  had  drawn  th& 
pure  principles  which  guided  his  whole  life.  As  the  "Hind"  passed 
him  he  called  out  to  those  on  board  of  her,  "  We  are  as  near  to  heaven 
by  sea  as  by  land."  That  night  the  lights  of  the  "Squirrel"  suddenly 


gg  HISTORY  OF  TUE   CXITED  STATES. 

disappeared,  and  the  good  Sir  Humphrey  was  seen  no  more.  The 
"Hind"  continued  her  voyage,  and  reached  Falmouth  in  safety. 

Sir  Walter  Uali-igh,  Gilbert's  half  brother,  had  been  interested  in  this 
, -\pi  -ditiou,  but  its  ill  success  did  not  dishearten  him.  He  was  one  of  the 
noblot  spirits  of  his  age,  and  lias  laid  the  world  under  heavy  obligations 
to  him  by  his  many  noble  services  in  the  cause  of  humanity.  He  liad 
served  in  the  army  of  the  Huguenots  of  France  under  Coligni,  and  had 
heard  from  the  voyagers  sent  out  by  that  leader  of  the  richness  and  beauty 
of  Carolina.  Undaunted  by  the  sad  fate  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert, 
Kalcigh  determined  to  plant  a  colony  in  the  region  from  which  the  Hu- 
guenots had  been  driven.  He  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  from  the 
queen  a  patent  as  liberal  as  that  which  had  been  granted  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert.  He  was  given  ample  powers  over  the  region  he  proposed  to  col- 
onize, as  its  feudal  lord,  and  was  bound  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the 
queen  and  church  of  England  in  his  possessions.  He  fitted  out  two  vessels 
commanded  respectively  oy  Philip  Amidas  and  Arthur  Barlow,  and  sent 
them  to  explore  the  region  granted  to  him,  and  to  obtain  accurate  infor- 
mation concerning  it.  They  reached  the  coast  of  North  Carolina  at 
Ocracock  inlet,  and  took  formal  possession  of  the  country.  They  par- 
tially explored  Albemarle  and  Pamlico  sounds,  together  with  the  neigh- 
boring coast  and  islands.  It  was  the  month  of  July,  and  the  climate  was 
delightful,  the  sea  was  calm,  the  atmosphere  clear,  and  the  heat  was  tem- 
pered by  the  delicious  sea-breeze.  The  woods  abounded  with  birds  and 
echoed  with  their  carols,  and  wild  grapes  were  found  in  the  greatest  pro- 
fusion. The  explorers  were  enchanted  with  this  delightful  region,  and 
returning  to  England,  published  glowing  accounts  of  it.  They  took  with 
them  two  Indians,  named  Wanchese  and  Manteo,  the  latter  of  whom 
afterwards  did  good  service  to  the  colonists  as  an  interpreter.  Queen 
Elizabeth  deemed  her  reign  honored  by  the  discoveries  of  Amidas  and 
Barlow,  and  gave  to  the  new  region  the  name  of  Virginia  in  honor  of 
England's  virgin  queen. 

Raleigh  at  once  set  to  work  to  organize  a  colony.  Emigrants  volun- 
teered readily,  and  in  a  short  time  a  fleet  of  seven  vessels,  containing  one 
hundred  and  eight  persons,  apart  from  the  crews,  was  in  readiness.  Sir 
Richard  Grenville,  a  friend  of  Raleigh,  and  a  man  of  tried  skill  and 
bravery,  was  given  the  command  of  the  fleet,  and  Ralph  Lane,  who  was 
also  a  man  of  considerable  distinction,  was  made  governor  of  the  colony. 
The  fleet  sailed  from  Plymouth  on  the  9th  of  April,  1585,  and  after  a 
long  and  try  ing  voyage  reached  Ocracock  inlet  in  June.  Passing  through 
the  inlet,  a  settlement  was  established  on  Roanoke  island,  lying  between 
Albemarle  and  Pamlico  sounds.  Expeditions  ware  sent  out  to  explore  the 


THE  FIHST  ENGLISH  COLONY. 


89 


surrounding  country,  and  in  one  of  these  a  silver  cup  was  stolen  by  an 
Indian,  and  its  restoration  was  delayed.  With  thoughtless  cruelty  Grwi- 
ville  punished  this  fault  by  the  destruction  .of  the  village  to  which  the 
culprit  belonged,  and  also  of  all  the  standing  corn.  This  inconsiderate 
revenge  made  the  Indians  the  enemies  of  the  whites,  and  brought  great 
future  suffering  upon  the  colony.  A  little  later,  having  seen  the  colonists 
successfully  established  on  Roanoke  island,  Grenville  returned  to  Eng- 
land with  the  fleet,  capturing  a  rich  Spanish  prize  on  the  voyage  home. 
Left  to  themselves  the  colonists  began  k>  explore  the  country,  and  to 


THE  COAST  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 


observe  the  productions  of  the  soil,  and  the  character  of  the  inhabitants. 
Many  of  the  plants  were  strange  to  them.  Among  these  were  the  Indian 
corn,  tobacco,  and  the  sweet  potato.  Hariot,  "the  inventor  of  the  system 
-jf  notation  in  modern  algebra,  the  historian  of  the  expedition,"  ob- 
served these  plants  and  their  culture  with  great  minuteness,  and  became  a 
firm  believer  in  the  healing  virtues  of  tobacco.  He  has  left  an  interest- 
ing account  of  the  natives  of  che  country  and  their  manr.ei-s  and  customs. 
The  Indians,  alarmed  r,y  the  superiority  of  the  whites,  began  to  plot 
\heir  destruction,  as  thu  -rjuewa  their  entire  cour.try  would  be  overrun 


90  HISTORY  OF  TjfE  UNITED  STATES. 

by  the  new-corners.  Lane  on  his  part  became  suspicious  of  the  savages, 
and  this  feeling  of  mutual  distrust  had  the  most  unhappy  consequences. 
Being  informed  by  the  savages  that  there  was  a  splendid  city,  whose  walls 
glittrrnl  with  gold  and  pearls,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Roanoke, 
liovrrnor  Lane  made  a  boat  voyage  up  that  stream,  but  failed  to  find 
anything.  He  returned  to  the  colony  just  in  time  to  disconcert  the  plan 
of  the  savages  for  attacking  the  whites  during  the  absence  of  the  explor- 
ing party.  Lane  now  determined  to  outrival  the  savages  in  perfidy.  Pie 
visited  Wingina,  one  of  the  most  active  of  the  neighboring  chiefs,  and, 
professing  to  come  as  a  friend,  was  received  with  confidence  by  the  Indians. 
At  a  given  signal  from  the  governor  the  whites  fell  upon  the  chief  and 
his  warriors,  and  put  them  to  death.  Lane  proved  himself  utterly  unfit 
to  govern  such  a  colony,  and  his  people  soon  lost  confidence  in  him. 
Their  discontent  was  increased  by  the  failure  of  their  provisions,  and  they 
r»egan  to  entertain  the  idea  of  abandoning  the  colony  and  returning  home. 

On  the  8th  of  June,  1586,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  with  a  fleet  of  twenty- 
*»»ree  ships,  anchored  in  the  roadstead  off  Roanoke  island.  He  had  been 
cruising  in  the  West  Indies,  and  had  called  on  his  homeward  voyage  to 
visit  the  plantation  of  his  friend  Raleigh.  He  at  once  set  to  work  to 
remedy  the  wants  of  the  colony,  and  supplied  the  settlers  with  such  things 
as  they  needed.  They  were  thoroughly  disheartened,  however,  with  their 
year's  experience,  and  begged  Drake  so  earnestly  to  take  them  back  to 
England  that  he  received  them  on  board  his  ships  and  put  to  sea.  Thus 
the  first  effort  of  the  English  to  settle  America  resulted  in  failure. 
Drake's  fleet  had  scarcely  disappeared  when  a  ship  loaded  with  supplies, 
which  had  'been  despatched  by  Raleigh,  reached  the  island.  Finding  the 
place  deserted,  the  commander  returned  to  England.  A  fortnight  later, 
Grenville  arrived  with  three  ships.  Finding  the  colonists  had  gone,  he 
too  returned  to  England,  leaving  fifteen  men  to  hold  the  island. 

Raleigh  was  greatly  disappointed  by  the  failure  of  his  colony,  but  he 
did  not  despair  of  success;  for,  notwithstanding  the  gloomy  stories  of 
Lane  and  his  followers,  the  conclusive  testimony  of  Hariot  convinced  him 
that  the  countiy  could  be  made  to  yield  a  rich  return  for  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  its  settlement ;  and  he  set  to  work  to  form  another  colony. 
With  the  hope  of  giving  the  settlers  a  permanent  interest  in  the  planta- 
tion, he  selected  emigrants  with  wives  and  families,  who  should  regard 
the  new  world  as  their  future  home,  and  endeavor  to  found  a  permanent 
state  in  that  region.  Everything  was  provided  which  could  contribute  to 
the  success  of  the  colony,  and  agricultural  implements  were  furnished  for 
%he  proper  cultivation  of  the  soil.  All  the  expense  of  the  undertaking 
was  borne  by  Raleigh,  fox  though  Queen  Elizabetii  greatly  favored  the 


FIEST  ENGLISH  COLONY.  91 

venture,  she  declined  to  contribute  anything  toward  it.  John  White  was 
appointed  governor  of  the  colony.  A  fleet  of  transport  vessels  was 
equipped,  also  at  Raleigh's  expense,  and  on  the  26th  of  April,  1587,  the 
^expedition  sailed  from  England.  The  coast  of  North  Carolina  was 
reached  in  July. 

The  approach  to  Roanoke  island  was  both  difficult  and  dangerous,  and 
Raleigh  ordered  the  new  settlers  to  select  a  site  for  their  colony  on  the 
shores  of  the  Chesapeake  bay.  The  expedition  proceeded  first,  however, 
to  Roanoke  island  to  search  for  the  men  left  there  by  Grenville.  They 
could  not  be  found.  The  island  was  deserted,  the  fort  was  in  ruins,  and 
the  human  bones  which  lay  scattered  over  the  field  told  plainly  that  the 
unfortunate  garrison  left  by  Grenville  had  been  murdered  by  the  Indians. 
Governor  White  was  now  anxious  to  sail  to  the  Chesapeake,  but  Fernando, 
the  commander  of  the  fleet,  refused  to  proceed  any  farther,  as  he  wished 
to  go  to  the  West  Indies  for  purposes  of  trade.  The  instructions  of 
Raleigh  were  thus  disregarded,  and  the  colonists  were  compelled,  to  go 
ashore  on  Roanoke  island.  The  old  settlement  of  Governor  Lane  was 
rebuilt,  and  another  effort  was  made  to  establish  the  "  city  of  Raleigh." 
The  Indians  were  bitterly  hostile  to  the  settlers,  and  a  friendly  tribe  was 
offended  by  an  unfortunate  attack  upon  them,  made  upon  the  supposition 
that  they  were  hostile  Indians.  The  settlers  becoming  alarmed,  implored 
the  governor  to  return  to  England  and  exert  himself  to  hasten  the  send- 
ing out  of  reinforcements  and  supplies  to  them.  He  was  unwilling  to  do 
this,  as  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  remain  among  them,  but  at  length  yielded 
to  their  unanimous  appeal.  Just  before  his  departure  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
.  Dare,  the  wife  of  one  of  his  lieutenants,  gave  birth  to  a  daughter,  the  first 
child  born  of  English  parents  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  little  one  was  named  Virginia  from  the  j^ace  of  its  birth. 

White  sailed  for  England  in  August,  1587.  He  found  the  mothei- 
country  greatly  excited  over  the  threatened  invasion  of  the  Spaniards. 
Raleigh,  who  was  energetically  engaged  in  the  efforts  for  the  defence  of 
the  country,  did  not  neglect  his  colony.  He  fitted  out  two  ships  with  the 
needed  supplies,  and  despatched  them  under  White's  orders  in  April,  1588. 
The  commanders,  instead  of  proceeding  direct  to  the  colony,  undertook  to 
make  prizes.  At  last  one  of  them  fell  in  with  a  man-of-war  from 
Rochelle,  and  after  a  sharp  fight  was  plundered  of  her  stores.  Both  ships 
were  obliged  to  return  to  England,  to  the  anger  and  disgust  of  Raleigh. 
The  approach  of  the  Invincible  Armada  and  the  exertions  demanded  of 
the  nation  for  its  defeat,  made  it  impossible  for  anything  more  to  be  done 
for  the  colonists  at  Roanoke  until  after  the  Spanish  fleet  had  been 
destroyed.  Even  then  Raleigh,  who  had  spent  over  forty  thousand 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

pounds  without  return,  was  unable  to  send  aid  at  once  to  the  colony,  and 
a  year  elapsed  before  a  vessel  could  be  sent  out  under  White.  In  1590, 
the  governor  reached  Rounoke,  but  no  trace  of  the  colony  could  be  found. 
The  settlers  had  either  died,  or  been  massacred,  or  had  been  taken  prisoners 
and  carried  by  the  Indians  into  the  interior  of  the  continent.  "The  con- 
jecture has  been  hazarded,"  says  Bancroft,  "that  the  deserted  colony 
neglected  by  their  own  countrymen,  were  hospitably  adopted  "into  the 
tribe  of  Hatteras  Indians,  and  became  amalgamated  with  the  sons  of  the 
forest.  This  was  the  tradition  of  the  natives  at  a  later  day.  and  was 
thought  to  be  confirmed  by  the  physical  character  of  the  tribe,  in  which 
the  English  and  the  Indian  race  seemed  to  have  been  blended."  The  gen- 
erous heart  of  Raleigh  could  not  bear  to  leave  his  countrymen  unaided 
while  a  single  hope  of  finding  them  remained,  and  he  is  said  to  have  sent 
to  America  as  many  as  five  expeditions  at  his  own  cost,  to  search  for  them. 

With  the  failure  of  the  settlement  at  Roanoke  Raleigh  relinquished 
his  hope  of  colonizing  Virginia.  He  had  expended  nearly  his  entire 
fortune  in  the  undertaking,  and  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  passed 
under  the  cloud  of  undeserved  misfortune.  His  career  as  a  statesman 
was  honorable  to  himself  and  to  his  country,  and  he  proved  himself  in 
all  his  acts  a  loyal  subject  and  a  devoted  patriot.  His  zeal  in  behalf  of 
knowledge  made  him  a  generous  friend  of  the  learned,  and  he  merits  the 
gratitude  of  the  America  n»people,  not  only  for  his  efforts  to  colonize  our 
chores  with  his  countrymen,  but  for  the  liberality  with  which  he  spread 
a  knowledge  of  America  throughout  England  by  his  publication  of  the 
reports  of  Hariot  and  Hakluyt.  He  opened  the  way  for  the  dominion 
of  the  English  in  the  new  world,  and  his  memory  is  preserved  in  the 
name  of  the  capital  city  of  the  great  State  which  he  sought  to  make  the 
seat  of  an  English  empire. 

Upon  the  accession  of  James  I.,  Raleigh,  broken  in  health  and  fortune, 
but  still  the  most  illustrious  Englishman  of  his  day,  was  arraigned  on  a 
charge  of  high  treason,  of  which  not  even  his  enemies  believed  him 
guilty,  and  was  sentenced  to  the  Tower,  as  the  king  did  not  yet  dare  to 
order  his  execution.  During  this  period  Sir  Walter  beguiled  the  weari- 
ness of  his  imprisonment  by  composing  his  "  History  of  the  World." 
He  remained  a  prisoner  for  thirteen  years,  and  was  then  released  on 
condition  of  making  a  voyage  to  Guiana  in  search  of  gold.  His  failure 
to  accomplish  the  object  of  the  voyage  sealed  his  doom,  and  on  his  return 
to  England  he  was  beheaded,  not  upon  any  fresh  charge,  but  on  his  old 
sentence.  His  real  fault  was  that  he  was  too  true  an  Englishman  to 

O 

Bustain  the  sacrifice  of  the  national  honor  by  King  James  to  the  demands 
t>f  Spain,  and  he  was  generally  regarded  by  the  nation  as  the  victim  of 


THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  COLONY.  93 

the  king's  cowardice.  He  met  his  fate  with  the  calm  bravery  which  had 
marked  his  whole  life. 

Until  now  the  voyage  from  England  to  America  had  been  made  by 
way  of  the  Canary  islands  and  the  West  Indies.  In  1602,  Bartholomew 
Gosnold  conceived  the  idea  of  proceeding  direct  from  England  to  Vir- 
ginia, as  the  whole  region  north  of  Florida  was  called  by  the  English. 
Sailing  directly  across  the  Atlantic,  he  reached  Cape  Elizabeth,  on  the 
coast  of  Maine,  after  a  voyage  of  seven  weeks.  Proceeding  southward 
along  the  coast  he  reached  Cape  Cod,  lo  which  lie  gave  the  name  on  the 
15th  of  May,  and  went  ashore  there.  He  wai  thus  the  first  Englishman 
to  set  foot  in  New  England.  He  continued  ins  voyage  along  the  coast 
and  entered  Buzzard's  bay.  To  the  westernmost  of  the  islands  cf  this 
stately  sound  he  gave  the  name  of  Elizabeth — a  name  which  has  since 
been  applied  to  the  entire  group.  Loading  his  ship  with  sassafras  root, 
which  was  then  highly  esteemed  for  its  medicinal  virtues,  Gosnold  sailed 
for  England,  and  arrived  home  safely  after  a  voyage  of  less  than  four 
weeks.  He  gave  the  most  favorable  accounts  of  the  region  he  had  visited, 
and  other  adventurers  wore  induced  by  his  reports  to  undertake  voyages 
for  the  purpose  of  trading  with  the  natives.  Among  these  was  George 
Waymouth,  who  reached  and  explored  the  coast  of  Maine  in  1605.  On 
his  return  voyage  Waymouth  kidnapped  five  Indians  and  carried  them 
to  England,  "  to  be  instructed  in  English,  and.to  serve  as  guides  to  some 
future  expedition." 

The  voyages  of  Gosnold  and  Waymouth  to  the  coast  of  New  England 
were  followed  by  those  of  numerous  other  English  adventurers.  In 
1614,  Captain  John  Smith,  who  had  already  distinguished  himself  by 
his  services  in  Virginia,  made  a  voyage  to  America  with  two  ships, 
furnished  at  the  expense  of  himself  and  four  merchants  of  London.  The 
voyage  was  for  the  purpose  of  trading  with  the  natives,  and  was  very 
fciccessful.  Smith  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  explore  the 
toast  from  the  Penobscot  to  Cape  Cod.  He  prepared  a  map  of  the  coast, 
and  named  the  country  Nev.  England — a  title  which  was  confirmed  by 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  Charles  I.  After  Smith's  return  to 
England,  Hunt,  the  commander  .of  the  other  vessel,  succeeded  in  inducing 
twenty  of  the  natives,  with  their  chief  Squanto,  to  visit  his  ship,  and  as 
soon  as  they  were  on  board  put  to  sea.  He  sold  the  savages  as  slaves  in 
Spain.  A  few  of  them,  Squanto  among  the  number,  were  purchased  bv 
some  kind-hearted  monks,  who  instructed  them  in  the  Christian  faith  ir. 
order  to  send  them  back  to  their  own  people  as  missionaries  of  the  cross. 
Squanto  escaped  to  England  in  1619,  and  there  learned  Oie  language, 
and  was  afterward  an  interpreter  between  the  English  settlers  and  hi* 
people. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   SETTLEMENT  OF   VIRGINIA. 

Formation  of  the  London  Company— Conditions  of  its  Charter— Departure  of  the  fir.M 
Colony— Quarrels  during  the  Voyage— Arrival  in  the  Chesapeake— Settlement  of 
Jamestown— Formation  of  the  Government — Character  of  Captain  John  Smith — Explor- 
ation of  the  James  River— Newport  and  Smith  visit  Powhatan— Smith  Admitted  to  the 
Government— Explores  the  Chickahominy— Is  Captured  and  Sentenced  to  Death— la 
Saved  by  Pocahontas— Gains  the  Friendship  of  Powhatan  for  the  Colony— Returns  to 
Jamestown — His  Decisive  Measures— Return  of  Newport — Smith  Explores  the  Chesa- 
peake Bay — The  new  Emigrants — Smith  compels  them  to  Labor — Smith  is  Wounded 
and  compelled  to  return  to  England— Disasters  to  the  Colony— Arrival  of  Sir  Thomas 
Gates — Jamestown  Abandoned — Arrival  of  Lord  Delaware — The  Return  to  Jamestown 
—A  Change  for  the  Better— New  Settlements — Sir  Thomas  Gates  arrives  with  Rein- 
forcements— Capture  of  Pocahontas  by  Captain  Argall — She  is  Baptized — Marries  John 
Uolfe — Sir  Thomas  Dale's  Administration— Yeardley  Governor— The  h'rst  Legislative 
Assembly — Representative  Government  established  in  America — The  Colonists  obtain 
Wives — Changes  in  the  Governmen*. 

HE  favorable  reports  which  had  been  brought  back  to  England 
by  the  voyagers  to  the  new  world  had  prevented  the  interest 
of  Englishmen  in  America  from  entirely  .dying  out,  and  some 
ardent  spirits  still  believed  it  possible  to  make  that  continent  the 
seat  of  a  prosperous  dominion  dependent  upon  England.  The 
former  assistants  of  Raleigh,  in  particular,  held  to  the  convictions  which 
their  chief  had  entertained  to  the  Jay  of  his  death.  The  selfish  and 
timid  policy  of  King  James  having  made  it  impossible  for  men  to  acquire 
distinction  by  naval  exploits,  as  in  th^  days  of  Elizabeth,  the  more  adven- 
turous classes  lent  a  willing  ear  to  the  plans  for  colonizing  America, 
which  were  discussed  in  various  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Bartholomew 
Gosnold,  who  had  explored  the  New  England  coast,  was  especially  active 
in  seeking  to  induce  capitalists  to  send  out  a  colony  to  it.  Sir  Ferdinand 
Gorges,  a  wealthy  gentleman  and  Governor  of  Plymouth,  had  been 
greatly  interested  in  America  by  the  accounts  of  "Waymouth,  who  had 
given  him  two  of  the  Indians  he  had  brought  to  England.  These 
succeeded  in  interesting  others  in  their  plans,  and  the  result  was,  that 
early  in  the  reign  of  King  Jamos  two  companies  were  formed  in  England 
for  the  colonization  of  America.  One  of  these  was  the  "London 
N 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF   VIRGINIA.  {-ft 

Company,"  composed  chiefly  of  noblemen  and  merchants  residing  in 
London.  The  other  was  the  "Plymouth  Company,"  composed  of 
"  knights,  gentlemen,  and  merchants,"  residing  in  the  west  of  England. 
King  James  divided  Virginia  into  two  parts.  To  the  London  Company 
he  granted  "South  Virginia,"  extending  from  Cape  Fear,  in  North 
Carolina,  to  the  Potomac.  To  the  Plymouth  Company  he  gave  "  North 
Virginia,"  stretching  from  the  Hudson  to  Newfoundland.  The  region 
between  the  Potomac  and  the  Hudson  he  left  as  a  broad  belt  of  neutral 
land  to  keep  the  companies  from  encroaching  upon  each  other's  domains. 
Either  was  at  liberty  to  form  settlements  in  this  region  within  fifty  miles 
of  its  own  border. 

The  London  Company  was  the  first  to  settle  the  country  assigned  it. 
A  liberal  charter  was  granted  the  company :  the  lands  in  the  new  world 
were  to  be  held  by  it  on  the  simple  conditions  of  homage  and  the  payment 
to  the  crown  of  one-fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver  and  one-fifteenth  of  the 
copper  that  should  be  discovered.  A  general  council,  residing  in 
England,  was  to  have  authority 
over  the  whole  province,  and  the 
members  of  this  council  were  to  be 
appointed  and  removed  by  the  king 
at  his  good  pleasure.  Each  separate 
colony  was  to  be  under  the  control 
of  a  colonial  council  residing  within 

...  ill-  t  C0*1  OF  AfiM8  OP  VIRGINIA. 

its  own  limits,  and  the  king  retained 

the  right  to  direct  the  appointment  or  removal  of  the  members  of  these 
councils  at  his  pleasure.  The  king  also  reserved  the  supreme  legislative 
authority  over  the  colonies,  and  framed  for  their  government  a  code  of 
laws — "an  exercise  of  royal  legislation  which  has  been  pronounced  in 
itself  illegal."  The  colonists  were  placed  by  this  code  under  the  rule  of 
the  superior  and  local  councils  we  have  named,  in  the  choice  of  which 
they  had  no  voice.  The  religion  of  the  Church  of  England  was  estab- 
lished as  that  of  the  colony,  and  conformity  to  it  was  secured  by  severe  pen- 
alties. Death  was  the  punishment  for  murder,  manslaughter,  adultery, 
:angerous  seditions  and  tumults.  In  all  cases  not  affecting  life  and  limb 
./tfenders  might  be  tried  by  a  magistrate,  but  for  capital  offences  trial  by , 
jury  was  secured.  In  the  former  cases  the  punishment  of  the  offender 
y<\s  at  the  discretion  of  the  president  and  council.  The  Indians  were  to 
be  treated  with  kindness,  and  efforts  were  to  be  made  for  their  conversion 
to  Christianity.  For  five  years  at  least  the  affairs  of  the  colonists  were 
to  be  conducted  in  a  joint  stock.  The  right  to  impose  future  legislation 
upon  the  province  was  reserved  by  the  king.  Such  was  the  form  cf 


o,;  WSTnRY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

govemment  &-*i  prescribed  for  Virginia  by  England,  in  which,  as 
Bancroft  tru'.  -  iy>,  there  was  "  not  an  element  of  popular  liberty."  "  To 
the  emigrant."  tJ'fcineelves  it  conceded  not  one  elective  franchise,  not  one 
of  the  rights  of  self-government.  They  were  to  be  subjected  to  the 
Ordinances  of  a  commercial  corporation,  of  which  they  could  not  be 
members ;  to  the  dominion  of  a  domestic  council,  in  appointing  which 
they  had  no  voice ;  to  the  control  of  a  superior  council  in  England,  which 
had  no  sympathy  with  their  rights;  and  finally,  to  the  arbitrary  legisla- 
tion of  the  sovereign." 

Under  this  charter  the  London  Company  prepared  to  send  out  a  colony 
to  Virginia.  It  was  to  be  a  commercial  settlement,  and  the  emigrants 
were  composed  altogether  of  men.  One  hundred  and  five  persons, 
exclusive  of  the  crews  of  the  vessels,  joined  the  expedition.  Of  these  not 
twenty  were  farmers  or  mechanics.  The  remainder  were  "  gentlemen," 
or  men  who  had  ruined  themselves  at  home  by  idleness  and  dissipation. 
A  fleet  of  three  small  ships,  under  command  of  Captain  Newport,  was 
assembled,  and  on  the  19th  of  December,  1606,  sailed  for  America. 

The  emigrants  sailed  without  having  perfected  any  organization.  Thf 
king  had  foolishly  placed  the  names  of  those  who  were  to  constitute  th« 
government  in  a  sealed  box,  which  the  adventurers  were  ordered  not  to 
open  until  they  had  selected  a  site  for  their  settlement  and  were  ready  to 
form  a  government.  This  was  most  unfortunate,  for  during  the  long 
voyage  dissensions  arose,  and  there  was  no  one  in  the  expedition  who 
possessed  the  authority  requisite  for  controlling  the  unruly  spirits.  These 
quarrels  grew  more  intense  with  the  lapse  of  time,  and  when  the  shores 
of  Virginia  were  reached  the  seeds  of  many  of  the  evils  from  which  the 
colony  afterwards  suffered  severely  had  been  thoroughly  sown.  There 
were  among  the  number  several  who  were  well  qualified  to  direct  the 
affairs  of  the  expedition,  but  they  were  without  the  proper  authority  to 
do  so,  and  there  was  no  such  thing  as  voluntary  submission  to  be  seen 
among  the  adventurers.  The  merits  of  the  deserving  merely  excited  the 
jealous)  of  thev  companions,  and  the  great  master  spirit  of  the  enterprise 
found  from  the  first  Lis  disinterested  efforts  for  the  good  of  the  expedi- 
tion met  by  a  jealous  ind  determined  opposition. 

Newport  was  not  acquainted  with  the  direct  route,  and  made  the  old 
passage  by  way  of  the  Canaries  and  the  West  Indies.  He  thus  consume  <' 
the  whole  of  the  winter,  and  while  searching  for  the  island  of  Roauokc 
^wi  scene  of  Raleigh's  colony,  his  fleet  was  driven  northward  by  a  severe 
ytorm,  and  forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  Chesapeake  bay  on  the  26th  of 
April,  1607.  He  named  the  headlands  of  this  bay  Cape  Henry  and 
Cape  Charles,  in  honor  of  the  two  sons  of  James  I.,  and  because  of  the 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  97 

comfortable  anchorage  which  he  obtained  in  the  splendid  roadstead  which 
enters  the  bay  opposite  its  mouth,  he  gave  to  the  northern  point  the  name 
of  Point  Comfort,  which  it  has  since  borne.  Passing  this,  a  noble  river 
was  discovered  coming  from  the  westward,  and  was  named  the  James,  in 
honor  of  the  English  king.  The  country  was  explored  with  energy,  anc1 
though  one  small  tribe  of  Indians  was  found  to  be  hostile,  a  treaty  of 
peace  and  friendship  was  made  with  another  at  Hampton.  The  floct 
ascended  the  river,  and  explored  it  for  fifty  miles.  A  pleasant  peninsula, 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  stream,  was  selected  as  the  site  of  the  colony,  and 
on  the  13th  of  May,  1607,  the  settlement  was  definitely  begun,  and  was 
named  Jamestown,  in  honor  of  the  king. 

The  leading  spirit  of  the  enterprise  was  John  Smith,  one  of  the  truest 
heroes  of  history,  who  has  been  deservedly  called  "the  father  of  Vir- 
ginia." He  was  still  a  young  man,  being  but  thirty  years  of  age,  but  he 
was  old  in  experience  and  knightly  deeds.  While  yet  a  youth  he  had 
served  in  Holland  in  the  ranks  of  the  army  of  freedom,  and  had  travelled 
through  France,  Egypt,  and  Italy.  Burning  to  distinguish  himself,  he 
had  repaired  to  Hungary,  and  had  won  a  brilliant  reputation  by  his  ex- 
ploits in  the  ranks  of  the  Christian  army  engaged  in  the  defence  of  that 
country  against  the  Mohammedans.  He  repeatedly  defeated  the  chosen 
champions  of  the  Turks  in  single  combat,  but  being  at  length  captured 
was  sent  to  Constantinople  and  sold  as  a  slave.  The  wife  of  his  master, 
pitying  his  misfortunes,  sent  him  to  a  relative  in  the  Crimea,  with  a  re- 
quest to  treat  him  with  kindness,  but  contrary  to  her  wishes  he  was  sub- 
jected to  the  greatest  harshness.  Rendered  desperate  by  this  experience, 
he  rose  against  his  task-master,  slew  him,  and  seizing  his  horse,  escaped 
to  the  border  of  the  Russian  territory,  where  he  was  kindly  received. 
He  wandered  across  the  country  to  Transylvania,  and  rejoined  his  old 
companions  in  arms.  Then  filled  with  a  longing  to  see  his  "own  sweet 
country  "  once  more,  he  returned  to  England.  He  arrived  just  as  the 
plans  for  the  colonization  of  Virginia  were  being  matured.  He  readily 
engaged  in  the  expedition  organized  by  the  London  Company,  and  exerted 
himself  in  a  marked  degree  to  make  it  a  success.  He  was  in  all  respects 
the  most  capable  man  in  the  whole  colony,  for  his  natural  abilities  were 
fully  equal  to  his  experience.  He  had  studied  human  nature  under 
many  forms  in  many  lands,  and  in  adversity  and  danger  had  learned 
patience  and  fortitude.  His  calm,  cool  courage,  his  resolute  will,  and  his 
intuitive  perception  of  the  necessities  of  a  new  settlement,  were  destined 
to  make  him  the  main  stay  of  the  colony  of  Virginia,  but  as  yet  these  • 
high  qualities  had  only  excited  the  malicious  envy  of  his  associates*  and 
7 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


the  efforts  he  had  made  to  heal  the  dissensions  which  had  broken  out 
during  the  voyage  had  made  him  many  enemies. 

When  the  box  containing  the  names  of  those  who  were  to  constitute 
the  colonial  government  was  opened,  it  was  found  that  the  king  had  ap- 
pointed John  Smith  one  of  the  council.  Smith  was  at  this  time  in  con- 
finement, having  been  arrested  on  the  voyage  upon  the  frivolous  charges 
of  sedition  and  treason  against  the  crown,  and  his  enemies,  notwithstand- 
ing the  royal  appointment,  excluded  him  from  the  council.  Edward 
Wingfield,  "  a  grovelling  merchant  of  the  west  of  England,"  was  chosen 

president  of  the 
council  and  gover- 
nor of  the  colony. 
The  services  of 
Smith  could  not  be 
dispensed  with, 
however,  and  he 
was  released  from 
his  confinement,  and 
sent  with  Newport 
and  twenty  others 
to  explore  the  river. 
They  ascended  the 
James  to  the  falls, 
where  the  city  of 
Richmond  now 
stands,  and  visited 
P  o  w  h  a  t  a  n  ,  the 
principal  chief  of 
the  Indian  nation 
holding  the  country 
into  which  they  had 
come.  He  was 
then  dwelling  at  his  favorite  seat  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  a  few 
miles  below  the  falls.  Powhatan  received  them  kindly,  and  silenced  the 
remonstrances  of  his  people  by  saying :  "  They  hurt  you  not ;  they  only 
want  a  little  land."  The  chief  was  a  man  of  powerful  stature,  "  tall,  sour 
and  athletic."  He  was  sixty  years  of  age,  and  had  under  him  i  popula- 
tion of  six  or  eight  thousand  souls,  two  thousand  being  warriors.  Hav- 
ing carefully  observed  the  river,  Smith  and  Newport  returned  to  James- 
town. 

Their  presence  there  was  needed,  for  Wingfield  had  proved  himself 


CAPTAIN   JOHN   SMITH. 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  99 

utterly  unfit  to  govern  the  colony.  He  would  not  allow  the  colonists  to 
build  either  houses  for  themselves  or  a  fortification  for  the  common  de- 
fence against  the  savages.  While  they  were  in  this  helpless  condition, 
they  were  suddenly  attacked  by  a  force  of  four  hundred  Indians,  and 
were  saved  from  destruction  only  by  the  fire  of  the  shipping,  which  filled 
the  savages  with  terror  and  put  them  to  flight.  It  is  believed  that  tlie 
cause  of  Wingfield's  singular  conduct  was  his  jealousy  of  Smith,  whose 
talents  he  feared  would  attract  the  support  of  the  settlers.  The  fort  was 
now  built  without  delay,  cannon  were  mounted,  and  the  men  trained  in 
the  exercise  of  arms.  When  the  ships  were  in  readiness  to  sail  to  Eng- 
land, it  was  intimated  to  Smith  that  he  would  consult  his  own  interests 
by  returning  in  them,  but  he  refused  to  do  so,  and  boldly  demanded  a 
trial  upon  the  charges  which  had  been  preferred  against  him.  The  coun- 
cil did  not  dare  to  refuse  him  this  trial,  and  the  result  was  his  triumphant 
acquittal.  More  than  this,  he  succeeded  so  well  in  exposing  the  malice 
of  his  enemies  that  the  president,  as  the  originator  of  the  charges  against 
him,  was  compelled  to  pay  him  two  hundred  pounds  damages,  which  sum 
Smith  generously  applied  to  the  needs  of  the  colony.  His  seat  in  the 
council  could  no  longer  be  denied  him,  and  he  took  his  place  at  the  board 
to  the  great  gain  of  the  colony. 

Newport  sailed  for  England  about  the  middle  of  June,  leaving  the 
settlement  in  a  most  pitiable  condition.  The  provisions  sent  out  from 
England  had  been  spoiled  on  the  voyage,  and  the  colonists  were  too 
indolent  to  cultivate  the  land,  or  to  seek  to  obtain  supplies  from  the 
Indians.  Sickness  broke  out  among  them,  owing  to  the  malarious 
character  of  their  location,  and  by  the  beginning  of  the  winter  more  than 
half  their  number  had  died.  Among  these  was  Bartholomew  Gosnold, 
the  originator  of  the  London  Company,  who  had  come  out  to  Virginia  to 
risk  his  life  in  the  effort  to  settle  the  country.  He  was  a  man  of  rare 
merits,  and,  together  with  Mr.  Hunt,  "  the  preacher,"  who  was  also  one 
of  the  projectors  of  the  company,  had  contributed  successfully  to  the 
preservation  of  harmony  in  the  colony.  In  the  midst  of  these  sufferings 
it  was  found  that  Wingfield  was  preparing  to  load  the  pinnace  with  the 
remainder  of  the  stores  and  escape  to  the  West  Indies.  He  was  deposed 
by  the  council,  who  appointed  John  Rutcliffe  in  his  place. 

The  new  president  was  not  much  better  than  his  predecessor.  He 
was  incapable  of  discharging  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  was  perfectly1 
satisfied  that  Smith  should  direct  the  affairs  of  the  settlement  for  him. 
From  this  time  Smith  was  the  actual  head  of  the  government.  Food 
was  the  prime  necessity  of  the  colony,  and  as  it  was  now  too  late  to  raise 
it,  Smith  exerted  himself  to  obtain  it  from  the  Indians.  He  purchased^ 


Ml  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

supply,  and  towards  the  close  of  the  autumn  the  wild  fowl  which  frequent 
the  region  furnished  an  additional  means  of  subsistence. 

The  danger  of  a  famine  thus  removed,  Smith  proceeded  to  explore  the 
country.  In  one  of  these  expeditions  he  ascended  the  Chickahominy  as 
far  as  he  could  penetrate  in  his  boat,  and  then  leaving  it  in  charge  of  two 
men,  struck  into  the  interior  with  an  Indian  guide.  His  men  disobeyed 
his  instructions,  and  were  surprised  and  put  to  death  by  the  Indians. 
Smith  himself  was  taken  prisoner,  and  deeply  impressed  his  captors  l;y 
his  cool  courage  and  self-possession.  Instead  of  begging  for  his  life,  he- 
set  to  work  to  convince  them  of  his  superiority  over  them,  and  succeeded 


POCAHONTAS  RESCUING  CAPTAIN  SMITH. 


80  well  that  they  regarded  him  with  a  sort  of  awe.  He  astonished  them 
by  showing  them  his  pocket  compass  and  explaining  to  them  its  uses,  and 
excited  their  admiration  by  writing  a  letter  to  his  friends  at  Jamestown 
informing  them  of  his  situation,  and  of  the  danger  to  which  they  were 
exposed  from  a  contemplated  attack  of  the  Indians.  One  of  the  savages 
bore  the  letter  to  its  destination. 

Smith  had  been  captured  by  Opechancanough,  a  powerful  chieftain  of 
the  Pamunkey  Indians;  but  as  the  curiosity  of  the  neighboring  tribes 
was  greatly  aroused  by  his  presence,  he  was  led  in  triumph  from  the 
Chickahominy  to  the  villages  on  the  Rappahannock  and  the  Potomac 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  101 

and  then  taken  through  other  towns  to  the  residence  of  Opechancanough, 
on  the  Pamunkey.  Here  the  medicine  men  of  the  tribe  held  a  three 
days'  incantation  over  him  to  ascertain  his  character  and  design.  All 
this  while  his  demeanor  was  calm  and  fearless,  as  if  he  entertained  no 
apprehension  for  his  safety.  He  was  regarded  by  the  savages  as  a 
superior  being,  and  was  treated  with  kindness,  though  kept  a  close 
prisoner.  His  fate  was  referred  to  Powhatan  for  decision,  as  the  other 
tribes  feared  to  bring  the  blood  of  such  an  extraordinary  being  upon 
their  heads.  Powhatan  was  then  residing  at  Werowocomoco.  which  lay 
on  the  north  side  of  Fork  river,  in  what  is  now  Gloucester  county, 
Virginia.  He  received  the  captive  in  great  state,  surrounded  by  his 
warriors.  "  He  wore,"  says  Smith,  "  such  a  grave  and  majestical  counte- 
nance as  drove  me  into  admiration  to  see."  Brought  into  the  presence 
of  Powhatan,  Smith  was  received  with  a  shout  from  the  assembled 
warriors.  A  handsome  young  squaw  brought  him  water  to  wash  his 
hands,  and  another  gave  him  a  bunch  of  feathers  to  dry  them.  Food 
was  then  set  before  him,  and  while  he  applied  himself  to  the  repast  a 
consultation  was  held  by  the  savages  as  to  his  fate.  Smith  watched  the 
proceedings  closely,  and  was  aware  from  the  gestures  of  the  council  that 
his  death  had  been  determined  upon.  Two  great  stones  were  then 
brought  into  the  assembly  and  laid  before  the  king.  The  captive  was 
seized  and  dragged  to  the  stones,  forced  down,  and  his  head  laid  upon 
them.  Two  brawny  savages  stood  by  to  beat  out  his  brains  with  their 
clubs.  During  these  proceedings,  Pocahontas,  a  child  of  ten  or  twelve 
years,  "  dearly  loved  daughter  "  of  Powhatan,  touched  with  pity  for  the 
unfortunate  stranger,  had  been  earnestly  pleading  with  her  father  to 
spare  his  life.  Failing  in  this,  she  sprang  forward  at  the  moment  the 
executioners  were  about  to  despatch  their  victim,  and  throwing  herself 
by  his  side,  clasped  her  arms  about  his  neck  and  laid  her  head  upon 
his  to  protect  him  from  the  impending  stroke.  This  remarkable  action 
in  a  child  so  young  moved  the  savages  with  profound  astonishment. 
They  regarded  it  as  a  manifestation  of  the  will  of  heaven  in  favor 
of  the  captive,  and  it  was  determined  to  spare  his  life  and  seek  his 
friendship. 

Smith  was  released  from  his  bonds,  and  was  given  to  Pocahontas  to 
make  beads  and  bells  for  her,  and  to  weave  for  her  ornaments  of  copper. 
The  friendship  which  the  innocent  child  of  the  forest  conceived  for  him 
grew  stronger  every  day,  and  ceased  only  with  her  life.  Powhatan  took 
him  into  his  favor,  and  endeavored  to  induce  him  to  abandon  the  English 
and  cast  his  lot  with  him.  He  even  sought  to  obtain  his  aid  in  an  attack 
upon  the  colony.  Smith  declined  these  offers,  and  by  his  decision  of 


102 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

sucnrded  in  averting  the  hostility  of  the  savages  from  hi| 
U  at  .Iamr,to\vn,  and  in  winning  their  good-will  for  the  English. 
In  a  short  while  the  Indians  allowed  him  to  return  to  Jamestown,  upon 
his  promise  to  send  to  King  Powhatan  two  cannon  and  a  grindstone. 
Upon  arriving  at  Jamestown  he  showed  the  Indians  who  had  accoin* 
panied  him  two  of  the  largest  cannon,  and  asked  them  to  lift  them.  This 
was  impossible;  nor  could  they  succeed  any  better  with  the  grindstone. 
Smith  then  discharged  the  cannon  in  their  presence,  which  so  frightened 
them  that  they  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  them.  Having 
evaded  his  promise  in  this  manner,  Smith  bestowed  more  suitable  presents 
upon  his  guides,  and  sent  them  home  with  gifts  for  Powhatan  and 

Pocahontas.  The  savage  king  was 
doubtless  well  satisfied  to  let  the 
"  great  guns  "  alone  after  hearing  the 
report  of  his  messengers  concerning 
them,  and  was  greatly  pleased  with 
the  gifts  sent  him. 

Smith  found  the  colony  at  James- 
town reduced  to  forty  men  and  affairs 
in  great  confusion.  His  companions 
had  believed  that  he  had  fallen  a 
victim  to  the  hostility  of  the  Indians, 
and  he  was  greeted  with  delight,  as 
the  need  of  his  firm  hand  had  been 
sadly  felt.  He  found  that  a  party  of 
malcontents  were  preparing  to  run 
away  from  the  colony  with  the  pin- 
nace, and  he  at  once  rallied  his  sup- 
porters and  trained  the  guns  of  the 
fort  upon  the  little  vessel,  and  avowed 
his  determination  to  fire  upon  the 

mutineers  if  they  sought  to  depart.  His  firmness  put  an  end  to  this 
danger,  and  the  friendly  relations  which  he  had  managed  to  establish 
with  the  Indians  now  enabled  him  to  buy  from  the  savages  the  food 
necessary  to  sustain  the  colonists  through  the  winter.  In  many  ways  \\\t- 
captivity  proved  a  great  blessing  to  the  settlement.  He  had  not  oi:l> 
explored  the  country  between  the  James  and  Potomac,  and  gained  con 
siderable  knowledge  of  the  language  and  customs  of  the  natives,  but  had 
disposed  the  Indian  tribes  subject  to  Powhatan  to  regard  the  colony  with 
friendship  at  the  most  critical  per:  xl  of  its  existence.  Had  the  savages. 
been  hostile  during  this  winter  the  Jamestov/n  colony  must  have  perished 


POCAHONTAS. 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA.  103 

of  starvation ;  but  now,  every  few  days  throughout  this  season,  Poca- 
hontas  came  to  the  fort  accompanied  by  a  number  of  her  countrymen 
bearing  baskets  of  corn  for  the  whites. 

In  the  spring  of  1698,  Newport  arrived  from  England,  bringing  with 
him  a  reinforcement  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  emigrants.  The  new- 
comers were  joyfully  welcomed  by  the  colonists,  but  they  proved  of  no 
real  advantage  to  the  settlement.  They  were  either  idlers  or  goldsmiths 
who  had  come  out  to  America  in  the  hope  of  finding  gold.  The  refiners 
of  the  party  believed  they  had  found  the  precious  metal  in  a  heap  of 
glittering  earth,  of  which  there  was  an  abundance  near  Jamestown,  and 
in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  Smith,  would  do  nothing  but  dig  gold. 
Newport,  who  shared  the  delusion,  loaded  his  ships  with  the  worthless 
earth,  and  sailed  for  England  after  a  sojourn  in  the  colony  of  fourteen 
weeks.  , 

While  these  fruitless  labors  were  in  progress,  Smith,  thoroughly 
disgusted  with  the  folly  of  the  emigrants,  undertook  the  exploration  of 
the  Chesapeake  bay.  He  spent  the  summer  of  1608  in  visiting  the  shores 
of  the  bay  and  ascending  its  tributaries  in  an  open  boat,  accompanied  by 
a  few  men.  He  explored  the  Chesapeake  to  the  Susquehanna,  ascended 
the  Potomac  to  the  falls,  and  explored  the  Patapsco.  This  voyage 
embraced  a  total  distance  of  nearly  three  thousand  miles,  and  resulted  not 
only  in  the  gaining  of  accurate  information  respecting  the  country  border- 
ing the  Chesapeake,  but  also  in  establishing  friendly  relations  with  the 
tribes  along  its  shores,  and  preparing  the  way  for  future  friendly  inter- 
course with  them.  The  energetic  explorer  prepared  a  map  of  the 
Chesapeake  and  its  tributaries,  and  sent  it  to  his  employers  in  England, 
by  whom  it  was  published.  It  is  yet  in  existence,  and  its  accuracy  and 
minuteness  have  often  elicited  the  praise  of  subsequent  topographers. 

Smith  returned  to  Jamestown  on  the  7th  of  September,  and  three  days 
later  was  made  president  of  the  council.  The  good  effects  of  his  admin- 
istration were  soon  felt.  In  the  autumn,  however,  another  reinforcement 
of  idle  and  useless  men  arrived.  Smith,  indignant  at  the  continual 
arrival  of  such  worthless  persons,  wrote  to  the  company :  "  When  you 
send  again,  I  entreat  you  rather  send  but  thirty  carpenters,  husbandmen, 
gardeners,  fishermen,  blacksmiths,  masons,  and  diggers  up  of  trees'  roots, 
well  provided,  than  a  thousand  of  such  as  we  have."  Upon  the  return 
of  the  fleet  to  England  the  governor  exerted  his  authority  to  compel  the 
idlers  to  go  to  work.  It  was  ordered  that  six  hours  in  each  day  should 
be  spent  in  useful  labor  by  each  person,  and  that  "  he  who  would  not 
work  might  not  eat."  In  a  short  while  the  settlement  began  to  assume 
the  appearance  of  a  regular  habitation ;  but  still  so  little  laud  had  bee» 


I04  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

motivated— only  about  thirty  or  forty  acres  in   all— that  during  the 
u  intrr  of  1608-'9,  the  settlers  were  compelled  to  depend  upon  the  Indians 
for  food.     Yet  the   prudent  management  of  Smith   kept  the  colony  in 
..rood  health,  and  during  the  winter  not  more  than  seven  men  died  out  of 
wo  hundred. 
In  the  spring  of  1609,  great   changed  were  made  in  the  London 


BUILDING   OF   JAMESTOWN. 


Company,  and  a  more  earnest  interest  was  manifested  in  the  colony  by  ail 
classes  of  the  English  people.  Subscriptions  were  made  to  the  stock  of 
the  company  by  many  noblemen  as  well  as  merchants,  and  a  new  charter 
was  obtained.  By  this  charter  the  stockholders  had  the  power  to  appoint 
the  supreme  council  in  England,  and  to  this  council  were  confided  the 
powers  of  legislation  and  government,  which  were  relinquished  by  the 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  VIRGINIA,  105 

king.  The  council  appointed  the  governor  of  the  colony,  who  was  to 
rule  the  settlement  with  absolute  authority  according  to  the  instructions 
of  the  council.  He  was  made  master  of  the  lives  and  liberties  of  the 
settlers  by  being  authorized  to  declare  martial  law  whenever  in  his 
judgment  the  necessity  for  that  measure  should  arise,  and  was  made  the 
sole  executive  officer  in  its  administration.  Thus  the  emigrants  were 
deprived  of  every  civil  right,  and  were  placed  at  the  mercy  of  a  governor 
appointed  by  a  corporation  whose  only  object  was  to  make  money.  The 
company,  however,  defeated  this  object  by  the  manner  in  which  it  selected 
emigrants.  Instead  of  sending  out  honest  and  industrious  laborers  who 
were  capable  of  building  up  a  state,  they  sent  only  idlers  and  vagabonds, 
men  who  were  neither  willing  nor  fit  to  work.  The  common  stock 
feature  was  maintained,  and  thus  the  greatest  obstacle  to  industry  that 
could  be  devised  was  placed  in  the  way  of  the  success  of  the  colony. 
Still  there  were  many  who  were  willing  to  seek  the  new  world  even 
under  these  conditions,  and  many  others  whose  friends  desired  to  get 
them  out  of  the  country.  The  company  was  soon  able  to  equip  a  fleet  of 
nine  vessels  containing  more  than  five  hundred  emigrants,  and  a  stock  of 
domestic  animals  and  fowls  was  included  in  the  outfit  of  the  expedition. 
Lord  Delaware,  a  nobleman  whose  character  commanded  the  confidence 
of  his  countrymen,  was  made  governor  of  the  colony  for  life.  As  he  was 
not  able  to  sail  with  the  expedition,  he  delegated  his  authority  during  his 
absence  to  Newport,  who  was  admiral  of  the  fleet,  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  and 
Sir  George  Somers,  who  were  to  govern  the  colony  until  his  arrival. 
The  fleet  sailed  in  the  spring  of  1609,  but  when  off  the  American  coast 
was  overtaken  by  a  severe  storm,  and  two  vessels — on  one  of  which  the 
admiral  and  the  commissioners  had  sailed — were  wrecked  on  one  of  the 
Bermuda  islands. 

Seven  ships  reached  Virginia,  and  brought  the  worst  lot  of  emigrants 
that  had  yet  been  sent  out  to  the  colony.  Smith  was  still  acting  presi- 
dent, and  as  the  commissioners  had  not  arrived,  was  determined  to  hold 
his  position  until  relieved  by  his  lawful  successors.  The  new  emigrants 
at  first  refused  to  recognize  his  authority,  but  he  compelled  them  to  sub- 
mit, and  in  order  to  lessen  the  evil  of  their  presence,  divided  them  into 
bodies  sufficiently  numerous  for  safety,  and  sent  them  to  make  settlements 
in  other  parts  of  Virginia.  These  settlements  proved  so  many  failures; 
and,  unfortunately  for  the  colony,  Smith  was  so  severely  wounded  by  an 
accidental  explosion  of  gunpowder,  in  the  autumn  of  1609,  that  he  was 
obliged  to  relinquish  the  government  and  return  to  England  for  surgical 
treatment.  He  delegated  his  authority  to  George  Percy,  and  sailed  for 
England,  never  to  return  to  Virginia  again.  It  was  to  him  alone  that 


106  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  company  owed  the  success  of  the  colony,  but  he  received  in  return 
nothing  but  ingratitude. 

The  departure  of  Smith  was  followed  by  the  mast  disastrous  conse- 
quences. There  was  no  longer  an  acknowledged  government  in  Virginia, 
and  tin;  >» -t tiers  gave  themselves  up  to  the  most  reckless  idleness.  Their 
provisions  were  quickly  consumed,  and  the  Indians  refused  to  furnfsh 
them  with  any  more.  The  friendship  of  the  savages  had  been  due  to 
their  personal  regard  for  Smith,  who  had  compelled  the  colonists  to  respect 
their  rights  and  to  refrain  fro.u  maltreating  them.  Now  that  Smith  was 
no  longer  at  the  head  of  affairs,  the  Indians  regarded  the  settlers  with 
the  contempt  they  fully  merited,  and  hostilities  soon  began.  Stragglers 
from  the  town  were  cut  off,  and  parties  who  went  out  to  seek  food  among 
the  savages  were  deliberately  murdered.  On  one  occasion  a,  plan  was 
laid  to  surprise  the  town  and  massacre  the  colonists.  The  danger  was 
averted  by  Pocahontas,  who  stole  from  her  father's  camp,  through  night 
and  storm,  to  give  warning  to  the  settlers.  Failing  in  this  effort  the 
Indians  resolved  to  starve  the  colony,  and  soon  the  whites  began  to 
experience  the  sufferings  of  a  famine.  Thirty  of  them  seized  one  of  the 
ships,  escaped  to  sea,  and  began  a  course  of  piracy.  In  six  months  the 
four  hundred  and  ninety  persons  left  by  Smith  in  the  colony  at  his  depar- 
ture had  dwindled  down  to  sixty;  and  this  wretched  remnant  would  have 
perished  speedily  had  not  aid  reached  them. 

On  the  24th  of  May,  1610,  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  the  members  of  the 
expedition  who  had  been  wrecked  on  the  Bermudas  reached  Jamestown 
after  a  stay  of  nine  months  on  those  islands,  during  which  time  they  had 
built  two  vessels  from  the  wreck  of  their  ship  and  the  wood  found  on  the 
island.  In  these  they  managed  to  reach  Virginia,  expecting  to  find  the 
colony  in  a  prosperous  condition.  They  found  instead  the  sixty  men 
already  mentioned,  so  feeble  and  full  of  despair  as  to  be  helpless.  In  the 
general  despondency  it  was  determined  to  abandon  the  colony,  sail  to 
Newfoundland,  a  :vd  join  the  fishing  vessels  which  came  annually  from 
England  to  that  island.  Some  of  the  emigrants  wished  to  burn  the  town, 
but  this  was  prevented  by  the  resolute  conduct  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates.  On 
the  7th  of  June  the  settlers  embarked,  ajid  that  night  dropped  down  the 
James  with  the  tide.  The  next  morning  they  were  astonished  to  meet  a 
fleet  of  vessels  entering  the  river.  It  was  Lord  Delaware,  who  had 
arrived  with  fresh  emigrants  and  supplies.  The  fugitives  hailed  the 
arrival  of  the  governor  with  delight,  and  put  about  and  ascended  the 
stream  with  him.  A  fair  wind  enabled  them  to  reach  Jamestown  the 
same  night. 

On  the  10th  of  June,  1610,  the  foundations  of  the  colony  were  solemnly 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF   VIRGINIA. 


107 


relaid  with  prayer  and  supplication  to  Almighty  God  for  success  in  the 
otfort  to  establish  a  state.  The  authority  of  Lord  Delaware  silenced  all 
dissensions,  and  his  equitable  but  firm  administration  soon  placed  the 
settlement  on  a  more  successful  basis  than  it  had  yet  occupied.  The 
labors  of  each  day  \vere  opened  with  prayer  in  the  little  church,  after 
jyhich,  from  six  in  the  morning  till  ten,  and  from  two  in  the  afternoon 
until  four,  all  engaged  in  the  tasks  demanded  of  them.  The  good  efieccs 
of  the  new  system  were  soon  manifest  in  the  increased  comfort  and  pros- 
perity of  the  colony.  In  about  a  year  the  health  of  Lord  Delaware  gave 
way,  and  In  delegated  his  authority  to  George  Percy,  whom  Smith  liad 
chosen  as  his  successor,  and  returned  to  England. 

Fortunately  for  the  colony,  the  company,  before  the  arrival  of  Lord 
Delaware  in  England,  had  sent  out  Sir  Thomas  Dale  with  supplies.  He 
reached  Jamestown  in  May,  1611,  and  finding  Lord  Delaware  gone, 
assumed  the  government.  He 
brought  with  him  a  code  of  laws, 
prepared  and  sent  out  by  Sir  Thomas 
Smith,  the  treasurer  of  the  company, 
without  the  order  or  sanction  of  the 
council,  and  which  established  mar- 
tial law  as  the  rule  of  the  colony. 
Though  he  ruled  with  such  a  stern 
hand,  Dale  rendered  good  service  to 
Virginia  bv  recommending  to  the 

O  v 

company  to  maintain  the  settlement 
at  all  hazards  as  certain  of  yielding 
them  a  rich  reward  in  the  end.  This 
energetic  appeal  so  greatly  enco^r- 
aged  the  council,  which  had  been 

considerably  disheartened  by  Lord  Delaware's  return,  that  in  the  -ummer 
of  1611  Sir  Thomas  Gates  was  sent  out  to  Virginia  with  six  ships  and 
three  hundred  emigrants.  He  carried  also  a  stock  of  cattle  and  abundant 
supplies.  The  emigrants  sent  out  with  him  were  of  a  better  character 
and  more  industrious  than  any  that  had  yet  left  England  fo:  Virginia, 
Gates  assumed  the  government,  and  matters  began  to  prosper  again.  The 
solony  now  numbered  seven  hundred  persons,  and  was  deem-.-d  so  pros- 
perous that  Dale,  with  the  approval  of  the  govomor,  led  a  number  of  the 
men  to  the  vicinity  of  the  falls  of  the  James,  and  there  establisld  another 
settlement,  which  was  called  Henrico  in  honor  of  the  Prince  of  Wales. 
Among  the  changes  for  the  better  was  the  assignment  to  each  settler  of  a 
few  acres  of  land  for  his  own  cultivation.  This  "incipient  establishment 


WIFE  OF  A  CHIEF 


108  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  private  property"  produced  the  happiest  results,  and  from  this  time 
there  was  no  scarcity  of  provisions  in  the  colony,  which  became  so  power- 
ful and  prosperous  as  to  be  no  longer  exposed  to  the  mercy  of  the  savages. 
The  Indian*  th  -nisei ves  were  quick  to  notice  this  change,  and  some  of 

he  neighboring  tribes  by  formal  treaty  acknowledged  themselves  subjects 

f  King  James. 

The  whites,  however,  did  not  always  respect  the  rights  of  the  Indians. 
Late  in  1613,  Pocahontas  was  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  a  foraging  party 
under  Captain  Argall.  Argall  kept  her  a  prisoner,  and  demanded  of 
Powhatan  a  ransom.  For  three  months  Powhatan  did  not  deign  to  reply 
to  this  demand,  but  prepared  for  \var.  In  the  meantime  Pocahontas  was 
instructed  in  the  faith  of  the  Christians,  and  at  length  openly  embraced 
it,  and  was  baptized.  Her  conversion  was  hastened  by  a  powerful  senti- 
ment, which  had  taken  possession  of  her  heart.  She  had  always  regarded 
the  English  as  superior  to  her  own  race,  and  now  her  affections  were  Avon 
by  a  young  Englishman  of  good  character,  named  John  Rolfe.  Rolfe, 
with  the  approval  of  the  governor,  asked  her  hand  of  her  father  in 
marriage.  Powhatan  consented  to  the  union,  but  refused  to  be  present  at 
the  marriage,  as  he  was  too  shrewd  to  place  his  person  in  the  hands  of  the 
English.  He  sent  his  brother  Opachisco  and  two  of  his  sons  to  witness 
the  marriage,  which  was  solemnized  in  the  little  church  at  Jamestown, 
in  the  presence  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  the  acting  governor.  The  marriage 
conciliated  Powhatan  and  his  tribe,  who  continued  their  peaceful  rela- 
tions with  the  colony.  King  James,  however,  was  greatly  displeased  at 
what  he  deemed  the  presumption  of  a  subject  in  wedding  a  princess. 
Pocahontas  was  soon  after  taken  to  England  by  her  husband,  and  was 
received  there  with  great  attention  and  kindness.  She  remained  in  Eng- 
land for  a  little  more  than  a  year,  and  then  prepared  to  return  to  her 
own  country.  As  she  was  about  to  sail,  she  died,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two,  A.  D.  1616.  She  left  a  son,  who  subsequently  became  a  man  of 
distinction  in  Virginia,  and  the  ancestor  of  some  of  the  proudest  families 
of  the  Old  Dominion. 

In  the  meantime  the  settlements  of  the  French  on  the  coast  of  Maine 
had  attracted  the  attention  and  excited  the  jealousy  of  the  English.  In 
1613,  Captain  Samuel  Argall,  who  was  cruising  on  the  banks  of  New- 
•Vindland  to  protect  the  English  fishermen,  discovered  the  French 
:-:-Hlcment  of  Saint  Sauveur  on  the  island  of  Mount  Desert,  and  captured 
it.  He  treated  the  colonists  with  inexcusable  harshness,  and  compelled 
them  to  leave  the  country.  In  the  same  year  he  destroyed  the  fortifica- 
tions which  Des  Monts  had  erected  on  the  isle  of  St.  Croix  and  burned 
the  deserted  settlement  of  Port  Royal. 


THE  SETTLEMENT  Of    VIRGINIA.  109 

At  Jamestown  and  the  other  settlements  that  had  been  formed  in 
Virginia  private  industry  was  fast  placing  the  colony  on  an  assured  basis 
of  success.  "  The  condition  of  private  property  in  lands,  among  the 
colonists,  depended,  in  some  measure,  on  the  circumstances  under  which 
they  had  emigrated.  Some  had  been  sent  and  maintained  at  the  exclu- 
sive cost  of  the  company,  and  were  its  servants.  One  month  of  their 
time  and  three  acres  of  land  were  set  apart  for  them,  besides  a  small 
allowance  of  two  bushels  of  corn  from  the  public  store ;  the  rest  of  their 
labor  belonged  to  their  employers.  This  number  had  gradually  de- 
creased; and  in  1617  there  were  of  them  all,  men,  women  and  children, 
but  fifty-four.  Others,  especially  the  favorite  settlement  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Appomattox,  were  tenants,  paying  two  and  a  half  bushels  of  corn 
as  a  yearly  tribute  to  the  store,  and  giving  to  the  public  service  one 
month's  labor,  which  was  to  be  required  neither  at  seed  time  nor  harvest. 
He  who  came  himself,  or  had  sent  others  at  his  own  expense,  had  been 
entitled  to  a  hundred  acres  of  land  for  each  person  :  now  that  die  colony 
was  well  established,  the  bounty  on  emigration  was  fixed  at  fifty  acres, 
of  which  the  actual  occupation  and  culture  gave  a  further  right  to  as 
many  more,  to  be  assigned  at  leisure.  Besides  this,  lands  were  granted 
as  rewards  of  merit ;  yet  not  more  than  two  thousand  acres  could  be  sc 
appropriated  to  one  person.  A  payment  to  the  company's  treasury  oi 
twelve  pounds  and  ten  shillings  likewise  obtained  a  title  to  any  hundred 
acres  of  land  not  yet  granted  or  possessed,  with  a  reserved  claim  to  as 
much  more.  Such  were  the  earliest  land  laws  of  Virginia:  though  im- 
perfect and  unequal,  they  gave  the  cultivator  the  means  of  becoming  a 
proprietor  of  the  soil.  These  valuable  changes  were  established  by  Sir 
Thomas  Dale."  * 

The  survivors  of  Raleigh's  colony  at  Roanoke  had  introduced  into 
England  the  use  of  tobacco  which  they  had  learned  from  the  Indians, 
and  there  was  now  a  steady  demand  for  that  article  from  the  mother 
country.  Encouraged  by  this  demand,  and  stimulated  by  the  acquisition 
of  property  of  their  own,  the  Virginia  colonists  devoted  themselves  with 
cuxlor  to  the  culture  of  tobacco,  and  soon  all  the  available  land  about  the 
settlements,  and  even  the  streets  and  public  squares  of  Jamestown,  were 
planted  with  it.  Tobacco  soon  became  the  currency  of  the  colony,  and 
GO  much  attention  was  given  to  it,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  agricultural 
interests,  that  there  was  danger  that  not  enough  corn  would  be  raised  tc 
supply  the  needs  of  the  settlers. 

In  1616,  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  who  had  been  governor  of  the  colony  foi 
two  years,  delegated  his  authority  to  George  Yeardley,  and  sailed  foi 

*  History  of  the  Unit"!  St'iles.     By  George  Bancroft,  tol.  i,  p.  150. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

England.  Under  Yeardley's  admirable  administration  the  colony  con- 
tinued to  increase  in  prosperity.  A  faction  of  the  settlers,  however, 
succeeded  in  removing  him  from  his  position,  and  replaced  him  with 
Argall,  who  was  a  selfish  and  brutal  tyrant.  He  held  office  for  two 
years,  and  governed  according  to  the  most  rigid  forms  of  martial  law. 
He  swindled  the  company,  and  extorted  their  hard  earnings  from  the 
settlers,  who  were  driven  to  desperation  by  his  brutalities.  In  their 
distress  they  appealed  to  the  company  for  redress,  and,  as  Argall  had 
robbed  the  corporation  also,  their  prayer  was  heard.  Argall  was  re- 
moved from  office,  and  the  bloody  code  of  Sir  Thomas  Smith  was 
abolished.  Sir  George  Yeardley  was  appointed  governor,  Lord  Delaware 
having  died,  and  reached  Jamestown  in  April,  1619.  He  was  greatly 
beloved  by  the  Virginians,  and  his  arrival  was  looked  upon  as  the  begin- 
ning of  new  life  for  the  province,  as  indeed  it  was. 

Among  the  changes  which  Yeardley  was  empowered  by  the  company 
to  inaugurate  was  one  which  exercised  the  greatest  influence  upon  the 
subsequent  history  of  Virginia.  After  years  of  blundering  and  arbitrary 
rule,  the  London  Company  had  become  convinced  that  the  best  way  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  Virginia  was  to  give  the  settlers  a  share  in  the 
management  of  their  own  affairs.  "That  the  planters  might  have  a 
hande  in  the  governing  of  themselves,  yt  was  graunted  that  a  generall 
assemblie  shoulde  be  helde  yearly  once,  whereat  were  to  be  present  the 
governor  and  consell  with  two  burgesses  from  each  plantation,  freely  to 
be  elected  by  the  inhabitantes  thereof,  this  assemblie  to  have  power  to 
make  and  ordaine  whatsoever  lawes  and  orders  shoulde  by  them  be 
thought  good  and  profitable  for  their  subsistence."  In  accordance  with 
this  authorization,  Governor  Yeardley  issued  his  writs  for  the  election  of 
representatives  from  the  various  colonies,  and  on  the  10th  day  of  July, 
1619,  two  delegates  from  each  of  the  eleven  settlements  of  the  colony 
met  at  Jamestown,  and  organized  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  the  Colony 
of  Virginia,  the  first  representative  assembly  ever  convened  in  America. 
In  this  assembly  the  governor  and  council  sat  with  the  burgesses, 
and  engaged  in  the  debates  and  motions.  John  Pory,  a  member 
of  the  council  and  the  secretary  of  the  colony,  was  chosen  speaker, 
although  he  was  not  a  member  of  the  house.  Sensible  of  their 
dependence  upon  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  world,  the  burgesses  opened 
their  deliberations  with  prayer,  and  thus  established  the  practice.  "  The 
assembly  exercised  fully  the  right  of  judging  of  the  proper  dootion  of 
its  members;  and  they  would  not  suffer  any  patent,  conocdin  lanorial 
jurisdiction,  to  bar  the  obligation  of  obedience  to  their  decision.  '  Laws 
were  enacted  against  idleness  and  vice,  and  for  the  encouragement  of  in- 


THE  SETTLEMENT  OF   VIRGINIA.  Ill 

dustry  and  order.  He  who  refused  to  labor  was  to  be  "  sold  to  a  master 
for  wages  till  he  shewc  apparent  signs  of  amendment."  The  playing  of 
dice  and  cards,  and  drunkenness  and  profane  swearing  were  prohibited 
under  severe  penalties.  Inducements  were  held  out  to  increase  the 
planting  of  corn,  mulberry  trees,  hemp  and  the  vine.  The  price  of 
tobacco  was  fixed  by  law  at  three  shillings  a  pound  for  the  best  grade 
and  half  that  price  for  the  inferior  grade.  Provision  was  also  made  fox 
"the  erecting  of  a  university  and  college"  for  the  proper  education  of 
the  children  who  should  be  born  to  the  planters.  It  was  designed  to 
extend  to  the  Indians  the  benefit  of  these  institutions,  and  it  was  ordered 
that  the  "  most  towardly  (Indian)  boys  in  wit  and  graces  of  nature  should 
be  brought  up  in  the  first  elements  of  literature,  and  sent  from  college  to 
the  work  of  converting  the  natives  to  Christianity." 

The  measures  of  the  assembly  were  put  in  force  without  waiting  the 
approval  of  the  London  Company,  and  the  good  effects  of  them  were 
quickly  visible  in  the  colony.  The  principles  of  free  government  having 
been  planted  in  the  community,  the  settlers,  who  had  been  thereby  trans- 
formed from  the  mere  creatures  of  the  governor  into  free-born  English- 
men oiice  more,  began  to  regard  Virginia  as  their  permanent  home,  and 
set  to  work  with  a  will  to  build  houses  and  plant  fields.  One  thing  only 
was  lacking  to  give  the  settlers  homes  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  word  ; 
and  to  supply  that  need  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  induced  ninety  young  and 
virtuous  women  to  emigrate  to  America,  that  the  colonists  might  be  able 
to  marry  and  form  domestic  ties  which  alone  could  permanently  attach 
them  to  America.  The  young  women  were  sent  over  to  the  colony  in 
1619,  at  the  expense  of  the  company,  and  were  married  to  the  tenants 
of  the  corporation  or  to  men  who  were  well  enough  to  do  to  support 
them.  The  next  year  sixty  more  were  sent  over,  and  quickly  found 
husbands.  In  all  cases  the  husbands  were  required  to  repay  to  the 
company  the  cost  of  the  passage  of  their  wives  from  England.  This  was 
paid  in  tobacco,  and  was  regarded  as  a  debt  of  honor,  to  be  discharged  at 
any  sacrifice.  In  order  to  aid  the  husbands  in  these  payments,  as  well 
as  in  their  general  matters,  the  company,  in  employing  labor,  gave  the 
preference  to  the  married  men.  The  colony  now  increased  in  a  marked 
degree,  emigrants  coming  out  so  rapidly  from  England  that  by  1621 
there  were  4000  persons  in  Virginia.  It  having  become  understood  that 
the  colony  had  passed  the  stage  at  which  failure  was  possible,  and  had 
become  a  permanent  state,  the  new  emigrants  were  largely  men  of  family, 
who  brought  their  households  with  them. 

In  July,  1621,  the  London  Company,  which  was  now  controlled  by 
the  patriot  party  in  England,  granted  to  Virginia  a  written  constitution, 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

which  gave  to  the  colony  a  form  of  government  similai-  tc  that  of  Eng- 
land herself.  A  governor  and  permanent  council  were  to  be  appointed 
by  the  company.  The  house  of  burgesses  was  to  have  the  power  of 
enacting  such  laws  as  should  be  needed  for  the  general  good,  but  no  law 
so  enacted  was  to  l>c  valid  unless  approved  by  the  company.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  orders  of  the  court  in  Lo.idon  were  to  be  binding  in 
Virginia  unless  ratified  by  the  house  of  burgesses.  Courts  of  justice 
were  established  and  ordered  to  be  administered  according  to  the  law-' 
and  forms  of  trial  in  use  in  England.  Thus  the  common  law  of  England 
was  firmly  established  in  Virginia,  aud  under  its  beneficent  protection 
the  colony  advanced  steadily  in  prjsperity.  The  colonists  were  to  be  no 
longer  merely  the  subjects  of  a  commercial  corporation,  and  as  such  to 
hold  their  liberties  and  property  at  the  pleasure  of  their  masters;  but 
W2re  definitely  accorded  the  right  to  govern  themselves,  and  to  take 
such  measures  for  their  safety  .ind  prosperity  as  in  their  judgment  should 
seem  best,  "  On  this  ordinance,"  says  Bancroft,  "  Virginia  erected  the 
superstructure  of  her  libjrcies.  Its  influences  were  wide  and  enduring, 
and  can  be  traced  through  all  her  history.  It  constituted  the  plantation, 
in  its  infancy,  a  nursei y  of  freemen  ;  and  succeeding  generations  learned 
to  cherish  institutions  which  were  as  old  as  the  first  period  of  the  pros- 
perity of  their  fyiheir.  The  privileges  then  conceded  could  never  be 
wrested  from  the  Virginians;  and  as  new  colonies  arose  at  the  South 
their  proprietaries  could  hope  to  win  emigrants  only  by  bestowing 
franchises  as  large  as  those  enjoyed  by  their  elder  rival.  The  London 
Company  merits  the  praise  of  having  auspi^ted  liberty  in  America. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  public  act  during  the  reign  of  King 
James  was,  uf  more  permanent  or  pervading  influence ;  and  it  reflects 
glory  on  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  and  the  patriot 
party  of  England,  that,  though  they  were  unable  to  establish  guarantees 
of  a  liberal  administration  at  home,  they  were  careful  to  connect  popular 
freedom  inseparably  with  the  life,  prosperity  and  state  of  society  ir 

tr*       •     •      M 

Virginia. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PROGRESS    OF   THE   VIRGINIA   COLONY. 

Introduction  of  Negro  Slavery  into  Virginia — Efforts  of  the  Assembly  to  Restrict  Slarwy 
— The  Indians  Attempt  the  Destruction  of  the  Colony — Terrible  Sufferings  of  the 
Whites — Aid  from  England — The  Indian  War  Begun— King  James  Revokes  <ho 
Charter  of  the  London  Company — Charles  I.  Desires  a  Monopoly  of  the  Tobacco  Trade 
— Action  of  the  Assembly — Sir  William  Berkeley's  FinA  Administration — Severe 
Measures  against  Dissenters — Close  of  the  Indian  War — Death  of  Opechancanough — 
Emigration  of  Royalists  to  Virginia — Virginia  and  the  Commonwealth — Treaty  with 
England — The  Assembly  Asserts  its  Independence  of  the  Governor — The  Restoration — 
Berkeley  Chosen  Governor  by  the  Assembly— His  Hypocrisy. 

[N  August,  1619,  a  few  months  after  the  meeting  of  the  first  colonial 
legislature,  there  occurred  an  event  which  was  destined  to  influ- 
ence  the  history  of  Virginia  and  of  America  for  remote  genera- 
tions, perhaps  forever.  A  Dutch  vessel  of  war  entered  the 
James  river  and  offered  twenty  negroes  for  sale  as  slaves.  These  were 
purchased  by  the  planters,  and  negro  slavery  was  thus  established  in 
Virginia.  Laborers  were  in  demand,  and  the  necessity  for  them  blinded 
the  planters  to  the  evil  they  were  fastening  upon  the  colony.  The  first 
importation  was  followed  by  others,  the  infamous  business  being  princi- 
pally in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  at  this  period.  Still  the  blacks  increased 
very  slowly.  The  legislature  from  the  first  discouraged  the  traffic  by  a 
heavy  tax  upon  female  slaves. 

Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  the  first  governor  appointed  under  the  new  consti- 
tution, reached  Virginia  in  1621,  and  the  new  laws  were  soon  in  success- 
ful operation.  Soon  after  his  arrival  a  terrible  misfortune  befell  the 
colony,  and  almost  caused  its  destruction.  For  some  time  there  had  been 
bad  blood  between  the  whites  and  the  Indians.  Powhatan,  the  friend 
of  the  English,  was  dead,  and  Opechancanough,  the  veteran  chief,  who, ' 
since  the  death  of  Powhatan,  had  become  the  leader  of  the  nation,  was 
bitterly  hostile  to  the  English,  and  not  without  reason.  The  savages, 
originally  held  the  best  lands  in  the  colony,  but  the  whites,  when  these* 
lands  were  wanted,  took  possession  of  them  without  regard  to  the  rights 
of  their  dusky  owners.  The  Indians,  unable  to  contend  with  the  whiter 
in  open  conflict,  saw  themselves  driven  steadily  away  from  their  aecus- 
8  113. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

tomcd  homes,  and  menaced  with  total  destruction  by  the  superior  race. 
Opechancanough,  though  outwardly  friendly  to  the  colonists,  now  secretly 
resolved  upon  their  destruction,  and  sought  to  accomplish  this  by 
treachery.  There  Avere  about  five  thousand  Indians,  of  whom  fifteen 
hundred  were  warriors,  within  sixty  miles  of  Jamestown,  and  the  whiter 
in  the  same  region  numbered  in  all  .about  four  thousand.  These  were 
scattered  in  fancied  safety  along  both  sides  of  the  James  and  for  some 
distance  into  the  interior.  A  plot  was  organized  by  the  Indian  leader  for 
the  extermination  of  every  settlor  in  the  colony.  At  noon  on  a  designated 
day  every  settlement  was  to  be  surprised  and  all  the  inhabitants  mur- 
dered. The  savages  in  the  meantime  kept  up  their  pretence  of  friendship. 
Opechancanough  declared  with  fervor,  "  Sooner  shall  the  sky  fall  than 
my  friendship  for  the  English  should  cease."  So  unsuspicious  were  the 
English  that  to  the  very  last  moment  they  received  the  savages  amongst 
them  without  fear  of  harm,  and  in  many  places  the  latter  were  at  the 
instant  of  the  massacre  in  the  houses  of  the  people  they  meant  to  destroy. 

On  the  22d  of  March,  1622,  a  general  attack  was  made  by  the  savagr-g 
upon  all  the  settlements  of  the  colony.  On  the  previous  night  the  plot 
had  been  revealed  to  a  converted  Indian,  named  Chauco,  who  at  once 
hastened  to  Jamestown  and  gave  warning  of  the  danger.  The  alarm 
spread  rapidly  to  the  nearest  settlements,  but  those  at  a  distance  could  not 
be  reached  in  time  to  avert  their  fate.  Those  settlements  which  had  been 
warned  were  able  to  offer  a  successful  resistance  to  their  assailants,  and 
some  of  those  which  were  surprised  beat  off  the  Indians ;  but  the  num- 
ber of  victims,  men,  women,  and  children,  who  fell  this  day  amounted  to 
three  hundred  and  forty-seven.  All  these  were  slain  within  an  hour, 
and  their  fate  would  have  been  shared  by  the  whole  colony  but  for  the 
warning  of  the  friendly  Indian. 

The  effect  upon  the  colony  was  appalling.  The  distant  plantations  had 
been  destroyed  by  the  savages,  and  out  of  eighty  settlements  eight  alone 
survived.  These,  and  especially  Jamestown,  were  crowded  beyond  their 
capacity  with  fugitives  who  had  fled  to  them  for  shelter.  Sickness  soon, 
began  to  prevail,  the  public  works  were  discontinued,  and  private  indus- 
try was  greatly  diminished.  A  gloom  rested  over  the  entire  colony,  and 
the  population  fell  off.  At  the  end  of  two  years  after  the  massacre,  the 
number  of  inhabitants  had  been  reduced  to  two  thousand.  Much  sym- 
pathy was  manifested  for  the  suffering  colonists  by  the  people  of  England 
The  city  of  London  sent  them  liberal  assistance,  and  private  individuals 
subscribed  to  their  need.  King  James  was  aroused  into  an  affectation  of 
generous  sympathy,  and  sent  over  to  the  colony  a  supply  of  muskets 
which  had  been  condemned  as  worthless  in  England. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  VIRGINIA  COLONY.  115 

The  whites  recovered  from  their  gloom,  and  on  their  part  began  to 
form  plans  for  the  extermination  of  their  foes.  During  the  next  ten 
years  expeditions  were  sent  against  the  Indians  at  frequent  intervals.  The 
object  kept  sternly  in  view  was  to  either  destroy  the  savages  altogether, 
or  force  them  back  from  the  seaboard  into  the  interior.  As  late  as  1630 
it  was  ordered  by  the  general  assembly  that  no  peace  should  be  made 
with  the  Indians. 

An  important  change  now  occurred  in  the  fortunes  of  the  colony.  The 
London  Company  was  bankrupt,  and  its  stockholders  having  abandoned 
all  hope  of  gain  from  the  colony,  held  on  to  their  shares  merely  as  a 
means  of  exercising  political  power.  The  company  was  divided  between 
two  parties.  One  of  these  favored  the  direct  rule  of  the  colony  by  the 
sovereign,  the  other  maintained  the  independent  government  of  the 
province  by  its  own  legislature  under  the  constitution  granted  to  it. 
The  debates  between  these  factions  greatly  annoyed  the  king,  who  could 
never  tolerate  the  expression  of  an  independent  opinion  by  any  of  his 
subjects.  He  endeavored  in  various  ways  to  silence  these  disputes,  and 
to  regain  the  powers  he  had  relinquished  to  the  company,  but  the  latter 
firmly  refused  to  surrender  their  charter,  and  the  colonists,  who  feared 
that  the  king  might  seek  to  impose  his  own  arbitrary  will  upon  them  in 
the  place  of  their  constitution  and  the  laws  of  England,  sustained  the 
company  in  its  refusal.  In  spite  of  this  opposition,  however,  James 
carried  his  point.  The  charter  of  the  company  was  revoked,  and  Vir- 
ginia was  made  a  royal  province.  The  company  appealed  to  the  courts, 
but  these  being  under  the  influence  of  the  crown  sustained  the  king. 
Their  decision  was  rendered  in  June,  1624.  James  did  not  interfere  with 
any  of  the  liberties  or  privileges  of  Virginia,  however.  Sir  Francis 
Wyatt  was  retained  in  his  office  of  governor,  and  the  colony  was  leA 
under  the  laws  and  in  possession  of  the  privileges  secured  to  it  in  1621. 
James  announced  his  intention  to  prepare  a  code  of  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  Virginia,  but  fortunately  for  that  province  he  died  before  he 
could  execute  his  design. 

Charles  I.  succeeded  his  father  on  the  English  throne  on  the  27th  of 
March,  1625.  He  was  favorably  disposed  toward  the  colony,  for  he  did 
not  suppose  the  principles  of  civil  liberty  had  taken  so  deep  a  root  in  it, 
and,  moreover,  he  wished  to  secure  for  the  crown  the  monopoly  of  the 
tobacco  trade.  He  carried  his  condescension  to  the  extent  of  recognizing 
the  house  of  burgesses  as  a  legislative  body  and  requesting  it  to  pass  a 
bill  restricting  the  sales  of  tobacco  to  the  crown.  The  house  answered 
him  respectfully,  but  firmly,  that  to  grant  his  majesty's  request  would  be 
to  injure  the  trade  of  the  colony.  Defeated  in  this  effort  to  secure  this 


fl6  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

monopoly  the  king  continued  throughout  his  reign  to  seek  to  get  the 
tobacco  trade  into  his  hands.  He  declared  London  to  be  the  sole  market 
for  the  sale  of  tobacco,  and  endeavored  in  many  ways,  and  in  vain,  to 
regulate  the  trade. 

In  the  meantims  Sir  Francis  Wyatt  retired  from  the  government  of 
the  colony,  and  Sir  George  Yeardley  was  appointed  his  successor,  in 
1626.  The  latter  died  the  next  year,  and  Francis  West  was  elected 
governor  by  the  council  until  the  pleasure  of  the  king  should  be  known. 
Upon  the  receipt  in  England  of  the  news  of  Yeard  ley's  death,  Charles 
appointed  Sir  John  Harvey  governor  of  Virginia.  At  the  same  time  he 
granted  to  the  council  in  Virginia  authority  to  fill  all  vacancies  occurring 
in  their  body.  Previous  to  the  arrival  of  Harvey,  West  was  succeeded 
by  another  governor,  named  Pott,  elected  by  the  council. 

Harvey  reached  Virginia  late  in  the  autumn  of  1629,  and  remained  in 
office  until  1639.  He  was  greatly  disliked,  and  his  failure  to  enforce  the 
claims  of  Virginia  against  the  colony  of  Maryland,  which  was  planted 
in  1634  upon  territory  embraced  within  the  original  grant  to  Virginia, 
made  him  still  more  unpopular.  In  1635  he  was  removed  from  office 
by  the  council,  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  king  by  both  Harvey  and 
the  council.  Harvey  returned  to  England  to  manage  his  case,  and  John 
West  was  appointed  governor  until  the  decision  of  the  case  by  the  king. 
Harvey  succeeded  in  defeating  his  opponents,. who  were  not  even  allowed 
a  hearing  in  England,  and  returned  to  Virginia  in  January,  1636,  and 
resumed  his  place  as  governor.  The  complaints  against  him  were  so 
numerous,  that  in  1639  he  was  removed  by  the  king,  who  appointed  Sir 
Francis  Wyatt  his  successor.  In  1641  Wyatt  was  succeeded  by  Sir 
William  Berkeley,  who  reached  Jamestown  in  1642.  In  the  spring  of 
this  year,  an  effort  was  made  to  revive  the  London  Company,  but  Vir- 
ginia, which  was  now  a  royal  province,  opposed  the  measure,  and  urged 
the  king  to  allow  her  to  remain  in  the  exercise  of  the  self-government 
which  had  contributed  in  so  marked  a  degree  to  her  prosperity.  The 
king,  impressed  with  the  force  of  the  arguments  by  which  this  appeal 
was  sustained,  declared  his  intention  to  make  no  change  in  the  colonial 
government. 

Berkeley,  during  his  first  administration,  proved  in  the  main  a  good 

governor,  and  the  colony  continued  to  improve.     The  courts  of  justice 

were  brought  as  near  as  possible  to  the  English  standard,  and  the  titles' 

to  lands  were  arranged  upon  a  more  satisfactory  basis  than  had  hitherto 

been  found  possible.     Taxes  were  assessed  according  to  the  wealth  of  the 

ettlers,  and  a  treaty  was  arranged  with  Maryland  by  which  the  vexed 

uestions  between  the  two  colonies  were  satisfactorily  adjusted.     The  Vir- 


P30GKESS  OF  THE  VIRGINIA   COLONY.  117 

ginians,  accustomed  to  freedom,  were  in  all  things,  save  their  acknowl- 
edgment of  the  king's  supremacy,  a  practically  independent  nation,  so 
little  were  they  interfered  with  by  the  sovereign.  The  colony  was  de- 
voted to  the  established  church  of  England,  and  even  at  this  early  day  there 
were  severe  laws  for  the  enforcement  of  conformity  to  its  rules,  and  for 
the  punishment  of  dissenters.  When  Puritan  ministers  came  from  New 
England  into  the  colony  in  1643,  they  were  banished  by  the  colonial 
government,  notwithstanding  they  had  been  invited  into  Virginia  by  the 
Puritan  settlements  in  that  province.  The  majority  of  the  Virginians, 
with  the  governor  at  their  head,  were  royalists  and  staunch  friends  of  the 
king.  The  Puritans  living  in  the  colony  were  regarded  with  suspicion, 
and  when  they  refused  to  conform  to  the  established  church,  it  was  ordered 
that  they  should  be  banished.  Many  of  them  passed  over  into  Maryland 
and  settled  there.  With  the  exception  of  this  harmless  bigotry,  the 
colony  took  no  share  in  the  great  quarrel  which  was  rending  the  mother 
country  in  twain.  It  was  rather  a  gainer  by  it,  as  the  troubles  which 
encompassed  Charles  I.  compelled  him  to  cease  his  efforts  to  interfere  with 
the  trade  of  the  planters. 

The  chief  trouble  of  this  period  was  with  the  Indians.  There  had 
been  no  peace  with  them  since  the  massacre  of  1622,  but  frequent  expedi- 
tions had  been  sent  against  them.  In  1644,  the  savages,  led  by  their 
veteran  chieftain  Opechancanough,  resolved  to  make  one  more  effort  to 
exterminate  the  whites,  forgetting  that  in  the  twenty  years  that  elapsed 
their  enemies  had  grown  stronger,  while  they  had  grown  weaker.  On 
the  18th  of  April  the  frontier  settlements  were  attacked,  and  three 
hundred  of  the  settlers  were  put  to  death.  The  whites  at  once  inaugu- 
rated vigorous  measures  for  their  defence,  and  a  sharp  warfare  was  waged 
upon  the  savages  until  October,  1646.  It  was  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
capture  of  Opechancanough,  who  was  so  decrepit  that  he  was  unable  to 
walk,  and  was  carried  about  in  the  arms  of  his  people.  His  flesh  was 
emaciated,  the  sinews  so  relaxed,  and  his  eyelids  so  heavy  that  whenever 
he  desired  to  see  they  were  lifted  by  his  attendants.  Yet  still  the  vigor 
of  his  intellect  remained  to  him,  and  he  was  to  the  last  both  feared  by 
his  enemies  and  loved  by  his  people.  Berkeley,  having  taken  him  prisoner, 
exposed  him  to  the  rude  gaze  of  the  colonists,  an  indignity  which  stung 
the  proud  monarch  of  the  forest  to  the  heart.  On  one  occasion,  hearing 
that  the  governor  was  approaching,  he  caused  his  eyelids  to  be  raised,  and 
fixing  upon  his  captor  a  look  of  stern  rebuke,  said  to  him,  "If  Sir  William 
Berkeley  had  become  my  prisoner,  I  should  not  thus  meanly  have  exposed 
him  as  a  show  to  my  people."  A  few  days  later,  Opechancanough  was 
basely  assassinated  by  one  of  the  colonists  charged  with  the  duty  of  guard-' 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ing  him.  Thus  perished  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  native  chieftains  of 
America.  In  October,  1C46,  Necotowance,  the  successor  of  Opechancan- 
ough  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  colony,  by  which  he  and  his  people 
relinquished  to  the  English  the  lands  that  had  been  the  heritage  of  their 
fathers,  and  withdrew  into  the  interior.  Their  power  was  completely 
broken,  and  submission  was  all  that  was  left  to  them. 

Virginia  was  now  on  the  high  road  to  prosperity.  The  population  at 
the  close  of  the  year  1648  numbered  twenty  thousand,  and  was  increasing 
rapidly.  A  fair  trade  had  been  built  up  with  other  countries,  and  at 
Christmas  of  this  year  "there  were  trading  in  Virginia  ten  ships  from 
London,  two  from  Bristol,  twelve  Hollanders,  and  seven  from  New 
England."  The  quarrels  of  the  mother  country  had  not  affected  the 
colony,  though  a  thrill  of  horror  and  indignation  ran  through  all  Virginia 
when  the  news  was  received  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  Upon  the 
fall  of  that  monarch  a  large  number  of  the  royalist  party  in  Englant^ 
unwilling  to  submit  to  or  make  any  compromise  with  the  Parliament,  fled 
to  Virginia,  and  were  received  there  with  sympathizing  hospitality  by  the 
government  and  people.  Many  of  them  made  the  colony  their  perma- 
nent home,  and  thus  began  the  pleasant  relations  between  Virginia  and 
England,  which  have  in  numerous  cases  remained  unbroken.  The  Vir- 
ginians regarded  Charles  II.,  then  an  exile  at  Breda,  as  their  rightful 
sovereign,  and  it  was  seriously  proposed  to  him  to  come  over  to  America 
and  be  king  of  Virginia.  Charles'  interests  obliged  him  to  remain  in 
Europe,  but  he  continued  to  regard  himself  as  king  of  Virginia.  From 
this  circumstance  Virginia  came  to  be  called  "  The  Old  Dominion." 

The  Parliament,  however,  did  not  long  suffer  the  colony  to  maintain 
this  attitude.  Having  triumphed  over  all  its  enemies  in  Ejirope  it 
prepared  to  enforce  its  authority  in  America.  In  1650  an  ordinance  was 
passed  forbidding  all  intercourse  with  the  colonies  that  had  adhered  to 
the  Stuarts,  except  by  the  especial  permission  of  Parliament  or  the  Council 
of  State.  In  the  spring  of  1652  more  energetic  measures  were  put  in 
force,  and  a  fleet  was  despatched  to  America  to  compel  the  submission  of 
the  colonies.  The  fleet  arrived  off  Jamestown.  No  resistance  was 
attempted,  for  the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  commonwealth  were 
instructed  to  grant  terms  honorable  to  both  parties.  The  Virginians  wen- 
prepared  to  resist  any  attempt  to  force  them  into  submission,  but  they 
were  disarmed  by  the  liberal  spirit  with  which  the  commonwealth  nu ' 
them,  and  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  England  and  Virginia,  as  equal 
treating  with  equal.  It  was  stipulated  : 

"  First.  That  this  should  be  considered  a  voluntary  act,  not  forced  or 
constrained  by  a  conquest  upon  the  country ;  and  that  the  colony  should 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  VIRGINIA   VOLONY.  119 

have  and  enjoy  such  freedoms  and  privileges  as  belong  to  the  freeborn 
people  of  England. 

"Secondly.  That  the  grand  assembly,  as  formerly,  should  conv2n« 
and  transact  the  affairs  of  Virginia,  doing  nothing  contrary  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  commonwealth  or  laws  of  England. 

"Thirdly.  That  there  should  be  a  full  and  total  remission  of  all  acts, 
words,  or  writings  against  the  Parliament. 

"  Fourthly.  That  Virginia  should  have  her  ancient  bounds  and  limits, 
granted  by  the  charters  of  the  former  kings,  and  that  a  new  charter  was 
to  be  sought  from  Parliament  to  that  effect,  against  such  as  had  trespassed 
against  their  ancient  rights. 

"  Fifthly.  That  all  patents  of  land  under  the  seal  of  the  colony,  granted 
by  the  governor,  should  remain  in  full  force. 

"Sixthly.  That  the  privilege  of  fifty  acres  of  land  for  every  person 
emigrating  to  the  colony  should  remain  in  full  force. 

"  Seventhly.  That  the  people  of  Virginia  have  free  trade,  as  the  people 
of  England  enjoy,  with  all  places  and  nations,  according  to  the  laws  of 
the  commonwealth ;  and  that  Virginia  should  enjoy  equal  privileges,  in 
every  respect,  with  any  other  colony  in  America. 

"  Eighthly.  That  Virginia  should  be  free  from  all  taxes,  customs,  and 
impositions  whatsoever ;  and  that  none  should  be  imposed  upon  them 
without  the  consent  of  their  grand  assembly ;  and  no  forts  or  castles  bd 
erected,  or  garrison  maintained,  without  their  consent. 

"Ninthly.  That  no  charge  should  be  required  from  the  country  on 
account  of  the  expense  incurred  in  the  present  fleet. 

"Tenthly.  That  this  agreement  should  be  tendered  to  all  persons,  and 
that  such  as  should  refuse  to  "subscribe  to  it  should  have  a  year's  time  to 
remove  themselves  and  effects  from  Virginia,  and  in  the  meantime  enjoy 
equal  justice." 

"These  terms/'  says  Bancroft,  "so  favorable  to  liberty,  and  almost 
conceding  independence,  were  faithfully  observed  until  the  restoration. 
Historians  have,  indeed,  drawn  gloomy  pictures  of  the  discontent  which 
pervaded  the  colony,  and  have  represented  the  discontent  as  heightened 
by  commercial  oppression.  The  statement  is  a  fiction.  The  colony  of 
Virginia  enjoyed  liberties  as  large  as  the  favored  New  England ;  displayed 
an  equal  degree  of  fondness  for  popular  sovereignty,  and  fearlessly 
exercised  political  independence." 

Richard  Bennett,  one  of  the  commissioners,  was  chosen  governor  in  the 
place  of  Berkeley.  Until  now  it  had  been  customary  for  the  governor 
and  council  to  sit  in  the  assembly,  and  take  part  in  the  debates.  Objec- 
tion was  now  made  to  their  presence,  and  the  matter  was  compromised  by 
obliging  them  to  take  t«e  oath  required  of  the  burgesses.  During  th<» 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

protectorate  Cromwell  wisely  let  the  colony  alone.  He  appointed  none 
of  the  governors,  and  never  interfered  with  the  management  of  its  affairs. 
In  1658,  Samuel  Mathews  being  governor,  the  assembly,  on  the  1st  of 
April,  passed  a  law  excluding  the  governor  and  council  from  their  sessions, 
and  thus  secured  to  themselves  a  free  and  uninterrupted  discussion  of  their 
measures.  The  governor  and  council  in  return  declared  the  assembly 
dissolved,  but  that  body  vindicated  its  authority  and  independence  by 
removing  the  governor  and  council,  and  compelled  them  to  submit.  They 
were  then  reelected  to  their  respective  positions.  Thus  did  the  spirit 
of  popular  liberty  establish  all  its  claims. 

Upon  the  death  of  Cromwell,  the  house  of  burgesses  met  in  secret 
session  and  decided  to  recognize  Richard  Cromwell  as  protector.  "It 
was  a  more  interesting  question  whether  the  change  of  protector  in  Eng- 
land would  endanger  liberty  in  Virginia.  The  letter  from  the  council 
had  left  the  government  to  be  administered  according  to  former  usage. 
The  assembly  declared  itself  satisfied  with  the  language.  But  that  there 
might  be  no  reason  to  question  the  existing  usage,  the  governor  was 
summoned  to  come  to  the  house,  where  he  appeared  in  person,  deliberately 
acknowledged  the  supreme  power  of  electing  officers  to  be,  by  the  present 
laws,  resident  in  the  assembly,  and  pledged  himself  to  join  in  addressing 
the  new  protector  for  special  confirmation  of  all  existing  privileges.  The 
reason  for  this  extraordinary  proceeding  is  assigned,  '  that  what  was  their 
privilege  now,  might  be  the  privilege  of  their  posterity/  The  frame  of 
the  Virginia  government  was  deemed  worthy  of  being  transmitted  to 
remote  generations."  * 

Governor  Mathews  died  in  March,  1660,  about  the  time  of  the  resigna- 
tion of  Richard  Cromwell  in  England.  Both  the  mother  country  and  the 
Colony  were  thus  left  without  a  government.  In  this  emergency  the 
general  assembly  of  Virginia  resolved  "that  the  supreme  government  of 
this  country  shall  be  resident  in  the  assembly,  and  all  writs  shall  issue  in 
its  name,  until  there  shall  arrive  from  England  a  commission,  which  the 
assembly  itself  shall  adjudge  to  be  lawful."  The  assembly  had  no  thought 
of  asserting  its  independence  of  England,  but  as  it  cherished  the  earnest 
hope  that  the  king  would  be  restored  to  his  rights,  it  proceeded  to  fill  the 
vacancy  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Governor  Mathews  by  electing  Sir 
William  Berkeley,  the  devoted  partisan  of  the  Stuarts,  governor  of  Vir- 
ginia. Berkeley  accepted  the  office,  acknowledged  the  validity  of  the 
acts  of  the  assembly,  and  expressed  his  conviction  that  he  could  in  no 
event  dissolve  that  body.  "I  am,"  said  he,  "but  the  servant  of  the 
fcssembly."  We  shall  see  in  the  course  of  this  narrative  how  he  regarded 
this  promise  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events. 

*  History  of  the  United  Slides.     By  Geo.  Bancroft,  vol.  i.,  p.  228. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

VIRGINIA   AFTER   THE    RESTORATION. 

Characteristics  of  the  Virginians — Causes  of  the  Success  of  the  Royalists — Growth  of  tn« 
Aristocratic  Class — Berkeley  decides  against  the  People — The  Aristocratic  Assembly 
Claims  the  Right  to  sit  Perpetually — Deprives  the  Common  People  of  their  Liberties — 
Revival  of  the  Navigation  Act  by  Charles  II. — The  King  bestows  Virginia  as  a  Gift 
upon  his  Favorites — Protests  of  the  Assembly — Growing  Hostility  of  the  Virginians  to 
the  Colonial  Government — The  Indian  War — The  Governor  Refuses  to  allow  the 
Colonists  to  Defend  themselves — Nathaniel  Bacon — He  Marches  against  the  Indians — 
Rebellion  of  the  People  against  Berkeley  and  the  Assembly — The  Convention — Repeal 
of  the  Obnoxious  Laws — Berkeley's  Duplicity — The  People  take  up  Arms — Flight  of 
Berkeley — Destruction  of  Jamestown — Death  of  Bacon — Causes  of  the  Failure  of  the 
Rebellion — Berkeley's  Triumph — Execution  of  the  Patriot  Leaders — Berkeley's  Course 
Condemned  by  the  King — Death  of  Berkeley — The  Unjust  Laws  Re-enacted — Lord 
Culpepper  Governor — His  Extortions — James  II.  and  Virginia — Effects  upon  Virginia 
of  the  Revolution  of  1688 — William  and  Mary  College  Founded. 

• 
I 

|N  the  8th  of  May,  1660,  Charles  II.  was  proclaimed  king  in 
England,  and  on  the  29th  made  his  entry  into  London.  The 
rebellion  and  the  commonwealth  had  produced  but  little  effect 
upon  Virginia.  The  restoration  was  productive  of  the  most 
momentous  consequences  in  the  colony.  During  the  long  period 
of  the  commonwealth  Virginia  had  been  practically  independent.  The 
people  had  acquired  political  rights,  and  had  exercised  them  with 
prudence.  The  colony  had  prospered  in  a  marked  degree  under  the 
blessings  of  popular  government,  and  the  rights  of  the  people  were 
jealously  guarded  by  their  legislators.  "  No  trace  of  established  privi- 
lege appeared  in  its  code  or  its  government:  in  its  forms  and  in  its 
legislation  Virginia  was  a  representative  democracy ;  so  jealous  of  a 
landed  aristocracy  that  it  insisted  on  universality  of  suffrage;  so  hostile 
to  the  influence  of  commercial  wealth,  that  it  would  not  tolerate  the 
'  mercenary '  ministers  of  the  law ;  so  considerate  for  religious  freedom, 
that  each  parish  was  left  to  take  care  of  itself.  Every  officer  was, 
directly  or  indirectly,  chosen  by  the  people."  *  The  restoration  was  to 
change  all  this. 

*  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii.,  p.  188. 

121 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  society  of  Virginia  was  peculiar.  The  colony  had  been  settled 
by  adventurers  under  circumstances  which  compelled  equality  among  all 
classes  of  its  people.  Thus  there  had  grown  up  a  strong  population  born 
to  the  enjoyment  of  this  equality,  and  devoted  to  its  maintenance.  They 
constituted  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants.  By  degrees  there  had  sprung 
up  a  colonial  aristocracy  composed  of  the  large  landholders.  These  were 
persons  of  culture,  many  of  whom  had  been  men  of  position  and  educa- 
tion in  England.  The  laws  favored  the  accumulation  of  large  estates, 
and  the  possession  of  them  awakened  feelings  of  family  pride.  The 
large  emigration  of  men  of  rank  and  culture  at  the  overthrow  of  Charles 
I.  greatly  increased  this  class.  The  existence  of  an  established  church 
gave  it  another  element  of  strength,  since  the  interests  of  the  state  church 
and  the  aristocracy  arc  always  identical.  Education  was  almost  entirely 
confined  to  the  landholding  class,  and  with  this  never-failing  weapon  in 
their  grasp  they  soon  obtained  the  direction  of  the  affairs  of  the  colony. 
and  retained  it.  Unfortunately  for  Virginia,  the  mass  of  the  people  had 
no  means  of  acquiring  knowledge.  There  were  no  common  schools  in 
the  colony.  In  1671,  Sir  William  Berkeley  wrote:  "Every  man 
instructs  his  children  according  to  his  ability."  He  added :  "  I  thank 
God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have 
these  hundred  years ;  for  learning  has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy 
and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them  and  libels 
against  the  best  government.  God  keep  us  from  both ! "  Thus  were  the 
common  people  doomed  to  hopeless  ignorance,  and  left  helpless  and  at 
the  mercy  of  the  smaller  but  educated  class.  There  was  no  printing  press 
in  Virginia,  and  the  colony  remained  without  one  until  nearly  a  century 
after  New  England  had  enjoyed  its  benefits.  Bitterly  did  the  people  of 
Virginia  atone  for  their  neglect  of  their  best  interests.  They  had  shown 
at  the  first  the  power  of  creating  free  institutions ;  but  these  institutions 
cannot  be  preserved  among  an  ignorant  people.  Freedom  and  intelli- 
gence go  hand  in  hand.  The  institution  of  negro  slavery  M-as  another 
element  of  weakness  and  degradation.  Labor  was  debased  in  the  eyes 
of  the  whites  by  being  made  the  task  of  a  slave,  when  it  should  have 
been  the  glory  of  a  freeman.  The  institution  served  to  confirm  the 
power  of  the  landed  aristocracy,  while  it  sank  the  common  people  deeper 
into  ignorance. 

Thus  when  Sir  William  Berkeley  entered  upon  his  second  term  of 
office,  at  the  period  of  the  restoration,  there  were  two  elements,  by  nature 
hostile  to  each  other,  contending  for  the  control  of  the  colony — a  people 
eager  for  the  enjoyment  of  popular  liberty,  but  sinking  deeper  into 
ignorance  and  helplessness,  and  a  rising  aristocracy,  composed  of  men  of 


VIRGINIA  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  123 

wealth  and  education,  and  united  by  a  common  interest.  Unhappily  for 
the  people,  the  governor  was  a  natural  aristocrat.  In  spite  of  his  profes- 
sions of  loyalty  to  the  assembly,  he  regarded  the  people  with  contempt, 
and  could  never  tolerate  the  exercise  of  the  least  of  their  rights. 

In  the  midst  of  the  rejoicings  in  Virginia  which  hailed  the  return  of 
Charles  II.  to  the  throne  of  his  fathers,  Berkeley  took  a  decisive  stand, 
and  boldly  declared  that  he  was  governor  of  Virginia,  not  by  the  election 
of  the  assembly,  but  by  virtue  of  his  commission  from  the  king.  At  the 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  VIRGINIA  SETTLEMENTS  BY  THE  INDIANS. 

same  time  he  issued  writs  for  the  election  of  a  new  assembly  in  the  name 
of  King  Charles.  Popular  sovereignty  was  struck  dead  in  Virginia. 
The  new  assembly  met  in  March,  1661.  It  was  composed  exclusively  of 
landholders.  Until  now  the  assembly  had  been  elected  for  but  a  single 
year,  and  its  members  were  chosen  by  the  people.  This  first  aristocratic 
assembly,  true  to  its  instincts,  at  a  blow  deprived  the  people  of  the  right 
of  choosing  their  representatives,  by  assuming  to  itself  the  power  to  sit 
perpetually.  Sustained  by  the  governor,  the  burgesses  were  enabled  to 


124  HISTORY  Ol'  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

continue  their  usurpation  for  fourteen  years,  and  only  yielded  to  an 
insurrection.  The  salaries  of  the  members  were  paid  by  their  respective 
counties,  and  the  house,  in  1662,  passed  a  law  regulating  the  pay  and 
allowances  of  its  members.  The  compensation  was  fixed  at  two  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco  per  day,  or  about  nine  dollars — a  rate  deemed 
.enormous  in  these  days  of  abundant  wealth,  and  utterly  unsuited  to  the 
period  of  poverty  and  struggle  we  are  considering.  In  order  to  perpetu- 
ate its  power,  the  assembly  repealed  the  laws  giving  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  every  citizen,  and  confined  it  to  freeholders  and  housekeepers. 

Nor  did  the  assembly  neglect  to  provide  for  the  church.  Conformity 
was  required  by  severe  laws.  Every  inhabitant  of  the  colony  was  com- 
pelled to  attend  its  services  and  to  contribute  a  fixed  sum  to  its  support. 
The  assessment  of  parish  taxes  was  intrusted  to  twelve  vestrymen  in 
each  parish,  who  had  power  to  fill  all  vacancies  in  their  number.  They 
thus  became  practically  a  close  corporation,  responsible  to  no  one  for 
their  acts.  Rigorous  laws  were  directed  against  the  Quakers.  They 
were  forbidden  to  hold  their  own  religious  assemblies,  and  their  absence 
from  church  was  punished  by  a  heavy  fine.  In  September,  1663,  the 
house  expelled  one  of  its  members  "  because  he  was  well  affected  to  the 
Quakers." 

"The  organization  of  the  judiciary  placed  that  department  of  the 
government  almost  beyond  the  control  of  the  people.  The  governor  and 
council  were  the  highest  ordinary  tribunal,  and  these  were  all  appointed, 
directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  crown.  Besides  this,  there  were  in  each 
county  eight  unpaid  justices  of  the  peace,  commissioned  by  the  governor 
during  his  pleasure.  These  justices  held  monthly  courts  in  their 
respective  counties.  Thus  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  counties 
was  in  the  hands  of  persons  holding  their  offices  at  the  good  will  of  the 
governor ;  while  the  governor  himself  and  his  executive  council  consti- 
tuted the  general  court,  and  had  cognizance  of  all  sorts  of  causes.  Was 
an  appeal  made  to  chancery,  it  was  but  for  another  hearing  before  the 
same  men ;  and  it  was  only  for  a  few  years  longer  that  appeals  were 
permitted  from  the  general  court  to  the  assembly.  The  place  of  sheriff 
in  each  county  was  conferred  on  one  of  the  justices  for  that  county,  and 

so  devolved  to  every  commissioner  in  course But  the  county 

courts,  thus  independent  of  the  people,  possessed  and  exercised  the  arbi- 
trary power  of  levying  county  taxes,  which,  in  their  amount,  usually 
exceeded  the  public  levy.  This  system  proceeded  so  far  that  the  com- 
missioners, of  themselves,  levied  taxes  to  meet  their  own  expenses.  In 
like  manner,  the  self-perpetuating  vestries  made  out  their  lists  of  tith- 
ables,  and  assessed  taxes  without  regard  to  the  consent  of  the  parish. 


VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  125 

These  private  levies  were  unequal  and  oppressive,  were  seldom — it  is 
said,  never — brought  to  audit,  and  were,  in  some  cases  at  least,  managed 
by  men  who  combined  to  defraud  the  public."  * 

These  were  the  effects  upon  Virginia  of  the  restoration  of  Charles  II. 
to  the  throne  of  England.  The  guarantee  which  a  frequent  renewal  of 
the  assembly  secured  to  the  rights  of  the  people  was  removed  by  tin 
perpetuation  of  that  body.  The  right  of  suffrage — the  sole  protection  oi 
the  liberties  of  a  free  people — was  taken  from  a  majority  of  the  inhab* 
itants  of  the  province.  Religious  liberty,  which  it  was  fondly  believe*) 
had  been  established,  was  struck  down  at  a  single  blow.  A  system  of 
arbitrary  taxation  by  irresponsible  magistrates  was  set  up  in  the  place  of 
the  carefully-scrutinized  levies  of  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
Education  was  discouraged  and  the  press  regarded  with  hostility.  Ignor- 
ance, with  all  its  accompanying  evils,  was  fastened  upon  the  colony.  Ten 
years  sufficed  to  accomplish  these  changes ;  but  it  took  more  than  a  century 
for  the  people  of  Virginia  to  recover  their  lost  rights. 

Charles  II.  remembered  the  loyalty  of  Virginia  only  in  his  adversity. 
One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  revive  in  a  more  odious  form  the  navigation 
act,  which  had  originated  in  the  Long  Par!  iament  as  a  measure  for  com- 
pelling the  submission  of  the  colonies  to  the  authority  of  the  common', 
wealth.  In  1660,  a  new  and  enlarged  navigation  act  was  passed  by 
Parliament.  It  forbade  foreign  vessels  to  trade  with  the  colonies,  and 
required  colonists  to  ship  certain  "  enumerated  articles,  such  as  sugar, 
tobacco,  cotton,  wool,  ginger,  or  dyewoods "  produced  in  the  colony  to 
England  alone.  This  act  bore  very  hard  upon  Virginia,  as  it  gave  to 
the  English  merchants  the  monopoly  of  her  tobacco  trade.  The  mer- 
chants were  thus  enabled  to  regulate  the  price  of  the  commodity,  and  to 
supply  the  wants  of  the  colonists  in  return  upon  their  own  terms, 
Efforts  were  made  to  evade  this  iniquitous  law,  but  it  remained  fastened 
upon  the  colonies,  and  was  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  outrages  by  which 
Great  Britain  broke  the  ties  which  bound  the  people  of  America  to  her. 

Charles  was  not  satisfied  with  crippling  the  industry  of  the  colony  that 
had  remained  faithful  to  him  in  his  adversity.  In  order  to  please  hia 
worthless  favorites  at  home  he  consented  to  plunder  the  Virginians  of 
their  property.  In  1649,  a  patent  was  granted  to  a  company  of  cavaliers 
for  the  region  lying  between  the  Rappahannock  and  the  Potomac,  and 
known  in  Virginia  as  the  Northern  Neck.  It  was  intended  to  make  this 
region  a  refuge  for  their  partisans,  but  the  design  was  never  carried  out. 
Other  settlers  located  themselves  there,  and  in  1669  it  contained  a 
number  of  thriving  plantations.  In  the  latter  year  Lord  Culpepper,  one 

*  History  of  the  United  States.    By  George  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  204-205. 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  the  most  avaricious  men  in  England,  obtained  from  the  king  a  patent 
for  the  Northern  Neck,  having  previously  acquired  all  the  shares  of  the 
company  to  whom  the  grant  of  1649  had  been  made.  This  patent  was 
"/n  direct  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  actual  settlers,  and  bore  very  hard 
upon  th*m.  But  it  was  as  nothing  compared  with  the  next  gift  of  the 
kiiig.  ID  1673,  he  bestowed,  as  a  free  gift,  upon  Lord  Culpepper  and 
the  Eari  of  Arlington,  "alJ  the  dominion  of  land  and  water,  called  Vir- 
ginia," for  a  term  of  thirty-one  years. 

Even  the  aristocratic  assembly  was  startled  by  this  summar)*  disposal 
of  the  colony  and  commissioners  were  sent  to  England  to  remonstrate  with 
the  king.  "  We  are  unwilling,"  the  assembly  declared,  "  and  conceive 
that  we  ought  not  to  submit  to  those  to  whom  his  majesty,  upon  misin- 
formation, hath  granted  the  dominion  i  ver  us,  who  do  most  contentedly 
pay  to  his  majesty  more  than  we  have  ourselves  for  our  labor.  Whilst 
we  labor  for  the  advantage  of  the  crown,  and  do  wish  we  could  be  more 
advantageous  to  the  king  and  nation,  we  humbly  request  not  to  be  sub- 
jected to  our  fellow-subjects,  but,  for  the  future,  to  be  secured  from  our 
fears  of  being  enslaved."  The  commissioners  were  granted  no  satisfac- 
tion in  England,  and  the  efforts  of  the  colony  to  obtain  justice  at  the 
hands  of  the  king  failed. 

Virginia  at  this  time  was  a  sparsely  settled  province.  Jamestown  was 
the  only  town  deserving  the  name  within  the  limits  of  the  colony.  The 
inhabitants  were  scattered  over  the  country,  separated  from  each  other. 
They  dwelt  on  their  farms  and  plantations,  coming  together  rarely  except 
on  Sundays,  on  court-days,  and  at  elections.  This  solitary  life  taught 
them  independence  and  self-reliance.  They  were  proud  of  their  personal 
liberty,  and  so  long  as  this  was  not  taken  from  them  they  were  willing  to 
submit  to  almost  any  form  of  government  that  might  be  imposed  upon 
them.  The  truth  is  that  until  the  restoration  the  Virginians  were  not 
accustomed  to  being  governed  much.  The  measures  of  the  royalist  gov- 
ernor and  assembly  greatly  curtailed  the  freedom  which  the  people  had 
enjoyed  under  their  former  governments,  and  the  imposition  of  new  bur- 
dens upon  them  aroused  a  general  discontent.  Men  began  to  come 
^<jfethcr  to  discuss  their  wrongs,  and  the  hostility  to  the  aristocratic  party 
,anc  the  governor  increased  rapidly,  so  rapidly,  indeed,  that  the  people 
ivere  npe  for  insurrection  in  1674,  and  would  have  risen  in  revolt  had 
not  sorm  of  the  cooler  heads  induced  them  to  try  more  peaceful  measures 
of  redress  Still  the  taxes  were  continued  at  such  a  rate  that  the  col- 
onists were  Iriven  to  desperation.  They  complained,  with  justice,  that 
they  were  deprived  of  all  the  fruits  of  their  labors  by  the  iniquitous 
levies  made  uron  them,  and  their  complaints,  instead  of  producing  a 


VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  127 

change  for  the  better,  merely  brought  an  increase  of  their  burdens.  At 
length  their  patience  was  exhausted,  and  they  only  lacked  an  excuse  for 
taking  up  arms.  The  opportunity  soon  came.  In  the  meantime  the 
governor  and  the  assembly,  with  characteristic  contempt  for  the  commons, 
went  on  extorting  money  from  the  people  by  unjust  taxes  principally  for 
their  own  benefit,  and  put  in  successive  operation  the  measures  we  have 
already  described  for  strengthening  their  own  power,  and  reducing  the 
\>eople  to  subjection  to  them. 

The  people  of  Maryland  had  become  involved  in  a  war  with  the  Sus- 
quehannah  Indians  and  their  confederates,  and  the  struggle  was  so  serious 
that  the  savages  extended  their  depredations  to  the  Potomac,  and  even  to 
the  limits  of  Virginia.  To  guard  against  this  danger  the  border  militia 
were  set  to  watch  the  line  of  the  river,  and  in  1675  a  body  of  them,  under 
Colonel  John  Washington,  crossed  over  into  Maryland  to  help  the  people 
of  that  colony.  This  John  Washington  had  emigrated  from  the  north 
of  England  about  eighteen  years  before,  and  had  settled  in  Westmore- 
land county.  He  became  the  great-grandfather  of  George  Washington, 
The  war  was  conducted  with  great  fury  on  both  sides.  Six  of  the  chiefs 
of  the  Susquehannah  tribe  at  length  came  into  the  camp  of  the  Vir- 
ginians to  treat  for  peace,  and  were  treacherously  murdered.  This  bar- 
barous act  aroused  the  indignation  of  Governor  Berkeley.  "  If  they  had 
killed  my  father  and  my  mother,  and  all  my  friends,"  said  he,  "yet  if 
they  had  come  to  treat  of  peace,  they  ought  to  have  gone  in  peace."  The 
massacre  was  bloodily  avenged  by  the  Indians.  The  Susquehannahs  im- 
mediately crossed  the  Potomac  and  waged  a  relentless  warfare  along  the 
borders  of  Virginia  until  they  had  slain  ten  whites  for  each  one  of  their 
chiefs,  a  sacrifice  required  of  them  by  the  customs  of  their  tribe,  in 
order  that  the  spirits  of  their  braves  might  rest  in  peace.  The  people 
appealed  to  the  governor  for  protection,  but  Berkeley  refused  to  grant 
them  aid.  It  is  said  that  he  was  too  deeply  interested  in  the  fur  trade  to 
be  willing  to  offend  the  Indians  by  aiding  his  people.  The  colonists  then 
demanded  permission  to  defend  themselves,  to  invade  the  Indian  country, 
and  drive  the  savages  farther  into  the  interior.  This  was  also  refused, 
and  during  all  this  time  the  frontier  was  suffering  fearfully  from  the 
outrages  of  Berkeley's  Indian  friends. 

At  last  the  patience  of  the  people  was  exhausted.  A  leader  was  at 
hand  in  the  person  of  Nathaniel  Bacon.  He  was  a  young  planter  of  the 
county  of  Henrico,  a  native  of  England,  and  a  lawyer  by  profession.  He 
was  ardent  in  temper,  eloquent  and  persuasive  in  speech,  winning  in 
manner,  a  true  patriot,  and  possessed  of  the  firmness  and  decision  neces- 
sary in  a  leader  of  a  popular  movement.  He  had  been  reared  in  Eng- 


128  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  . 

laud  amid  the  struggles  which  ushered  in  the  establishment  of  the 
commonwealth,  and  had  learned  the  lesso*  of  freedom  too  well  to  forget 
it  in  a  home  where  every  incident  of  his  daily  life  required  the  exercise 
of  the  best  qualities  of  his  nature.  His  love  of  republicanism  had 
triiiu-d  him  the  dislike  of  Governor  Berkeley,  who  hated  any  man  thai 
•  laix-d  to  criticise  his  tyranny.  The  same  principles  which  made  him 
obnoxious  to  the  governor  won  him  the  affectionate  confidence  of  the 
people  of  Virginia,  who  were  quick  to  recognize  their  true  friend.  When 
volunteers  began  to  offer  themselves  for  the  war  against  the  Indians  they 
petitioned  the  governor  to  commission  Bacon  their  commander-in-chief. 
This  Berkeley  refused,  declaring  that  he  would  not  countenance  such  pre- 
sumption on  the  part  of  the  "  common  people."  In  the  meantime  the 
murders  continued,  and  Bacon,  who  shared  the  indignation  of  the  people, 
determined  that  if  another  man  was  slain  he  would  march  the  militia 
against  the  Indians  without  a  commission.  Almost  immediately  several 
of  his  own  men  were  murdered  on  his  own  plantation  near  the  falls  of 
the  James.  He  at  once  gave  the  signal.  Five  hundred  men  were  soon 
under  arms,  and  Bacon  was  made  their  leader.  About  the  20th  of  April 
1676,  he  set  out  on  his  march  against  the  savages,  whom  he  chastised  and 
drove  back  into  the  interior. 

The  people  were  in  arms,  and  they  were  not  disposed  to  lay  down  their 
weapons  until  their  grievances  were  redressed.  The  quarrel  was  not  with 
the  Indians,  but  with  the  government.  As  soon  as  Bacon  had  begun  his 
march  into  the  Indian  country,  Berkeley  denounced  him  as  a  traitor,  and 
his  followers  as  rebels,  and  ordered  them  to  disperse.  He  was  obeyed  by 
some  who  feared  the  loss  of  their  property,  but  the  populous  counties  bor- 
dering the  bay  answered  him  by  joining  the  insurrection.  The  people  of 
the  colony  with  one  voice  demanded  the  dissolution  of  the  assembly,  which 
had  unlawfully  maintained  its  existence  for  fourteen  years.  Opposed 
by  the  entire  people  the  governor  was  compelled  to  yield.  The  assembly 
had  fairly  earned  the  universal  hatred  with  which  it  was  regarded  by  its 
selfishness  and  its  hostility  to  popular  liberty.  It  was  dissolved,  and 
writs  were  issued  for  a  new  election.  Among  the  new  members  elected 
was  Bacon,  who  was  returned  from  the  county  of  Henrico. 

The  new  assembly  was  naturally  favorable  to  the  rights  of  the  people, 
and  it  at  once  proceeded  to  rectify  many  of  the  abuses  which  had  pro- 
duced the  insurrection.  Taxes  were  adjusted  more  equitably ;  the  right1 
of  suffrage  was  restored  to  the  people ;  the  monopoly  of  the  Indian  trade, 
in  which  it  was  believed  the  governor  was  deeply  interested,  was  sus- 
pended ;  many  of  the  evils  connected  with  the  expenditure  of  the  public 
funds  were  corrected;  the  power  of  the  parish  vestries  was  broken  by 


VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  129 

limiting  their  term  of  office  to  three  years,  and  giving  the  election  of 
these  officials  to  the  freemen  of  the  parish ;  a  general  amnesty  was  pro- 
claimed for  all  past  offences;  and  Bacon,  amid  the  rejoicings  of  the 
people,  was  elected  commander  of  the  army  destined  to  act  against  the 
Indians. 

These  measures  were  utterly  distasteful  to  the  haughty  old  governor. 
He  refused  to  give  them  his  sanction,  or  to  sign  the  commission  ordered 
for  Bacon  by  the  assembly.  Fearful  of  treachery  Bacon  withdrew  from 
the  capital.  The  people  quickly  rallied  to  his  support,  and  in  a  few  days 
he  entered  Jamestown  at  the  head  of  five  hundred  men.  Berkeley,  who 
was  as  courageous  as  he  was  obstinate,  met  him,  and  baring  his  breast 
said,  haughtily,  "A  fair  mark  ;  shoot ! "  Bacon  answered  him  calmly, 
"  I  will  not  hurt  a  hair  of  your  head,  or  of  any  man's ;  we  are  come  for 
the  commission  to  save  our  lives  from  the  Indians."  The  governor  was 
at  length  obliged  to  yield.  The  commission  was  issued,  the  acts  of  the 
assembly  were  ratified,  and  Berkeley  joined  the  assembly  and  council  in 
sending  to  England  an  indorsement  of  the  loyalty,  patriotism,  and  energy 
of  Bacon.  This  consent  was  given  on  the  24th  of  June,  or,  according  to 
the  new  style  of  calculation,  at  present  in  use,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1676. 
just  one  hundred  years  before  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Bacon  at  once  marched  against  the  Indians,  and  in  a  brilliant  and  suc- 
cessful campaign  broke  their  power,  and  gave  peace  and  security  to  the 
frontier.  In  the  midst  of  these  honorable  labors  he  was  again  assailed 
by  Berkeley,  who  had  only  consented  to  the  reconciliation  to  gain  time. 
The  governor  withdrew  from  Jamestown  to  Gloucester,  which  was  the 
most  populous  and  the  most  loyal  county  of  Virginia.  He  summoned  a 
convention  of  the  inhabitants,  and  renewed  his  efforts  against  Bacon. 
The  people  of  Gloucester,  justly  regarding  Bacon  as  the  defender  of  the 
colony,  opposed  the  governor's  proposals,  but  he  persisted  in  spite  of  their 
advice,  and  again  proclaimed  Bacon  a  traitor. 

This  inexcusable  pursuit  of  a  man  who  had  rendered  nothing  but  good: 
service  to  the  colony  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  troops.     "It  vexev 
me  to  the  heart,"  said  Bacon,  "that  while  I  am  hunting  the  wolves  and 
tigers  that  destroy  our  lambs  I.  should  myself  be  pursued  as  a  savage^ 
Shall  persons  wholly  devoted  to  their  king  and  country — men  hazarding- 
their  lives  against  the  public  enemy — deserve  the  appellation  of  rebels 
and  traitors  ?     The  whole  country  is  witness  to  our  peaceable  behavior. 
But  those  in  authority,  how  have  they  obtained  their  estates?    Have  they 
not  devoured  the  common  treasury  ?     What  arts,  what  sciences,  wnat 
schools  of  learning,  have  they  promoted?     I  appeal  to  the  king  and; 
Parliament,  where  the  cause  of  the  people  will  be  heard  impartially." 
9 


13f  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Bacon  appealed  to  the  people  of  Virginia  to  unite  for  the  defence  of 
their  liberties  against  the  tyranny  of  the  governor.  They  responded  to 
this  call  with  enthusiasm,  and  a  convention  of  the  most  eminent  men  in 
the  colony  assembled  at  Middle  Plantations,  now  \Villiamsburg,  on  the 
3d  of  August,  167G.  It  was  resolved  by  the  convention  to  sustain  Bacon 
with  the  whole  power  of  the  colony  in  the  campaign  against  the  Indians. 
If  the  governor  persisted  in  his  attempt  to  hunt  him  as  a  traitor,  the 
members  of  the  convention  pledged  themselves  to  defend  Bacon  with 
•miw,  even  against  the  royal  troops,  until  an  appeal  could  be  made  to  the 


RUINED  CHURCH  TOWER  ON  THE  SITE  OF  JAMESTOWN. 

king  in  person.  The  people  of  Virginia  were  fully  resolved  to  protect 
themselves  against  the  tyranny  of  Berkeley,  and  Bacon,  strengthened  by 
their  indorsement  of -his  course,  finished  his  campaign  against  the  In- 
dians. Governor  Berkeley  withdrew  across  the  bay  to  the  eastern  shore, 
and  there  collected  a  force  of  sailors  belonging  to  some  English  vessels 
and  a  band  of  worthless  Indians.  With  this  force,  "  men  of  a  base  and 
cowardly  disposition,  allured  by  the  passion  for  plunder,"  he  prepared  to 
return  to  Jamestown. 

The  people  decided  to  regard  the  retreat  of  the  governor  as  an  abdi- 


\  • 
VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  131 

nation  on  his  part  of  his  office.  The  ten  years  for  which  he  had  been 
appointed  had  expired,  and  the  colonial  records  afforded  a  precedent  for 
his  removal.  Bacon  and  four  others,  who  had  been  members  of  the 
council,  issued  writs  for  the  election  of  a  representative  convention  to 
which  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  colony  was  to  be  committed. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  royalists  the  whole  people  of  Virginia 
indorsed  the  movement ;  the  women  were  enthusiastic,  and  urged  their 
husbands  to  risk  everything,  even  life,  in  defence  of  their  liberties. 

Early  in  September  Sir  William  Berkeley  reached  Jamestown  with  the 
rabble  which  he  called  his  army.  He  took  possession  of  the  town  with- 
out resistance,  and  was  joined  by  a  number  of  royalists.  He  offered 
freedom  to  the  slaves  of  the  Virginians  who  were  opposed  to  him  on  the 
condition  of  their  joining  his  ranks.  Bacon  and  his  party  were  again 
proclaimed  traitors  and  rebels. 

The  people  at  once  flew  to  arms,  and  Bacon  soon  found  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  little  army  that  had  been  so  successful  against  the  Indians, 
Without  delay  they  marched  to  Jamestown.  The  resistance  attempted 
by  Berkeley's  cowardly  followers  was  feeble,  and  the  whole  force,  includ- 
ing their  leader,  retreated  to  their  ships,  and  dropped  down  the  river  by 
night.  The  next  morning  the  r.rmy  of  the  people  entered  Jamestown. 
It  was  rumored  that  a  party  of  royalisto  was  marching  from  the  northern 
counties  to  the  support  of  Berkeley,  and  a  council  was  held  to  decide 
upon  the  fate  of  the  capital.  It  was  agreed  that  it  should  be  burned  to 
prevent  it  from  being  used  as  a  stronghold  for  their  enemies.  The  torch 
was  applied  ;  Drummond  and  Lawrence,  leaders  of  the  popular  party,  set 
fiiv  to  thc>ir  dwellings  with  their  ovn  hands;  and  in  a  few  hours  only  a 
heap  ol'  .smouldering  ruins  marked  the  site  of  the  first  capital  of  Virginia, 
its  destruction  left  the  col "Ly  without  u  single  town  within  its  limits. 

From  the  ruins  of  Jamestown  Bacon  marched  promptly  to  meet  the 
royalist  force  advancing  A'cm  tlio  Rappahannock  region.  The  latter  in  a 
body  joined  the  army  f  tlie  people,  and  even  the  county  of  Gloucester, 
the  stronghold  of  royalty,  gave  its  r.dhesion  to  the  patriotic  movement. 
With  the  exception  of  tha  eastern  shore  the  entire  colony  was  united  in 
suppc  rt  of  the  cause  of  popular  liberty.  Unhappily,  at  this  critical  junc- 
ture, Bacon  was  seized  with  a  fatal  fever,  of  which  he  died  on  the  1st  of 
October,  1676.  His  followers  grieved  for  him  with  passionate  sorrow, 
and  with  good  cause.  It  has  been  the  good  fortune  of  Virginia  to  give 
many  great  namec  to  the  cause  of  liberty,  but  in  all  the  immortal  roll 
there  are  none  who  surpassed  Nathaniel  Bacon  in  pure  and  disinterested 
patriotism.  Others  wer^  permitted  to  accomplish  more,  but  none  cherished 
loftier  aims  vr  de?*1  'd  more  earnestly  the  good  of  their  fellow -citizens. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  death  of  Bacon  left  the  popular  party  without  a  head ;  and  now 
began  to  be  seen  for  the  first  time  in  Virginia  the  evils  which  the  neglect 
of  education  must  produce  in  a  community.  The  Virginians  were  not 
lacking  in  courage,  determination,  or  devotion  to  their  liberties,  and  their 
cause  was  one  calculated  to  succeed  without  leaders.  In  an  educator 
community  there  would  have  been  no  lack  of  union  or  perseverance 
because  of  the  death  of  one  man,  and  the  people  would  have  found  the 
means  to  continue  their  struggle  until  successful.  In  the  uneducated 
Virginian  community  of  1676  the  presence  of  a  bold,  capable,  and  reso- 
lute leader  was  a  necessity,  and  his  sudden  removal  left  the  popular  party 
helpless.  The  grand  struggle  degenerated  into  a  series  of  petty  insur- 
rections; the  royalists  took  heart,  and  Robert  Beverley,  their  most 
competent  leader,  was  able  to  destroy  in  detail  the  resistance  of  the 
patriots  and  to  restore  the  supremacy  of  Berkeley. 

The  governor  now  proceeded  to  take  a  summary  vengeance  upon  the 
patriots,  and  more  than  twenty  of  the  best  men  of  the  colony  gave  their 
lives  on  the  scaffold  for  the  liberties  of  their  country.  The  first  of  these 
martyrs  for  freedom  —  the  first  American  to  die  for  the  right  of  the 
people  to  govern  themselves — was  Thomas  Hansford,  a  Virginian  born, 
and  a  noble  specimen  of  the  chivalrous  sons  of  the  Old  Dominion.  The 
wife  of  Edmund  Cheesman,  upon  the  capture  of  her  husband,  flung  her- 
self at  the  governor's  feet,  and  declaring  that  her  exhortations  had 
induced  her  husband  to  join  Bacon,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  die  in  his 
place.  The  brutal  Berkeley  repelled  the  heroic  woman  with  a  gross 
insult.  When  Drummond  was  taken  and  brought  before  him  the  gov- 
ernor received  him  with  mock  courtesy.  "  I  am  more  glad  to  see  you," 
he  said,  "  than  any  man  in  Virginia ;  you  shall  be  hanged  in  half  an 
hour."  The  royalist  assembly,  horrified  at  the  cruelty  of  the  governor, 
appealed  to  him  to  "  spill  no  more  blood."  The  property  of  the  victims 
was  confiscated,  and  their  helpless  families  were  turned  out  upon  the 
charities  of  the  people  for  whom  the  martyrs  had  died.  Not  content 
with  these  cruelties  Berkeley  attempted  to  silence  the  people,  and  prevent 
them  from  either  censuring  him  or  vindicating  the  memory  of  their  dead 
heroes.  Whoever  should  speak  ill  of  Berkeley  or  his  friends  was  to  be 
whipped. 

At  last  the  end  came,  and  Berkeley  returned  to  England.  His  de- 
partur  ^  was  celebrated  with  rejoicings  throughout  the  colony ;  bells  were 
rung,  guns  were  fired,  and  bonfires  blazed.  Berkeley  hoped  to  be  able  to 
justify  his  conduct  in  England,  but  upon  his  arrival  in  that  country  he 
found  his  course  sternly  condemned  by  the  voice  of  public  opinion. 
Even  Charles  II.  censured  him  with  all  the  energy  that  soulless  monarch 


VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  133 

was  master  of.  "  The  old  fool,"  said  the  king,  "  has  taken  away  more 
lives  in  that  naked  land  than  I  for  the  murder  of  my  father."  His  dis- 
appointment and  mortification  were  too  much  for  the  proud  man,  and  he 
died  soon  after  his  arrival  in  England. 

The  failure  of  Bacon's  rebellion  brought  many  serious  misfortunes  to 
Virginia.  The  insurrection  was  made  the  excuse  by  the  king  for  refusing 
a  liberal  charter,  and  the  colony  was  made  dependent  for  its  rights  and 
privileges  entirely  upon  the  royal  will.  The  assembly  was  composed 
almost  exclusively  of  royalists,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  undo  the  work 
of  the  popular  party.  All  the  laws  of  Bacon's  assembly  were  repealed  ; 
the  right  of  suffrage  was  restricted  to  freeholders,  and  the  iniquitous 
taxes  were  reimposed.  All  the  abuses  that  had  led  to  the  rebellion  were 
revived. 

In  1677  Lord  Culpepper,  one  of  the  favorites  to  whom  Charles  II. 
had  granted  Virginia,  was  appointed  governor  of  the  colony  for  life. 
The  new  governor  regarded  his  office  as  a  sinecure,  and  while  receiving 
its  emoluments  desired  to  remain  in  England  to  enjoy  them.  In  1680, 
however,  the  king  compelled  him  to  repair  to  his  government  in  person. 
He  brought  with  him  authority  from  the  sovereign  to  settle  all  past 
grievances,  but  he  used  this  power  for  his  own  profit.  He  extorted 
money  from  all  parties,  and  when  he  had  acquired  a  considerable  sum 
returned  to  England,  having  spent  less  than  a  year  in  Virginia.  He  left 
the  colony  in  the  greatest  distress.  The  Virginians,  robbed  of  the  profits 
of  their  labors  for  the  enrichment  of  their  rulers,  were  reduced  to  despair. 
Riots  took  place  in  various  places,  and  the  whole  colony  was  on  the  verge 
of  insurrection. 

Rumors  of  these  disturbances  having  reached  England  the  king 
ordered  Culpepper  to  return  and  reduce  the  colony  to  obedience.  He  did 
so,  and  caused  several  influential  men  to  be  hanged  as  traitors,  and  used 
the  power  intrusted  to  him  to  wrest  from  the  council  the  last  remnant  of 
its  authority  to  control  his  outrages  upon  the  people.  This  accomplished 
he  proceeded  to  force  the  settlers  of  the  Northern  Neck  to  surrender  their 
plantations  to  him,  or  pay  him  the  sums  he  demanded  for  the  privilege  of 
retaining  them.  He  found  his  residence  among  a  people  he  had  come  to 
plunder  very  disagreeable,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  returned  to 
England  amid  the  bitter  curses  of  the  Virginians.  The  council  reported 
the  distress  of  the  province  to  the  king,  and  appealed  to  him  to  recall  the 
grant  to  Culpepper  and  Arlington.  Arlington  surrendered  his  rights  to 
Culpepper,  whose  patent  was  rendered  void  by  a  process  of  law,  and  in 
July,  1684,  Virginia  became  once  more  a  royal  province.  Lord  Howard, 
of  Effingham,  was  appointed  to  succeed  Culpepper,  but  he  was  a  poorer 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

and  more  grasping  man  than  his  predecessor,  and  the  change  afforded  no 
relief  to  Virginia. 

In  1685  James  II.  came  to  the  throne  of  England,  and  in  the  same 
year  occurred  the  insurrection  in  England  known  as  Monmouth's  rebel- 
lion. A  number  of  prisoners  were  taken  in  this  struggle  by  the  royal 
forces,  and  many  of  these  were  sent  out  to  the  colonies  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland  to  be  sold  as  servants  for  a  term  of  ten  years.  Many  of  them 
were  men  of  education  and  family.  The  general  assembly  of  Virginia 
refused  to  sanction  this  infamous  measure,  and,  in  spite  of  the  prohibition 
of  King  James,  passed  a  law  declaring  all  such  persons  free.  Indeed  at 
this  time  the  practice  of  selling  white  servants  in  America  had  become 
so  profitable  that  quite  a  thriving  business  was  carried  on  between  the 
west  of  England  and  Virginia  and  Maryland.  Not  only  persons  con- 
demned for  crime,  but  innocent  people  were  kidnapped  and  sold  in  the 
colonies  for  a  term  of  years  for  money.  "At  Bristol,"  says  Bancroft, 
"  the  mayor  and  justices  would  intimidate  small  rogues  and  pilferers,  who, 
under  the  terror  of  being  hanged,  prayed  for  transportation  as  the  only 
avenue  to  safety,  and  were  then  divided  among  the  members  of  the  court. 
The  trade  was  exceedingly  profitable — far  more  so  than  the  slave-trade — 
and  had  been  conducted  for  years." 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  Charles  II.  with  reference  to  Virginia  was  to 
forbid  the  setting  up  of  a  printing  press  within  the  limits  of  the  colony. 
James  II.  continued  this  prohibition.  Effingham  endeavored  to  take 
from  the  colony  the  few  privileges  left  to  it.  The  result  was  that  the 
party  of  freedom  increased  rapidly.  Many  of  the  aristocratic  party  see- 
ing that  the  king  and  the  governor  menaced  every  right  and  privilege 
they  possessed  went  over  to  the  popular  side.  The  assembly  began  to 
assert  the  popular  demand  for  self-government,  and  became  so  unman- 
ageable that  in  November,  1686,  it  was  dissolved  by  royal  proclamation. 
A  new  assembly  was  convened,  which  met  in  April,  1688,  a  few  months 
before  the  British  revolution.  The  governor  and  council  found  this  body 
more  indisposed  to  submit  to  the  aggressions  of  the  crown  than  its  pre- 
decessor had  been.  The  people  sustained  their  delegates,  and  a  new 
insurrection  was  threatened.  Eifingham  was  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile 
population,  without  troops  to  enforce  his  will,  and  was  obliged  to  conduct 
himself  with  moderation.  The  royal  authority  was  never  stronger  in 
Virginia  than  during  this  reign,  but  it  was  found  impossible  to  establish 
it  upon  the  ruins  of  the  liberties  of  the  colony.  The  result  of  all  the 
long  years  of  oppression  we  have  been  considering  was  simply  to  confirm 
the  Virginians  in  their  attachment  to  their  liberties,  and  in  their  deter- 
mination to  maintain  them  at  any  cost.  Virginia  remained  to  the  end  an 
aristocratic  colony,  but  it  was  none  the  less  "  a  land  of  liberty." 


VIRGINIA  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  135 

The  revolution  of  1688  in  England  did  not  change  affairs  in  Virginia 
materially  as  regarded  the  forms  of  the  colonial  government.  The  lib- 
erties of  the  colony  were  established  by  law  too  securely  to  be  any  longer 
at  the  mercy  of  an  individual,  but  the  power  of  the  governor  was  still 
very  great.  Every  department  of  the  colonial  administration,  the 
finances,  and  even  the  management  of  the  church,  was  made  subject  to 
his  control.  He  had  the  power  to  dissolve  the  assembly  at  pleasure,  and 
was  sure  to  exercise  it  if  that  body  manifested  too  great  a  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence. He  also  appointed  the  clerk  of  the  assembly,  who  was  for 
this  reason  a  check  upon  its  freedom  of  debate.  The  only  means  of 
resistance  to  the  measures  of  the  government  which  the  assembly  retained 
was  to  refuse  to  vote  supplies  in  excess  of  the  permanent  revenue.  This 
right  was  sometimes  exercised,  and  the  governor  was  prevented  from 
carrying  out  unpopular  measures  by  the  lack  of  the  necessary  funds. 

Soon  after  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  to  the  throne  an  effort 
was  made  to  establish  a  college  in  Virginia,  although  the  printing  press 
was  still  forbidden.  Donations  were  made  by  a  number  of  persons  in 
England,  and  the  king  bestowed  several  liberal  grants  upon  the  proposed 
institution.  The  measure  was  carried  through  to  success  by  the  energy 
of  the  Rev.  James  Blair,  who  was  sent  out  by  the  Bishop  of  London  as 
commissary,  "  to  supply  the  office  and  jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  in  the 
outplaccs  of  the  diocese."  The  college  was  established  in  1691,  and  was 
named  William  and  Mary,  in  honor  of  the  king  and  queen  Mr.  Blair 
was  its  first  president,  and  held  that  office  for  fifty  years. 

The  ministry  did  not  approve  the  action  of  the  king  in  granting  even 
the  very  moderate  endowments  which  he  bestowed  upon  the  college. 
They  regarded  Virginia  merely  as  a  place  in  which  to  raise  tobacco  for 
the  English  market,  and  cared  nothing  for  the  interests  of  the  people. 
They  treated  the  colony  with  injustice  and  neglect  in  everything.  The 
ttlanters  could  sell  their  tobacco  only  to  an  English  purchaser,  who  regu- 
lated the  price  to  suit  himself,  and  supplied  the  planters  in  return  with 
the  wares  they  needed  at  his  own  prices. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   COLONIZATION    OF   MARYLAND. 

Extent  of  the  Territory  of  Virginia — Clayborne's  Trading  Poets  established— Sir  George 
Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore — Becomes  interested  in  American  Colonization — Obtains  a 
Grant  of  Maryland — Terras  of  the  Charter — A  Colony  sent  out— Arrival  in  the  Chesa- 
peake— St.  Mary's  Founded — Character  of  the  Colony — Friendly  Relations  established 
with  the  Indians — First  Legislature  of  Maryland — Trouble  with  Clayborne — Rapid 
Growth  of  the  Colony — Progress  of  Popular  Liberty — Policy  respecting  the  Treatment 
of  the  Indians — Clayborne's  Rebellion — Law  granting  Religious  Toleration  enacted — 
Condition  of  Maryland  under  the  Commonwealth — The  People  declared  Supreme — 
Lord  Baltimore  recovers  his  Proprietary  Rights — Characteristics  of  the  Colony — Rapid 
Increase  in  Population — Charles  Calvert,  Governor — Death  of  the  second  Lord  Balti- 
more— Roman  Catholics  disfranchised — Maryland  becomes  a  Royal  Province — Triumph 
of  the  Protestants — Annapolis  made  the  Seat  of  Government — Restoration  of  the  Pro- 
prietary Government — Continued  Prosperity  of  Maryland. 

HE  second  charter  of  Virginia  granted  to  that  province  the 
country  north  of  the  Potomac  as  far  as  the  headwaters  of  the 
Chesapeake  bay.  This  grant  included  the  territory  of  the  pres- 
ent  State  of  Maryland.  The  discoveries  of  Captain  John  Smith 
had  brought  the  region  along  the  head  of  the  bay  into  notice,  and 
other  explorers  had  confirmed  his  statements  as  to  its  value.  A  very  profit- 
able trade  was  established  with  the  Indians  of  this  section,  and,  in  order 
to  develop  its  advantages,  William  Clayborne,  a  man  of  great  resolution 
and  oi  no  mean  abilities,  a  surveyor  by  profession,  was  employed  by  the 
Governor  of  Virginia  to  explore  the  region  of  the  upper  Chesapeake. 
His  report  was  so  favorable  that  a  company  was  formed  in  England  for 
the  purpose  of  trading  with  the  Indians.  Under  authority  from  this 
company,  Clayborne  obtained  a  license  from  the  colonial  government  of 
Virginia,  and  established  two  trading  stations  on  the  bay ;  one  on  Kent 
island,  opposite  the  present  city  of  Annapolis,  and  one  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Susqtiehanna.  These  posts  were  established  in  the  spring  of  1631. 

In  the  meantime  efforts  were  being  made  in  England  to  secure  the 
settlement  of  the  same  region.  Sir  George  Calvert,  a  man  of  noble  char- 
acter, liberal  education  and  great  political  experience,  had  become  at  an 
early  day  deeply  interested  in  the  question  of  colonizing  America. 
Having  embraced  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  he  relinquished  his  office  of 
136 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  137 

Secretary  of  State,  and  made  a  public  acknowledgment  of  his  conversion. 
His  noble  character  commanded  the  confidence  of  King  James,  and  he 
was  retained  as  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  was  made  Lord 
Baltimore  in  the  Irish  peerage.  He  was  anxious  to  found  a  colony  in 
America,  which  might  serve  as  a  place  of  refuge  for  persons  of  the 
Catholic  faith,  and  obtained  a  patent  for  the  southern  part  of  Newfound- 
land. That  region  was  too  bleak  and  rugged  to  admit  of  the  success 
of  the  enterprise,  and  the  attempt  to  settle  it  was  soon  abandoned. 

Lord  Baltimore  next  contemplated  a  settlement  in  some  portion  of 
Virginia,  and  in  October,  1629,  visited  that  colony  with  a  view  to 
making  arrangements  for  his  plantation.  The  laws  of  Virginia  against 
Roman  Catholics  were  very  severe,  and  immediately  upon  the  arrival  of 
so  distinguished  a  Catholic  the  assembly  ordered  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  supremacy  to  be  tendered  him.  Lord  Baltimore  proposed  a  form 
which  he  was  willing  to  subscribe,  but  the  colonial  government  insisted  upon 
that  which  had  been  ordered  by  the  English  Parliament,  and  which  was 
of  such  a  character  that  no  Cath- 
olic could  accept  it.  There  was 
nothing  left  for  Calvert  but  to 
withdraw  from  Virginia,  and  his 
reception  there  convinced  him  that 
that  province  was  not  the  place 
for  the  plantation  he  wished  to 
establish. 

The  region  north  of  the  Potomac  ivas  still  uninhabited,  and  seemed  to 
promise  advantages  equal  to  Virginia.  Calvert  applied  to  Charles  I.  for 
a  patent  for  this  region,  and  was  given  a  territory  corresponding  very 
nearly  to  the  present  State  of  Maryland  in  extent.  Tlje  king  granted 
him  a  liberal  charter,  which,  while  it  provided  for  his  interests  as  pro- 
prietor, secured  the  liberties  of  the  colonists.  In  this  it  was  simply  the 
expression  of  the  wishes  of  Lord  Baltimore,  who  desired  to  establish  a 
settlement  of  freemen.  The  country  embraced  in  the  grant  was  given  to 
Lord  Baltimore,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  in  absolute  possession.  They 
were  required  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to  the  crown  of  two  Indian 
arrows  and  one-fifth  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  which  might  be  found. 
The  colonists  were  to  have  a  voice  in  making  their  own  laws,  and  they 
were  to  be  entitled  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Englishmen.  No 
taxes  were  to  be  imposed  upon  them  without  their  consent,  nor  was  the 
authority  of  the  proprietor  to  extend  to  their  lives  or  property.  It  was 
enjoined  that  the  exercise  of  the  faith  and  worship  of  the  established 
Church  of  England  should  be  protected  in  the  colony,  but  no  uniform 


COAT   OF   ARMS   OF   MARYLAND. 


HIS10RY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

*::mdard  of  faith  or  worship  was  imposed  by  the  charter.  The  new 
province  was  carefully  separated  from  Virginia  and  made  independent 
of  it.  The  colony  was  left  free  from  the  supervision  of  the  crown,  and 
the  proprietor  was  not  obliged  to  obtain  the  royal  assent  to  the  appoint- 
m3nts  or  legislation  of  his  province.  The  king  also  renounced  for 
himself,  his  heirs  and  his  successors,  the  right  to  tax  the  colony,  thus 
leaving  it  entirely  free  from  English  taxation. 

These  were  vast  powers  to  intrust  to  one  man ;  but  they  were  placed 
in  safe  hands.  The  first  Lord  Baltimore  was  a  man  who  hated  tyranny 
of  all  kinds,  and  who  had  carefully  observed  the  effects  of  intolerance 
and  arbitrary  rule  upon  the  efforts  that  had  already  been  made  to  estab- 
lish successful  colonies  in  America.  He  designed  his  colony  as  an 
asylum  in  which  men  of  all  creeds  could  meet  upon  a  common  basis  of  a 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  conviction  that  religious  freedom  is  neces- 
sary to  the  success  of  a  state  confirmed  in  him  his  attachment  to  the 
principles  of  civil  liberty.  He  invited  both 
Protestants  and  Catholics  to  join  him  in  his 
enterprise,  and  adopted  a  form  of  government, 
based  upon  popular  representation,  well  calcu- 
lated to  secure  them  in  the  possession  of  all 
their  privileges.  In  honor  of  the  queen  of 
Charles  I.,  he  named  the  region  granted  to  him 
Maryland.  Before  the  patent  was  issued,  Lord 
Baltimore  died,  on  the  15th  of  April,  163%, 
leaving  his  son,  Cecil,  heir  to  his  designs  as 
LORD  BALTIMORE.  wen  as  to  ^  fafa  ^hc  charter  granted  to  his 

father  was  issued  to  him,  and  he  proceeded  at  once  to  collect  a  colony  for 
the  settlement  of  Maryland. 

Lord  Baltimore  delegated  the  task  of  conducting  the  emigrants  to 
Maryland  to  his  brother,  Leonard  Calvert.  On  Friday,  November  22d. 
1632,  a  company  of  200,  chiefly  Roman  Catholics  of  good  birth,  with 
their  families  and  servants,  sailed  from  England  in  the  "Ark"  and  the 
"  Dove,"  the  former  a  ship  of  large  burthen,  the  latter  a  small  pinnace. 
The  voyage  was  made  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Chesapeake 
was  not  reached  until  the  24th  of  February,  1634.  The  ships  anchored 
off  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  were  visited  by  Sir  John  Harvey,  Governor 
of  Virginia,  who  had  been  commanded  by  the  king  to  welcome  the  new 
colony  with  kindness. 

Resting  in  Hampton  roads  for  a  few  days,  the  emigrants  ascended  the 
bay  and  entered  the  stately  Potomac.  Deeming  it  unsafe  to  plant  his 
first  settlement  high  up  the  river,  Calvert  chose  a  site  on  a  small 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  139 

tributary  of  the  Potomac,  not  far  from  its  mouth.  This  stream,  now 
known  as  the  St.  Mary's,  he  named  the  St.  George's.  An  Indian 
village,  called  Yoacomoco,  was  selected  as  the  site  of  the  colony.  The 
place  was  being  deserted  by  tlie  natives,  who  had  suffered  severely  from 
the  superior  power  of  the  Susquehannahs,  and  were  removing  farther  into 
the  interior  for  greater  security.  They  readily  sold  their  town  and  the 
surrounding  lands  to  the  English,  and  made  with  them  a  treaty  of  peace 
and  friendship;  and  on  the  27th  of  March,  1634,  the  colonists  landed 
and  laid  the  foundations  of  tli2  town  of  St.  Mary's. 

A  few  days  later,  Sir  John  Harvey  arrived  from  Virginia  on  a  friendly 
visit.     His  orders  from  the  king  were  to  treat  the  settlers  with  frieud- 


MISSIONAKY   PREACHING   TO   THE   INDIANS. 


ship,  and  to  aid  them  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power.  About  the  same  time 
the  native  chiefs  came  in  to  visit  the  colony,  and  were  so  well  received 
that  they  established  friendly  relations  with  the  settlers.  The  Indian 
women  taught  their  English  sisters  how  to  make  bread  from  the  mea!  of 
the  Indian  corn,  and  the  warriors  instructed  the  Englishmen  in  the  - 
simple  arts  of  the  chase.  The  colonists  obtained  provisions  and  cattk 
for  a  while  from  Virginia ;  but,  as  they  went  to  work  at  once  and  with 
energy  to  cultivate  their  land,  the  first  year's  harvest  gave  them  an 
abundance  of  supplies.  The  proprietor  sent  out  from  England  such 
things  as  were  necessary  to  the  success  and  comfort  of  the  colony,  treating 
the  new  settlement  with  a  wise  liberality.  Thus  were  the  foundations 


140  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  Maryland  laid  amid  peace  and  prosperity.  The  colony  was  successful 
from  the  first.  Roman  Catholic  settlers  followed  the  first  emigrants  in 
considerable  numbers,  and  even  Protestants  sought  the  shores  of  Mary- 
land, which  the  liberality  of  Lord  Baltimore  had  made  a  refuge  to  them 
from  the  persecutions  of  their  own  brethren.  New  settlements  were 
formed,  and  within  six  months  the  colony  "  had  advanced  more  than 
Virginia  had  done  in  as  many  years." 

In  February,  1635,  the  first  legislative  assembly  of  Maryland  met. 
Legislation  had  become  necessary  by  this  time.  Clayborne,  who  had 
established  trading  posts  in  the  upper  Chesapeake,  had  met  the  first 
settlers  under  Leonard  Calvert  at  their  anchorage  at  Old  Point  Comfort, 
and  had  endeavored  to  dissuade  them  from  settling  along  the  bay  by 
exaggerating  the  dangers  to  be  apprehended  from  the  hostility  of  the 
Indians.  Failing  in  this  effort,  he  became  the  evil  genius  of  Maryland, 
as  the  grant  to  Lord  Baltimore  made  void  his  license  to  trade  with  the 
Indians  along  the  bay.  He  refused  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the 
proprietor  of  Maryland,  and  attempted  to  retain  his  trading  posts  by 
force  of  arms.  Within  a  year  or  two  after  the  settlement  of  the  colony, 
a  bloody  skirmish  occurred  in  one  of  the  rivers  of  the  eastern  shore,  in 
which  Clayborne's  men  were  defeated.  In  1638,  Leonard  Calvert  took 
forcible  possession  of  Kent  island,  and  hanged  one  or  two  of  Clayborne's 
people  on  a  charge  of  piracy  and  murder.  Clayborne  was  in  England  at 
the  time  prosecuting  his  claims  before  the  king.  Governor  Harvey  of 
Virginia  had  given  the  weight  of  his  influence  in  this  contest  to  the 
cause  of  Lord  Baltimore,  but  the  people  of  Virginia,  who  resented  the 
grant  of  Maryland  as  an  invasion  of  their  rights,  sympathized  with 
Clayborne,  and  caused  Harvey  to  be  impeached  and  sent  to  England  for 
trial.  The  English  courts  decided  that  Clayborne's  license  was  not  valid 
against  the'  charter  granted  to  Lord  Baltimore,  and  Harvey  was  sent  back 
to  Virginia  as  governor,  in  April,  1639. 

In  the  meantime  the  colony  continued  to  grow  and  prosper.  The 
assembly,  while  acknowledging  the  allegiance  of  the  people  of  Maryland 
to  the  king,  and  making  ample  provision  for  the  rights  of  Lord  Balti- 
more as  proprietor,  took  care  to  secure  the  liberties  of  the  people,  and 
claimed  for  itself  the  exercise  in  the  province  of  all  the  powers  belonging 
to  the  British  House  of  Commons.  Representative  government  was 
definitely  established,  and  the  colonists  were  secured  in  all  the  liberties 
granted  to  the  people  of  England  by  the  common  law  of  that  country. 
Tobacco  became,  as  in  Virginia,  the  staple  of  the  colony.  In  1642,  in 
gratitude  for  the  great  expense  which  Lord  Baltimore  had  voluntarily 
incurred  for  them,  the  people  of  Maryland  granted  him  "  such  a  subsidy 


THE  COLONIZATION   OF  MARYLAND. 


141 


as  the  young  and  poor  estate  of  the  colony  could  bear."  As  far  as  the 
people  themselves  were  concerned,  the  condition  of  Maryland  was  one  of 
marked  happiness  and  contentment.  Harmony  prevailed  between  all 
classes  of  the  people  and  the  government ;  the  settlers  were  blessed  with 
complete  toleration  in  religion ;  emigration  was  rapidly  increasing,  and 
the  commerce  of  the  colony  was  growing  in  extent  and  value. 

Maryland  had  its  troubles,  however.  The  Indians,  alarmed  by  its 
rapid  growth,  began  in  1642  a  series  of  aggressions  which  led  to  a 
frontier  war.  This  struggle  continued  for  some  time,  but  was  product'  sft» 
of  no  decisive  results,  and 
in  1644  peace  was  restored. 
The  Indians  promised  sub- 
mission, and  the  whites,  on 
their  part,  agreed  to  treat 
them  with  friendship  and 
justice.  Laws  were  enacted 
compelling  the  settlers  to  re- 
frain from  injustice  toward 
the  savages,  and  humanity  to 
the  red  man  was  made  the 
policy  of  the  colony.  The 
kidnapping  of  an  Indian  was 
punishable  with  death,  and 
the  sale  of  arms  to  the  sav- 
ages was  constituted  a  felony. 
Efforts  were  also  made  to 
convert  the  natives  to  Chris- 
tianity. Four  missions  were 
established  among  them  by 
the  priests  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  effects  of 
their  devoted  labors  were  soon  manifest.  A  chief,  named  Tayac,  and  his 
wife  were  baptized,  he  taking  the  name  of  Charles  and  she  that  of  Mary. 
About  130  other  converts  were  afterwards  added  to  the  Christian  fold 
among  the  Indians,  and  many  of  these  sent  their  children  to  receive  in- 
struction at  the  hands  of  the  priests.  Though  the  effort  to  Christianize 
the  savages  failed,  as  it  has  ever  done,  the  good  effects  of  these  endeavors 
were  not  lost,  as  the  friendship  for  the  whites  aroused  by  them  continued 
to  influence  these  tribes  in  their  policy  toward  the  colony. 

Clayborne,  who  had  certainly  cause  for  thinking  himself  wronged  in 
being  deprived  of  his  property  without  just  compensation,  returned  to 


A  CONVERTED  INDIAN. 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Maryland  to  revenge  himself  upon  the  colonists,  The  civil  war  in 
England  furnished  him  with  an  admirable  opportunity  for  his  attempt. 
He  was  able  to  secure  a  number  of  followers  in  Maryland,  and  in  1644 
began  an  insurrection,  The  next  year  the  governor  was  driven  out  of 
the  colony  and  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  Virginia,  and  Clayborne  was 
triumphant.  For  more  than  a  year  the  rebels  held  possession  of  the 
government,  and  this  whole  time  was  a  period  of  disorder  and  misrule, 
during  which  the  greater  part  of  the  colonial  records  were  lost  or  stolen, 
At  the  end  of  this  time,  the  better  classes  of  the  people  of  Maryland 
drove  out  the  rebels,  and  recalled  the  proprietary  government.  A 
general  amnesty  was  proclaimed  to  all  offenders,  and  peace  was  restored 
*o  the  colony. 

The  year  1649  was  marked  in  England  by  the  execution  of  Charles  I., 
and  the  complete  establishment  of  the  authority  of  the  Parliament.  It 
seemed  to  the  people  of  Maryland  that  this  triumph  of  the  popular,  party 
was  to  usher  in  a  new  war  upon  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  which  wasyjro- 
fessed  by  a  large  majority  of  the  colonists.  Dreading  a  war  of  religion  as 
the  greatest  of  evils,  they  determined  to  secure  the  colony  from  it,  by  plac- 
ing the  freedom  of  conscience  within  their  limits  upon  as  secure  a  basis 
as  possible.  On  the  21st  of  April,  1649,  the  assembly  of  Maryland 
adopted  the  following  act:  "And  whereas  the  enforcing  of  conscience  in 
jnatters  of  religion  hath  frequently  fallen  out  to  be  of  dangerous  conse- 
quence in  those  commonwealths  where  it  has  been  practised,  and  for  the 
nore  quiet  and  peaceable  government  of  this  province,  and  the  better  to 
preserve  mutual  love  and  amity  among  the  inhabitants,  no  person  within 
this  province,  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  shall  be  anyways 
troubled,  molested,  or  discountenanced  for  his  or  her  religion,  or  in  the 
free  exercise  thereof,  or  be  compelled  to  the  belief  or  practice  of  any 
other  religion  against  their  consent." 

This  statute,  noble  as  it  was,  applied  only  to  Christians.  It  was  pro- 
vided that  "  Whatsoever  person  shall  blaspheme  God,  or  shall  deny  or 
reproach  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  any  of  the  three  persons  thereof,  shall  be 
punished  with  death."  Maryland  had  taken  a  great  stride  in  advance  in 
making  her  soil  a  sanctuary  for  Christians  of  all  beliefs,  but  she  had  not 
yet  accorded  to  her  people  a  toleration  equal  to  that  of  Rhode  Island, 
which  colony,  in  1647,  granted  liberty  to  all  opinions,  infidel  as  well  as 
Christian. 

During  the  existence  of  the  commonwealth,  the  colony  was  troubled 
with  an  unsettled  government.  It  submitted  to  the  authority  of  Crom- 
well, and  the  Puritans,  regardless  of  the  example  of  their  brethren  of  the 
Catholic  faith,  attempted  by  an  act  of  assembly,  in  1654,  to  disfranchise 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  143 

the  whole  Roman  Catholic  population  on  the  ground  of  their  religious 
belief.  Cromwell  disapproved  this  action,  and  bluntly  ordered  his  com- 
missioners "  not  to  busy  themselves  about  religion,  but  to  settle  the  civil 
government."  In  1660,  without  waiting  to  hear  the  issue  of  matters  in 
England,  the  assembly  repudiated  the  authority  of  both  the  common- 
wealth and  the  proprietor,  and  asserted  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as 
the  supreme  authority  in  Maryland. 

Upon  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  Lord  Baltimore  made  his  peace 
with  the  king  for  having  yielded  to  the  power  of  Cromwell,  and  received 
back  all  the  rights  he  had  enjoyed  in  Maryland.  He  at  once  proceeded 
to  re-establish  his  authority  in  the  province,  but  being  a  man  of  humanity 
and  of  liberal  views,  he  made  a  generous  use  of  his  power.  A  general 
pardon  was  granted  to  all  offenders' against  him,  his  rule. was  once  more 
submitted  to,  and  for  thirty  years  the  colony  was  at  peace. 

"Like  Virginia,  Maryland  was  a  colony  of  planters;  its  staple  was 
tobacco,  and  its  prosperity  was  equally  checked  by  the  pressure  of  the 
navigation  acts.  Like  Virginia,  it  possessed  no  considerable  village;  its 
inhabitants  were  scattered  among  the  woods  and  along  the  rivers ;  each 
plantation  was  a  little  world  within  itself,  and  legislation  vainly  attempted 
the  creation  of  towns  by  statute.  Like  Virginia,  its  laborers  were  in 
part  indentured  servants,  whose  term  of  service  was  limited  by  persever- 
ing legislation;  in  part  negro  slaves,  who  were  employed  in  the  colony 
from  an  early  period,  and  whose  importation  was  favored  both  by  English 
cupidity  and  provincial  statutes.  As  in  Virginia,  the  appointing  power 
to  nearly  every  office  in  the  counties  as  well  as  in  the  province  was  not 
with  the  people;  and  the  judiciary  was  placed  beyond  their  control.  As 
in  Virginia,  the  party  of  the  proprietary,  which  possessed  the  govern- 
ment, was  animated  by  a  jealous  regard  for  prerogative,  and  by  the 
royalist  principles,  which  derive  the  sanction  of  authority  from  the  will 
of  heaven.  As  in  Virginia,  the  taxes  levied  by  the  county  officers  were 
not  conceded  by  the  direct  vote  of  the  people,  and  were,  therefore,  bur- 
densome alike  from  their  excessive  amount  and  the  manner  of  their  levy. 
But  though  the  administration  of  Maryland  did  not  favor  the  increasing 
spirit  of  popular  liberty,  it  was  marked  by  conciliation  and  humanity. 
To  foster  industry,  to  promote  union,  to  cherish  religious  peaoo,  .  .  , 
these  were  the  honest  purposes  of  Lord  Baltimore  during  his  long  su- 
premacy."* 

Yet  the  colony  continued  to  prosper.  Emigrants  oame  to  it  from 
almost  every  country  of  western  Europe,  and  even  from  Sweden  and  Fin- 

*  Hitlory  of  the  United  States.     By  George  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.,  p.  235. 


144  ,   HISTORY  OF  THE   US1TED  STATES. 

land.  The  only  persons  who  had  cause  for  complaint  in  Maryland  were 
the  Quakers,  who  were  treated  with  considerable  harshness  for  their 
/efusal  to  perform  military  duty ;  but  no  effort  was  made  to  interfere  with 
the  exercise  of  their  religion. 

In  1662,  Charles  Calvert,  the  son  and  heir  of  Lord  Baltimore,  came 
to  reside  in  the  colony.  Money  was  coined  at  a  colonial  mint,  a  tonnage 
duty  was  imposed  upon  all  vessels  trading  with  the  colony,  and  a  state 
house  was  b»-lit  in  1674,  at  a  cost  of  forty  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco, 
or  about  five  thousand  dollars.  By  numerous  acts  of  compromise  between 
Lord  Baltimore  and  the  assembly  the  question  of  taxation  was  adjusted 
upon  a  satisfactory  basis.  The  people  assumed  the  expense  of  the  pro- 
vincial government,  and  agreed  to  the  imposition  of  an  export  duty  of 
two  shillings  per  hogshead  upon  all  the  tobacco  sent  out  of  the  colony. 
One-half  of  this  duty  was  appropriated  to  the  support  of  the  government, 
and  the  remainder  was  assigned  unconditionally  to  the  uses  of  Lord 
Baltimore,  as  "  an  act  of  gratitude  "  for  his  care  of  the  colony. 

On  the  30th  of  November,  1675,  Cecil  Calvert,  second  Lord  Balti- 
more, died.  He  had  been  for  fourteen  years  the  earnest  and  devoted 
friend,  as  well  as  the  generous  lord  of  the  province,  and  had  lived  long 
enough  to  enjoy  the  gratitude  with  which  the  colony  sought  to  repay  his 
judicious  care.  His  memory  is  perpetuated  by  the  chief  city  of  Mary- 
land, which  bears  his  name,  and  which  is  already  the  largest  city  on  the 
Atlantic  coast,  south  of  the  Susquehanna,  and  the  fifth  in  population  in 
the  United  States.  Charles  Calvert,  who  had  been  for  fourteen  years 
governor  of  Alar}  land,  succeeded  to  his  father's  titles  and  possessions, 
and  in  1676  returned  to  England.  Previous  to  his  departure  from 
Maryland  he  gave  his  sanction  to  the  colonial  code  of  laws,  which  had 
been  thoroughly  revised.  One  of  these  laws  prohibited  the  "  importation 
of  convicted  persons "  into  the  colony  without  regard  to  the  will  of  the 
king  or  Parliament  of  England. 

Notwithstanding  the  mild  and  equitable  government  of  the  third  Lord 
Baltimore,  the  spirit  of  popular  liberty  was  becoming  too  strong  in  the 
colony  for  the  rule  of  the  proprietor  to  be  cheerfully  acquiesced  in  much 
longer.  The  rebellion  of  Bacon  in  Virginia  affected  the  Maryland  colony 
profoundly,  and  when  Lord  Baltimore  returned  to  the  province  in  1681, 
lie  found  a  large  part  of  the  people  hostile  to  him.  An  attempt  at  insur- 
rection was  suppressed,  but  the  seeds  of  trouble  were  too  deeply  sown  not 
to  spring  up  again. 

The  increase  of  the  population  had  left  the  Roman  Catholics  in  a  small 
minority,  so  that  Maryland  was  now  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a 
Protestant  colony.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  145 

the  Protestants,  regardless  of  the  wise  policy  of  toleration  which  had 
hitherto  marked  the  history  of  the  province,  endeavored  to  secure  the 
establishment  by  law  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Maryland.  Lord 
Baltimore  steadfastly  resisted  this  unwise  course,  and  maintained  the 
freedom  of  conscience  as  the  right  of  the  people.  He  thus  added  to  the 
existing  opposition  to  his  proprietary  rule  the  hostility  of  the  Protestant 
bigots.  A  little  later,  the  English  ministry  struck  the  first  blow  at  his 
proprietary  rights  and  at  the  religious  freedom  of  Maryland  by  ordering 
that  all  the  offices  of  the  colonial  government  should  be  bestowed  upon 
Protestants  alone.  "  Roman  Catholics  were  disfranchised  in  the  province 
which  they  had  planted." 

Lord  Baltimore  hoped  that  the  succession  of  James  II.,  a  Catholic 
sovereign,  would  restore  him  the  rights  of  which  U«  had  been  deprived  in 
his  province;  but  he  was  soon  undeceived,  for  the  king,  who  intended  to 
bring  all  the  American  colonies  directly  under  the  control  of  the  crown, 
would  make  no  exception  in  favor  of  Maryland,  and  measures  wers  put 
in  force  for  the  abolition  of  the  proprietary  government.  The  revolution 
which  placed  William  and  Mary  on  the  throne  prevented  the  execution 
of  these  plans. 

The  troubles  of  Lord  Baltimore  were  increased  by  the  failure  of  the 
deputy-governor,  whom  he  had  left  in  Maryland,  to  acknowledge  William 
and  Mary  promptly.  In  August,  1689,  occurred  an  insurrection  led  by 
"  The  association  in  arms  for  the  defence  of  the  Protestant  religion."  The 
deputy-governor  was  driven  from  office,  the  proprietary  government  was 
overturned,  and  William  and  Mary  were  proclaimed  sovereigns  of  Mary- 
land. The  party  in  power  appealed  to  the  king  to  annul  the  proprietary 
charter,  and  governed  the  colony  by  means  of  a  convention  until  the 
royal  pleasure  should  be  known.  Lord  Baltimore  endeavored  to  defend 
his  rights,  but  in  spite  of  his  struggles,  William  III.,  in  June,  1691, 
annulled  the  charter  of  Maryland,  and  by  the  exercise  of  his  own  power 
constituted  that  colony  a  royal  province.  In  1692,  the  king  appointed 
Sir  Lionel  Copley  governor  of  Maryland.  Upon  his  arrival  in  the 
colony  he  dissolved  the  convention  and  assumed  the  government.  He  at 
once  summoned  an  assembly,  which,  recognizing  William  and  Mary  as 
the  lawful  sovereigns  of  Maryland,  established  the  Church  of  England 
r£  the  religion  of  the  colony,  and  imposed  taxes  for  its  support.  The 
capital  was  removed  from  St.  Mary's  to  Annapolis,  both  because  the  old 
seat  of  government  had  become  inconvenient  and  because  it  was  desired 
to  remove  the  government  to  the  centre  of  Protestant  influence.  The 
disfranchisement  of  the  Catholics  advanced  step  by  step.  At  first  the 
dissenters  from  the  established  church  were  granted  toleration  and  pro- 
10 


146  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tection,  but  in  1704  the  triumph  of  bigotry  was  complete.  All  the 
dissenting  bodies  were  tolerated,  but  Roman  Catholics  were  forbidden  the 
exercise  of  their  faith.  Mass  was  not  allowed  to  be  said  in  public,  nor  was 
any  bishop  or  clergyman  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to  be  permitted  to 
seek  to  make  converts  for  his  faith.  Other  severe  measures  were  enacted, 
and  in  the  land  which  Catholics  had  settled,  the  members  of  that  com- 
munion alone  were  denied  the  rights  which  in  the  day  of  their  power 
they  had  offered  to  others.  Nor  did  the  royalist  assembly  manifest  any 
care  for  the  true  interests  of  the  province.  Education  was  neglected; 
the  establishment  of  printing  was  prohibited;  and  the  domestic  manu- 
factures which  the  necessities  of  the  colony  had  brought  into  existence 
were  discouraged.  In  1710  the  population  numbered  over  30,000,  free 
and  slave. 

In  1715  Benedict  Charles  Calvert,  the  fourth  Lord  Baltimore,  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the  restoration  of  his  rights  in  Maryland,  and  the 
province  passed  into  his  hands.  The  people  had  been  so  disgusted  with 
the  rule  of  the  royal  governors  that  no  opposition  was  mads  to  this 
change.  The  new  Lord  Baltimore,  unlike  the  rest  of  his  family,  was  a 
Protestant,  which  was  the  cause  of  his  restoration  to  his  hereditary  rights. 
After  his  restoration  the  colony  increased  with  still  greater  rapidity. 
The  establishment  of  a  post  route,  in  1695,  between  the  Potomac  and 
Philadelphia,  had  brought  it  into  communication  with  the  Northern 
colonies.  In  1729  the  toAvn  of  Baltimore  was  founded.  Frederick  City 
was  settled  in  1745,  and  in  1751  was  followed  by  Georgetown,  now  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  In  1756  the  population  of  the  colony  had 
increased  to  154,188  souls,  of  whom  over  40,000  were  negroes.  The 
increase  in  material  prosperity  was  equally  marked.  By  the  last-men- 
tioned year  the  annual  export  of  tobacco  was  30,000  hogsheads,  and,  in 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  home  government  to  prevent  it,  there  were 
eight  furnaces  and  nine  forges  for  smelting  copper  in  operation  in 
the  province. 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   PILGRIM    FATHERS. 

Rise  of  the  Puritans — Their  Increase  in  England — They  are  Persecuted  by  the  English 
Church  and  Government — Conduct  of  James  I. — His  Hatred  of  Puritanism — Puritans 
take  Refuge  in  Holland — The  Congregation  of  John  Robinson — They  Escape  to  Holland 
— The  Pilgrims — Their  Sojourn  at  Leyden — They  wish  to  Emigrate  to  Virginia — 
Failure  of  their  Negotiations  with  the  London  Company — They  form  a  Partnership  in 
England — A  Hard  Bargain — Departure  of  the  Pilgrims  from  Holland — Voyage  of  the 
"Mayflower" — Arrival  in  New  England — The  Agreement  on  board  the  "  Mayflower" 
— Carver  chosen  Governor — Settlement  of  Plymouth — The  first  Winter  in  New  England 
— Sufferings  of  the  Pilgrims — Arrival  of  new  Emigrants — Continued  Suffering — Assign- 
ment of  Lands — Friendly  Intercourse  with  Indians — Samoset  and  Squanto — Visit  of 
Massasoit — A  Threat  of  War — Bradford's  Defiance — Weston's  Men — A  Narrow  Escape 
— The  Colonists  Purchase  the  Interests  of  their  English  Partners — Lands  Assigned  in 
Fee  Simple — The  Colony  Benefited  by  the  Change — Government  of  Plymouth — Steady 
Growth  of  the  Colony.  - 

HE  persecutions  with  which  Queen  Mary  afflicted  the  reformers 
of  England  in  her  bloody  effort  to  restore  the  Roman  Catholic 
faith  in  that  country  caused  many  of  the  most  eminent  men  of 
the  English  Church  to  seek  safety  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Upon  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  the  Church  of  England  became 
once  more  the  religion  of  the  state,  and  the  reformers  were  free  to  return 
to  their  own  country.  They  came  back  with  broader  and  more  liberal 
views  than  they  had  carried  away  with  them,  and  there  sprang  up  in  the 
English  Church  a  party  which  demanded  a  purer  and  more  spiritual 
form  of  worship  than  that  of  the  church.  These  persons  were  called  in 
derision  Puritans.  They  adopted  the  name  without  hesitation,  and  soon 
made  it  an  honorable  distinction.  The  queen,  however,  was  determined 
to  compel  her  subjects  to  conform  to  the  established  church,  and  was 
especially  resolved  to  make  them  acknowledge  her  supremacy  over  the 
church.  To  the  Puritan  the  worship  of  the  Church  of  England  wa.- 
only  less  sinful  than  that  of  Rome,  and  to  acknowledge  the  queen  as  the 
head  of  the  church  was  to  commit  blasphemy.  He  claimed  that  the 
queen  had  no  control  over  him  in  matters  of  religion,  and  that  it  was 
his  right  to  worship  God  in  his  own  way,  without  interference.  The 
Puritans  gradually  came  to  embrace  in  their  number  some  of  the  best 


148  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

men  in  the  English  Church.  These  sincerely  deprecated  a  separation 
from  the  church,  and  earnestly  desired  to  carry  the  reformation  to  the 
extent  of  remedying  the  abuses  of  which  they  complained,  and  to  remain 
in  communion  with  the  church.  One  of  the  reforms  which  they  wished 
to  inaugurate  was  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy.  Failing  in  their  efforts, 
they  desired  to  be  let  alone  to  form  their  own  organizations  and  to 
worship  God  according  to  their  own  ideas,  without  the  pale  of  the  Church 
af  England. 

The  queen  and  the  bishops  were  not  content  to  allow  them  this 
freedom.  England  had  not  yet  learned  the  lesson  of  toleration,  and 
severe  measures  were  inaugurated  to  compel  the  dissenters  to  conform  to 
the  established  church.  All  persons  in  the  kingdom  were  required  to 
conform  to  the  ceremonies  of  the  church.  A  refusal  to  do  so  was  pun- 
ished with  banishment.  Should  any  person  so  banished  return  to  the 
kingdom  without  permission  he  was  to  be  put  to  death.  Accused  persons 
were  obliged  to  answer  upon  oath  all  questions  concerning  themselves  and 
their  acquaintance,  respecting  their  attendance  upon  public  worship. 
Ministers  refusing  to  conform  to  the  established  usage  were  deprived  of 
their  parishes ;  and  if  they  persisted  in  preaching  to  their  congregations, 
or  if  the  congregations  were  detected  in  listening  to  their  deposed  pastors, 
the  offenders  were  fined  or  subjected  to  some  severer  punishment. 
Absence  from  the  services  of  the  church  for  a  certain  length  of  time  was 
also  punished.  The  persecution  thus  inaugurated  drove  many  of  the 
nonconformists,  as  they  were  termed,  into  exile  from  England.  They 
fled  to  Holland  and  Switzerland,  where  alone  they  found  "  freedom  to 
worship  God."  In  spite  of  the  severe  measures  and  determined  efforts 
of  Elizabeth,  the  Puritans  increased  steadily  in  numbers  and  importance 
in  England. 

They  were  hopeful  that  James  I.  would  prove  a  more  lenient  sovereign 
to  them  than  Elizabeth  had  been,  and  they  had  good  ground  for  this 
hope.  The  real  character  of  James  was  unknown  in  England,  and  while 
King  of  Scotland  he  had  shown  great  favor  to  the  Presbyterians  of  that 
kingdom,  whom  it  was  his  interest  to  conciliate.  He  had  once  publiclv 
thanked  God  "that  he  was  king  of  such  i:  kirk — the  purest  kirk  in  ail 
the  world.  As  for  the  Kirk  of  England,"  he  added,  "  its  service  is  an 
svil-said  mass."  This  most  contemptible  of  monarc!  had  scarcely 
become  King  of  England  when  he  uttered  the  famous  maxim,  "No 
bishop,  no  king !  "  which  pithily  states  the  policy  of  his  reign.  Interest 
had  made  him  the  foe  of  episcopacy  in  Scotland  ;  the  same  motive  made 
him  its  champion  in  England.  Upon  his  entrance  into  his  new  kingdom, 
the  Puritans  met  him  with  an  humble  petition  for  a  redrew  of  their 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  149 

grievances.  James  quickly  saw  that  the  majority  of  the  English  people 
favored  a  support  of  the  church  as  it  was,  and  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
Puritans,  and  he  at  once  constituted  himself  the  enemy  of  the  petitioners. 
Still,  in  order  to  cover  his  desertion  of  the  party  to  which  he  had 
belonged  in  Scotland,  he  appointed  a  conference  at  Hampton  Court. 

The  conference  was  held  in  January,  1604,  and  the  king,  silencing  all 
real  debate,  made  the  meeting  merely  the  occasion  of  displaying  what  he 
regarded  as  his  talents  for  theological  controversy,  and  for  announcing 
the  decision  he  had  resolved  upon  from  the  first.  He  demanded  entire 
obedience  to  the  church  in  matters  of  faith  and  worship.  "  I  will  have 
none  of  that  liberty  as  to  ceremonies,"  he  declared.  "  I  will  have  one 
doctrine,  one  discipline,  one  religion  in  substance  and  in  ceremony. 
Never  speak  more  to  that  point,  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey."  The 
Puritans  then  demanded  permission  to  hold  occasional  ceremonies  of  their 
own,  with  the  right  of  free  discussions  in  them ;  but  James,  who  could 
never  tolerate  the  expression  of  any  opinion  adverse  to  his  own,  replied : 
"  You  are  aiming  at  a  Scot's  presbytery,  which  agrees  with  monarchy  as 
well  as  God  and  the  devil.  Then  Jack  and  Tom  and  Will  and  Dick 
shall  meet,  and  at  their  pleasure  censure  me  and  my  council  and  all  our 
proceedings.  Then  Will  shall  stand  up  and  say,  It  must  be  thus.  Then 
Dick  shall  reply  and  say,  Nay,  marry,  but  we  will  have  it  thus.  And 
therefore  here  I  must  once  more  reiterate  my  former  speech,  and  say,  The 
king  forbids."  Then  turning  to  the  bishops,  he  added :  "I  will  make 
them  conform,  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land,  or  else  worse ;  only 
hang  them ;  that's  all."  The  king  kept  his  word.  The  severe  laws 
against  the  nonconformists  were  enforced  that  year  with  such  energy  that 
three  hundred  Puritan  ministers  are  said  to  have  been  silenced,  impris- 
oned, or  exiled.  The  church  party  proceeded  in  the  next  few  years  to 
still  more  rigorous  measures,  and  were  willing  even  to  place  the  liberties 
of  the  nation  at  the  mercy  of  the  crown  in  order  to  compel  the  submis- 
sion of  the  Puritans.  The  introduction  of  foreign  publications  into  the 
kingdom  was  greatly  restricted,  and  the  press  was  placed  under  a  severe 
censorship.  The  Puritans  were  thus  forced  to  become  the  champions  of 
popular  liberty  against  the  tyranny  of  the  crown  and  the  ecclesiastical 
party,  and  the  issue  which  was  to  be  fought  out  by  the  next  generation 
was  distinctly  joined. 

There  was  a  congregation  of  Puritans  in  the  north  of  England,  com- 
jio.H'd  of  people  of  Lincolnshire  and  Nottinghamshire,  with  some  from 
i'  >rkshire.  The  pastor  was  John  Robinson,  "a  man  not  easily  to  be 
v.iralleled,"  who  possessed  in  an  unusual  degree  the  love  and  confidence 
af  his  people.  They  were  greatly  harassed  by  the  agents  of  the  king  and 


15C  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  bishops;  and  were  subjected  to  such  serious  annoyances  that  it  wns 
with  difficulty  that  they  could  hold  their  meetings.  Finding  it  impns- 
i  I  >le  to  live  in  peace  at  home  without  doing  violence  to  their  consciences, 
they  determined  to  leave  England  and  seek  refuge  from  persecution  in 
Holland.  That  country  was  friendly  to  the  English,  and  the  Dutch  had 
learned  from  their  own  sufferings  to  respect  the  rights  of  conscience  in 
others.  It  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  leave  England,  however,  for  it  was 
held  by  the  government  to  be  almost  a  crime  to  attempt  to  escape  from 
persecution.  A  vessel  was  hired  to  convey  the  refugees  to  Holland ;  but 
the  roval  officers  were  informed  of  the  intended  voyage,  and  seized  the 
whole  company  as  they  were  about  to  embark.  Their  persons  were 
searched,  their  small  possessions  seized,  and  the  whole  church — men, 
women,  and  children — thrown  into  prison.  In  a  short  while  all  but  seven 
were  released.  These  were  brought  to  trial,  but  it  was  found  impossible 
to  prove  any  crime  against  them,  and  they  also  were  discharged. 

This  action  of  the  government,  so  far  from  intimidating  the  sufferers, 
but  increased  their  resolve  to  leave  England,  and  in  the  spring  of  1608 
the  effort  was  renewed.  A  Dutch  captain  consented  to  convey  them  to 
Holland,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  refugees  should  assemble  upon  a 
lonely  heath  in  Lincolnshire,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Humber.  and  be 
taken  on  board  by  the  Dutch  skipper.  The  men  of  the  party  went  to 
the  rendezvous  by  land,  and  got  safely  on  board  the  ship ;  but  the  boat 
conveying  the  women  and  children  was  stranded  and  captured  by  a  party 
of  horsemen  sent  in  pursuit.  The  Dutch  skipper,  fearful  of  becoming 
involved  in  trouble  with  the  English  authorities,  at  once  put  to  sea,  and 
the  exiles  were  separated  from  their  families,  who  were  left  helpless  in 
the  hands  of  their  oppressors.  The  women  and  children  were  treated 
with  great  harshness  by  their  captors,  and  were  taken  before  the  magis- 
trates, who  found  it  impossible  to  punish  them  for  an  attempt  to  follow 
the  fortunes  of  their  husbands  and  fathers.  They  were  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  to  do  with  the  prisoners,  who  no  longer  had  homes  in  England,  and 
at  last  released  them  unconditionally,  and  permitted  them  to  rejoin  their 
natural  protectors  in  Holland. 

The  exiles  reached  Amsterdam  in  the  spring  of  1608.  They  were  well 
pleased  to  be  safe  in  this  peaceful  refuge,  but  they  did  not  deceive  them- 
3elves  with  the  hope  that  it  could  ever  be  a  home  to  them.  "They 
knew  they  were  PILGRIMS,  and  looked  not  much  on  those  things,  but 
lifted  up  their  eyes  to  heaven,  their  dearest  country,  and  quieted  their 
spirits."  They  found  it  hard  to  earn  a  support  in  Amsterdam,  and  in 
3609  removed  to  Leyden,  where,  by  their  industry  and  frugality,  they 
managed  to  live  in  comparative  comfort.  Their  piety  and  exemplary 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  151 

i 

conduct  won  for  them  the  respect  of  the  Dutch,  who  would  have  openly 
shown  them  marked  favor  but  for  their  fear  of  offending  the  King  of 
England.  The  magistrates  of  Leyden  bore  ready  witness  to  their  purity 
of  life.  "Never,"  said  they,  "did  we  have  any  suit  or  accusation 
against  any  of  them." 

In  the  course  of  time  the  Pilgrims  were  joined  by  a  number  of  theii- 
brethren  from  England.  They  were  nearly  all  accustomed  to  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  and  in  Holland  they  were  obliged  to  earn  their  bread  by 
mechanical  labors.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  they  could  do  this,  and 
they  never  formed  any  attachment  to  the  place  of  their  exile.  They 
preserved,  through  all  their  trials,  their  affection  for  their  native  land, 
and  cherished  the  hope  that  they  might  continue  Englishmen  to  the  close 
of  their  lives.  They  viewed  with  alarm  the  prospect  of  raising  their 
children  in  Holland,  where  they  would  necessarily  be  thrown  in  constant 
contact  with,  and  be  influenced  by,  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
country.  Above  all  they  dreaded  the  effect  upon  their  children  of  the 
dissolute  example  of  the  disbanded  soldiers  and  sailors  who  filled  the 
country.  These  and  other  things  made  them  unwilling  to  look  upon 
Holland  as  their  permanent  home.  But  whither  should  they  go  in  case 
of  their  departure  from  Holland?  Their  own  country  was  closed 
against  them,  and  the  nations  of  continental  Europe  could  offer  them  no 
asylum.  As  their  conviction,  that  it  was  their  duty  to  seek  some  other 
home,  deepened,  their  thoughts  became  more  irresistibly  directed 
towards  the  new  world.  In  the  vast  solitudes  of  the  American  continent, 
and  there  alone,  they  could  establish  a  home  in  which  they  could  worship 
God  without  fear  or  molestation,  and  rear  their  children  in  the  ways  that 
seemed  to  them  good.  Thither  would  they  go. 

They  were  anxious  to  make  their  venture  under  the  protection  of 
England,  and  declined  the  offers  made  them  by  the  Dutch,  who  wished 
them  to  establish  their  colony  as  a  dependency  of  Holland.  They  had 
heard  of  the  excellent  climate  and  fertile  soil  of  Virginia,  and  it  seemed 
best  to  them  to  choose  that  promising  region  as  the  scene  of  their  experi- 
ment. It  was  necessary  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  London  Company 
to  their  settlement,  as  Virginia  had  been  granted  to  that  body  by  the 
King  of  England;  and  in  1617  two  of  the  leading  members  of  the  con- 
gregation— John  Carver  and  Robert  Cushman — went  to  England  to  lay 
their  application  before  the  company.  They  were  kindly  received  by 
Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  the  secretary  of  the  company.  They  laid  before  the 
directors  the  request  for  permission  to  form  a  settlement  in  Virginia, 
with  which  they  had  been  charged  by  their  brethren.  The  application 
'.vas  signed  by  the  greater  part  of  the  congregation,  and  contained  a  state- 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

merit  of  their  principles,  and  their  reasons  for  desiring  to  emigrate  to 
America.  "  We  verily  believe  that  God  is  with  us,"  said  the  petitioners, 
"and  will  prosper  us  in  our  endeavors;  we  are  weaned  from  our  mother 
country,  and  have  learned  patience  in  a  hard  and  strange  land.  We  are 
industrious  and  frugal;  we  are  bound  together  by  a  sacred  bond  of  the 
Lord,  whereof  wo  make  great  conscience,  holding  ourselves  to  each  other's 
good.  We  do  not  wish  ourselves  home  again  ;  we  have  nothing  to  hope 
from  England  or  Holland;  we  are  men  who  will  not  be  easily  dis- 
couraged." 

The  appeal  of  the  Pilgrims  was  received  with  such  favor  by  the 
London  Company  that  Carver  and  Cushman  ventured  to  petition  the 
king  to  grant  them  liberty  to  exercise  their  religion  unmolested  in  the 
wilds  of  America.  The  most  that  James  would  consent  to  grant  them, 
however,  was  a  half  promise  to  pay  no  attention  to  them  in  their  new 
home.  The  London  Company  agreed  to  grant  them  permission  to  settle 
in  Virginia,  but  the  dissensions  of  that  body  prevented  anything  from 
being  done  in  their  behalf. 

The  Pilgrims  were  too  poor  to  defray  the  cost  of  their  emigration,  and 
they  set  to  work  to  find  persons  of  means  willing  to  assist  them.  At 
length  they  were  successful,  and  a  company  was  formed  consisting  of 
themselves  and  several  merchants  of  London.  The  latter  were  to 
advance  the  funds  necessary  for  the  enterprise,  while  the  former  were  to 
contribute  their  entire  services  for  a  period  of  seven  years,  as  their  share 
of  the  stock  of  the  company.  At  the  end  of  seven  years  the  profits  of 
the  enterprise  were  to  be  divided  according  to  the  amount  of  each  one's 
investment ;  and  it  was  agreed  that  a  contribution  of  ten  pounds  in  money 
by  a  merchant  should  be  entitled  to  as  great  a  share  of  the  profits  as  seven 
years  of  labor  on  the  part  of  the  emigrant.  These  were  hard  terms  for 
the  Pilgrims,  but  they  were  the  best  they  could  obtain,  and  they  were 
accepted,  as  the  exiles  were  willing  to  suffer  any  sacrifice  in  order  to  be 
able  to  found  a  community  of  their  own  in  which  they  could  bring  up 
their  children  in  the  fear  of  God.  The  main  thing  with  them  was  to  reach 
the  shores  of  America.  Once  there  these  men  who  had  learned  the 
lessons  of  self-denial  and  endurance  did  not  doubt  their  ability  to  succeed 
even  in  the  face  of  the  heavy  disadvantages  they  were  obliged  to  assume. 

With  the  funds  thus  obtained  the  Pilgrims  began  to  prepare  for  theii 
departure.  A  ship  of  sixty  tons,  called  the  "  Speedwell,"  was  purchased, 
and  another,  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  tons,  called  the  "  Mayflower," 
was  chartered.  These,  however,  could  transport  but  a  part  of  the  congre- 
gation, and  it  was  resolved  to  send  out  at  first  only  "such  of  the  youngest 
and  strongest  as  freely  offered  themselves."  The  pastor,  Robinson,  and 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  153 

the  aged  and  infirm  were  to  remain  at  Leyden  until  their  brethren  could 
send  for  them,  and  the  colony  was  placed  under  the  guidance  of  William 
Brewster,  the  governing  elder,  who  was  an  able  teacher  and  much  re- 
spected and  beloved  for  his  noble  character. 

When  all  was  in  readiness,  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  held,  in 
order  that  at  the  very  beginning  of  their  enterprise  the  Pilgrims  might 
invoke  the  guidance  and  protection  of  God.  "  Let  us  seek  of  God,"  they 
said,  "  a  right  way  for  us,  and  for  our  little  ones,  and  for  all  our  sub- 
stance!" The  venerable  pastor  made  this  solemn  season  the  occasion  of 
delivering  a  tender  farewell  to  the  members  of  his  charge  who  were  about 
to  depart,  and  of  appealing  to  them  to  be  true  to  the  principles  of  their 
religion  in  their  new  home.  "  I  charge  you  before  God  and  his  blessed 
angels,"  he  said,  in  tones  of  deep  emotion,  "that  you  follow  me  no  further 
than  you  have  seen  me  follow  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  If  God  reveal 
anything  to  you,  be  rea'dy  to  receive  it;  for  I  am  verily  persuaded  that 
the  Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break  out  of  his  holy  word.  I  beseech 
you,  remember  that  it  is  an  article  of  your  church  covenant,  that  you  be 
ready  to  receive  whatever  truth  shall  be  made  known  to  you  from  the 
written  word  of  God.  Take  heed  what  ye  receive  as  truth ;  examine  it, 
consider  it,  and  compare  it  with  other  scriptures  of  truth  before  you 
receive  it ;  the  Christian  world  has  not  yet  come  to  the  perfection  of 
knowledge." 

From  Leyden  a  number  of  the  brethren  accompanied  the  emigrants  to 
Delft  Haven,  from  which  port  they  were  to  sail.  The  night  before  their 
departure,  they  all  assembled  in  prayer  and  religious  exercises,  which 
were  continued  until  the  dawn,  when  they  prepared  to  go  on  board  the 
ship.  Arrived  at  the  shore,  they  knelt  again,  and  the  pastor,  Robinson, 
led  them  in  prayer — the  emigrants  listening  to  his  voice  for  the  last  time 
on  earth.  "And  so,"  says  Edward  Winslow,  "  lifting  up  our  hands  to 
each  other,  and  our  hearts  to  the  Lord  our  God,  we  departed." 

Southampton  was  soon  reached,  and  the  voyagers  were  transferred  to 
the  "Mayflower"  and  the  "  Speedwell."  On  the  5th  of  August,  1620, 
those  vessels  sailed  from  Southampton  for  America.  Soon  after  getting 
to  sea,  it  was  discovered  that  the  "Speedwell"  was  in  need  of  repairs, 
and  that  they  must  return  to  England.  They  put  about  and  reached 
the  port  of  Dartmouth,  where  the  smaller  vessel  was  repaired.  Eight 
days  were  consumed  in  this  undertaking,  and  the  voyage  was  resumed. 
They  were  scarcely  out  of  sight  of  land  when  the  commander  of  fhe 
"  Speedwell,"  alarmed  by  the  dangers  of  the  voyage,  declared  that  his 
ship  was  not  strong  enough  to  cross  the  ocean.  The  vessels  at  once  put 
back  to  Plymouth,  where  the  smaller  ship  was  discharged.  At  the  same 


154 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


time  those  who  had  grown  fainthearted  were  permitted  to  withdraw  from 
the  expedition.  The  remainder  of  the  company,  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  and  one,  sailed  from  Plymouth  in  the  "  Mayflower,"  on  the  6th 
of  September,  1620.  Some  of  these  were  women  well  advanced  in  preg- 
nancy, and  some  were  children.  Their  little  vessel  was  but  a  frail  barque 
compared  with  the  ships  that  now  navigate  the  sea ;  but  a  band  of  braver 


THE  "  MAYFLOWER  "  IN   PLYMOUTH    HARBOR. 


and  more  resolute  souls  never  trusted  themselves  to  the  mercies  of  the 
stormy  Atlantic. 

The  leading  man  in  the  little  band  of  Pilgrims  was  the  ruling  elder, 
William  Brewster,  who  was  to  be  their  preacher  until  the  arrival  of  a 
regularly  chosen  pastor.  He  was  a  man  of  fine  education,  refined  and 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  155 

scholarly  tastes,  and  of  pure  and  lofty  Christian  character.  "  He  laid 
his  hand/'  says  Elliott,  "to  the  daily  tasks  of  life,  as  we)l  as  spent  his 
soul  in  trying  to  benefit  his  fellows — so  bringing  himself  as  near  as 
possible  to  the  early  Christian  practices;  he  was  worthy  of  being  the 
first  minister  of  New  England."  He  was  well  advanced  in  life,  ami  was 
looked  up  to  with  affectionate  regard  by  his  associates. 

Another  was  John  Carver,  also  a  man  of  years  and  ripe  experience, 
who  had  sacrificed  his  fortune  to  the  cause,  and  whose  dignified  and 
benevolent  character  won  him  the  honor  of  being  chosen  the  first  chief 
magistrate  of  the  colony. 

Prominent  among  the  leaders  was  William  Bradford.  He  was  only 
thirty-two,  but  was  a  man  of  earnest  and  resolute  character,  firm  and 
true,  "a  man  of  nerve  and  public  spirit."  He  had  begun  life  as  a 
farmer's  boy  in  England,  and  in  Holland  had  supported  himself  by 
practising  the  art  of  dyeing ;  but,  in  spite  of  his  constant  labors,  he  had 
educated  himself  and  had  managed  to  accumulate  books  of  his  own.  He 
systematically  devoted  a  large  part  of  his  time  to  study,  and  thus  care- 
fully trained  his  natural  abilities,  which  were  very  great. 

Edward  Winslow,  a  man  of  sweet  and  amiable  disposition,  was 
twenty-six  years  old.  He  was  a  gentleman  by  birth,  and  had  been  well 
educated,  and  had  acquired  considerable  information  and  experience  by 
travel. 

Miles  Standish  had  attained  the  mature  age  of  thirty-six,  and  was  a 
veteran  soldier.  He  had  seen  service  in  the  wars  of  the  continent  of 
Europe,  and  had  gained  an  honorable  distinction  in  them.  He  was  not 
a  member  of  the  church,  but  was  strongly  attached  to  its  institutions. 

"  With  the  people  of  God  lie  hud  chosen  to  suffer  affliction, 
....  In  return  for  his  zeal,  they  ....  made  him  Captain  of  Plymouth; 
He  was  a  man  of  honor,  of  noble  and  generous  nature ; 
Though  he  was  rough,  he  was  kindly  .... 
Somewhat  hasty  and  hot  ....  and  headstrong, 
Stern  as  a  soldier  might  be,  but  hearty  and  placable  always, 
Not  to  be  laughed  at  and  scorned,  because  he  was  little  of  stature ; 
For  he  was  great  of  heart,  magnanimous,  courtly,  courageous." 

( 

The  voyage  of  the  "  Mayflower  "  was  long  and  stormy.     The  Pilgrims 

had  selected  the  country  near  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  as  the  best  region 
for  their  settlement,  but  a  severe  storm  drove  them  northward  to  the 
coast  of  New  England.  Sixty-three  days  were  consumed  in  the  passage, 
during  which  one  of  their  number  had  died,  and  at  length  land  was 
made,  and  on  the  9th  of  November,  two  days  later,  the  "  Mayflower " 
cast  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Cape  Cod. 


156  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  Pilgrims  had  come  to  America  at  their  own  risk  and  without  the 
sanction  of,  or  a  charter  from,  the  king  or  any  lawful  organization  in 
England.  They  were  thrown  upon  their  own  resources,  and  could  look 
to  no  quarter  for  protection  or  support.  Appreciating  the  necessity  of  an 
organized  government,  their  first  acts  after  anchoring  in  Cape  Cod  bay 
were  to  organize  themselves  into  a  body  politic  and  to  form  a  govern- 
IIK  nt.  The  following  compact  was  drawn  up  in  the  cabin  of  the  "  May- 
flower," and  was  signed  by  all  the  men  of  the  colony,  to  the  number  of 
forty-one :  "  In  the  name  of  God,  amen ;  we  whose  names  are  under- 
written, the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sovereign  King  James,  having 
undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  advancement  of  the  Christian 
faith,  and  honor  of  our  king  and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first 
colony  in  the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  do,  by  these  presents,  solemnly 
and  mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  one  another,  covenant  and 
combine  ourselves  together,  into  a  civil  body  politic,  for  our  better  order- 
ing and  preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid ;  and  by 
virtue  hereof,  to  enact,  constitute  and  frame  such  just  and  equal  laws, 
ordinances,  acts,  constitutions  and  offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be 
thought  most  convenient  for  the  general  good  of  the  colony,  unto  which 
sve  promise  all  due  submission  and  obedience." 

This  was  the  first  constitution  of  New  England,  democratic  in  form, 
And  resting  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed.  It  at  once  established  the 
new  commonwealth  upon  the  basis-  of  constitutional  liberty,  and  secured 
to  the  people  "just  and  equal  laws"  for  the  "general  good."  In  virtue 
of  the  compact,  John  Carver  was  chosen  governor  of  the  colony  for  the 
ensuing  year. 

The  prospect  which  presented  itself  to  the  Pilgrims  upon  their  arrival 
at  Cape  Cod  might  well  have  daunted  even  their  resolute  souls.  It  was 
the  opening  of  the  winter,  and  they  had  come  to  a  barren  and  rugged 
coast.  The  climate  was  severe,  and  the  land  was  a  wilderness.  The 
English  colony  in  Virginia  was  five  hundred  miles  distant,  and  to  the 
north  of  them  the  nearest  white  settlement  was  the  French  colony  at 
Port  Royal.  The  "  Mayflower  "  was  only  chartered  to  convey  them  to 
A.merica,  and  must  return  to  England  as  soon  as  they  had  chosen  a  site 
and  established  a  settlement.  Yet  no  one  faltered.  The  new  land  was 
reached,  the  difficulties  and  dangers  were  such  as  could  be  overcome  by 
patience  and  fortitude,  and  the  Pilgrims  without  hesitation  addressed 
themselves  to  the  task  before  them. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  explore  the  coast  and  choose  a  site 

*>r  the  colony,  for  it  was  important  to  begin  their  settlement  before  the 

-verity  of  the  winter  should   render  such  an  effort  impossible.     The 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  157 

shallop  was  gotten  out,  but  unfortunately  it  was  found  to  need  repairs. 
The  ship's  carpenter  worked  so  slowly  that  nearly  three  weeks  were  spent 
in  this  task.  This  dejay  was  a  great  misfortune  at  this  advanced  season 
of  the  year,  and,  some  of  the  party  becoming  impatient,  it  was  resolved 
to  go  ashore  in  the  ship's  boat  and  explore  the  country  by  land.  A  party 
of  sixteen  men  was  detailed  for  this  purpose,  and  placed  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Miles  Standish.  William  Bradford,  Stephen  Hopkins 
and  Edward  Tilly  were  included  in  the  party  as  a  council  of  war.  The 
explorers  were  given  numerous  instructions,  and  were  rather  permitted 
than  ordered  to  go  upon  their  journey,  which  was  regarded  as  perilous, 
and  the  time  of  their  absence  was  limited  to  two  days. 

Upon  reaching  the  shore  they  followed  it  for  about  a  mile,  when  they 
discovered  several  Indians  watching  them  from  a  distance.  The  savages 
fled  as  soon  as  they  saw  they  were  observed,  and  the  whites  followed  in 
pursuit.  They  struck  the  trail  of  the  retreating  Indians,  and  followed  it 
until  nightfall,  but  being  encumbered  by  the  weight  of  their  armor  and 
impeded  by  the  tangled  thickets  through  which  they  had  to  pass,  they 
were  unable  to  overtake  the  Indians.  The  explorers  bivouacked  that 
night  by  a  clear  spring,  whose  waters  refreshed  them  after  their  fatiguing 
march.  They  made  few  discoveries,  but  the  expedition  was  not  entirely 
unprofitable.  In  one  place  they  found  a  deer-trap,  made  by  bending  a 
young  tree  to  the  earth,  with  a  noose  under-ground  covered  with  acorns. 
Mr.  Bradford  was  caught  by  the  foot  in  this  snare,  which  occasioned 
much  merriment.  An  Indian  graveyard  was  discovered  in  another  place, 
and  in  one  of  the  graves  there  was  an  earthen  pot,  a  mortar,  a  bow  and 
some  arrows,  and  other  rude  implements.  These  were  carefully  replaced 
by  the  whites,  who  respected  the  resting-place  of  the  dead.  The  most 
important  discovery  was  the  finding  of  a  cellar  or  pit  carefully  lined  with 
bark,  and  covered  over  with  a  heap  of  sand,  and  containing  about  four 
bushels  of  seed  corn  in  ears.  As  much  of  this  as  the  men  could  carry 
was  secured,  and  it  was  determined  to  pay  the  owners  of  the  corn  for  it 
as  soon  as  they  could  be  found.  On  the  third  day  the  explorers  returned 
to  the  ship,  and  delivered  their  corn,  which  was  kept  for  seed. 

The  shallop  being  finished  at  length,  a  party,  consisting  of  Carver, 
Bradford,  Winslow,  Standish  and  others,  with  eight  or  ten  seamen,  was 
sent  out  on  a  second  expedition  on  the  6th  of  December.  The  weather 
was  very  cold,  and  their  clothing,  drenched  with  spray,  froze  as  stiff  as 
iron  armor.  They  reached  the  bottom  of  Cape  Cod  bay  that  day,  and 
landed,  instructing  the  people  in  the  shallop  to  follow  them  along  the 
shore.  The  next  day  they  divided,  and  searched  ths  neighborhood. 
They  found  a  number  of  Indian  graves,  and  some  deserted  v/igwams,  but 


158 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


saw  no  signs  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country.  That  night  they  en- 
'.•aniped  near  Namtasket,  or  Great  Meadow  Creek.  On  the  morning  of 
the  8th  of  December,  just  as  they  had  finished  their  prayers,  the  explorers 
were  startled  by  a  war-whoop  and  a  flight  of  arrows.  The  Indians,  who 
were  of  the  tribe  of  the  Nausites,  were  put  to  flight  by  the  discharge  of 
a-few  guns.  Some  of  their  people  had  been  kidnapped  by  the  English  a 
years  before,  and  hence  they  regarded  the  new-comers  as  bent  on  the 

same  errand.  The  day 
was  spent  in  searching 
for  a  safe  harbor  for  the 
ship,  and  at  nightfall  a 
violent  storm  of  rain  and 
snow  drove  them  through 
the  breakers  into  a  small 
cove  sheltered  from  the 
gale  by  a  hill.  They 
were  so  wet  and  chilled 
that  they  landed  at  once, 
and,  regardless  of  the 
danger  of  drawing  the 
savages  upon  them,  built 
a  fire  with  great  diffi- 
culty, in  order  to  keep 
from  perishing  with  the 
cold.  When  the  morn- 
ing dawned,  they  found 
that  they  were  on  an 
island  at  the  entrance  to 
a  harbor.  The  day  was 
spent  in  rest  and  pre- 
parations. The  next  day, 
December  10th,  was  the 
Sabbath,  and  notwith- 
standing the  need  of 

prompt  action,  they  spent  it  in  rest  and  religious  exercises.  The  next 
lay,  December  llth,  1620,  old  style,  or  December  22d,  according  to  our 
present  system,  the  exploring  party  of  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  the  head  of 
the  harbor  they  had  discovered.  The  rock  upon  which  their  footsteps 
were  first  planted  is  still  preserved  by  their  descendants.  The  place  was 
explored,  and  chosen  as  the  site  of  the  settlement,  and  was  named 
Plymouth,  in  memory  of  the  last  English  town  from  which  the  Pilgrim* 
had  sailed. 


LANDING  OF  THE  PILGRIMS. 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  159 

The  adventurers  hastened  back  to  the  ship,  which  stood  across  the 
bay,  and  four  days  later  cast  anchor  in  Plymouth  harbor.  No  time  was 
to  be  lost;  the  "Mayflower"  must  soon  return  to  England,  and  the 
emigrants  must  have  some  shelter  over  their  heads  before  her  departure. 
To  save  time  each  man  was  allowed  to  build  his  own  house.  This  was  a 
most  arduous  task.  Many  of  the  men  were  almost  broken  down  by  their 
exposure  to  the  cold,  and  some  had  already  contracted  the  fatal  diseases 
which  were  to  carry  them  to  the  grave  before  the  close  of  the  winter. 
Still  they  persevered,  working  bravely  when  the  absence  of  rain  and 
snow  would  permit  them  to  do  so.  As  the  winter  deepened,  the  sickness 
and  mortality  of  the  colony  increased.  At  one  time  there  were  but  seven 
well  men  in  the  company.  More  than  forty  of  the  settlers  died  during 
the  winter.  John  Carver,  the  good  governor  of  the  colony,  buried  his 
son,  and  himself  soon  succumbed  to  the  hardships  from  which  he  had 
never  shrunk,  though  never  able  to  endure  them.  He  was  followed  by 
his  heart-broken  widow.  The  wives  of  Bradford  -and  Winslow,  and 
Rose  Standish,  the  sweet  young  bride  of  "  the  Captain  of  Plymouth " 
were  also  among  the  victims.  They  were  all  buried  on  the  shore  near 
the  rock  on  which  they  had  landed,  and  lest  their  graves  should  tell  the 
Indians  of  the  sufferings  and  weakness  of  the  settlement,  their  resting- 
place  was  levelled  and  sown  with  grass.  "William  Bradford  was  chosen 
governor  in  the  place  of  Carver,  and  the  work  went  on  with  firmness  and 
without  repining. 

At  last  the  long  winter  drew  to  a  close,  and  the  balmy  spring  came  to 
cheer  the  settlers  with  its  bright  skies  and  warm  breezes.  The  sick  began 
to  recover,  and  the  building  of  the  settlement  was  completed.  In  course 
of  time  a  large  shod  was  erected  for  the  public  stores,  and  a  small  hos- 
pital for  the  sick.  A  church  was  also  built.  It  was  made  stronger  than 
the  other  buildings,  as  it  was  to  serve  as  a  fortress  as  wrell  as  a  place  of 
worship,  and  four  cannon  were  mounted  on  top  of  it  for  defence  against 
the  savages.  Here  they  assembled  on  the  Sabbath  for  religious  worship, 
and  to  hear  the  word  of  God  from  the  lips  of  their  pastor,  the  good 
Elder  Brewster.  In  the  spring  the  ground  was  prepared  for  cultivation, 
but  until  the  harvest  was  grown  the  colonists  lived  by  fishing  and 
hunting. 

In  March,  1621,  the  "Mayflower"  sailed  for  England.  Not  one  of 
the  Pilgrims  wished  to  return  in  her.  They  had  their  trials,  and  these 
were  sore  and  heavy,  but  they  had  also  made  a  home  and  a  government 
for  themselves,  where  they  could  enjoy  the  benefits  and  protection  of 
their  own  laws,  and  worship  God  in  safety  and  in  peace.  They  did  not 
floubt  that  they  would  some  day  triumph  over  their  difficulties,  and  that 


160 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


God  would  in  His  own  good  time  crown  their  labors  and  their  patience 
with  success. 

In  the  autumn  of  1621,  a  reinforcement  of  new  emigrants  arrived. 
They  brought  no  provisions,  and  were  dependent  upon  the  scanty  stock 
of  the  colony,  and  the  increased  demand  upon  this  soon  brought  the 
settlers  face  to  face  with  the  danger  of  famine.  For  six  months  no  one 
received  more  than  half  allowance,  and  this  was  frequently  reduced.  "  I 
have  seen  men,"  says  Winslow,  "stagger  by  reason  of  faintness  for  want 
of  food."  On  one  occasion  the  whole  company  would  have  perished  but 
for  the  kindness  of  some  fishermen,  who  relieved  their  wants.  This 


THE  FIRST  CHURCH  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


scarcity  of  provisions  continued  for  several  years,  and  it  was  not  until 
the  end  of  the  fourth  year  of  the  settlement  that  the  colonists  had  any- 
thing like  a  proper  supply  of  food.  In  that  year  neat  cattle  were  intro- 
duced into  Plymouth.  None  of  the  colonies  were  called  upon  to  endure 
such  privations  as  were  suffered  by  the  Pilgrims.  Yet  they  bore  them 
with  unshaken  fortitude,  still  trusting  that  God  would  give  them  a 
pleasanter  lot  in  the  end. 

The  conditions  of  the  contract  with  the  English  merchants  had  required 
the  labor  of  the  colonists  to  be  thrown  into  the  common  stock.  This  was 
found  to  be  an  unprofitable  arrangement,  and  in  1623  it  was  agreed  that 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  161 

each  settler  should  plant  for  himself,  and  each  family  was  assigned  a 
parcel  of  land  in  proportion  to  its  numbers,  to  cultivate,  but  "  not  for  an 
inheritance."  This  arrangement  gave  great  satisfaction  and  the  colonists 
went  to  work  with  such  a  will  that  after  this  season  there  was  no  scarcity 
of  food.  In  the  spring  of  1624  each  colonist  was  given  a  little  land  in 
fee.  The  very  existence  of  the  colony  demanded  this  departure  from  the 
hard  bargain  with  the  English  merchants,  and  the  result  justified  the 
measure.  Abundant  harvests  rewarded  the  labors  of  the  settlers,  and 
corn  soon  became  so  plentiful  that  the  colonists  were  able  to  supply  the 
savages  with  it.  These,  preferring  the  chase  to  the  labor  of  the  field, 
brought  in  game  and  skins  to  Plymouth  and  received  corn  in  return. 

In  the  meantime  a  friendly  intercourse  had  sprung  up  between  the 
settlers  and  the  Indians.  In  the  first  year  of  the  settlement  the  red  men 
were  seen  hovering  upon  the  outskirts  of  the  village,  but  they  fled  upon 
the  approach  of  the  whites.  Distant  columns  of  smoke,  rising  beyond 
the  woods,  told  that  the  savages  were  close  at  hand,  and  it  was  deemed 
best  to  organize  the  settlers  into  a  military  company,  the  command  of 
which  was  given  to  Miles  Standish.  One  day,  in  March,  1621,  the  whole 
village  was  startled  by  the  appearance  of  an  Indian,  who  boldly  entered 
the  settlement,  and  greeted  the  whites  with  the  friendly  words,  "Welcome, 
Englishmen  !  Welcome,  Englishmen  ! "  He  was  kindly  received,  and 
it  was  found  that  he  was  Samoset,  and  had  learned  a  little  English  of  the 
fishermen  at  Penobscot.  He  belonged  to  the  Wampanoags,  a  tribe  occu- 
pying the  country  north  of  Narragansett  bay  and  between  the  rivers  of 
Providence  and  Taunton.  He  told  them  that  they  might  possess  the 
lands  they  had  taken  in  peace,  as  the  tribe  to  which  they  had  belonged 
had  been  swept  away  by  a  pestilence  the  year  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Pilgrims.  He  remained  one  night  with  the  settlers,  who  gave  him  a 
knife,  a  ring,  and  a  bracelet,  and  then  went  back  to  his  people,  promising 
to  return  soon  and  bring  other  Indians  to  trade  with  them.  In  a  few 
days  he  came  back,  bringing  with  him  Squanto,  the  Indian  who  had  been 
kidnapped  by  Hunt  and  sold  in  Spain.  From  that  country  Squanto  had 
escaped  to  England,  where  he  had  learned  the  language.  He  had  man- 
aged to  return  to  his  own  country,  and  now  appeared  to  act  as  interpreter 
to  the  English  in  their  intercourse  with  his  people.  They  announced  that 
Massasoit,  the  sachem  of  the  Wampanoags,  desired  to  visit  the  colony. 
The  chieftain  was  received  with  all  the  ceremony  the  little  settlement 
could  afford.  Squanto  acted  as  interpreter,  and  a  treaty  of  friendship 
was  arranged  between  Massasoit  on  behalf  of  his  people  and  the  English. 
The  parties  to  the  agreement  promised  to  treat  each  other  with  kindness 
and  justice,  to  deliver  up  offenders,  and  to  assist  each  other  when  attacked 
11 


|(J2  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

by  their  enemies.  This  treaty  was  faithfully  observed  by  both  partita 
for  fifty  years.  The  Pilgrims  expressed  their  willingness  to  pay  for  the 
baskets  of  corn  that  had  been  taken  by  their  first  exploring  party,  and 
this  they  did  six  months  later,  when  the  rightful  owners  presented  them- 
selves. A  trade  with  the  Indians  was  established,  and  furs  were  brought 
into  Plymouth  by  them  and  sold  for  articles  of  European  manufacture. 

Squanto  was  the  faithful  friend  of  the  colony  to  the  end  of  his  life, 
and  was  regarded  by  the  Pilgrims  as  "  a  special  instrument  sent  of  God 
for  their  good  beyond  their  expectation."  He  taught  them  the  Indian 
method  of  planting  corn  and  putting  fish  with  it  to  fertilize  the  ground, 
and  where  to  find  and  how  to  catch  fish  and  game.  He  showed  them 
his  friendship  in  many  ways,  and  was  during  his  lifetime  the  interpreter 
of  the  colony.  The  Pilgrims  on  their  part  were  not  ungrateful  to  him. 
On  one  occasion  it  was  rumored  in  Plymouth  that  Squanto  had  been 
seized  by  the  Narragansetts,  and  had  been  put  to  death.  A  party  of  ten 
men  at  once  marched  into  the  forest,  and  surprised  the  hut  where  the 
chief  of  the  Narragansetts  was.  Although  the  tribe  could  bring  five 
thousand  warriors  into  the  field,  the  chief  was  overawed  by  the  deter- 
mined action  of  the  English,  whose  firearms  gave  them  a  great  superi- 
ority, and  Squanto  was  released  unharmed.  On  his  death-bed  Squauto, 
who  had  been  carefully  nursed  by  his  white  friends,  asked  the  governor 
to  pray  that  he  might  go  to  "  the  Englishman's  God  in  heaven."  His 
death  was  regarded  as  a  serious  misfortune  to  the  colony. 

Massasoit,  whose  tribe  had  been  greatly  reduced  by  pestilence,  desired 
the  alliance  of  the  English  as  a  protection  against  the  Narragansetts,  who 
had  escaped  the  scourge,  and  whose  chief,  Canonicus,  was  hostile  to  him. 
The  Narragansetts  lived  upon  the  shores  of  the  beautiful  bay  to  which 
they  have  given  their  name,  and  were  a  powerful  and  warlike  race. 
Canonicus  regarded  the  English  with  hostility,  and  in  1622  sent  them  as 
»  defiance  a  bundle  of  arrows  wrapped  in  the  skin  of  a  rattlesnake. 
Governor  Bradford  received  the  challenge  from  the  hands  cf  the  chief- 
tain's messenger,  and  stuffing  the  skin  with  powder  and  ball  returned  it 
:o  him,  and  sternly  bade  him  bear  it  back  to  his  master.  The  Indians 
regarded  the  mysterious  contents  of  the  skin  with  terror  and  dread,  and 
passed  it  from  tribe  to  tribe.  None  dared  either  keep  or  destroy  it,  as  it 
was  regarded  as  possessed  of  some  mysterious  but  powerful  influence  for 
harm.  It  was  finally  returned  to  the  colony,  and  in  a  short  while 
Canonicus,  who  had  been  cowed  by  the  spirited  answer  of  Bradford, 
offered  to  make  a  treaty  of  peace  and  alliance  with  the  colony. 

The  Pilgrims  endeavored  to  treat  the  Indians  with  justice.  Severe 
penalties  were  denounced  against  those  who  should  deprive  the  savages 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  163 

of  their  property  without  paying  for  it,  or  should  treat  them  with  vio- 
lence. Yet  the  colonists  were  to  have  trouble  with  the  red  men,  ami 
that  through  no  fault  of  their  own. 

Among  the  merchants  of  London  who  had  invested  money  in  the 
planting  of  the  Plymouth  colony  was  Thomas  Weston.  Envious  of  the 
advance  made  by  the  colony  in  the  fur-trade,  he  desired  to  secure  all  the 
profits  of  that  traffic  by  establishing  a  trading-post  of  his  own.  He 
obtained  a  patent  for  a  small  tract  on  Boston  harbor,  near  Weymouth, 
and  settled  there  a  colony  of  sixty  men,  the  greater  number  of  whom 
were  indentured  servants.  These  men,  disregarding  the  warnings  of  the 
people  of  Plymouth,  gave  themselves  up  to  a  dissolute  life,  and  drew 
upon  themselves  the  wrath  of  the  Indians  by  maltreating  them,  and 
stealing  their  corn.  The  Indians,  unable  to  distinguish  between  the 
guilty  and  the  innocent,  resolved  to  avenge  the  misconduct  of  Weston's 
men  by  a  massacre  of  every  white  settler  in  the  country. 

Before  the  plot  could  be  put  in  execution  Massasoit  fell  sick.  Wins- 
low  visited  him,  and  found  his  lodge  full  of  medicine-men  and  jugglers, 
who  were  killing  him  with  the  noise  they  made  to  drive  away  the  disease. 
The  kind-hearted  Englishman  turned  the  Indian  doctors  out  of  the  lodge, 
and  by  giving  Massasoit  rest,  and  administering  such  remedies  as  his 
case  required,  restored  him  to  health.  The  grateful  chief  revealed  the 
plot  of  his  people  for  the  extermination  of  the  English.  The  Plymouth 
settlers  were  greatly  alarmed,  and  measures  were  promptly  taken  to  avert 
the  danger.  Standish,  with  eight  armed  men,  was  sent  to  the  assistance 
of  the  settlement  at  Weymouth.  They  arrived  in  time  to  prevent  the 
attack.  The  Indians,  who  had  begun  to  collect  for  the  massacre,  were 
surprised  and  defeated  in  a  brief  engagement,  and  the  chief,  who  was  the 
leader  of  the  conspiracy,  was  slain,  with  a  number  of  his  men.  This 
gallant  exploit  established  the  supremacy  of  the  English  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  many  of  the  native  tribes  sought  their  friendship  and  alliance. 
The  Weymouth  men  were  unwilling  to  continue  their  colony  after  their 
narrow  escape.  Some  went  to  Plymouth  where  they  became  a  source  of 
trouble,  and  others  returned  to  England.  The  spring  of  1623  saw  the 
last  of  this  settlement. 

In  the  autumn  of  1623  the  best  harvest  was  gathered  in  that  had  yet 
blessed  the  labors  of  the  Pilgrims.  It  was  an  abundant  yield,  anu  put 
an  end  to  all  fears  of  a  renewal  of  the  danger  of  famine.  When  the 
labors  of  the  harvest  were  over  Governor  Bradford  sent  out  men  to 
collect  game,  in  order  that  the  people  might  enjoy  r\  thanksgiving  feast 
On  the  appointed  day  the  people  "  met  together  and  thanked  God  with 
all  their  hearts  for  the  good  world  and  the  good  things  in  it."  Thus  was 


164  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  .ST.  17  AX 

established  the  custom  of  an  annual  thanksgiving  to  God  for  the  bless- 
ings of  the  year,  which  though  at  first  a  celebration  peculiar  to  New 
England  has  at  length  become  a  national  festival. 

The  colonists  themselves  were  satisfied  with  the  progress  they  had 
made,  but  their  merchant  partners  in  England  were  greatly  displeased 
with  the  smallness  of  the  profits  they  had  received  from  their  invest- 
ments, and  in  many  ways  made  the  colony  feel  their  dissatisfaction. 
Robinson  and  his  congregation  at  Leyden  were  anxious  to  join  their 
friends  in  America,  but  the  merchant  partners  refused  to  send  them  across 
the  Atlantic,  and  not  content;  with  this  endeavored  to  force  upon  the 
Plymouth  people  a  pastor  friendly  to  the  Church  of  England.  They 
soon  got  rid  of  this  individual,  however,  whose  conduct  quickly  enabled 
them  to  expel  him  from  Plymouth  as  an  evil  liver.  The  merchants  also 
sent  a  vessel  to  New  England  to  oppose  the  colonists  in  the  fur-trade ; 
and  demanded  exorbitant  prices  for  the  goods  they  sold  the  settlers, 
charging  them  the  enormous  profit  of  seventy  per  cent. 

It  was  not  possible,  however,  to  destroy  the  results  of  the  industry 
and  self-denial  of  the  Pilgrims.  Seeing  that  their  association  with  their 
English  partners  would  continue  to  operate  merely  as  a  drag  upon  the 
advance  of  the  colony,  they  managed  in  1627,  at  considerable  sacrifice,  to 
purchase  the  entire  interest  of  their  partners.  The  stock  and  the  land  of 
the  colony  were  then  divided  equitably  among  the  settlers,  and  the  share 
of  each  man  became  his  own  private  property.  Each  settler  was  thus 
made  the  owner  of  a  piece  of  land  which  it  was  to  his  interest  to  improve 
to  the  highest  degree  possible.  Freed  from  the  burdens  under  which  it 
had  labored  for  so  long,  the  colony  began  to  increase  in  prosperity  and  in 
population. 

The  government  of  the  Pilgrims  was  simple,  but  effective.  They  had 
no  charter,  and  Avere  from  t!ie  first  driven  upon  their  own  resources. 
They  had  a  governor  who  was  chosen  by  the  votes  of  all  the  settlers.  In 
1624  a  council  of  five  was  given  him,  and  in  1633  this  number  was  in- 
creased to  seven.  The  council  assisted  the  governor  in  the  exercise  of  his 
duties,  and  imposed  a  check  upon  his  authority,  as  in  its  meetings  he  had 
merely  a  double  vote.  The  whole  number  of  male  settlers  for  eighteen 
years  constituted  the  legislative  body.  They  met  at  stated  times,  and 
enacted  such  laws  as  were  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  colony.  The 
people  were  frequently  convened  by  the  governor,  in  the  earlier  years  of 
the  settlement,  to  aid  him  with  their  advice  upon  difficult  questions 
brought  before  them.  When  the  colony  increased  in  population,  and  a 
number  of  towns  were  included  within  its  limits,  each  town  sent  repre- 
sentatives to  a  general  court  at  Plymouth. 


THE  PILGRIM  FATHERS.  165 

If  the  colony  grew  slowly,  it  gre,w  steadily,  and  at  length  the  Pilgrims 
had  their  reward  in  seeing  their  little  settlement  expand  into  a  flourishing 
province,  in  which  the  principles  of  civil  freedom  were  cherished,  religion 
honored,  and  industry  and  economy  made  the  basis  of  the  growing  wealth 
of  the  little  state.  They  had  "been  instruments  to  break  the  ice  for 
others ;"  and  "  the  honor  shall  be  theirs  to  the  world's  end."  Adversity 
could  not  daunt  tham,  and  prosperity  had  no  power  to  move  them  from 
the  sure  foundation  upon  which  they  had  anchored  their  hopes.  From 
the  first  they  had  cherished  the  design  of  founding  a  state,  which  in  the 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  HOMESTEAD. 


hnnds  of  their  children  and  their  children's  children  would  grow  great, 
and  even  at  this  early  day  they  began  to  see  the  realization  of  this  hope. 
"Out  of  small  beginnings,"  wrote  Governor  Bradford,  the  historian  of 
the  colony,  almost  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  "great  things  have  been 
produced  by  His  hand  that  made  all  things  out  of  nothing;  and  as  one 
small  candle  will  light  a  thousand,  so  the  light  here  kindled  hath  shown, 
to  many,  yea,  to  our  whole  nation." 


CHAPTER    XI. 

SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND   RHODE   ISLAND. 

^tilement  of  New  Hampshire — The  English  Puritans  determine  to  form  a  new  Colony  in 
America— The  Plymouth  Council — A  Colony  sent  out  to  Salem  under  Endicott — 
Colonization  of  Massachusetts  Bay  begun — A  Charter  obtained — Concessions  of  the 
King — Progress  of  the  Salem  Colony — The  Charter  and  Government  of  the  Colony 
removed  to  New  England — Arrival  of  Governor  Winthrop — Settlement  of  Boston — 
Sufferings  of  the  Colonists — Roger  Williams — His  Opinr  .3  give  offence  to  the 
Authorities — The  Success  of  the  Bay  Colony  established — Growth  of  Popular  Liberty — 
The  Ballot  Box — Banishment  of  Roger  Williams — He  goes  into  the  Wilderness — 
Founds  Providence — Growth  of  Williams's  Colony — Continued  growth  of  Massachu- 
setts— Arrival  of  Sir  Henry  Vane — Is  elected  Governor — Mrs.  Anne  Hutchimson — The 
Antinomian  Controversy — Mrs.  Hutchinson  banished — Settlement  of  Rhode  Island — 
Murder  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 

HE  success  of  the  Pilgrims  in  establishing  the  Plymouth  colony 
aroused  a  feeling  of  deep  interest  in  England,  and  some  of  those 
who  had  watched  the  eifort  were  encouraged  to  attempt  ventures 
of  their  own.  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges,  who  had  taken  a  deep 
interest  in  the  schemes  to  settle  the  new  world,  and  John  Mason, 
the  secretary  of  the  council  of  Plymouth,  obtained  a  patent  for  the  region 
called  Laconia,  which  comprised  the  whole  country  between  the  sea,  the 
St.  Lawrence,  the  Merrimac  and  the  Kennebec,  and  now  embraced  partly 
in  Maine  and  partly  in  New  Hampshire.  A  company  of  English  mer- 
chants was  formed,  and  in  1623  permanent  colonies  were  established  at 
Portsmouth,  Dover  and  one  or  two  other  places  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Piscataqua.  These  were  small,  feeble  settlements,  and  were  more 
trading-posts  than  towns.  For  many  years  their  growth  wns  slow, 
and  it  was  not  until  other  parts  of  New  England  were  well  peopled  and 
advanced  far  beyond  their  early  trials  that  they  began  to  show  signs  of 
prosperity.  In  1653,  thirty  years  after  its  settlement,  Portsmouth  con- 
tained only  "  between  fifty  and  sixty  families."  The  settlers  of  these 
towns  were  not  all  Puritans,  and  their  colonies  had  not  the  religious 
character  of  those  of  the  rest  of  New  England.  In  1641,  they  were 
annexed  at  their  own  request  to  the  province  of  Massachusetts,  the 
general  <sourt  having  agreed  not  to  require  the  freemen  and  deputies  to 
\>e  church  members. 
166 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.      167 

In  the  meantime  the  news  of  the  successful  planting  of  Plymouth  was 
producing  other  and  more  important  results  in  England.  The  persecu- 
vions  of  the  Non-conformists,  which  marked  the  entire  reign  of  James  I., 
were  continued  through  that  of  his  son  and  successor,  Charles  I.  The 
?uritans,  sorely  distressed  by  the  tyranny  to  which  they  were  subjected, 
listened  with  eagerness  to  the  accounts  of  America  which  were  sent  over 
}>y  the  members  of  the  Plymouth  colony,  and  published  from  time  to 
time  in  England.  The  descriptions  of  the  Pilgrims  were  not  exaggerated. 
They  did  not  promise  either  fame  or  sudden  wealth  to  settlers  in  their 
province,  but  clearly  set  forth  the  cares  and  labors  which  were  to  be  the 
price  of  success  in  America.  They  dwelt  with  especial  emphasis,  how- 
ever, upon  that  which  was  in  their  eyes  the  chief  reward  of  all  their  toil 
and  suffering — the  ability  to  exercise  their  religion  without  restraint. 
Their  brethren  in  England  heard  their  accounts  with  a  longing  to  be 
»vith  them  to  enjoy  the  freedom  with  which  they  were  blessed,  and  it  was 
not  long  before  a  number  of  English  Non-conformists  began  to  concert 
measures  for  making  New  Eng- 
land a  place  of  refuge  for  the 
persecuted  members  of  their  faith. 
The  leading  spirit  in  these  enter- 
prises was  the  Rev.  Mr.  White,  a 
minister  of  Dorsetshire,  a  Puritan, 
but  not  a  Separatist.  Regarding 
the  vicinity  of  the  present  town 
of  Salem  as  the  most  suitable  place  for  colonization,  he  exerted  himself 
with  energy  to  secure  it  for  his  brethren. 

In  the  meantime  the  Plymouth  Company  had  ceased  to  exist,  and  its 
place  had  been  taken  by  the  council  of  Plymouth.  That  body  cared  for 
New  England  only  as  a  source  of  profit,  and  sold  the  territory  of  that 
region  to  a  number  of  purchasers,  assigning  the  same  district  to  different 
people,  and  thus  paving  the  way  for  vexatious  litigation.  In  1628,  it 
sold  to  a  company  of  gentlemen  of  Dorchester,  which  White's  energy  had 
succeeded  in  bringing  into  existence,  a  district  extending  from  three  miles 
south  of  Massachusetts  bay  to  three  miles  north  of  the  Merrimac  river. 
As  was  usual  in  all  grants  of  the  day,  the  Pacific  was  made  the  western 
boundary  of  this  region.  This  company  at  once  prepared  to  send  out  a 
colony,  and  in  the  early  summer  of  that  year  one  hundred  persons  under 
John  Endicott,  as  governor,  were  despatched  to  New  England.  Endi- 
cott  took  his  family  with  him,  and  in  September,  1628,  reached  New 
England,  and  established  the  settlement  of  Salem,  the  site  of  which  was? 
already  occupied  by  a  few  men  whom  White  had  placed  there  to  hold  it» 


COAT  OF   ARMS   OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 


168 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Endieott,  who  was  a  man  of  undaunted  courage  and  acknowledged 
integrity  of  character,  soon  established  his  authority  over  the  few  settle- 
ments that  had  sprung  up  along  the  shores  of  the  bay.  At  this  time  the 
site  of  Charlestown  was  occupied  by  an  Englishman  named  Thomas 
Walford,  a  blacksmith,  who  had  fortified  his  cabin  with  a  palisade.  The 
:>nly  dweller  on  the  trimountain  peninsula  of  Shawmut  was  the  Rev. 
William  Blackstone,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England ;  the  island 
now  known  as  East  Boston  was  occupied  by  Samuel  Maverick.  At 
Nantasket  and  a  few  places  farther  south  some  Englishmen  had  located 
themselves,  and  lived  by  fishing  and  trading  inskius;  and  on  the  site 


A  PRIMITIVE  NEW  ENGLAND  VILLAGE. 

of  Qnincy  was  the  wreck  of  a  colony  which  had  nearly  perished  in  con- 
sequence of  its  evil  ways.  These,  with  the  settlement  at  Saiem,  consti- 
tuted the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  Endi™tt's  colony  from  England,  the 
company,  acting  upon  the  advice  of  their  counsel,  obtained  from  the  king 
a  confirmation  of  their  grant.  In  March,  1629,  the  king  granted  to  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  a  charter  under  which  it  conducted  its 
affairs  for  more  than  fifty  years.  By  the  terms  of  this  charter  the 
governor  was  to  be  elected  by  the  freemen  for  the  term  of  one  year,  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  assembling  at  stated  times  of  a  general  court, 
which  was  to  have  the  power  to  make  all  the  needed  laws  for  the  colony, 
«nd  it  was  not  necessary  that  these  laws  should  receive  t?ie  royal 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODK  ISLAND.      169 

signature  in  order  to  be  valid.  This  was  conceding  practical  inde- 
pendence to  the  colony. 

In  the  spring  of  1629,  a  second  company  of  emigrants  sailed  from 
England  for  Massachusetts.  They  were,  like  the  first,  all  Puritans,  and 
took  with  them,  as  their  minister,  the  Rev.  Francis  Higginson,  formerly 
of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  a  man  of  learning  and  deep  piety.  The 
colonists  were  instructed  to  do  no  violence  to  the  Indians.  "  If  any  of 
the  salvages,"  so  read  the  company's  orders,  "  pretend  right  of  inheritance 
to  all  or  any  part  of  the  lands  granted  in  our  patent,  endeavor  to  pur- 
chase their  tytle,  that  we  may  avoid  the  least  scruple  of  intrusion."  Six 
shipwrights  were  sent  over  for  the  use  of  the  colony,  an  experienced 
engineer  to  lay  out  a  fortified  town,  and  a  master  gunner,  who  was  to 
teach  the  men  of  the  colony  the  use  of  arms  and  military  exercises. 
Cattle  and  horses  and  goats  were  sent  out  also. 

The  voyage  was  prosperous,  and  the  new  settlers  reached  Salem  about 
the  last  of  June.  They  found  the  settlement  in  a  feeble  condition,  and 
greatly  in  need  of  their  assistance.  The  old  and  the  new  colonists  num- 
bered about  three  hundred.  The  majority  of  these  remained  at  Salem, 
and  the  rest  were  sent  by  Endicott  to  establish  a  colony  at  Charlestown, 
in  order  to  secure  that  place  from  occupation  by  the  partisans  of  Sir 
Ferdinand  Gorges,  who  claimed  the  region.  The  emigrants  were 
scrupulous  to  acquire  from  the  Indians  the  right  to  the  lands  they  oc- 
cupied. The  12lh  of  July  was  observed  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer 
"  for  the  choice  of  a  pastor  and  teacher  at  Salem."  No  one  advanced 
any  claim  founded  on  his  ordination  in  England ;  personal  fitness  was 
the  only  qualification  recognized  by  the  Puritans.  Samuel  Skelton  was 
chosen  pastor,  and  Francis  Higginson  teacher.  Three  or  four  of  the 
gravest  members  of  the  church  laid  their  hands  upon  the  heads  of  these 
men,  with  prayer,  and  solemnly  appointed  them  to  their  respective 
offices.  "  Thus  the  church,  like  that  of  Plymouth,  was  self-constituted, 
on  the  principle  of  the  independence  of  each  religious  community.  It 
did  not  ask  the  assent  of  the  king,  or  recognize  him  as  its  head ;  its 
officers  were  set  apart  and  ordained  among  themselves;  it  used  no 
liturgy ;  it  rejected  unnecessary  ceremonies,  and  reduced  the  simplicity 
of  Calvin  to  a  still  plainer  standard.  The  motives  which  controlled  its 
decisions  were  so  deeply  seated  that  its  practices  were  repeated  spon- 
taneously by  Puritan  New  England."  An  opposition  to  the  organization 
of  the  church  was  attempted  by  a  party  led  by  John  and  Samuel  Browne, 
men  of  ability ;  but  this  was  treated  as  a  mutiny  and  put  down,  and  the 
Brownes  were  sent  back  to  England. 

The  charter  of  Massachusetts,  though  it  made  liberal  concessions  to  the 


17()  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

colony,  contained  no  provision  for  the  rights  of  the  people,  who  were  left 
at  the  mercy  of  the  company.  For  the  proper  government  of  the  colony, 
it  was  necessary  to  remove  the  charter  to  Massachusetts,  and  such  a  re- 
moval was  advisable  on  another  ground.  The  charter  contained  no 
guarantee  for  the  religious  freedom  of  the  colony,  and  the  king  might  at 
any  moment  seek  to  interfere  with  this,  the  most  precious  right  of  the 
Puritans.  The  only  way  to  escape  the  evils  which  the  company  had 
reason  to  dread  was  for  the  governing  council  to  change  its  place,  of 
meeting  from  England  to  Massachusetts,  which  the  charter  gave  it 
authority  to  do.  Oa  the  26th  of  August,  1629,  John  Winthrop,  Isaac 
Johnson,  Thomas  Dudley,  Richard  Saltonstall  and  eight  others,  men  of 
fortune  and  education,  met  at  Cambridge  and  bound  themselves  by  a 
solemn  agreement  to  settle  in  New  England  if  the  whole  government  of 
the  colony,  together  with  the  patent,  should  be  legally  transferred  to  that 
region  before  the  end  of  September.  On  the  29th  of  the  month,  the 
court  took  the  decisive  step  and  ordered  that  "the  government  and 
patent  should  be  settled  in  New  England."  This  was  a  bold  step,  but 
its  legality  was  not  contested  by  any  one,  and  it  made  the  government 
of  the  colony  independent  of  control  by  any  power  in  England. 

The  officers  of  the  colony  were  to  be  a  governor  and  eighteen  assist- 
ants. On  the  20th  of  October,  a  meeting  of  the  court  was  held  to  choose 
them,  and  John  Winthrop  was  elected  governor  for  one  year.  It  was  a 
fortunate  selection,  for  Winthrop  proved  himself  for  many  years  the 
very  mainstay  of  the  colony,  sustaining  his  companions  by  his  calm 
courage,  and  setting  them  a  noble  example  in  his  patience,  his  quiet 
heroism  and  his  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  others.  He  seemed  to  find 
his  greatest  pleasure  in  doing  good,  and  his  liberality  acted  as  a  check 
upon  the  bigotry  of  his  associates  and  kept  them  in  paths  of  greater 
moderation. 

Efforts  were  made  to  send  over  new  settlers  to  Massachusetts,  and 
about  a  thousand  emigrants,  with  cattle,  horses  and  goats,  were  trans- 
ported thither  in  the  season  of  1630.  Early  in  April,  Governor  Win- 
throp and  about  seven  hundred  emigrants  sailed  from  England  in  a  fleet 
of  eleven  ships.  Many  of  them  were  "  men  of  high  endowments  and 
large  fortune;  scholars,  well  versed  in  the  learning  of  the  times;  clergy- 
men who  ranked  among  the  best  educated  and  most  pious  in  the  realm.^ 
They  reached  Salem  on  the  12th  of  June,  after  a  voyage  of  sixty-one 
days,  and  were  gladly  welcomed  by  the  settlers,  whom  they  found  in 
great  distress  from  sickness  and  a  scarcity  of  provisions.  .About  eighty 
had  died  during  the  winter,  and  many  were  sick.  There  was  scarcely 
a  fortnight's  supply  of  food  in  the  settlement,  and  it  was  necessary 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.     171 

to  send  one  of  the  ships  back  to  England  at  once  for  a  supply  of 
provisions. 

Salem  did  not  please  the  new-comers,  and  settlements  were  made  at 
Lynn,  Charlestown,  Newtown,  Dorchester,  Roxbury,  Maiden,  and  Water- 
town.  The  governor  and  a  large  part  of  the  emigrants  settled  first  at 
Charlestown,  but  at  length,  in  order  to  obtain  better  water,  crossed  over 
and  occupied  the  little  tri-mountain  peninsula  of  Shawmut.  To  this 
settlement  was  given  the  name  of  Boston,  in  honor  of  the  town  in  Lin- 
colnshire in  England,  which  had  been  the  home  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson, 
who  became  the  pastor  of  the  first  church  of  Boston.  The  location  was 
central  to  the  whole  province,  and  Boston  became  the  seat  of  government. 
When  the  year  for  which  the  first  colonial  officers  had  been  chosen  ex- 
pired a  new  election  was  held,  and  Governor  Winthrop  and  all  the  old 
officials  were  reflected. 

The  colonists  now  began  to  feel  the  effects  of  their  new  life.  The 
change  of  climate  was  very  trying  to  them,  and  many  of  them  fell 
victims  to  its  rigors,  and  to  the  hardships  of  their  position.  A  large 
number  of  them  had  been  brought  up  in  ease  and  refinement,  and  were 
unaccustomed  to  privation  or  exposure.  They  sank  beneath  the  severe 
trials  to  which  they  were  subjected.  By  December,  1630,  at  least  two 
hundred  had  died.  Among  these  were  the  Lady  Arbella,  Johnson  and  her 
husband,  among  the  most  liberal  and  devoted  supporters  of  the  colony, 
and  a  son  of  Governor  Winthrop,  who  left  a  widow  and  children  in 
England.  Others  became  disheartened,  and  more  than  a  hundred  re- 
turned to  England,  where  they  endeavored  to  excuse  their  desertion  of 
their  companions  by  grossly  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  hardships  of 
the  colony.  Yet  among  the  colonists  themselves  there  was  no  repining. 
They  exhibited  in  their  deep  distress  a  fortitude  and  heroism  worthy  of 
their  lofty  character.  "  Honor  is  due,"  says  Bancroft,  "  not  less  to  those 
who  perished  than  to  those  who  survived ;  to  the  martyrs  the  hour  of 
death  was  the  hour  of  triumph;  such  as  is  never  witnessed  in  moie 

tranquil  seasons Even  children  caught  the  spirit  of  the  place ; 

awaited  the  impending  change  in  the  tranquil  confidence  of  faith,  and 
went  to  the  grave  full  of  immortality.  The  survivors  bore  all  things 
meekly,  'remembering  the  end  of  their  coming  hither.'"  Winthrop 
wrote  to  his  wife,  who  had  been  detained  in  England  by  sickness :  "  We 
enjoy  here  God  and  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  not  this  enough?  I  thank  God 
I  like  so  well  to  be  here,  as  I  do  not  repent  my  coming.  I  would  not 
have  altered  my  course  though  I  had  foreseen  all  these  afflictions.  I 
never  had  more  content  of  mind." 

Another  danger  which  threatened  the  colony  arose  from  the  scarcity  of 


172  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

provisions,  but  this  was  removed  on  the  5th  of  February,  1631,  by  the 
timely  arrival  of  the  "Lyon"  from  England,  laden  with  provisions. 
This  relief  was  greeted  with  public  thanksgivings  in  all  the  settlements. 
The  "  Lyon,"  however,  brought  only  twenty  passengers,  and  in  1631  only 
ninety  persons  came  out  from  England.  The  number  of  arrivals  in  1632 
was  only  two  hundred  and  fifty.  Thus  the  colony  grew  very  slowly. 
By  the  close  of  the  latter  year  the  total  population  of  Massachusetts  was 
only  a  little  over  one  thousand  souls. 

Among  the  passengers  of  the  "Lyon"  was  a  young  minister,  described 
in  the  old  records  as  "  lovely  in  his  carriage,  godly  and  zealous,  having 
precious  gifts,"  Roger  Williams  by  name.  He  had  been  a  favorite  pupil 
of  the  great  Sir  Edward  Coke,  and  had  learned  from  him  precious  lessons 
of  liberty  and  toleration.  He  had  been  carefully  educated  at  Pembroke 
College,  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  had  entered  the  ministry. 

His  opposition  to  the  laws  requiring  conformity 
to  the  established  church  had  drawn  upon  him 
the  wrath  of  Archbishop  Laud,  and  he  had 
been  driven  out  of  England.  The  great  doc- 
trine which  he  had  embraced  as  the  result  of 
his  studies  and  experience  was  the  freedom  of 
conscience  from  secular  control.  "The  civil 
magistrate  should  restrain  crime,  but  never 
control  opinion  ;  should  punish  guilt,  but  never 
violate  inward  freedom."  He  would  place  all 
forms  of  religion  upon  an  equality,  and  would 
BOGEE  WILLIAMS.  refuse  to  the  government  the  power  to  compel 

conformity  to,  or  attendance  upon,  any  of  them 

leaving  such  matters  to  the  conscience  of  the  individual.  He  also  favored 
the  abolition  of  tithes,  and  the  enforced  contribution  to  the  support  of 
the  church.  Such  views  were  far  in  advance  of  the  age,  and  when  Wil- 
liams landed  in  Boston,  he  found  himself  unable  to  join  the  church  in 
that  place  because  of  its  adoption  of  principles  the  opposite  of  his  own. 
Upon  his  arrival  the  church  had  intended  engaging  him  to  fill  Mr.  Wil- 
son's place,  while  that  minister  returned  to  England  to  bring  over  his 
wife,  but  upon  learning  his  views  the  idea  was  abandoned.  A  little  later 
the  church  in  Salem,  which  had  been  deprived  of  its  teacher  by  the  death 
of  the  Rev.  Francis  Higginson,  called  Williams  to  be  his  successor. 
Williams  accepted  the  call ;  but  Governor  Winthrop  and  the  assistants 
warned  the  people  of  Salem  to  beware  how  they  placed  in  so  important  a 
position  a  man  already  at  such  variance  with  the  established  order  of 
things.  The  warning  had  the  desired  effect  upon  the  people  of  Salem, 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  JSLAXD.     173 

who  withdrew  their  invitation.     Williams  then  went  to  Plymouth,  where 
he  lived  for  two  years  in  peace. 

But  though  unwilling  to  accord  to  Williams  the  liberty  he  desired,  the 
colonial  government  was  careful  to  take  every  precaution  against  the 
anticipated  efforts  of  the  Church  of  England  to  extend  its  authority  over- 
Massachusetts.  A  general  court  held  in  May,  1631,  ordered  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  be  tendered  to  the  freemen  of  the  colony,  which  bound  them 
"  to  be  obedient  and  conformable  to  the  laws  and  constitutions  of  this 
commonwealth,  to  advance  its  peace,  and  not  to  suffer  any  attempt  at 
making  any  change  or  alteration  of  the  government  contrary  to  its  laws. ' 
The  same  general  court  took  a  still  more  decided  stand  by  the  adoption 
of  a  law,  which  limited  the  citizenship  of  the  colony  to  "such  as  are 
members  of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the  same."  This 
was  practically  making  the  state  a  theocracy. 

Yet  the  people  were  not  prepared  to  surrender  their  political  rights, 
even  when  alarmed  by  the  danger  which  seemed  to  threaten  their 
religious  establishment.  Until  now  the  assistants  could  hold  office  for 
life,  and  they  also  possessed  the  power  of  electing  the  governor.  They 
were  thus  independent  of  the  people.  The  right  of  the  freemen  to 
choose  their  magistrates  was  now  distinctly  asserted, 'and  in  May,  1632, 
was  conceded.  The  governor  and  assistants  were  to  be  elected  annually, 
and  by  the  votes  of  the  freemen  ;  none  but  church-members  being  entitled 
to  the  privileges  of  freemen.  Another  important  change  was  brought 
about  at  the  same  time  by  the  hostility  of  the  people  to  levying  of  taxes 
by  the  board  of  assistants.  Each  town  was  ordered  to  send  two  of  its 
best  men  to  represent  it  at  a  general  court  "  to  concert  a  plan  for  a  public 
treasury."  This  was  the  foundation  of  representative  government  in 
Massachusetts. 

The  colonists  had  faithfully  obeyed  their  instructions  to  treat  the 
Indians  with  fairness,  and  to  seek  to  cultivate  their  friendship.  Many  of 
the  native  tribes  sought  their  alliance,  and  the  sachem  of  the  Mohegans 
came  from  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  colony, 
and  to  urge  the  English  to  settle  in  his  country,  which  he  described  as 
exceedingly  fertile  and  inviting.  In  the  autumn  of  1632  a  pleasant  in- 
tercourse was  opened  with  the  Plymouth  colony ;  and  in  the  same  year  a 
trade  in  corn  was  begun  with  Virginia,  and  commercial  relations  were 
established  with  the  Dutch,  who  had  settled  along  the  Hudson  river. 
The  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  was  slowly  emerging  from  its  early 
trials,  and  entering  upon  a  more  prosperous  period. 

Emigrants  now  began  to  come  over  in  greater  numbers,  and  among 
them  were  John  Haynes,  "  the  acute  and  subtile  Cotton,"  and  Thomas 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Hooker,  who  has  been  called  the  "  Light  of  the  Western  Churches." 
The  freemen  by  the  middle  of  the  year  1634  numbered  between  three 
and  four  hundred,  and  these  were  bent  upon  establishing  their  political 
|>ower  in  the  state.  Great  advances  were  made  in  the  direction  of  repre- 
sentative government,  and  the  ballot-box  was  introduced  in  elections 
which  had  been  formerly  conducted  by  an  erection  of  hands.  As  a  guard 
against  arbitrary  taxation  by  magistrates  it  was  enacted  that  none  but 
the  properly  chosen  representatives  of  the  people  might  dispose  of  lands, 
or  raise  money.  In  the  spring  of  1635  the  people  went  a  step  further, 
and  demanded  a  written  constitution  for  the  purpose  of  still  more  per- 
fectly securing  their  liberties.  This  demand  opened  a  controversy  which 
continued  for  ten  years.  The  general  court  was  composed  of  assistants 
and  deputies.  The  first  were  elected  by  the  people  of  the  whole  colony ; 
the  latter  by  the  towns.  The  two  bodies  acted  together  in  meetings  of 
the  assembly,  but  the  assistants  claimed  the  exclusive  privilege  of  meet- 
ing and  exercising  a  separate  negative  upon  the  proceedings  of  the  court. 
This  claim  was  energetically  denied  by  the  deputies,  who  were  sustained 
by  the  body  of  the  people;  while  the  magistrates  and  the  ministers  up- 
held the  pretensions  of  the  assistants.  In  1644  the  matter  was  compro- 
mised by  the  division  of  the  general  court  into  two  branches,  each  of 
which  was  given  a  negative  upon  the  proceedings  of  the  other.  All 
parties  were  agreed,  however,  in  the  work  of  connecting  the  religion  and 
the  government  of  the  colony  so  closely  that  they  should  mutually  sustain 
each  other  against  the  attacks  of  the  Church  of  England. 

While  these  measures  were  in  course  of  adjustment  other  matters  were 
engaging  the  attention  of  the  colony.  After  Roger  Williams  had  been  a 
little  more  than  two  years  in  Plymouth,  he  was  called  again  to  Salem, 
and  accepted  the  invitation.  This  gave  offence  to  many  persons,  and  in 
January,  1634,  complaints  were  made  against  Williams  because  of  a 
paper  he  had  written  while  at  Plymouth,  denying  that  the  king  had  any 
power  to  grant  lands  in  America  to  his  subjects,  since  the  lands  were  the 
property  of  the  Indians.  In  this  Williams  was  wrong,  as  the  settlers  in 
New  England  had  been  careful  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  natives  to 
their  occupation  of  the  lands  they  had  possessed.  He  made  a  proper 
explanation  of  his  paper,  when  he  understood  the  true  state  of  the  case, 
and  consented  that  it  should  be  burned. 

Still  the  jealousy  and  dislike  of  the  Puritans  was  aroused  by  the  radical 
opposition  of  Williams  to  their  system,  although  he  conducted  himself 
with  a  forbearance  and  amiableness  that  should  have  won  him  the  love 
of  those  with  whom  he  was  thrown.  Williams  strongly  condemned  the 
law  enforcing  the  attendance  of  the  people  upon  religious  services,  de- 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.    175 

claring  that  a  man  had  a  right  to  stay  away  if  he  wished  to  do  so.  He 
also  censured  the  practice  of  selecting  the  colonial  officials  exclusively 
from  the  members  of  the  church,  and  said  that  a  physician  or  a  pilot 
might  with  equal  propriety  be  chosen  because  of  his  piety,  his  skill  in 
theology,  or  his  standing  in  the  church.  These  and  other  similar  views 
were  drawn  from  him  in  a  series  of  controversies,  held  with  him  by  a 
committee  of  ministers,  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  him  to  retract  his 
radical  sentiments.  He  remained  firm  in  them,  however,  and  his  oppo- 
nents declared  that  his  principles  were  calculated  not  only  to  destroy 
religion,  but  also  to  subvert  all  forms  of  civil  government.  It  was 
resolved  to  banish  him  from  the  colony,  and  as  the  people  of  Salem 
warmly  supported  Williams,  they  were  admonished  by  the  court,  and  a 
tract  of  land,  which  was  rightfully  theirs,  was  withheld  from  them  as  a 
punishment.  Williams  and  the  church  at  Salem  appealed  to  the  people 
against  the  injustice  of  the  magistrates,  and  asked  the  other  churches  of 
the  colony  to  "admonish  the  magistrates  of  their  injustice."  This  was 
regarded  as  treason  by  the  colonial 
government,  and  at  the  next  gen- 
eral court  Salem  was  disfranchised 
until  the  town  should  make  ample 
apology  for  its  offence.  Williams 
was  summoned  before  the  genera) 
court  in  October,  1635,  and  main- 
tained his  opinions  with  firmness, 
though  with  moderation.  He  was  sentenced  to  banishment  from  the 
colony,  not,  as  it  was  declared,  because  of  his  religious  views,  but  because 
the  magistrates  averred  his  principles,  if  carried  out,  would  destroy  all 
civil  government. 

The  season  was  so  far  advanced  that  it  would  have  been  barbarous  to 
drive  any  one  out  of  the  colony  at  that  time,  and  Williams  obtained 
leave  to  remain  in  the  province  until  the  spring,  when  he  intended  form- 
ing a  settlement  on  Narragansett  bay.  The  affection  of  his  people  at 
Salem,  which  had  seemed  to  grow  cold  when  the  town  began  to  feel  the 
weight  of  the  punishment  inflicted  by  the  general  court,  now  revived, 
and  they  thronged  to  his  house  in  great  numbers  to  hear  him,  and  his 
opinions  spread  rapidly.  The  magistrates  were  alarmed;  and  it  was 
resolved  to  send  him  at  once  to  England  in  a  ship  that  was  just  about  to 
sail  from  Boston.  He  was  ordered  to  come  to  Boston  and  embark  there, 
but  refused  to  obey  the  summons.  A  boat's  crew  was  then  sent  to  arrest 
him  and  bring  him  to  Boston  by  force;  but  when  the  officers  reached 
Salem  he  had  disappeared. 


COAT  OF  ARMS   OF   RHODE   ISLAND. 


176 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Three  days  before  their  arrival  Roger  Williams  had  left  Salem,  a  wan- 
derer for  conscience  sake.  It  wi*  the  depth  of  winter,  the  snow  lay 
thickly  over  the  country,  and  tho  weat'  er  was  cold  and  inclement.  .  For 
fourteen  weeks,  he  says,  he  "-was  sorely  tost  in  ^  bitter  season,  not  know- 
ing what  bread  or  bed  did  mean."  Banished  from  the  settlements  of  his 
,own  race  the  exile  went  out  into  the  wilderness,  am1  sought  the  country 
of  the  Indians,  whose  friendship  he  had  won  during  his  stay  in  the 
colony.  He  had  acquired  their  language  during  his  residence  at  Ply- 
mouth, and  could  speak  it  fluently.  He  went  from  lodge  to  lodge,  kindly 


LANDING  OP  ROGER  WILLIAMS  AT  PROVIDENCE. 

welcomed  by  the  savages,  and  lodging  sometimes  in  a  hollow  tree,  until 
he  reached  Mount  Hope,  the  residence  of  Massasoit,  who  was  his  friend. 
Cauonicus,  the  great  chieftain  of  the  Narragansetts,  loved  him  with  a 
strong  affection,  which  ceased  only  with  his  life ;  and  in  the  country  of 
these  friendly  chiefs  Williams  passed  the  winter  in  peace  and  safety.  He 
never  ceased  to  be  grateful  for  their  aid  in  his  distress,  and  during  his 
whole  life  he  was  the  especial  friend  and  champion  of  the  Indians  in  New 
England. 

It  was  the  intention  of  Williams  to  settle  at  Seekonk,  on  the  Paw- 
tucket  river ;  but  that  place  was  found  to  be  within  the  limits  of  the 
Plymouth  colony.  Governor  Winslow  wrote  to  Williams  advising  him 
to  remove  to  the  region  of  Narragansett  bay,  which  was  beyond  the  juris- 
diction of  the  English,  and  would  render  any vrn;sunder«tan ling  between 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.     177 

the  Plymouth  and  Bay  colonies  on  his  account  impossible.  "I  took  his 
prudent  motion/'  says  Williams,  "as  a  voice  from  God."  Being  joined 
by  five  companions,  Williams  embarked  in  a  canoe  in  June,  1635,  and 
passing  <>y^'  to  the  west  arm  of  Narragansett  bay,  landed  at  an  attractive 
spot,  where  he  found  a  spring  of  pure  water.  He  chose  the  place  as  the 
site  of  a  new  settlement,  and  in  gratitude  for  his  deliverance  from  the 
many  dangers  through  which  he  had  passed,  named  it  PROVIDENCE. 
He  sought  to  purchase  enough  land  for  a  settlement,  but  Canonicus 
refused  to  sell  the  land,  and  gave  it  to  his  friend  "  to  enjoy  forever." 
This  grant  was  made  to  Williams  alone,  and  constituted  him  absolute 
owner  of  the  lands  included  in  it.  He  might  have  sold  them  to  settlers 
on  terms  advantageous  to  himself;  but  he  declined  to  do  so.  In  the  next 
two  years  he  was  joined  by  a  number  of  his  old  followers  from  Massa- 
chusetts, and  by  others  who  fled  to  his  asylum.  He  gave  a  share  of  land 
to  all  who  came  to  settle,  and  admitted  them  to  an  equality  with  himself 
in  the  political  administration  of  the  colony.  The  government  was 
administered  by  the  whole  people.  The  voice  of  the  majority  decided  all 
public  measures;  but  in  matters  of  conscience  every  man  was  left  answer- 
able to  God  alone.  All  forms  of  religious  belief  were  tolerated  and 
protected.  Even  infidelity  was  safe  here  from  punishment  by  the  civil 
or  ecclesiastical  power.  Williams  was  anxious  to  establish  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  Massachusetts  colony;  for  though  he  felt  keenly  tne 
injustice  of  his  persecutors,  he  cherished  no  bitterness  or  resentment 
towards  them.  He  condemned  only  what  he  considered  the  delusions  of 
the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts,  but  ever  attacked  his  persecutors.  "I 
did  ever  from  my  soul,"  he  wrote  witi.  simple  magnanimity,  "  honor  and 
love  them,  even  when  their  judgme  it  led  them  to  afflict  me."  Winslow, 
touched  with  his  true  Christian  forbearance,  came  from  Plymouth  to 
visit  him,  and  left  with  his  wife  some  money  for  their  support ;  and  some 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Bay  colony  began  to  bear  tardy  witness  to  his  virtues. 
The  settlement  at  Providence  continu  xl  to  grow  slowly,  and  was  blessed 
with  peace  and  an  increasing  prosperity. 

Massachusetts  in  the  meantime  continued  to  receive  numerous  addi- 
tions to  her  population  by  emigration  from  England.  In  the  autumn  of 
1635,  twelve  families  left  Boston,  and  journeying  into  the  interior, 
founded  the  town  of  Concord.  They  had  a  hard  struggle  to  establish 
their  little  settlement,  but  persevered,  and  at  length  their  labors  were 
crowned  with  success.  Three  thousand  people  came  over  to  Massachu- 
setts this  year.  Among  them  were  Hugh  Peters,  a  man  of  great  eloquence 
and  ability  and  a  devoted  republican,  who  had  been  pastor  to  a  church 
of  exiles  at  Rotterdam,  and  Henry  Vane  the  younger,  "a  man  of  the 
12 


j7g  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

purest  mind  ;  a  statesman  of  spotless  integrity ;  whose  name  the  progress 
of  intelligence  and  liberty  will  erase  from  the  rubric  of  fanatics  and 
traitors,  and  insert  high  among  the  aspirants  after  truth  and  the  martyrs 
for  liberty."  * 

In  the  following  spring  (1636)  Vane  was  elected  governor  of  the 
colony.  The  people  were  dazzled  by  his  high  birth  and  pleasing  qual- 
ities, and  committed  an  error  in  choosing  him,  for  neither  his  age  nor  his 
experience  fitted  him  for  the  distinguished  position  conferred  upon  him. 
The  arrival  of  Vane  seemed  to  promise  an  emigration  of  a  number  of  the 
English  nobility,  and  an  effort  was  made  by  several  of  them  in  England 
to  procure  the  division  of  the  general  court  into  two  branches,  and  the 
establishment  of  an  hereditary  nobility  in  the  colony  which  should 
possess  a  right  to  seats  in  the  upper  branch  of  the  court.  The  magis- 
trates of  the  colony  were  anxious  to  conciliate  these  valuable  friends,  but 
they  firmly  refused  to  establish  hereditary  nobility  in  their  new  state. 

Religious  discussions  formed  a  large  part  of  the  life  of  the  colony. 
Meetings  were  held  by  the  men,  and  passages  of  Scripture  were  discussed, 
and  the  sermons  of  the  ministers  made  the  subject  of  searching  criticism. 
The  women  might  attend  these  meetings,  but  were  not  allowed  to  take 
part  in  the  discussions.  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  talent  and 
eloouence,  claimed  for  her  sex  the  right  to  participate  equally  with  the 
men  in  these  meetings ;  but  as  this  was  not  possible,  she  began  to  hold 
meetings  for  the  benefit  of  the  women  at  her  own  house.  At  these 
religious  doctrines  were  discussed  and  advocated  which  were  at  variance 
with  the  principles  of  the  magistrates.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her 
followers  held  that  the  authority  of  private  judgment  was  superior  to 
that  of  the  church,  and  condemned  the  efforts  of  the  colony  to  enforce 
conformity  to  the  established  system  as  violative  of  the  inherent  rights  of 
Christians.  She  was  encouraged  by  John  Wheelwright,  a  silenced  minister, 
who  had  married  her  sister,  and  by  Governor  Vane,  and  her  opinions 
were  adopted  by  a  large  number  of  the  people,  and  by  members  of  the 
general  court  and  some  of  the  magistrates. 

The  ministers  saw  their  authority  menaced  by  the  new  belief,  and 
made  common  cause  against  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  protector,  Governor 
Vane.  The  colony  was  divided  into  two  parties,  and  the  religious  ques- 
tion became  a  matter  of  great  political  importance.  Under  the  established 
system  Jie  ministers  formed  almost  a  distinct  estate  of  the  government, 
and  political  privileges  were  entirely  dependent  upon  theological  con- 
formity. The  success  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  views  would  revolutionize 
the  government  and  destroy  the  power  of  the  church  to  control  secular 

*  Bancroft. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.      179 

affairs.  Such  a  change  was  not  yet  to  be  attempted.  Governor  Vane 
was  too  far  in  advance  of  the  age,  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  denounced 
as  "  weakening  the  hands  and  hearts  of  the  people  towards  the  ministers," 
and  as  being  as  bad  "  as  Roger  Williams,  or  worse."  Some  went  so  far 
as  to  hint  that  she  was  a  witch.  Feeling  sure  that  they  would  not 
receive  justice  at  the  hands  of  their  opponents,  the  friends  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  declared  their  intention  to  appeal  to  the  king.  This  aroused 
a  storm  of  indignation  in  the  colony,  and  "  it  was  accounted  perjury  and 
treason  to  speak  of  appeals  to  the  king."  This  threat  changed  the  whole 
character  of  the  question,  and  was  fatal  to  the  party  which  made  it.  The 
.Puritans  had  conic  to  Massachusetts  to  escape  the  interference  of  the 
crown  with  their  religious  belief,  and  to  appeal  to  the  king  in  this  case 
would  be  simply  to  place  the  liberties  of  the  colony  at  his  mercy.  When 
the  elections  were  held,  in  the  spring  of  1637,  Governor  Winthrop  and 
the  old  magistrates  were  chosen  by  a  large  majority.  Vane  soon  after 
returned  to  England. 

The  church  party  being  now  in  power  resolved  to  silence  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson. She  was  admonished  to  cease  her  teachings,  and  upon  her  refusal 
to  obey  this  order,  she  and  her  followers  were  exiled  from  the  colony. 
Wheelwright  and  a  number  of  his  friends  went  to  New  Hampshire,  and 
founded  the  town  of  Exeter,  at  the  head  of  tide-water  on  the  Piscataqua. 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  the  majority  of  her  followers  removed,  in  the 
spring  of  1638,  to  the  southward,  intending  to  settle  on  Long  Island  or 
on  the  Delaware.  Roger  Williams  induced  them  to  remain  near  his 
plantation,  and  obtained  for  them  from  Miantonomoh,  the  chief  of  the 
Xarragansett  tribe,  the  gift  of  the  beautiful  island  in  the  lower  part  of 
Xarragansett  bay,  which  they  called  the  island  of  Rhodes,  or  Rhode 
Island.  The  number  of  settlers  was  scarcely  more  than  twenty,  but  they 
proceeded  to  form  a  government  upon  a  plan  agreeable  to  the  principles 
they  professed.  It  was  a  pure  democracy,  founded  upon  the  universal 
consent  of  the  people,  who  signed  a  social  compact  pledging  themselves 
to  obey  the  laws  made  by  the  majority,  and  to  respect  the  rights  of  con^ 
science.  William  Coddington,  who  had  been  a  magistrate  in  the  Bay 
colony,  was  elected  judge  or  ruler,  and  three  elders  were  chosen  as  his 
assistants.  The  settlement  grew  rapidly,  and  by  1641  the  population 
had  become  so  numerous  as  to  require  a  written  constitution. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  remained  in  Rhode  Island  for  several  years;  but 
fearing  that  the  hostility  of  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  would  reach 
her  even  there,  removed  beyond  New  Haven  into  the  territory  of  the 
Dutch,  where,  in  1643,  she  and  all  her  family  who  were  with  her,  except 
one  child,  who  was  taken  prisoner,  were  murdered  by  the  Indians. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

COLONIZATION   OF   CONNECTICUT. 

The  Dutch  Claim  the  Connecticut  Valley— They  build  a  Fort  at  Hartford— Governor 
Winslow  makes  a  Lodgment  in  Connecticut  for  the  English— Withdrawal  of  the  Dutch 

The  First  Efforts  of  the  English  to  Settle  Connecticut — Emigration  of  Hooker  and  his 

Congregation— They  Settle  at  Hartford — Winthrop  builds  a  Fort  at  Saybrooke— Hos- 
tility of  the  Indians— Visit  of  Roger  Williams  to  Miantonomoh— A  Brave  Deed— The 
Pequod  War — Capture  of  the  Indian  Fort — Destruction  of  the  Pequod  Tribe — Effect  of 
this  War  upon  the  other  Tribes — Connecticut  Adopts  a  Constitution — Its  Peculiar 
Features — Settlement  of  New  Haven. 

HE  fertile  region  of'  the  Connecticut  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  English  at  an  early  day ;  but  before  they  could  make  any 
effort  to  occupy  it  the  Dutch  sent  an  exploring  party  from  Man- 
hattan island,  in  1614,  and  examined  the  river  and  the  country 
through  which  it  flowed.  They  built  and  fortified  a  trading- 
post  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Hartford,  but  soon  excited  the  ill- 
will  of  the  Indians  by  their  cruel  treatment  of  them.  The  Dutch  found 
themselves  unable  to  occupy  the  country,  and  being  unwilling  to  lose  it, 
endeavored,  but  without  success,  to  induce  the  Pilgrims  to  remove  from 
Plymouth  to  the  Connecticut,  and  settle  in  that  region  tinder  their  pro- 
tection. 

In  1630,  the  council  of  Plymouth  granted  the  Connecticut  region  to 
the  Earl  of  Warwick,  who,  in  1631,  assigned  his  claim  to  Lords  Say  and 
Brooke,  John  Hampdeu,  and  others.  As  soon  as  this  grant  was  known 
to  the  Dutch  they  sent  a  party  to  the  site  of  Hartford  and  re-established 
their  trading-post,  and  began  a  profitable  trade  with  the  Indians.  They 
mounted  two  cannon  on  their  fort  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the 
English  from  ascending  the  river.  Towards  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1633,  Governor  Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  in  order  to  secure  a  foothold  for 
the  English  in  this  valuable  region,  sent  Captain  William  Holmes  to  the 
Connecticut  with  a  sloop  and  a  number  of  men  to  make  a  settlement. 
Upon  ascending  the  river  to  the  site  of  Hartford,  Holmes  found  his 
progress  barred  by  the  Dutch  fort,  the  commander  of  which  threatened 
to  fire  upon  him  if  he  attempted  to  continue  his  voyage.  Undaunted  by 
this  threat,  Holmes  passed  .by  the  fort  without  harm,  and  ascended  the 

aao 


COLONIZATION  OF  CONNECTICUT.  181 

stream  to  Windsor,  where  he  erected  a  fortified  post.  In  1634,  the 
Dutch  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  drive  him  away.  Failing  in 
this,  and  seeing  that  it  was  the  deliberate  purpose  of  the  English  to 
occupy  the  Connecticut  valley,  the  Dutch  relinquished  all  claim  to  that 
.  region,  and  a  boundary  line  was  arranged  between  their  possessions  and 
those  of  the  English,  corresponding  very  nearly  to  that  between  the 
States  of  Connecticut  and  New  York. 

In  1635,  the  Pilgrims  determined  to  make  settlements  in  this  inviting 
region,  and  late  in  the  fall  of  that  year  a  company  of  sixty  persons,  men, 
women,  and  children,  set  out  from  Plymouth  by  land,  sending  a  sloop 
laden  with  provisions  and  their  household  goods  around  by  sea,  with 
orders  to  join  them  upon  the  Connecticut  river.  They  began  their 
journey  too  late  in  the  season,  and  their  sufferings  were  very  great  in 
consequence.  Upon  reaching  the  river  they  found  the  ground  covered 
with  snow,  and  their  sloop  was  delayed  by  storms  and  ice.  Their  cattle 
died  from  cold  and  exposure,  and  but  for  a  little  corn  which  they 
obtained  from  the  Indians,  and 
such  acorns  as  they  could  gather, 
the  whole  company  must  have 
starved  to  death.  Many  of  them 
abandoned  their  new  home  and 
returned  by  land  to  the  settlements 
on  the  coast. 

_..  _.  .  ,  COAT  OF  ABM8  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

Ihe  Puritans  were  resolved  to 

continue  the  effort  to  settle  Connecticut,  and  in  the  spring  of  1636  several 
companies  emigrated  to  that  region.  The  principal  party  set  out  in 
June,  led  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker.  It  comprised  about  one  hun- 
dred persons,  and  consisted  principally  of  Hooker's  congregation,  who 
followed  their  pastor  with  enthusiasm.  They  drove  before  them  a 
considerable  number  of  cattle,  which  furnished  them  with  milk  on  the 
march.  The  emigrants  were  largely  made  up  of  persons  of  refinement 
and  culture,  and  comprised  many  of  the  oldest  and  most  valued  citizens 
of  the  Bay  colony.  They  were  attracted  to  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut 
by  the  superior  advantages  which  it  offered  for  the  prosecution  of  the  fur 
trade,  and  by  the  great  fertility  of  its  soil.  They  had  no  guide  but  a 
compass,  and  their  route  lay  through  an  unbroken  wilderness.  The 
journey  was  long  and  fatiguing.  The  emigrants  accomplished  scarcely 
more  than  ten  miles  a  day,  carrying  their  sick  on  litters,  and  making  the 
forests  ring  with  their  holy  hymns.  At  length  the  site  of  Hartford,  where 
it  was  proposed  to  establish  the  settlement,  was  reached  by  the  1st  of 
July.  The  greater  number  remained  there ;  some  went  higher  up  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

river  and  founded  Springfield,  and  the  rest  went  to  Wethersfield,  where 
there  was  already  a  small  settlement. 

In  the  same  year  the  younger  John  Winthrop  arrived  from  England, 
with  orders  from  Lords  Say  and  Brooke  to  establish  a  fort  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Connecticut  river.  This  he  accomplished,  naming  the  new  settle- 
ment Saybrooke  in  honor  of  the  proprietors.  The  settlements  in  Connect- 
icut grew  rapidly,  the  excellent  soil  and  pleasant  climate  attracting 
many  emigrants  to  them. 

The  existence  of  these  settlements  was  precarious,  however.  The 
region  in  which  they  had  been  planted  was  the  country  of  the  Pequods, 
who  inhabited  it  in  large  numbers.  They  were  the  most  powerful  and 
warlike  tribe  in  New  England,  and  could  bring  nearly  two  thousand 
warriors  into  the  field.  They  occupied  the  southeastern  part  of  Connect- 
icut, and  their  territory  extended  almost  to  the  Hudson  on  the  west, 
where  it  joined  that  of  the  Mohegans.  On  the  east  their  territory 
bordered  that  of  the  Narragansetts.  Both  of  these  tribes  were  the 
enemies  of  the  Pequods  and  the  friends  of  the  English.  This  friendship 
was  resented  by  the  Pequods,  who  were  already  jealous  of  the  English 
because  of  their  occupation  of  the  lands  along  the  Connecticut.  The 
tribe  bore  a  bad  name,  and  had  already  manifested  their  hostility  by 
murdering,  a  few  years  before,  a  Virginia  trader  named  Stone,  together 
with  the  crew  of  his  vessel,  who  were  engaged  in  a  trading  expedition  on 
the  Connecticut  river.  Somewhat  later  Captain  Oklham  and  his  crew, 
while  exploring  the  river,  were  also  murdered  by  Indians  living  on  Block 
island.  The  Pequods  justified  the  murder  of  Stone  by  alleging  that  he 
had  attacked  them.  Wishing  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  English,  they 
sent  their  chiefs  to  Boston  for  that  purpose,  and  promised — as  the  magis- 
trates understood  them — to  deliver  up  the  two  men  who  had  killed  Stone. 
Captain  John  Endicott  was  sent  with  a  vessel,  in  1636,  to  punish  the 
Block  Island  Indians  for  the  murder  of  Oldham,  and  was  ordered  to  call 
on  his  return  at  the  Pequod  town,  and  demand  the  surrender  of  the 
murderers  of  Stone.  The  Pequods  declined  to  surrender  these  men,  but 
offered  to  ransom  them.  This  was  in  accordance  with  their  customs. 
But  Endicott  refused  to  accept  any  compensation  for  the  crime  that  had 
been  committed,  and  to  punish  the  Indians  destroyed  their  corn  and 
burned  two  of  their  villages.  This  made  open  hostilities  inevitable.  The 
Pequods  began  to  hang  around  the  Connecticut  settlements  and  cut  otf 
stragglers  from  them.  By  the  close  of  the  winter  more  than  thirty 
persons  had  fallen  victims  to  their  vengeance. 

The  settlements  in  the  Connecticut  valley  were  now  greatly  alarmed. 
They  could  not  muster  over  two  hundred  fighting  men,  and  the  Indians 


COLONIZATION  OF  CONNECTICUT.  183 

in  their  immediate  vicinity  could  bring  into  the  field  at  least  seven  hun- 
dred warriors.  War  was  certain,  and  it  was  not  known  at  what  moment 
the  savages  would  attack  the  settlements  in. overwhelming  force.  Con- 
necticut called  upon  Massachusetts  for  aid,  but  only  twenty  men,  under 
Captain  Underbill,  were  sent  to  their  aid.  The  energies  and  attention 
of  the  Bay  colony  were  engrossed  by  the  Hutchinson  quarrel. 

The  Pequods,  notwithstanding  their  immense  numerical  superiority, 
were  unwilling  to  make  war  upon  the  English  without  the  support  of 
another  tribe.  They  accordingly  sent  envoys  to  Miantonomoh,  the  chief 
of  the  Narragansetts,  to  endeavor  to  engage  that  tribe  in  the  effort 
against  the  whites.  Such  a  union  would  have  menaced  all  New 
England,  and  as  soon  as  the  news  of  the  negotiation  reached  Boston  the 
government  of  the  Bay  colony  prepared  to  prevent  the  alliance.  Governor 
Vane  at  once  wrote  to  Roger  Williams,  the  friend  of  Miantonomoh, 
urging  him  to  seek  that  chieftain  and  prevent  him  from  joining  the 
Pequods.  It  was  a  dangerous  mission,  and  certainly  a  great  service  for 
the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  to  ask  of  the  man  whom  they  had 
driven  into  exile.  They  did  not  ask  in  vain,  however.  All  of  Williams' 
generous  nature  was  aroused  by  the  danger  which  threatened  his  brethren, 
and  he  embarked  in  a  frail  canoe,  and  braving  the  danger  of  a  severe 
gale,  sought  the  quarters  of  Miantoaomoh.  He  found  the  Pequod  chiefs 
already  there,  and  the  Narragansetts  wavering.  Knowing  the  errand  on 
which  he  had  come,  the  hostile  chieftains  were  ready  at  any  moment  to 
despatch  him,  and  had  Miantonomoh  shown  the  least  favor  to  the  project, 
Williams  would  have  paid  for  his  boldness  with  his  life.  He  spent  three 
days  and  nights  in  the  company  of  the  savages,  and  succeeded  in  inducing 
Miantonomoh  not  only  to  refuse  to  join  the  war  against  the  English,  but 
to  promise  the  colonists  his  assistance  against  the  Pequods.  In  the 
meantime  he  sent  a  messenger  to  Boston  to  inform  the  governor  of  the 
designs  of  the  Indians. 

The  Pequods,  left  to  continue  the  struggle  alone,  flattered  themselves 
that  their  superiority  in  numbers  would  give  them  the  victory,  and  con- 
tinued their  aggressions  upon  the  Connecticut  settlements  to  such  an 
extent  that  in  May,  1G37,  the  general  court  of  that  province  resolved  to 
begin  the  war  at  once.  A  force  of  eighty  men,  including  those  sent 
from  Massachusetts,  was  assembled  at  Hartford,  and  the  command  was 
conferred  by  Hooker  upon  Captain  John  Mason.  The  night  previous  to 
their  departure  was  spent  in  prayer,  and  on  the  20th  of  May  the  little 
force  embarked  in  boats  and  descended  the  river  to  the  sound,  and 
passed  around  to  Narragansett  bay,  intending  to  approach  the  Pequod 
town  from  that  quarter.  As  the  boats  sailed  by  the  mouth  of  the 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE   V SITED  STATES. 

Thames,  the  savages  supposed  the  English  were  abandoning  the  Con- 
necticut  valley. 

The  day  after  the  arrival  of  the  English  in  Narragansett  bay  was  the 
Sabbath,  and  was  scrupulously  observed.  On  the  following  day  they 
repaired  to  the  quarters  of  Canonicus,  the  old  chief  and  principal  ruler 
)f  the  Narragansett  tribe,  and  asked  his  assistance  against  the  Pequods. 
Miantonomoh,  the  nephew  and  prospective  successor  of  Canonicus,  hesi- 
tated to  join  in  the  doubtful  enterprise,  but  two  hundred  warriors  agreed 
to  accompany  the  English,  who  could  not,  however,  count  upon  th<- 
fidelity  of  these  reinforcements.  Seventy  Mohegans,  under  Uncas,  their 
chief,  also  joined  Mason.  With  this  force  the  English  commander 
marched  across  the  country  toward  the  Pequod  towns  on  the  Thames, 
and  halted  on  the  night  of  the  25th  of  May,  within  hearing  of  them. 

In  the  meantime  the  Pequods,  convinced  that  the  English  had  fled 
from  the  Connecticut  region,  and  never  dreading  an  attack  in  their  fort, 
winch  they  considered  infpregnable,  had  given  themselves  up  to  rejoicing. 
The  night,  passed  by  the  English  in  waiting  the  signal  for  the  attack, 
was  spent  by  the  Pequods  in  revelry  and  songs,  which  could  be  plainly 
heard  in  the  English  camp.  Two  hours  before  dawn,  on  the  morning 
Df  the  26th  of  May,  the  order  was  given  to  the  little  band  under  Mason 
to  advance.  They  knew  they  would  have  to  decide  the  battle  by  their 
own  efforts,  and  were  by  no  means  certain  that  their  Indian  allies  would 
not  turn  against  them.  The  Pequods  were  posted  in  two  strong  forts 
made  of  palisades  driven  into  the  ground  and  strengthened  with  rush- 
work,  an  excellent  defence  against  a  foe  of  their  own  race,  but  worthless 
when  assailed  by  Europeans.  The  principal  fort  stood  on  the  summit 
of  a  considerable  hill,  and  was  regarded  by  Sassacus,  the  Pequod  chief, 
as  impregnable.  The  tramp  of  the  advancing  force  aroused  a  dog,  whose 
fierce  bark  awoke  the  Indian  sentinel.  The  keen  eye  of  the  savage 
detected  the  enemy  in  the  gloom  of  the  morning,  and  he  rushed  into  the 
fort,  shouting,  "  The  English  !  the  English  !  "  The  next  moment  the 
English  were  through  the  palisades.  On  all  sides  they  beheld  the 
Indians  pouring  out  of  their  lodges  to  take  part  in  the  hand-to-hand 
fight.  The  odds  were  too  great.  "  We  must  burn  them,"  cried  Mason, 
and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  he  applied  a  torch  to  a  wigwam  con- 
structed of  dry  reeds.  The  flames  sprang  up  instantly  and  spread  with 
the  rapidity  of  lightning.  The  Indians  vainly  endeavored  to  extinguish 
the  fire,  and  the  English,  withdrawing  to  a  greater  distance,  began  to 
pick  off  the  savages,  who  were  doubly  exposed  by  the  light  of  the  blazing 
fort.  Wherever  a  Pequod  appeared,  he  was  shot  down.  The  Narragan- 
setts  and  Mohegans  now  joined  in  the  conflict,  and  the  victory  was 


COLONIZATION  OF 


185 


complete.  More  than  six  hundred  Pequods,  men,  women  and  children, 
perished,  the  majority  of  them  in  the  flames.  The  English  lost  only  two 
and  the  battle  was  over  in  an  hour. 


men 


As  the  sun  rose,  a  body  of  three  hundred  Pequod  warriors  were  seen 
advancing  from  their  second  fort.  They  came  expecting  to  rejoice  with 
their  comrades  in  the  destruction  of  the  English.  When  they  beheld 
ilis  ruined  fort  and  the  remains  of  its  defenders,  they  screamed,  stamped 
on  the  ground  and  tore  their  hair  with  rage  and  despair.  Mason  held 


YALE  COLLEGE. 


them  in  check  with  twenty  men,  while  the  rest  of  the  English  embarked 
in  their  boats,  Avhich  had  come  round  from  Narragansett  bay,  and 
hastened  home  to  protect  the  settlements  against  a  sudden  attack. 
Mason,  with  the  party  mentioned,  marched  across  the  country  to  the  fort 
at  Saybrooke,  where  he  was  received  with  the  honors  due  to  his  success- 
ful exploit. 

In  a  few  days  a  body  of  one  hundred  men  arrived  from  Massachusetts, 
under  Captain  Stoughton,  and  the  campaign  against  the  Fcquods  was 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

resumed.  Their  pride  was  crushed,  and  they  made  but  a  feeble  re*..x- 
ance.  They  fled  to  the  west,  closely  pursued  by  the  English,  who 
destroyed  their  corn-fields,  burned  their  villages  and  put  their  women 
and  children  to  death  without  mercy.  They  made  a  last  desperate  effort 
at  resistance  in  the  fastnesses  of  a  swamp,  but  were  defeated  with  great 
slaughter.  Sassacus,  their  chief,  with  a  few  of  his  men  took  refuge  with 
the  Mohawks,  where  he  was  soon  after  put  to  death  by  one  of  his  own 
people.  The  remainder  of  the  tribe,  about  two  hundred  in  number, 
surrendered  to  the  English,  and  were  reduced  to  slavery.  Some  were 
given  to  their  enemies,  the  Narragansetts  and  Mohegans ;  others  were 
sent  to  the  West  Indies  and  sold  as  slaves.  The  Pequod  nation  was 
utterly  destroyed. 

The  thoroughness  and  remorselcssness  of  the  work  struck  terror  to  the 
neighboring  tribes.  If  the  Pequods,  the  most  powerful  of  all  their  race, 
had  been  exterminated  by  a  mere  handful  of  Englishmen,  what  could 
they  expect  in  a  contest  with  them  but  a  similar  fate?  For  forty  years 
the  horror  of  this  fearful  deed  remained  fresh  in  the  savage  mind,  and 
protected  the  young  settlements  more  effectually  than  the  most  vi^ilar.t 
watchfulness  on  the  part  of  the  whites  could  have  done. 

Relieved  from  the  fear  of  the  Indians,  the  people  of  Connecticut  pre- 
pared to  establish  a  civil  government  for  the  colony,  and  in  January, 
1639,  a  constitution  was  adopted.  It  was  more  liberal,  and  therefore 
more  lasting,  than  that  framed  by  any  of  the  other  colonies.  It  pro- 
vided for  the  government  of  the  colony  by  a  governor,  a  legislature  and 
the  usual  magistrates  of  an  English  province,  who  were  to  be  chosen 
annually  by  ballot.  Every  settler  who  should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  commonwealth  was  to  have  the  right  of  suffrage.  The  members 
of  the  legislature  were  apportioned  among  the  towns  according  to  the 
population.  The  colony  was  held  to  be  supreme  within  its  own  limits, 
and  no  recognition  was  made  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  king  or  Parlia- 
ment. When  Connecticut  took  her  place  among  the  States  of  the 
American  Union,  at  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  her  con- 
stitution needed  no  change  to  adapt  her  to  her  new  position.  It  remained 
in  force  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

In  the  year  of  the  Pequod  war  (1637),  John  Davenport,  a  celebrated 
clergyman  of  London,  and  Theophilus  Eaton,  a  merchant,  of  wealth,  and 
a  number  of  their  associates,  who  had  been  exiled  from  England  for 
their  religious  opinions,  reached  Boston.  They  were  warmly  welcomed, 
and  were  urged  to  stay  in  the  Bay  colony,  but  the  theological  disputes 
were  so  high  there  that  they  preferred  to  go  into  the  wilderneas  and 
found  a  settlement  where  they  could  be  at  peace.  Eaton  with  a  few  men 


COLONIZATION  OF  CONNECTICUT. 


187 


was  sent  to  explore  the  region  west  of  the  Connecticut,  which  had  been 
discovered  by  the  pursusrs  of  the  Pequods.  He  examined  the  coast  of 
.Long  Island  sound,  and  spent  the  winter  at  a  place  which  he  selected  a.° 
a  settlement.  In  April,  1638,  Davenport  and  the  rest  of  the  company 
sailed  from  Boston  and 'established  a  settlement  on  the  spot  chosen  by 
Eaton.  The  settlers  obtained  a  title  to  their  lands  from  the  natives,  and 
agreed  in  return  to  protect  them  against  the  Mohawks.  They  named 
their  settlement  New  Haven.  In  1639,  a  form  of  government  was 
adopted,  and  Eaton  was  elected  governor.  He  was  annually  chosen  to 


VALLEY  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT. 

this  position  until  his  death,  twenty  years  later.  The  colonists  pledged 
themselves  "  to  be  governed  in  all  things  by  the  rules  which  the  Scrip- 
tures held  forth  to  them."  The  right  of  suffrage  was  restricted  to 
ohurch  members.  "  Thus  New  Haven  made  the  Bible  its  statute  book, 
and  the  elect  its  freemen."  In  the  next  ten  years  settlements  spread 
along  the  sound  and  extended  to  the  opposite  shores  of  Long  island. 
The  colony  was  distinct  from  and  independent  of  the  Connecticut  colony, 
with  which  friendly  relations  were  soon  established. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE   UNION   OF   THE    NEW   ENGLAND   COLONIES. 

Feeing  of  the  Colonies  towards  England — Hostility  of  the  English  Government  to  New 
England — Efforts  to  Introduce  Episcopacy — Massacnuaetts  Threatens  Resistance — The 
Revolution  in  England — Establishment  of  Free  Schools  in  New  England — Harvard 
College — The  Printing  Press — The  Long  Parliament  Friendly  to  New  England — The 
United  Colonies  of  New  England — Rhode  Island  Obtains  a  Charter — Maine  Annexed 
to  Massachusetts — The  Quakers  are  Persecuted — Efforts  to  Christianize  the  Indians — 
John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians. 

HE  sentiments  with  which  the  people  of  the  New  England  colonies 
regarded  the  mother  country  may  be  briefly  stated.  They  were 
proud  of  the  name  of  Englishmen,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  their  old  home.  They  regarded  the  British  con- 
stitution as  the  supreme  law  of  their  new  states,  and  claimed  to 
be  true  and  loyal  subjects  of  the  King  of  England.  Nevertheless,  they 
looked  upon  the  success  of  their  colonies  as  their  own  work,  accomplished 
by  their  own  patience  and  heroism,  and  they  were  fully  aware  that  they 
owed  nothing  to  the  mother  country.  They  had  been  driven  forth  from 
her  shores  by  persecution,  and  left  in  neglect  to  struggle  up  to  the  suc- 
cessful position  they  now  occupied.  They  owed  nothing  to  England ;  in 
their  deepest  distress  they  had  never  asked  aid  of 'her,  and  they  were 
willing  to  undergo  any  hardship  rather  than  do  so.  They  had  made  laws 
and  established  institutions  under  which  they  had  surmounted  their  early 
trials,  and  they  regarded  their  paramount  allegiance  as  due  to  their 
respective  provinces.  They  acknowledged  the  right  of  no  power  beyond 
the  Atlantic  to  interfere  with  or  change  their  work.  They  would 
acknowledge  their  allegiance  to  the  king  as  long  as  he  respected  the 
system  they  had  built  up  at  such  great  cost,  and  without  assistance  from 
him,  but  would  resist  any  effort  from  him,  or  any  one  else,  to  interfere 
with  it.  They  had  made  New  England  what  she  was,  and  they  meant  to 
retain  the  possession  and  control  of  their  new  home  at  any  cost.  They 
had  made  themselves  a  free  people,  and  they  meant  to  preserve  their 
liberties  as  a  precious  heritage  for  their  children. 

This  was  the  general  sentiment  of  New  England.     There  were  some 
discontented  persons,  however,  in  the  midst  of  these  determined  people. 
188 


THE   UNION  Cl<    THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES.  189 

They  had  found  the  stern  discipline  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  too 
oppressive,  and  some  had  been  severely  punished  by  the  fiery  Endicott. 
Upon  returning  to  England  they  endeavored  to  induce  the  king  to  exert 
his  power  and  remedy  what  they  termed  the  distraction  and  disorder  of 
the  province  of  Massachusetts.  Their  complaints  were  echoed  by  a 
strong  party  in  England.  Burdett  wrote  to  Archbishop  Laud  that 
"The  colonists  aimed  not  at  a  new  discipline,  but  at  sovereignty;  that  it 
was  accounted  treason  in  their  general  court  to  speak  of  appeals  to  the 
king;"  in  which  assertion  he  was  right.  The  English  archbishop  began 
to  regard  the  departure  of  so  many  "  faithful  and  free-born  Englishmen 
and  good  Christians"  to  join  a  new  communion  as  a  serious  matter,  and 
impediments  were  thrown  in  the  way  of  emigration.  In  February,  1634, 
a  requisition  was  addressed  to  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  ordering  the 
colonial  officials  to  produce  the  patent  of  the  company  in  England.  The 
colony  took  no  notice  of  this  demand.  A  little  later  the  king  appointed 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  some  others  a  special  commission,  with 
full  power  over  the  American  colonies.  They  were  authorized  to  make 
such  changes  in  church  and  state  as  they  deemed  necessary ;  to  enforce 
them  with  heavy  penalties ;  and  even  to  revoke  all  charters  that  contained 
privileges  inconsistent  with  the  royal  prerogative. 

The  news  of  the  appointment  of  this  commission  reached  Boston  in 
September,  1G34,  and  it  was  also  rumored  that  a  governor-general  for  the 
colonies  had  been  appointed,  and  had  sailed  from  England.  All  Massachu- 
setts burned  with  indignation,  and  the  colony  resolved  to  resist  the  attempt 
upon  its  liberties.  It  was  very  poor,  but  in  a  short  space  of  time  the  large 
sum  of  six  hundred  pounds  was  rr.ised  for  the  public  defence,  and  fortifi- 
cations were  begun  and  pushed  forward  with  energy.  In  January,  1635, 
the  ministers  were  assembled  at  Boston  and  their  opinion  was  asked  upon 
the  question  whether  the  colony  should  receive  a  governor-general.  They 
answered  boldly :  "  We  ought  to  defend  our  lawful  possessions  if  we  are 
able ;  if  not,  to  avoid  and  protract." 

In 'April,  1638,  the  privy  council  demanded  the  surrender  of  the 
charter  of  Massachusetts,  threatening  in  case  of  refusal  that  the  king 
would  take  the  management  of  the  colony  into  his  own  hands.  The 
colonial  authorities  were  firmly  resolved  to  give  the  king  no  pretext  for 
interference  with  their  affairs,  and  instead  of  complying  with  the  order  of 
the  privy  council,  they  addressed  a  remonstrance  to  that  body  against  the 
surrender  required  of  them,  thus  seeking  to  gain  timo.  They  were  fully 
determined  not  to  give  up  their  charter;  but  before  their  remonstrance 
could  reach  England  the  troubles  which  encompassed  Charles  at  home 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  carry  out  his  designs  against  Massachusetts. 


190 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


The  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war  in  England  put  a  stop  to  the  emi- 
gration to  New  England.  At  the  opening  of  the  year  1640  the  popu- 
lation of  Xe\v  England  numbered  20,000.  Some  fifty  towns  and  between 
thirty  and  forty  churches  had  been  built,  and  the  most  desponding  could 
no  longer  doubt  the  ultimate  success  and  prosperity  of  the  country.  The 
wretched  cabins  of  the  first  settlers  were  rapidly  giving  way  to  fair  and 
comfortable  houses,  and  the  colonists  were  beginning  to  gather  about 
them  many  of  the  comforts  and  much  of  the  refinement  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  in  England. 

Nor  were  the  Puritans  mindful  of  material  success  only.     Many  of 


HARVARD  COLLEGE. 


them  were  persons  of  education,  and  they  were  anxious  that  their  children 
should  have  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  the  blessings  of  knowledge  in 
their  new  homes.  In  1636  the  general  court  made  provision  for  the 
establishment  at  Newtown  of  a  high  school.  The  name  of  the  town  wcs 

o 

changed  to  Cambridge  as  a  token  that  the  people  meant  that  it  should 
yet  be  the  seat  of  a  university.  In  1637  the  school  was  formally  opened. 
The  next  year  the  Rev.  John  Harvard,  of  Charlestown,  bequeathed  to  the 
infant  institution  his  library  and  the  half  of  his  fortune,  and  in  gratitude 
for  this  assistance  the  school  took  the  name  of  Harvard  College.  In  1647 


THE   UNION  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES. 


191 


the  general  court  ordered  that  in  every  town  or  district  of  fifty  families 
liierc  should  be  a  common  school;  and  that  in  every  town  or  district  of 
one  hundred  families  there  should  be  a  grammar  school,  conducted  by 
teachers  competent  to  prepare  young  men  for  college.  This  system 
rapidly  found  its  way  into  the  other  New  England  colonies,  with  the 
exception  of  Rhode  Island. 

Thus  was  founded  the  American  system  of  common  schools.  Until 
now  education  had  been  the  task  of  the  church,  or  had  been  confided  to 
private  individuals ;  but  now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 


AN  AMERICAN  FREE  SCHOOL. 

world,  the  state  took  the  task  of  educating  its  young  citizens  into  its  own 
hands,  and  established  the  schools  in  which  it  was  to  be  conducted. 
Henceforth  knowledge  was  to  be  restricted  to  no  favored  class :  education 

O  ' 

was  made  free  to  every  child,  and  every  parent  being  taxed  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  public  schools  was  made  to  feel  interested  in  their  proper  con- 
duct. Fro::i  the  little  beginning  thus  made  a  vast  and  noble  system  has 
been  developed,  the  beneficial  results  of  which  must  be  felt  to  the  latest 
oeriod  of  our  national  existence.  Had  the  fathers  of  New  England  done 
r-othing  more  for  posterity  than  this,  they  would  still  deserve  to  be  held 
in  grateful  remembrance  as  the  founders  of  our  public  schools.  Genera- 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

tioii.s  yet  unlxmi  shall  rise  up  to  call  them  blessed,  and  to  acknowledge 
the  truth  of  their  conviction  that  ignorant  men  cannot  make  good  citizen?. 

In  1639  a  printing  press,  presented  to  the  colony  by  some  friends  in 
Holland,  was  set  up  in  Massachusetts.  Stephen  Daye  was  the  printer, 
and  in  that  year  printed  an  almanac  calculated  for  Ne\v  England,  and  in 
1640  a  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms,  made  "by  Thomas  Welde  and 
John  Eliot,  ministers  of  Roxbury,  assisted  by  Richard  Mather,  minister 
of  Dorchester."  It  was  the  first  book  printed  in  the  English  language 
in  America,  and  continued  to  be  used  for  a  long  time  in  the  worship  of 
the  New  England  churches. 

Many  of  the  settlers  went  back  to  England  at  the  outset  of  the  civil 
war  to  take  part  in  the  struggle,  among  whom  were  Governor  Henry 
Vane  and  Hugh  Peters,  and  very  few  emigrants  arrived  in  New  England 
during  the  existence  of  the  commonwealth.  Yet  the  colonies  continued 
to  prosper.  Ship-building,  which  had  been  introduced  by  the  first  settlers 
of  Salem,  was  carried  on  with  activity,  and  vessels  of  four  hundred  tons 
were  constructed.  A  little  later  the  manufacture  of  woollen  and  linen 
cloth  was  begun  by  order  of  the  general  court  in  consequence  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  supplies  from  England. 

The  colonial  churches  were  invited  to  send  their  representatives  to  the 
assembly  of  divines  at  Westminster,  but  they  wisely  neglected  to  do  so, 
judging  it  better  to  remain  in  their  obscurity  than  to  give  the  English 
people  a  pretext  for  future  interference  by  joining  in  their  affairs. 

The  Long  Parliament  was  friendly  to  New  England,  and  granted  to 
the  colonies  an  exemption  from  all  duties  upon  their  commerce  "  until 
the  House  of  Commons  should  take  order  to  the  contrary."  Massachu- 
setts took  advantage  of  the  security  afforded  by  the  friendship  of  the 
Long  Parliament  to  establish  a  written  constitution,  or  "  body  of  liber- 
ties," which  placed  the  rights  and  privileges  of  her  people  upon  a  more 
stable  basis.  It  contained  some  of  the  severest  laws  of  the  Mosaic  code, 
such  as  those  against  witchcraft,  blasphemy,  acd  sins  against  nature,  but 
secured  the  freedom  of  the  citizen,  the  right  of  representative  govern- 
ment, and  the  independence  of  the  state  and  the  municipality.  The 
rights  of  property,  the  freedom  of  inheritance,  and  the  independence  of 
each  church  from  control  by  the  others  were  also  placed  beyond  dispute. 
"  This  constitution,"  says  Bancroft,  "  for  its  liberality  and  comprehensive- 
ness may  vie  with  any  similar  record  from  the  days  of  Magna  Charta." 

In  April,  1642,  the  towns  on  the  Piscataqua,  now  embraced  within 
the  limits  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  were  annexed  at  their  own 
request  to  Massachusetts.  As  the  people  of  this  region  were  not  Puri- 
tans, and  many  of  them  were  attached  to  the  forms  and  faith  of  the 


THE   UNION  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES.  193 

Church  of  England,  the  general  court  in  September  adopted  a  measure 
providing  that  neither  the  freemen  nor  the  deputies  of  New  Hampshire 
should  be  required  to  be  church  members.  This  act  of  justice  removed 
ill  danger  of  political  discord.  In  the  same  year  Massachusetts  made  a 
loss  creditable  and  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  annex  Rhode  Island  to  her 
dominions. 

Though  relieved  of  the  interference  of  the  mother  country,  the  dangers 
of  New  England  were  not  yet  at  an  end.  The  Indians  were  still 
powerful  upon  their  narrow  border,  the  French  were  beginning  to 
threaten  them  from  the  direction  of  Canada,  and  the  Dutch  from  the 
Hudson.  The  colonies  had  so  many  interests  in  common  that  it  was  of 
vital  importance  that  they  should  act  in  concert  for  their  defence. 
After  several  ineffectual  attempts,  a  league  was  formed  in  1643  between 
the  colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven, 
under  the  title  of  "The  United  Colonies  of  New  England"  Each  colony 
was  to  retain  its  freedom  in  the  management  of  its  own  affairs;  the 
authority  of  the  union,  which  was  intmsted  to  a  commission  of  two 
members  from  each  province,  being  limited  to  objects  which  concerned 
the  general  welfare  of  the  colonies.  Provision  was  made  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  purity  of  the  gospel,  the  commissioners  were  required  to  be 
church  members,  and  the  expenses  of  the  confederacy  were  to  be  assessed 
upon  the  colonies  according  to  population.  This  union  lasted  for  forty 
years. 

The  colony  of  Rhode  Island  desired  to  be  admitted  into  the  union,  but 
its  petition  was  refused,  as  it  would  not  acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of 
Plymouth.  The  people  of  the  two  settlements  on  Narragansett  bay, 
dreading  an  attempt  to  absorb  them  into  some  of  the  other  colonies,  now 
determined  to  apply  to  Parliament  for  an  independent  charter.  Roger 
Williams  was  despatched  to  England  for  that  purpose  in  1643,  and 
reached  that  country  soon  after  the  death  of  Hampden.  The  fame  of  his 
labors  among  the  Indians  had  preceded  him,  and  secured  for  him  a 
cordial  welcome  in  his  native  land.  Assisted  by  Sir  Henry  Vane,  a 
charter  was  obtained  in  March,  1644,  organizing  the  settlements  on 
Narragansett  bay  as  an  independent  colony  under  the  name  of  "  The 
Providence  Plantations,"  "  with  full  power  and  authority  to  rule  them- 
selves." The  executive  council  of  state  in  England,  in  1651,  made  some 
grants  to  Coddington  which  would  have  dismembered  the  little  state, 
and  Williams  was  obliged  to  make  a  second  voyage  to  England  to  have 
these  grants  vacated.  He  succeeded  in  his  efforts  and  the  charter  was 
confirmed.  He  received  in  this,  as  in  his  former  mission,  the  cordial 
co-operation  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  whose  name  should  be  ever  dear  to  the 
13 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

people  of  Rhode  Island,  since  but  for  him  her  territory  would  have  been 
divided  among  the  neighboring  colonies.  In  the  interval  between  his 
first  and  second  voyages  Roger  Williams  became  a  convert  to  the  Baptist 
faith,  and  founded  the  first  church  of  that  denomination  in  America. 

The  country  between  the  Piscataqua  and  the  Kennebec  was  assigned 
to  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges,  who,  in  1639,  was  confirmed  in  his  possession 
by  a  formal  charter  from  Charles  I.,  who  called  the  territory  the 
Province  of  Maine.  In  1640,  Gorges  sent  his  son  Thomas  to  Maine  as 
his  representative.  Thomas  Gorges  took  up  his  residence  at  the  settle- 
ment of  Agamenticus,  now  the  town  of  York,  and  in  1642  changed  the 
name  of  the  place  to  Gorgeana. 

Since  the  settlement  of  the  colony  the  French  had  claimed  the  region 
between  the  St.  Croix  and  the  Penobscot,  which  they  had  settled  under 
the  name  of  Acadia,  as  has  been  stated  elsewhere.  After  the  death  of 
Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges  Maine  was  divided  among  his  heirs.  These  cut  it 
up  into  four  weak  communities,  whose  helplessness  laid  them  open  to  the 
encroachments  of  the  French  in  Canada.  Apprehensive  of  the  results  of 
this,  Massachusetts,  to  whom  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  province 
had  appealed  to  take  such  a  course,  in  1651  claimed  the  province  of 
Maine  as  a  part  of  the  territory  which  had  been  granted  to  the  colony  by 
the  original  charter  of  Massachusetts.  Commissioners  were  sent  to 
establish  the  authority  of  the  Bay  colony  over  the  province,  but  the 
magistrates  of  Maine  resisted  them,  and  appealed  to  the  English  govern- 
i.  *nt  for  protection.  The  people  of  Maine  were  the  adherents  of  the 
king  and  the  established  church,  and  England  was  now  ruled  by  the 
Puritans;  consequently  Massachusetts  won  her  cause,  and  Maine  was 
declared  a  part  of  that  province.  Massachusetts  made  a  generous  use  of 
her  power,  and  allowed  the  towns  of  Maine  very  much  the  same  govern- 
ment and  privileges  they  now  enjoy,  and  in  religious  matters  treated 
them  with  the  same  leniency  she  had  shown  to  New  Hampshire. 

In  1646,  a  dispute  in  the  Bay  colony  induced  one  of  the  parties  to  it  to 
appeal  to  Parliament  to  sustain  his  claims,  and  an  order  was  sent  out  to 
Boston  in  his  behalf  "  couched  in  terms  which  involved  the  right  of 
Parliament  to  reverse  the  decisions  and  control  the  government  of 
Massachusetts."  In  plainer  terms,  Parliament  claimed  the  right  tc 
revoke  the  charter  of  the  colony,  as  the  king  had  done  at  the  outset  of 
the  civil  war.  The  danger  was  great,  and  Massachusetts  met  it  with 
firmness.  The  general  court  met  on  the  4th  of  November,  and  sat  with 
closed  doors  to  discuss  the  claim  of  the  English  government.  It  was 
resolved  "  that  Massachusetts  owed  to  England  the  same  allegiance  as 
the  free  Hanse  towns  had  rendered  to  the  empire;  as  Normandy,  when 


THE   UNION  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES.  195 

> 
its  dukes  were   kings  of  England,  paid  to  the  monarchs  of  France." 

The  court  also  refused  to  accept  a  new  charter  from  Parliament,  as  that 
action  might  imply  a  surrender  of  the  original  instrument,  or  to  allow 
Parliament  to  control  in  any  way  the  independence  of  the  colony.  Great 
as  this  claim  was  it  was  admitted  by  the  English  Parliament,  in  which 
the  rights  of  the  colony  were  stoutly  maintained  by  Sir  Henry  Vane  and 
others ;  and  in  reply  to  a  respectful  address  of  the  general  court  setting 
forth  the  views  of  that  body,  a  committee  of  Parliament  declared  :  "  We 
encourage  no  appeals  from  your  justice.  We  leave  you  with  all  the  free- 
dom and  latitude  that  may,  in  any  respect,  be  duly  claimed  by  you." 
Later  on,  upon  the  establishment  of  the  commonwealth,  Parliament 
invited  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  receive  a  new  patent  from  that 
body  ;  but  the  colonial  authorities  wisely  declined  to  do  this,  or  to  allow 
the  home  government  any  hold  upon  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
the  province. 

In  1651,  Cromwell,  who  had  subdued  Ireland,  offered  that  island  to 
the  Puritans  of  New  England  as  a  new  home ;  but  they  declined  to  leave 
America.  Cromwell  proved  himself  in  many  ways  a  judicious  friend  of 
New  England,  and  the  people  of  that  country  treasured  his  memory  with 
the  gratitude  and  respect  it  so  richly  deserved. 

Though  so  successful  in  asserting  her  own  liberties,  Massachusetts  had 
not  yet  learned  the  lesson  of  religious  tolerance.  When  the  Baptists 
began  to  appear  in  the  colony  severe  measures  were  inaugurated  to  crush 
them,  and  one  of  their  number — Holmes — a  resident  of  Lynn,  was 
whipped  unmercifully.  Still  greater  were  the  severities  practised  towards 
the  Quakers.  This  sect  had  grown  out  of  the  Protestant  Reformation, 
and  constituted  at  this  day  the  most  advanced  thinkers  upon  religious 
matters  to  be  found  in  England.  They  claimed  a  perfect  freedom  in 
matters  of  faith  and  worship,  and  regarded  all  laws  for  enforcing  religious 
systems  as  works  of  the  devil.  They  were  persons  of  pure  lives,  and 
even  their  most  inveterate  enemies  could  not  charge  them  with  wrong- 
doing. Previous  to  their  appearance  in  Massachusetts  exaggerated 
reports  reached  the  colony  concerning  them.  They  were  represented  as 
•Halving  war  upon  all  forms  of  religion  and  government. 

The  first  of  this  creed  who  came  to  New  England  were  Mary  Fisher 
and  Ann  Austin,  who  reached  Boston  in  July,  1656.  In  the  absence  of. 
i  special  law  against  Quakers,  they  were  arrested  under  the  provisions  of 
the  general  statute  against  heresy ;  their  trunks  were  searched  and  their 
books  burned  by  the  hangman.  Their  persons  were  examined  for 
marks  of  witchcraft,  but  nothing  could  be  found  against  them,  and  after 
being  kept  close  prisoners  for  five  weeks,  they  were  sent  back  to  England. 


196  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

During  the  year  eight  others  were  also  sent  back  to  England.  Laws 
which  were  a  disgrace  to  an  enlightened  community  were  now  passed 
prohibiting  the  Quakers  from  entering  the  colony.  Such  as  came  wero 
imprisoned,  cruelly  whipped,  and  sent  away.  In  IG.oT,  a  woman  was 
whipped  with  twenty  stripes  for  this  offence.  In  1C58,  a  law  was 
enacted  that  if  any  Quaker  should  return  after  being  banished,  his  or  her 
offence  should  be  punished  with  death.  It  was  hoped  that  this  barbarous 
measure  would  rid  the  colony  of  their  presence ;  but  they  came  in  still 
greater  numbers,  to  reprove  the  magistrates  for  their  persecuting  spirit, 
and  to  call  them  to  repentance.  In  1659,  Marmaduke  Stephenson, 
William  Robinson,  Mary  Dyar,  and  William  Leddro  were  hanged  on 
Boston  Common  for  returning  to  the  colony  after  being  banished. 

These  cruelties  were  regarded  with  great  discontent  by  the  people  of 
the  colony,  whose  humanity  was  shocked  by  the  barbarity  of  the  magis- 
trates. Their  opposition  grew  stronger  every  day,  and  at  last  it  became 
evident  to  the  magistrates  themselves  that  their  severities  were  of  no 
avail.  When  William  Leddro  was  being  sentenced  to  death  the  magis- 
trates were  startled  by  the  entrance  into  the  court  room  of  Wenlock 
Christison,  a  Quaker  who  had  been  banished  and  forbidden  to  return  on 
pain  of  death.  Christison  was  arrested,  but  the  complaints  of  the  people 
became  so  loud  that  the  magistrates  were  obliged  to  pause  in  their  bloody 
work.  Christison  and  twenty-seven  of  his  companions  were  released 
from  custody,  the  persecution  of  the  Quakers  was  discontinued,  and  the 
general  court,  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  people,  repealed  the  bar- 
barous laws  against  that  sect. 

In  pleasing  contrast  with  these  severities  were  the  efforts  of  the  Puri- 
tans to  spread  a  knowledge  of  the  gospel  among  the  savages.  Chief 
among  those  engaged  in  the  good  work  was  John  Eliot,  the  minister  of 
Roxbury,  whose  labors  won  him  the  name  of  "  the  apostle  Eliot."  He 
went  among  the  red  men  in  the  forests,  and  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
their  language  that  he  might  preach  to  them  in  their  own  tongue.  When 
he  had  become  sufficiently  proficient  in  it,  he  translated  the  Bible  into 
the  Indian  language.  This  translation  was  printed  at  Cambridge,  and  a 
part  of  the  type  was  set  by  an  Indian  compositor.  He  spent  many  years 
in  the  preparation  of  his  Bible,  and  made  a  good  use  of  it  during  his 
life ;  but  it  is  now  valuable  only  as  a  literary  curiosity  and  as  the  evi- 
dence of  the  devotion  of  the  translator  to  his  noble  work.  The  destruction 
of  the  race  for  which  it  was  intended  has  made  it  a  sealed  book.  Eliot 
gathered  his  savage  converts  into  a  settlement  at  Natick,  and  taught  the 
men  the  art  of  agriculture  and  the  women  to  spin  and  to  weave  cloth. 
He  had  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  thr  chiefs  and  medicine  men  or 


THE   UNION  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES.  197 

priests,  who  resented  his  efforts  to  win  their  people  from  the  worship  and 
habits  of  their  ancestors,  but  lie  persevered.  He  was  greatly  beloved  by 
his  disciples,  and  continued  his  labors  among  them  far  into  old  age,  and 
to  a  limited  extent  to  the  day  of  his  death,  which  took  place  when  he 
had  attained  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-six  years.  "  My  memory,  my  utter- 
ance fails  me,"  he  said  near  the  close  of  his  life ;  "  but  I  thank  God  my 
charity  holds  out  still."  When  Walton,  a  brother  minister,  visited  him 
on  his  death-bed,  he  greeted  him  with  the  words :  "Brother,  you  are 


NEWPORT,  B.  I. 


welcome ;  but  retire  to  your  study  and  pray  that  I  may  be  gone."  His 
last  words  on  earth  were  the  triumphal  shout  with  which  he  entered  upon 
his  reward  :  "  Welcome  joy  ! " 

Many  of  the  Quakers,  after  the  persecution  against  them  was  over, 
joined  Eliot  in  his  labors.  He  had  other  fellow- workers.  The  two 
Mayhews,  father  and  son,  Cotton,  and  Brainerd  thought  it  a  privilege  to 
labor  for  the  souls  of  the  poor  savages.  Native  preachers  were  ordained, 
and  at  last  there  were  thirty  churches  of  "  praying  Indians  "  under  such 
preachers. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

NEW   ENGLAND   AFTER    THE    RESTORATION. 

Arrival  of  the  News  of  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.—  The  Regicides  in  New  England— 
They  are  Protected—  Revival  of  the  Navigation  Acts—  Effect  of  this  measure  upon  the 
New  England  Colonies—  Massachusetts  delays  the  Proclamation  of  the  King—  Con- 
necticut obtains  a  Charter  —  Union  of  New  Haven  with  the  Connecticut  Colony  —  Rhode 
Island  given  a  new  Charter  —  Massachusetts  settles  her  difficulties  with  the  Crown  — 
Changes  in  the  Government—  High-handed  acts  of  the  Royal  Commissioners  —  Troubles 
with  the  Indians—  Injustice  of  the  Whites—  King  Piiilip's  War  —  A  Forest  Hero—  An 
Incident  in  the  Attack  rpon  Hadley  —  Sufferin  -s  of  the  Colonies—  Destruction  of  the 
Narragansetts—  Death  of  Philip  —  Clc:e  of  the  \YTar  —  England  asserts  her  right  to  Tax 
the  Colonies—  Massachusetts  buvr,  Gorges'  claims  to  Maine—  New  Hampshire  made  a 
separate  Province  —  James  II.  revokes  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts  —  Dudley  and  Ran- 
dolph in  New  England  —  Andros  appointed  Governor-Genen  1  —  His  Tyranny  —  He  de- 
mands the  Charter  of  Connecticut  —  It  is  carried  away  and  Hidden  —  The  Charter  Oak  — 
Fall  of  James  II.  —  The  people  of  Massachusetts  take  up  Arms  —  Andros  arrested— 
Effects  of  the  Revolution  upon  New  England. 


news  of  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  to  the  English  throne 
was  brought  to  Boston  by  Edward  Whalley  and  William  Goffe, 
two  of  the  judges  of  Charles  I.  They  came  to  seek  refuge 
from  the  vengeance  of  the  king,  having  oifended  him  beyond 
forgiveness  by  their  share  in  the  death  of  his  father.  They  re- 
mained about  a  year  in  Massachusetts,  protected  by  the  people,  and 
preaching  to  them.  A  few  months  after  their  arrival,  warrants  for  their 
arrest  and  transportation  to  England  for  trial  arrived  from  the  king,  pnd 
to  escape  this  danger  they  took  refuge  in  New  Haven.  The  royal 
officers  instituted  a  diligent  search  for  them,  and  they  were  obliged  to 
change  their  place  of  conopalment  frequently.  Great  rewards  were 
offered  for  their  betrayal,  and  even  the  Indians  were  urged  to  search  the 
woods  for  their  hiding-places.  The  people  whom  they  trusted  protected 
them,  and  aided  them  to  escape  the  royal  officers  until  the  vigor  of  the 
search  was  exhausted.  They  then  conducted  them  to  a  secure  refuge  in 
the  vicinity  of  Hadley,  where  they  remained  in  seclusion  and  peace  until 
the  close  of  their  lives. 

News  was  constantly  arriving  in  the  colonies  of  the  execution  of  the 
Hen  who  had  been  the  friends  of  America  in  the  Parliament,  and  a 
198 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  199 

general  sadness  was  cast  over  the  settlements  by  the  tidings  of  the  death 
of  Hugh  Peters  and  the  noble  Sir  Henry  Vane.  From  the  first  the 
people  of  New  England  saw  plainly  that  they  had  little  reason  to  expect 
justice  at  the  hands  of  the  royal  government,  and  there  was  little  rejoic- 
ing in  that  region  at  the  return  of  the  king  to  "  his  own  again." 

One  of  Charles's  first  acts  was  to  revive  in  a  more  odious  form  the 
navigation  act  of  the  Long  Parliament.  We  have  spoken  of  the  effect 
of  this  measure  upon  the  colonies  of  Virginia  and  Maryland.  This  act 
closed  the  harbors  of  America  against  the  vessels  of  every  European 
nation  save  England,  and  forbade  the  exportation  of  certain  American 
productions  to  any  country  but  England  or  her  possessions.  This  was  a 
very  serious  blow  to  New  England,  and  was  intended  as  such.  The 
colonies  of  that  region  had  already  built  up  a  growing  commerce,  and 
this,  together  with  their  activity  in  ship-building,  excited  the  envy  and 
the  hostility  of  the  British  merchants,  who  hoped,  by  inducing  the  king 
to  place  these  restrictions  upon  the  colonies,  to  compel  the  Americans  to 
depend  upon  them  for  the  supply  of  all  their  wants.  Later  on,  America 
was  forbidden  not  only  to  manufacture  any  articles  which  might  compete 
with  English  manufactures  in  foreign  markets,  but  to  supply  her  own 
wants  with  her  own  manufactures.  At  the  same  time  Parliament  en- 
deavored to  destroy  the  trade  that  had  grown  up  between  New  England 
and  the  southern  colonies  by  imposing  upon  the  articles  exported  from 
one  colony  to  another  a  duty  equal  to  that  imposed  upon  the  consumption 
of  these  articles  in  England. 

Thus  did  Great  Britain  lay  the  foundation  of  that  system  of  com- 
mercial injustice  toward  her  colonies  which  eventually  deprived  her  of 
them,  and  which  her  greatest  writer  on  political  economy  declared  to  be 
"a  manifest  violation  of  the  rights  of  mankind."  The  policy  thus 
established  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  was  never  departed  from.  Each 
succeeding  administration  remained  true  to  the  principles  of  the  naviga- 
tion act,  and  consistently  declined  to  admit  the  claim  of  the  colonies  to 
just  and  honorable  treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  mother  country. 

Charles  II.  was  promptly  proclaimed  in  the  colonies  of  Plymouth, 
Connecticut,  New  Haven  and  Rhode  Island,  and  those  provinces  were 
administered  in  his  name.  Massachusetts,  distrusting  his  purposes 
towards  her,  held  back,  and  waited  until  he  should  show  his  intentions 
more  plainly. 

Connecticut  had  purchased  the  claims  of  the  assigns  of  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  to  the  region  occupied  by  her,  and  had  bought  the  territory 
of  the  Mohegans  from  Uncas,  their  sachem.  The  colony  sent  the 
younger  Winthrop  to  England  in  1661  to  obtain  a  charter  from  thi 


200  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

king.  The  noble  character  of  Governor  Winthrop  was  well  known  in 
England,  and  impressed  even  the  profligate  Charles.  His  reception  was 
cordial  and  his  mission  entirely  successful.  In  1662,  the  king  granted 
to  the  colony  a  charter  incorporating  Hartford  and  New  Haven  in  one 
province  under  the  name  of  Connecticut,  and  extending  its  limits  from 
Long  Island  sound  westward  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  thus  bestowing  upon 
the  colony  those  rich  western  lands  which  were  subsequently  made  the 
basis  of  the  magnificent  school  fund  of  Connecticut,  The  charter  was 
substantially  the  same  in  its  provisions  as  the  constitution  adopted  by 
the  Hartford  colony.  By  it  the  king  conferred  upon  the  colonists  the 
right  to  elect  their  own  officers  and  to  make  and  administer  their  own 
laws  without  interference  from  England  in  any  event  whatever.  Con- 
necticut was  made  independent  in  all  but  name,  and  the  charter  continual 
in  force  as  the  constitution  of  the  State  after  the  period  of  independence 
until  1818. 

The  colony  of  New  Haven  was  much  opposed  to  the  union  with  Con- 
necticut, and  it  required  all  Governor  Winthrop's  efforts  to  induce  the 
people  of  that  colony  to  accept  it.  The  matter  was  adjusted  in  1665, 
when  the  union  was  finally  accomplished.  The  labors  of  Governor 
Winthrop  were  rewarded  by  his  annual  election  as  governor  of  Con- 
necticut for  fourteen  years.  Connecticut  was  a  fortunate  colony.  Its 
government  was  ably  and  honestly  administered  ;  no  persecutions  marred 
its  peace,  and  its  course  was  uniformly  prosperous  and  happy.  It  was 
always  one  of  the  most  peaceful  and  orderly  colonies  of  New  England, 
and  for  a  century  its  population  doubled  once  in  twenty  years,  notwith- 
standing frequent  emigrations  of  its  people  to  other  parts  of  the  country. 
The  colony  at  an  early  day  made  a  liberal  provision  for  education,  and 
in  1700  Yale  College  was  founded.  It  was  originally  located  at  Say- 
brooke,  but  in  1718  was  removed  to  New  Haven. 

Rhode  Island  was  equally  fortunate.  Through  its  resident  agent  at  Lon- 
don, John  Clarke,  it  made  application  to  the  king  for  a  new  charter,  and 
after  some  delay,  caused  by  the  difficulty  of  arranging  satisfactorily  the 
limits  of  the  province,  a  charter  was  granted  in  1663,  formally  establish- 
ing the  colony  of  "Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations."  Thif 
charter  continued  to  be  the  sole  constitution  of  Rhode  Island  until  the 
year  1842.  3y  its  provisions  the  government  of  the  colony  was  to  con- 
sist of  a  governor,  deputy-governor,  ten  assistants,  and  representatives 
from  the  towns.  The  laws  were  to  be  agreeable  to  those  of  England,  but 
no  oath  of  allegiance  was  required  of  the  colony,  and  in  matters  of 
religion  the  charter  declared  that  "  no  person  within  the  said  colony,  at 
any  time  hereafter,  shall  be  anywise  molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  201 

called  in  question  for  any  difference  in  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  ,• 
every  person  may  at  all  times  freely  and  fully  enjoy  his  own  judgment 
and  conscience  in  matters  of  religious  concernments."  Freedom  of  con- 
science was  not  restricted  to  Christians ;  it  was  extended  by  the  charter 
to  infidels  and  pagans  as  well.  This  charter  made  the  little  colony  secure 
against  the  attempts  of  Massachusetts  to  absorb  her,  and  its  reception  by 
the  people  was  joyful  and  enthusiastic. 

At  this  period  the  population  of  Rhode  Island  was  about  twenty-five 
hundred.  It  increased  rapidly  and  steadily ;  the  excellent  harbors  of  the 
province  encouraged  commerce,  and  the  little  state  soon  began  to  rival 
her  larger  associates  in  prosperity. 

Massachusetts  was  from  the  first  regarded  with  disfavor  by  the  royal 
government.  It  delayed  its  acknowledgment  of  Charles  II.  for  over  a 
year,  and  the  king  was  not  proclaimed  at  Boston  until  the  7th  of  August, 
1661.  Even  then  the  general  court  forbade  all  manifestations  of  joy. 
These  signs  of  the  independent  spirit  of  the  people  had  been  observed  in 
England,  and  the  colony  had  been  watched  by  the  government  with  any- 
thing but  favor.  The  enemies  of  the  young  state  hurried  their  com- 
plaints before  the  king,  and  Massachusetts  at  length  found  it  to  her 
interest  to  send  commissioners  to  London,  as,  indeed,  the  express  orders 
of  the  king  required  her  to  do.  Among  the  agents  sent  over  were  John 
Norton  and  Simon  Bradstreet,  men  of  ability  and  moderation,  who  com- 
manded the  confidence  of  all  classes  of  the  colonists.  Their  instructions 
were  to  assure  the  king  of  the  loyalty  of  Massachusetts,  to  engage  his 
favor  for  the  colony ;  but  to  agree  to  "  nothing  prejudicial  to  their  present 
standing  according  to  their  patent,  and  to  endeavor  the  establishment  of 
the  rights  and  privileges  then  enjoyed." 

The  commissioners  reached  London  in  January,  1662,  and  were  gra- 
ciously received  by  the  king,  who  confirmed  the  charter,  and  granted  a 
complete  amnesty  for  all  past  offences  against  his  majesty.  He  required, 
however,  that  all  laws  derogatory  to  his  authority  should  be  repealed ; 
that  the  colonists  should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him  ;  that  justice 
should  be  administered  in  his  name;  that  the  right  of  suffrage  should  be 
thrown  open  to  all  freeholders  of  competent  estates ;  and  that  all  who 
wicheM  to  do  so  should  be  free  to  use  "  the  book  of  common  prayer,  and 
perform  their  devotion  in  the  manner  established  in  England." 

Those  were  better  terms  than  the  commissioners  had  reason  to  expect, 
and  wore  not  in  themselves  objectionable,  as  Massachusetts  was  growing 
beyond  its  early  prejudices;  but  the  acceptance  of  them  would  have  im- 
plied an  acknowledgment  by  the  colony  of  the  king's  right  to  change  its 
fundamental  law,  and  to  interfere  with  its  affairs  at  pleasure.  JV'assa- 


202  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ehusetts  was  at  once  divided  into  two  parties,  the  larger  of  which  main- 
tained the  independence  of  the  colony  of  royal  control ;  the  smaller  party 
supported  the  claims  of  the  king.  Under  other  circumstances  no  oppo- 
sition would  have  been  made  to  the  toleration  of  the  practices  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  colony;  but  now  that  it  seemed  that  episco- 
pacy was  to  be  introduced  as  the  ally  of  the  royal  power,  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  resolved  to  prevent  it  from  obtaining  a  foothold  in  their 
midst.  The  general  court  resolved  to  maintain  their  political  independ- 
ence, and  their  religious  establishment  as  well.  As  a  measure  of  pre- 
caution the  charter  was  secretly  intrusted  for  safe-keeping  to  a  committee 
Df  four  appointed  by  the  general  court;  and  it  was  ordered  that  only 
small  bodies  of  officers  and  men  should  be  allowed  to  land  from  ships, 
and  should  be  required  to  yield  a  strict  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the 
province  while  on  shore. 

These  last  measures  were  adopted  because  of  the  appointment  by  the 
king  of  commissioners  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  New  England.  The 
commissioners  reached  Boston  in  July,  1664,  escorted  by  the  fleet  sent 
out  from  England  for  the  reduction  of  New  Amsterdam.  They  were 
ordered  to  investigate  the  manner  in  which  the  charters  of  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies  had  been  exercised,  and  had  "  full  authority  to  provide  for 
the  peace  of  the  country,  according  to  the  royal  instructions,  and  their 
own  discretion" — a  power  which  Massachusetts  was  justified  in  regarding 
as  dangerous  to  her  liberties. 

The  commissioners  cared  very  little  for  the  prejudices  of  the  people  of 
Massachusetts,  and  from  the  first  proceeded  to  outrage  their  feelings. 
They  introduced  the  services  of  the  Church  of  England  into  Boston  to 
the  great  disgust  of  the  people.  The  Puritans  had  always  observed  the 
old  Jewish  custom  of  beginning  their  Sabbath  at  sunset.  The  commis- 
sioners contemptuously  disregarded  this  custom,  and  spent  Saturday 
evening  in  merry-making.  They  soon  gave  cause  for  more  serious  alarm 
by  exercising  the  powers  with  which  they  had  been  intrusted,  and  pro- 
ceeding to  redress  the  grievances  of  the  people.  All  persons  who  had 
complaints  against  Massachusetts  were  called  upon  to  lay  them  before  the 
commissioners,  and  Rhode  Island  and  the  Narragansett  chiefs  promptly 
availed  themselves  of  the  invitation.  The  general  court  now  cut  the 
matter  short  by  a  decisive  step,  and  sternly  ordered  the  commissioners  to 
discontinue  their  proceedings,  as  contrary  to  the  charter.  The  commis- 
sioners obeyed  the  order,  and  though  the  firmness  of  the  colony  aroused 
the  indignation  of  the  king,  he  was  not  abb  to  shake  the  determination 
of  a  free  people. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  opposition  shown  by  New  England  to  the  hi' 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  203 

justice  of  the  mother  country.  The  navigation  acts  were  generally 
disregarded ;  they  could  not  be  enforced ;  and  Boston  and  the  other 
New  England  ports  continued  to  enjoy  their  growing  commerce  asfreelv 
as  before  the  passage  of  these  infamous  acts.  Vessels  from  all  the  other 
colonies,  and  from  France,  Spain,  Holland,  and  Italy,  as  well  as  from 
England,  were  to  be  seen  at  all  seasons  in  the  port  of  Boston.  Massa- 
chusetts owned  the  greater  number  of  vessels  built  and  operated  in 
America,  and  was  the  principal  carrier  for  the  other  colonies.  Its  ships 
sailed  to  the  most  distant  lands  beyond  the  sea,  and  the  commerce  of  the 
colony  was  rapidly  becoming  a  source  of  great  wealth.  So  marked 
indeed  was  the  prosperity  of  New  England,  that  upon  the  receipt  of  the 
news  of  the  great  fire  in  London,  the  colonists  were  able  to  send  large 
sums  to  the  assistance  of  the  sufferers.  The  people  of  New  England 
were  industrious  and  frugal.  Villages  multiplied  rapidly,  and  wherever 
a  village  sprang  up  a  common  school  accompanied  it.  The  villages  began 
to  assume  a  more  tasteful  and  pleasing  appearance,  and  men  gave  more 
care  to  the  adornment  and  beautifying  of  their  homes.  A 

The  population  of  New  England  in  1675  has  been  estimated  at  about 
55,000  souls ;  divided  among  the  colonies  as  follows :  Plymouth,  about 
7000;  Connecticut,  about  14,000;  Massachusetts,  about  22,000 ;  Maine, 
about  4000 ;  New  Hampshire,  about  4000 ;  Rhode  Island,  about  4000. 
The  settlements  lay  principally  along  the  coast,  from  New  Haven  to  the 
northeastern  border  of  Maine.  Little  progress  had  been  made  towards 
penetrating  the  interior.  Haverhill,  Deerfield,  Northfield,  and  Westfield 
were  towns  on  the  remote  frontier.  This  rapid  growth  alarmed  the 
Indians,  who  had  already  begun  to  regard  the  whites  as  enemies  bent  on 
their  destruction.  Though  there  had  been  peace  for  forty  years  in  New 
England,  the  savages  saw  that  the  policy  pursued  by  the  settlers  was 
meant  to  force  them  back  from  the  lands  of  their  fathers.  The  whites 
had  gradually  absorbed  the  best  lands  in  New  England,  and  the  red  men 
had  been  as  gradually  crowded  down  upon  the  narrow  necks  and  bays  of 
the  southern  shores  of  the  Plymouth  and  Rhode  Island  colonies.  This 
had  been  done  in  pursuance  of  a  settled  policy,  as  the  savages  could  be 
more  carefully  watched,  and  more  easily  managed  in  these  localities  than 
if  left  to  roam  at  will  over  the  country.  The  Indians  on  their  part  sul- 
lenly resented  the  course  of  the  whites,  and  they  had  cause  for  complaint. 
They  were  ignorant  of  the  art  of  cultivating  the  soil,  and  unwilling  to 
practice  it,  and  in  their  restricted  limits  it  was  difficult  for  them  to  obtain 
the  means  of  supporting  life.  The  game  had  been  almost  entirely  driven 
from  the  forests,  and  the  savages  were  forced  to  depend  upon  fish  for 
their  food;  and  these  were  obtained  in  scanty  and  uncertain  quantities. 


204 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Thus  the  very  success  of  New  England  was  about  to  bring  upon  it  the 
most  serious  misfortunes  it  had  yet  sustained. 

Massasoit,  who  had  been  the  early  friend  of  the  English,  left  two 
sons  at  his  death,  Wamsutta  and  Mctacom,  who  had  long  been  reckoned 
among  the  friends  of  the  Plymouth  colony.  They  were  frequent  visitors 
at  Plymouth,  and  had  received  from  the  English  the  names  of  Alexander 
and  Philip.  At  the  death  of  Massasoit,  Wamsutta  or  Alexander  became 
chief  of  the  Warupanoags.  He  and  his  brother  Philip  were  men  of 
more  than  ordinary  abilities,  and  felt  deeply  the  wrongs  which  were  be- 
ginning to  fall  thickly  upon  their  race.  Uncas,  the  chief  of  the  Mohegans, 
the  determined  enemy  of  Wamsutta,  exerted  himself,  with  success,  to  fill 

the  minds  of  the  English  with  MIS- 
picions  of  the  intentions  of  the  Wa:n- 
panoag  chieftain,  and  it  was  resolved 
to  arrest  him  and  bring  him  to  Ply- 
mouth. "NVinslow  was  sent  at  the 
head  of  an  armed  force,  and  succeeded 
in  surprising  the  chief  in  his  hunting- 
lodge,  together  with  eighty  of  his  fol- 
lowers. The  proud  spirit  of  "Wam- 
sutta chafed  with  such  fury  at  the 
indignity  thus  put  upon  him  that  he 
was  seized  with  a  dangerous  fever, 
and  the  English  were  obliged  to  per- 
mit him  to  return  home.  "  He  died  on 
his  way,"  says  Elliott.  "He  was  car- 
ried home  on  the  shoulders  of  men,  and 
borne  to  his  silent  grave  near  Mount 

Hope,  in  the  evening  of  the  day,  and  in  the  prime  of  his  life,  between  lines 
of  sad, quick-minded  Indians,  who  well  believed  him  the  victim  of  injustice 
and  ingratitude ;  for  his  father  had  been  the  ally,  not  the  subject  of  Eng- 
land, and  so  was  he,  and  the  like  indignity  had  not  before  been  put  upon 
any  sachem." 

By  the  death  of  his  brother,  Metacom,  or  Philip,  became  chief  of  the 
Wampanoags.  He  kept  his  own  council,  but  the  whites  soon  had  cause 
to  believe  that  he  meditated  a  desperate  vengeance  upon  them  for  the 
death  of  Wamsutta  and  the  wrongs  of  his  race.  To  make  the  sense  of 
injury  deeper  in  his  mind  the  Plymouth  authorities  treated  him  with 
great  harshness,  and  compelled  him  to  give  up  his  arms.  A  "praying 
Indian"  who  lived  among  his  people  informed  the  colonists  that  the 
chief  meditated  harm  against  them,  and  his  dead  body  was  soon  af"ter 


KING    PHILIP. 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  205 

found.  Three  of  Philip's  men  were  suspected  of  the  murder.  They 
were  arrested,  tried  at  Plymouth,  and  found  guilty  by  a  jury  composed 
of  whites  and  Indians,  and  were  put  to  death.  This  was  early  in  1675. 

The  execution  of  these  men  awoke  a  wild  thirst  for  revenge  among  the 
tribe  to  which  they  belonged,  and  the  young  warriors  clamored  loudly 
for  war  against  the  English.  Philip,  whose  vigorous  mind  enabled  him 
to  judge  more  clearly  of  the  issue  of  such  a  struggle,  entered  into  the 
contest  with  reluctance,  for  he  saw  that  it  must  end  in  the  destruction  of 
his  race.  He  was  powerless  to  resist  the  universal  sentiment  of  his 
people,  and  like  a  true  hero  resolved  to  make  the  best  of  the  situation  in 
which  he  was  placed,  and  to  share  the  fate  of  his  nation.  The  Indians 
were  tolerably  well  provided  with  fire-arms,  for,  in  spite  of  the  severe 
punishments  denounced  against  the  sale  of  weapons  to  the  savages,  the 
colonists  had  not  been  proof  against  the  temptations  of  gain  held  out  to 
them  by  this  traffic.  Their  chief  dependence,  however,  was  upon  their 
primitive  weapons.  The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  were  well  armed, 
and  were  provided  with  forts  and  towns  which  furnished  them  with 
secure  places  of  refuge.  They  might  have  averted  the  war  by  conciliat- 
ing the  savages,  but  they  persisted  in  their  unjust  treatment  of  them, 
regarding  them  as  "  bloody  heathen,"  whom  it  was  their  duty  to  drive 
back  into  the  wilderness. 

Philip  was  able  to  bring  seven  hundred  desperate  warriors  into  the 
field.  They  had  no  hope  of  success;  and  they  fought  only  for  vengeance. 
They  knew  every  nook  and  hiding-place  of  the  forest,  and  in  these 
natural  defences  could  hope  to  continue  the  struggle  as  long  as  the  leaves 
remained  on  the  ^ees  to  conceal  their  lurking-places  from  the  white 
man's  search.  Immediately  after  the  execution  of  the  three  Indians  at 
Plymouth,  Philip's  men  had  begun  to  rob  exposed  houses  and  carry  off 
cattle,  but  the  war  did  not  actually  begin  until  the  24th  of  June,  1675, 
the  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  appointed  by  the  government  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  struggle.  On  that  day  the  people  of  Swanzey,  in  Plymouth 
colony,  while  returning  home  from  church,  were  attacked  by  the  Wam- 
pnnoags,  and  eight  or  nine  were  killed.  Philip  burst  into  tears  when 
the  news  of  this  attack  was  brought  to  him,  but  he  threw  himself  with 
tMiorjry  into  the  hopeless  struggle,  now  that  it  had  come. 

Reinforcements  were  sent  from  Massachusetts  to  the  aid  of  the 
Plymouth  colony,  and  on  the  29th  of  June  the  united  forces  made  an 
attack  upon  the  "VVarapanoags,  killed  six  or  seven  of  their  men  and  drove 
them  to  a  swamp  in  which  they  took  refuge.  The  English  surrounded 
this  swamp,  determined  to  starve  the  Indians  into  submission,  but  Philip 
and  his  warriors  escaped  and  took  refuge  among  the  Nipmucks,  a  small 


2Qg  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tribe  occupying  what  is  now  Worcester  county,  Masnacbusetts.  The 
English  then  marched  into  the  territory  of  the  Narragansetts  and  com- 
pelled them  to  agree  to  remain  neutral,  and  to  deliver  up  the  fugitive 
Indians  who  should  take  refuge  among  them.  This  accomplished,  the 
colonists  hoped  they  had  put  an  end  to  the  war. 

Philip  succeeded  in  inducing  the  Nipmucks  to  join  him  in  tht 
struggle,  and  his  warriors  began  to  hang  around  the  English  settlements. 
The  whites  were  murdered  wherever  they  ventured  to  expose  themselves, 
and  a  feeling  of  general  terror  spread  through  the  colonies.  No  one 
knew  the  extent  of  the  hostility  of  the  savage  tribes,  or  how  many  allies 
Philip  had  gained ;  nor  was  it  certain  when  or  where  the  next  great 
blow  of  the  savages  would  be  struck.  Sonic  of  the  colonists  began  to 
give  wav  to  superstitious  fears.  It  was  asserted  that  an  Indian  bow,  a 
sign  of  impending  evil,  had  been  seen  clearly  defined  against  the  heavens, 
and  that  at  the  eclipse  which  occurred  at  this  time  the  moon  bore  the 
figure  of  an  Indian  scalp  on  its  face.  The  northern  heavens  glowed  with 
auroral  lights  of  unusual  brilliancy;  troops  of  phantom  horsemen  were 
heard  to  dash  through  the  air;  the  sighing  of  the  night  wind  was  like 
the  sound  of  whistling  bullets;  and  the  howling  of  the  wolves  was  fiercer 
and  more  constant  than  usual.  These  things,  the  superstitious  declared, 
were  warnings  that  the  colonies  were  about  to  be  severely  punished  foi 
their  sins,  among  which  they  named  profane  swearing,  the  neglect  of 
bringing  up  their  children  in  more  rigid  observances,  the  licensing  of  ale 
houses,  and  the  wearing  of  long  hair  by  the  men  and  of  gay  apparel  by 
the  women.  The  more  extreme  even  declared  that  they  were  about  to  be 
"judged  "  for  not  exterminating  the  Quakers. 

In  the  meantime  Philip,  with  a  party  of  Nipmucks  and  his  own 
people,  carried  the  war  into  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  and  spread 
death  along  the  line  of  settlements  from  Springfield  to  Northfield,  then 
the  most  remote  inland  town.  "With  the  hope  of  withdrawing  the  Nip- 
mucks,  who  could  muster  fifteen  hundred  warriors,  from  the  confederacy, 
Captain  Hutchinson,  with  twenty  men,  was  sent  to  treat  with  them. 
His  party  was  ambushed  and  murdered  at  Brookfield  early  in  August. 
The  .Indians  then  attacked  Brookfield,  and  burned  the  village  with  the 
exception  of  one  strong  house  to  which  the  colonists  retreated.  After  a 
siege  of  two  days,  during  which  they  kept  up  a  constant  fire  upon  the 
building,  they  attempted  to  burn  the  house,  but  were  prevented  by  a 
shower  of  rain  which  extinguished  the  flames.  At  the  same  moment  a 
reinforcement  of  fifty  men  arrived  to  the  aid  of  the  whites,  and  the 
savages  were  driven  off  with  the  loss  of  several  of  their  number.  Philip 
succeeded  in  drawing  to  his  support  nearly  all  the  tribes  of  New  Eng- 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION. 


207 


.'.and,  and  it  was  resolved  by  the  savages  to  make  a  general  effort  for  the 
destruction  of  the  whites.  A  concerted  attack  was  to  be  made  upon  a 
la>*gc  r.uinbcr  of  settlements  at  the  same  day  and  hour,  and  the  Sabbath 
was  chosen  as  the  day  most  favorable  for  the  movement. 

Deerfield  in  Massachusetts  and  Hadley  in  Connecticut  were  among  the 
places  attacked.  The  former  was  burned.  Hadley  was  assailed  while 
the  congregation  were  worshipping  in  the  church,  and  the  whites  were 
hard  pressed  by  their  antagonists.  Suddenly  in  the  midst  of  the  battle 


ATTACK   UPON   BKOOKF1ELD  BY  THE  INDIANS. 

there  appeared  a  tall  and  venerable  man  with  a  flowing  beard,  and  clad 
in  a  strange  dress.  With  sword  in  hand  he  rallied  the  settlers,  and  lei; 
thsm  to  a  new  effort  in  which  the  savages  were  beaten  back  and  put  to 
flight.  When  the  battle  was  over,  the  stranger  could  not  be  found,  ami 
the  wondering  people  declared  that  he  was  an  angel  sent  by  God  for 
their  deliverance.  It  was  Goffe,  the  regicide,  who  had  suddenly  left  his 
place  of  concealment  to  aid  his  countrymen  in  their  struggle  with  the 
savages.  He  had  been  lying  in  concealment  at  the  house  of  Russell, 


208  HISTORY  OF  Til  1C   U SITED  STATES. 

the  minister  of  Hadley,  and  returned  to  his  place  of  refuge  when  the 
clanger  was  over. 

On  the  whole  the  Indians,  though  they  succeeded  in  causing  great 
puttering  to  the  colonies,  were  unsuccessful  in  their  efforts  during  the 
G-immer  and  autumn  of  1675.  In  October,  Philip  returned  to  his  old 
home,  but,  finding  Mount  Hope  in  ruins,  took  shelter  among  the  Narra- 
gansetts,  who  protected  him  notwithstanding  their  promise  to  deliver  up 
all  fugitives  to  the  English.  The  colonial  authorities  seeing  that  the 
tribe  had  no  intention  of  fulfilling  their  promise,  and  being  fearful  that 
Philip  would  succeed  in  winning  them  over  to  his  side,  resolved  to  an- 
ticipate the  danger  and  treat  them  as  enemies. 

A  force  was  collected  and  sent  into  the  Narragansett  country  in 
December,  1675.  This  tribe,  numbering  about  three  thousand  souls,  had 
erected  a  strong  fort  of  palisades  in  the  midst  of  a  swamp  near  the  pres- 
ent town  of  Kingston,  Khode  Island.  It  was  almost  inaccessible,  and 
had  but  a  single  entrance,  defended  by  a  morass,  which  could  be  passed 
only  by  means  of  a  fallen  tree.  The  English  were  led  to  the  fort  by  an 
Indian  traitor,  and  attacked  it  on  the  19th  of  December.  After  a  severe 
fight  of  two  hours  they  succeeded  in  forcing  an  entrance  into  the  fort. 
The  wigwams  were  then  fired,  and  the  whole  place  was  soon  in  flames. 
The  defeat  of  the  savages  was  complete,  but  it  was  purchased  by  the  loss 
of  six  captains  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  killed  and  wounded  on 
the  part  of  the  English.  About  one  thousand  of  the  Narragansetts  were 
slain,  their  provisions  were  destroyed  and  numbers  were  made  prisoners, 
Those  who  escaped  wandered  through  the  frozen  woods  without  shelter, 
and  for  food  were  compelled  to  dig  for  nuts  and  acorns  under  the  snow. 
Many  died  during  the  winter.  Canonchet,  the  Narragansett  chief,  was 
among  the  survivors.  "We  will  fight  to  the  last  man  rather  than 
become  servants  to  the  English,"  said  the  undaunted  chieftain.  He  was 
taken  prisoner  in  April,  1676,  near  Blackstone,  and  was  offered  his  life 
if  he  would  induce  the  Indians  to  make  peace.  He  refused  the  offer 
with  scorn,  and,  when  sentenced  to  death,  answered  proudly  :  "  I  like  it 
well :  I  shall  die  before  I  speak  anything  unworthy  of  myself." 

In  the  spring  of  1676,  Philip,  who  had  been  to  the  west  to  endeavor 
to  induce  the  Mohawks  to  join  the  war  against  the  English,  returne  1  to 
olace  himself  at  the  head  of  his  countrymen  in  New  England.  The 
work  of  murdering  and  burning  was  resumed  with  renewed  fury.  The 
Indians  seemed  to  be  everywhere  and  innumerable,  and  the  whites  could 
find  safety  only  in  their  forts.  The  surviving  Narragansetts  scourged 
the  Rhode  Island  and  Plymouth  colonies  with  fire  and  axe,  and  even  the 
aged  Roger  Williams  was  obliged  to  take  up  arms  for  the  defence  of  his 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  209 

home.  Lancaster,  Medford,  Weymouth,  Groton,  Springfield,  Sudbury 
and  Marlborough,  in  Massachusetts,  and  Providence  and  Warwick,  in 
Rhode  Island,  were  destroyed  either  wholly  or  in  part,  and  numerous 
other  .settlements  were  attacked  and  made  to  suffer  more  or  less 
severely. 

As  the  season  advanced  the  cause  of  the  Indians  became  more  hopeless, 
und  they  began  to  quarrel  among  themselves.  In  June  the  Nipmucks 
submitted,  and  the  tribes  on  the  Connecticut  refused  to  shelter  Philip  any 
longer.  He  then  appealed  to  the  Mohawks  to  take  up  the  hatchet,  but 
seeing  that  his  cause  was  hopeless,  they  refused  to  join  him.  In  proud 
despair  Philip  went  back  to  Mount  Hope  to  die.  One  of  his  people 
urged  him  to  make  peafce  with  the  whites,  and  was  struck  dead  by  the 
hand  of  the  chief  for  daring  to  mention  such  a  humiliation.  It  became 
known  that  Philip  had  returned  to  his  old  home,  and  Captain  Church 
marched  against  him,  dispersed  his  followers,  and  took  the  chief's  wife 
and  little  son  prisoners.  Philip,  who  had  borne  the  reverses  and  the 
reproaches  of  his  nation  with  the  firmness  of  a  hero,  was  conquered  by 
this  misfortune.  "  My  heart  breaks,"  he  cried,  despairingly,  "I  am  ready 
to  die."  He  was  soon  attacked  by  Church  in  his  place  of  concealment, 
and  in  attempting  to  escape  was  shot  by  an  Indian  who  was  serving  ir. 
the  ranks  of  his  enemies.  Philip's  little  son  was  sold  as  a  slave  in  Ber- 
muda, and  the  grandson  of  Massasoit,  who  had  welcomed  and  befriended 
the  English,  was  condemned  to  pass  his  days  in  bondage  in  a  foreign 
clime. 

The  death  of  Philip  was  soon  followed  by  the  close  of  hostilities. 
The  power  of  the  Indians  was  completely  broken.  Of  the  Narnigansetts 
scarcely  one  hundred  men  were  left  alive,  and  the  other  tribes  had 
suffered  severely.  The  Mohegans  had  remained  faithful  to  the  English, 
and  Connecticut  had  been  happily  spared  the  sufferings  experienced  by 
the  other  colonies,  which  were  very  severe.  Twelve  or  thirteen  towns  were 
destroyed,  and  many  others  were  seriously  crippled.  Six  hundred  houses 
were  burned,  and  the  pecuniary  losses  amounted  to  the  then  enormous  sum 
of  half  a  million  of  dollars.  Over  six  hundred  men,  chiefly  young  men, 
fell  in  the  war,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  family  which  did  not  mourn 
eome  loved  one  who  had  given  his  life  for  the  country. 

In  all  their  distress  the  colonies  received  no  aid  from  England.  The- 
mother  country  left  them  to  fight  out  their  ''truggle  of  life  and  death 
Alone.  The  English  people  and  government  were  indifferent  to  their  fate. 
One  generous  Non-conformist  church  in  Dublin  sent  a  contribution  of 
five  hundred  pounds  to  the  sufferers.  This  relief  was  gratefully  acknowl- 
edged ;  but  to  the  credit  of  New  England  it  .should  be  remembered  that 
14 


210  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

her  colonies  never  asked  assistance  from  England.  The  king  was  very 
careful,  however,  to  exact  every  penny  he  could  wring  from  the  colonies, 
and  towards  the  close  of  the  Indian  war  established  a  royal  custom-house 
at  Boston  for  the  collection  of  duties.  Duties  were  imposed  upon  the 
commerce  of  the  colonies,  and  the  royal  government  endeavored  to  enforce 
their  payment  by  threatening  to  refuse  the  New  England  ships  the  pro- 
tection  which  enabled  them  to  escape  the  outrages  of  the  African  pirate* 
of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  province  of  Maine  had  been  restored  by  Charles  II.  to  the  heirs 
of  Sir  Ferdinand  Gorges,  and  in  1677  Massachusetts  purchased  their 
claims  for  the  sum  of  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and  thus  con- 
firmed her  possession  of  the  region  between  the  Piscataqua  and  the  Kenne- 
bec.  The  region  between  the  Kennebec  and  the  Penobscot  was  held  by 
the  Duke  of  York,  and  that  from  the  Penobscot  to  the  St.  Croix  was 
occupied  by  the  French. 

In  July,  1679,  King  Charles  detached  New  Hampshire  from  Massa- 
chusetts, and  organized  it  as  a 
royal  province ;  the  first  ever 
erected  in  New  England.  The 
province  at  once  asserted  its  rights, 
and  a  controversy  was  begun  with 
the  crown,  which  was  continued 
for  several  years.  The  people  re- 
sisted the  effort  to  force  upon  them 
the  observances  of  the  English  Church,  and  the  collection  of  taxes 
assessed  by  the  royal  officials,  and  Cranfield,  the  royal  governor,  finding 
it  impossible  to  continue  his  arbitrary  rule,  wrote  to  the  British  govern- 
ment, "  I  shall  esteem  it  the  greatest  happiness  in  the  world  to  remove 
from  these  unreasonable  people.  They  cavil  at  the  royal  commission,  and 
not  at  my  person.  No  one  will  be  accepted  by  them  who  puts  the  king's 
commands  in  execution." 

In  the  last  years  of  his  reign  Charles  II.  made  a  determined  effort  to 
destroy  the  charter  of  Massachusetts.  Commissioners  were  sent  by  the 
colony  to  England  to  endeavor  to  defend  its  rights,  but  the  royal  govern- 
ment was  resolved  upon  its  course,  and  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were 
equally  determined  not  to  consent  to  the  surrender  of  their  liberties.  Ai 
length,  in  1684,  the  general  court  having  in  the  name  of  the  people 
distinctly  refused  to  make  a  surrender  of  the  charter  to  the  king,  the 
English  courts  declared  the  charter  forfeited.  A  copy  of  the  judgment 
ivas  sent  to  Boston,  and  was  received  there  on  the  2d  of  July,  168o. 
The  colony  was  full  of  apprehension.  The  charter  under  which  it  had 


COAT  OF  ARMS  OF   NEW   HAMPSHIRE. 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION,  211 

grown  and  prospered,  and  which  secured  its  liberties  to  it  without  the 
interference  of  the  crown,  had  been  stricken  down  by  the  subservient 
courts  of  the  mother  country,  and  there  was  now  no  defence  between  the 
liberties  of  Massachusetts  and  the  arbitrary  will  of  the  king,  who  had 
njiven  the  colony  good  cause  to  fear  his  hostility. 

James  II.  came  to  the  English  throne  in  1685.  He  was  even  more 
hostile  to  New  England  than  his  brother  Charles.  He  was  a  bigoted 
Roman  Catholic,  and  was  resolved  to  introduce  that  faith,  not  only  into 
ling-land,  but  also  into  the  colonies.  He  attempted  to  accomplish  this 
by  proclaiming  an  indulgence  or  toleration  of  all  creeds.  As  he  dared 
not  proceed  openly  to  violate  his  coronation  oath  he  hoped  by  this  under- 
handed scheme  to  place  his  own  religion  upon  such  a  footing  in  England 
that  he  would  soon  be  in  a  position  to  compel  its  adoption  by  his  sub- 
jects. He  had  greatly  mistaken  the  temper  of  both  England  and 
America. 

Joseph  Dudley,  who  had  been  sent  to  England  as  one  of  the  agents  of 
Massachusetts  in  the  last  controversy  between  the  colony  and  King 
Charles,  now  found  it  to  his  interest  to  become  as  ardent  a  defender,  as 
he  had  formerly  been  an  opponent,  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  James 
finding  him  a  willing  abetter  of  his  designs,  appointed  him  president  of 
Massachusetts  until  a  royal  governor  should  arrive,  for  the  king  was 
resolved  to  take  away  the  charters  of  all  the  colonies  and  make  them 
royal  provinces.  At  the  same  time,  being  determined  to  curtail  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  the  king  appointed  Edward  Randolph  its  censor. 
Dudley  was  regarded  by  the  people  as  the  betrayer  of  the  liberties  of  his 
country,  and  both  he  and  Randolph  were  cordially  despised  by  them. 
The  king  in  appointing  Dudley  made  no  provision  for  an  assembly  or 
general  court,  as  he  meant  to  govern  the  colonies  without  reference  to  the 
people.  He  regarded  the  American  provinces  as  so  many  possessions  of 
the  crown,  possessed  of  no  rights,  and  entitled  to  no  privileges  save  what 
he  chose  to  allow  them. 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  whom  the  king  had 
appointed  governor  of  New  York,  was  made  governor-general  of  all  New 
England.  He  reached  Boston  in  December,  1686.  Dudley  was  made 
chief  justice,  and  Randolph,  colonial  secretary.  The  governor-general 
was  empowered  by  the  king  to  appoint  his  own  council,  impose  such 
taxes  as  he  should  think  fit,  command  the  militia  of  the  colonies,  enforce 
the  navigation  acts,  prohibit  printing,  and  establish  episcopacy  in  New 
England;  and  in  order  to  enable  him  to  enforce  his  will  two  companies 
of  soldiers  were  sent  over  with  him,  and  quartered  in  Boston.  Thus 
were  the  liberties  of  New  England  placed  at  the  mercy  of  a  tyrant,  and 


212 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


thus  was  inaugurated  a  despotism  the  most  galling  that  was  ever  imposed 
ujx)n  men  of  Englisl   descent. 

Andros  promptly  put  in  force  a  series  of  the  most  arbitrary  measures. 
The  public  schools,  which  had  been  fostered  with  such  care  by  the 
colonial  governments,  were  allowed  to  fall  into  decay.  The  support 
which  had  been  granted  to  the  churches  was  withdrawn.  The  people 
were  forbidden  to  assemble  for  the  discussion  of  any  public  matter, 
though  they  were  allowed  the  poor  privilege  of  electing  their  town  offi- 
cers. The  form  of  oath  in  use  in  New  England  was  an  appeal  to  heaven 
with  uplifted  hand.  The  governor  now  ordered  the  substitution  of  a 
form  which  required  the  person  to  place  his  hand  on  the  Bible.  This  was 
particularly  repugnant  to  the  Puritans,  who  regarded  it  as  "  Popish  prac- 
tice." Probate  fees  were  increased  twenty-fold.  The  holders  of  lands 
were  told  that  their  titles  were  invalid  because  obtained  under  a  charter 

which  had  been  de- 
clared forfeited.  No 
person  was  allowed  to 
leave  the  colony  with- 
out a  pass  signed  by 
the  governor.  The 
Puritan  magistrates 
and  ministers  were  re- 
fused authority  to  unite 
persons  in  marriage. 
The  clergyman  of  the 
Church  of  England, 
stationed  at  Boston, 
was  the  only  person  in 
New  England  who 
could  perform  a  legal  marriage.  Episcopacy  was  formally  established, 
and  the  people  were  required  to  build  a  church  for  its  uses.  At  the 
command  of  the  king  a  tax  of  a  penny  in  the  pound,  and  a  poll-tax  of 
twenty  pence,  was  imposed  upon  every  person  in  the  colony  without 
regard  to  his  means,  rich  and  poor  being  taxed  alike.  Some  of  the  towns 
had  the  boldness  to  refuse  to  pay  this  tax,  and  John  Wise,  the  minister 
of  Ipswich,  advised  his  fellow-townsmen  to  resist  it.  He  and  a  number 
of  others  were  arrested  and  fined.  When  they  pleaded  their  privileges 
under  the  laws  of  England,  they  were  told  by  one  of  the  council :  "  You 
have  no  privilege  left  you  but  not  to  be  sold  as  slaves."  "Do  you 
think,"  asked  one  of  the  judges,  "that  the  laws  of  England  follow  you 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  ?  "  The  iniquitous  exactions  of  Audros  and  his 


WADSWORTH   HIDING  THE   CHARTER. 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION. 


213 


associates  threatened  the  country  with  ruin.  When  the  magistrates  men- 
tioned this,  they  were  told,  "  It  is  not  for  his  majesty's  interest  you 
should  thrive."  "  The  governor  invaded  liberty  and  property  after  such 
a  manner,"  wrote  Increase  Mather,  "  as  no  man  could  say  anything  was 
his  own." 

The  other  colonies  came  in  for  their  share  of  bad  treatment.  Soon 
after  he  reached  Boston,  Andros  demanded  of  the  authorities  of  Rhode 
Island  the  surrender  of  their  charter.  Governor  Clarke  declined  to 
comply  with  this  demand,  and  Andros  went  to  Providence,  broke  the  seal 
of  the  colony,  and  declared  its  government  dissolved.  He  appointed  a 
commission  irresponsible  to  the  people  for  the  government  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  then  had  the  effrontery  to  declare  that  the  people  of  that 
colony  were  satisfied  with  what  he  had  done. 

In  October  Andros  went  to  Connecticut  with  an  armed  guard  t<5  take 
possession  of  the  government  of 
that  colony.  He  reached  Hart- 
ford on  the  31st  of  the  month, 
and  found  the  legislature  in  ses- 
sion, and  demanded  of  that  body 
the  surrender  of  the  charter. 
The  discussion  was  prolonged 
until  evening,  and  then  candles 
were  brought,  and  the  charter 
was  placed  on  the  table.  Sud- 
denly the  lights  were  extin- 
guished, and  when  they  were 
re-lighted  the  charter  could  not 
be  found.  It  had  been  secured  by  Joseph  Wadsworth  of  Hartford,  and 
carried  to  the  southern  part  of  the  city,  where  it  was  concealed  in  a  hol- 
low oak  tree,  which  was  afterwards  known  as  the  "Charter  Oak." 
Andros,  furious  at  the  disappearance  of  the  charter,  was  not  to  be  balked 
in  his  purpose  of  seizing  the  colonial  government,  and  taking  the  record 
book  of  tKe  assembly,  he  wrote  the  word  "Finis  "  at  the  end  of  the  last 
day's  proceedings.  He  then  declared  the  colonial  government  at  an  end> 
and  proceeded  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  province  in  the  spirit  in 
which  he  had  governed  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island. 

The  people  of  New  England  had  borne  these  outrages  with  a  pafience 
which  no  one  had  expected  of  them.  They  were  a  law-abiding  people, 
and  wished  to  exhaust  all  legal  means  of  redress  before  proceeding  to 
extreme  measures  for  their  protection  ;  but  the  party  in  favor  of  driving 
Andros  and  his  fellow-plunderers  out  of  the  country  was  rapidly  growing 


THE   CHARTER   OAK. 


214  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

stronger,  and  it  was  not  certain  how  much  longer  the  policy  of  forbearance 
would  be  continued.  Increase  Mather  was  appointed  to  go  to  England  and 
endeavor  to  procure  a  redress  of  the  grievances  of  the  colonies.  It  was  a 
dangerous  mission,  for  the  king  was  in  full  sympathy  with  tho  men  whom 
he  had  placed  over  the  liberties  of  New  England.  It  was  also  difficult 
to  leave  America  without  the  knowledge  of  Andros  and  his  colleagues, 
but  Mather  succeeded  in  escaping  their  vigilance,  and  was  on  his  way  to 
the  old  world  when  relief  arrived  from  a  most  unexpected  quarter. 

The  efforts  of  James  to  bring  about  the  re-establishment  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion  in  England  roused  the  whole  English  nation  against 
him,  and  in  1689  the  nation  invited  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  the  hus- 
band of  James'  eldest  daughter,  Mary,  to  come  over  to  England  and 
assume  the  throne.  James,  left  without  any  adherents,  fled  to  France, 
and  William  and  Mary  were  securely  seated  upon  the  throne. 

The  news  of  the  landing  of  William  in  England  and  the  flight  of 
King  James  reached  Boston  on  the  4th  of  April,  1689.  The  messenger 
was  at  once  imprisoned  by  Andros,  but  his  tidings  soon  became  known 
to  the  sitizens.  On  the  morning  of  the  18th  the  people  of  Boston  took 
up  arms,  and  having  secured  the  person  of  the  commander  of  uie  royal 
frigate  in  the  harbor,  seized  the  royalist  sheriff.  The  militia  were  assem- 
bled, and  Andros  and  his  companions  were  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the 
fort.  Simon  Bradstreet,  the  governor  who  had  held  office  at  the  time  of 
the  abrogation  of  the  charter,  was  called  upon  by  the  people  to  resume 
his  post,  and  the  old  magistrates  were  reinstated  and  organized  as  a 
council  of  safety.  Andros  and  his  creatures  attempted  to  escape  to  the 
frigate,  but  were  prevented  and  were  compelled  to  surrender.  The  next 
day  reinforcements  came  pouring  into  Boston  from  the  other  settlements, 
and  the  fort  was  taken  and  the  frigate  mastered.  Town  meetings  were 
now  held  throughout  the  colony,  and  it  was  voted  to  resume  the  formei 
charter.  The  people  were  almost  unanimous  in  favor  of  this  course,  but 
the  counsels  of  a  more  timid  minority  prevailed,  and  the  council,  which 
had  appointed  itself  to  the  control  of  affairs,  decided  to  solicit  a  new 
charter  from  William  and  Mary.  A  general  court  was  convened  on  the 
22d  of  May.  The  people  of  the  colony  were  anxious  that  Andros, 
Dudley,  and  Randolph  should  receive  prompt  punishment  for  their 
offences,  but  the  authorities  wisely  determined  to  send  them  to  England 
for  trlfcl. 

Plymouth,  upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  from  Boston,  seized  the  agent 
of  Andros,  imprisoned  him,  and  re-established  the  government  whicb 
Andros  had  overthrown,  under  the  constitution  signed  on  board  the 
"Mayflower."  There  were  none  of  the  old  Pilgrim  fathers  Jiving  t<i 


NEW  ENGLAND  AFTE+i  THE  RESTORATION.  215 

witness  this  event,  but  their  children  were  none  the  less  determined  to 
maintain  unimpaired  the  liberties  they  had  inherited  from  them. 

Rhode  Island  promptly  resumed  her  charter  and  reinstated  the  officers 
whom  Andros  had  displaced.  Connecticut,  upon  hearing  of  the  downfall 
of  the  governor-general,  brought  out  her  charter  from  its  hiding-place, 
and  restored  the  old  officers  to  their  positions. 

Thus  the  work  of  James  II.  was  overthrown,  r.nd  the  destinies  of  New 
England  were  once  more  in  the  hands  of  her  o\vn  people.  The  genera- 
tion that  had  settled  New  England  had  nearly  all  been  gathered  to  their 
rest,  and  their  children  wrere  in  somo  rtjepeets  different  from  the  fathers. 
They  had  learned  lessons  of  toleratlor^  and  had  acquired  many  of  the 
refining  graces  that  the  elder  Puritans  regarded  as  mere  vaiiity.  They 
retained,  however,  the  earnest  aud  lofty  virtues  which  had  made  the  first 
generation  superior  to  hardships  and  trials  of  all  kinds,  and  which  had 
enabled  them  in  the  face  of  every  discouragement  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  the  great  commonwealths  which  to-day  cherish  their  memories  as  their 
most  precious  legacies.  The  fathers  of  New  England  richly  merited  the 
honor  which  succeeding  generations  have  delighted  to  bestow  upon  their 
memories.  However  they  may  have  erred,  they  were  men  who  earnestly 
sought  to  do  right  in  all  things,  and  who  did  their  duty  fearlessly  accord- 
ing to  the  light  before  them. 

In  the  first  generation  we  have  noticed  an  extraordinary  degree  of 
influence  exerted  by  the  ministers.  This  was  due  to  no  desire  of  the 
Puritans  to  connect  church  and  state,  but  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
ministers  represented  the  best  educated  and  most  intellectual  class  of 
that  day,  and  the  people  regarded  them  as  the  best  qualified  guides  in 
the  community.  As  New  England  advanced  in  prosperity  her  schools 
and  colleges  were  able  to  turn  out  numbers  of  educated  men,  who 
embraced  the  other  learned  professions,  and  divided  the  influence  with 
the  ministers.  New  England  always  chose  its  leaders  from  among  its 
most  intelligent  men,  and  its  people  always  yielded  a  willing  homage  to 
the  claims  of  intellect. 

At  the  downfall  of  Andros  there  were  about  two  hundred  thousand 
white  inhabitants  in  the  English  colonies  of  North  America.  Of  these, 
Massachusetts,  including-  Plymouth  and  Mnine,  had  about  forty-four 
thousand  ;  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island  about  six  thousand  each  ; 
Connecticut  about  twenty  thousand ;  making  the  total  population  of  New 
England  about  seventy-six  thousand. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

WITCHCRAFT   IN    MASSACHUSETTS. 

Results  of  the  Failure  of  Massachusetts  to  Resume  her  Charter — The  New  Charter — Loss 
of  the  Liberties  of  the  Colony — Union  of  Plymouth  with  Massachusetts  Bay — Belief  in 
Witchcraft — The  History  of  Witchcraft  in  Massachusetts — The  Case  of  the  Goodwin 
Children — Cotton  Mather  espouses  the  Cause  of  the  Witches — Samuel  Parris — He 
Originates  the  Salem  Delusion — A  Strange  History — A  Special  Court  Appointed  for  the 
Trial  of  the  Witches — The  Victims — Execution  ot  the  Rev.  George  Burroughs — Cotton 
Mather's  Part  in  the  Tragedies — The  General  Court  takes  Action  in  behalf  of  the 
People — End  of  the  Persecution — Failure  of  Cotton  Mather's  Attempt  to  Save  his  Credit. 

HE  decision  of  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  to  disregard  the 
wishes  of  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  colony,  who  desired  an 
immediate  restoration  of  the  government  under  the  old  charter, 
and  to  wait  for  a  new  charter  from  William  and  Mary,  gave 
great  offence  to  the  popular  party.  Had  the  wish  of  this  party 
been  promptly  complied  with,  Massachusetts  might  have  recovered  every 
liberty  and  privilege  of  which  she  had  been  deprived  by  King  James. 
Increase  Mather  distinctly  declares  that  "  had  they  at  that  time  entered 
upon  the  full  exercise  of  their  charter  government,  as  their  undoubted 
right,  wise  men  in  England  were  of  opinion  that  they  might  have  gone 
on  without  disturbance."  The  self-constituted  government  hesitated, 
however,  and  the  opportunity  was  lost.  ' 

When  the  convention  of  the  people  met,  in  May,  1689,  they  refused  to 
acknowledge  the  council  that  had  taken  charge  of  affairs  upon  the  down- 
fall of  Andros,  and  demanded  that  the  governor,  deputy  governor,  and 
assistants  elected  in  1686  should  be  restored  to  office.  The  council 
refused  to  comply  with  this  demand,  and  the  matter  was  referred  to  the 
people,  who  sustained  their  representatives.  A  compromise  was  effected, 
and  the  council  agreed  to  permit  the  officers  of  1686  to  resume  their 
places  until  instructions  could  be  received  from  England.  Agents  were 
sent  to  England  to  solicit  a  restoration  of  the  charter,  and  their  appeal 
was  supported  by  the  English  Presbyterians  with  great  unanimity. 
Even  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  urged  the  king  "  not  to  take  away 
from  the  people  of  New  England  any  of  the  privileges  which  Charles  I. 
had  granted  them." 


WITCHCRAFT  IN  MASSACIIUSET'1'3.  217 

In  spite  of  the  pressure  exerted  upon  him  in  behalf  of  the  colony, 
King  William  granted  to  Massachusetts  a  charter  \vhich  placed  the 
liberties  of  the  province  so  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  crown  that  the 
colonial  agent  refused  to  accept  it.  There  was  no  help  for  it,  however, 
jind  the  charter  became  the  fundamental  law  of  Massachusetts.  Under 
the  old  charter  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  had  been  elected  annual  ly 
by  the  votes  of  the  freemen ;  he  was  now  to  be  appointed  by  the  king 
and  to  serve  during  the  royal  pleasure.  He  was  given  power  to  summon 
the  general  court,  and  to  adjourn  or  dissolve  that  body.  The  election  of 
magistrates  of  all  kinds,  which  had  been  confided  to  the  people  by  the 
old  charter,  was  taken  from  them,  and  henceforth  these  officials  were  to 
be  appointed  by  the  governor  with  the  consent -of  the  council.  The  old 
charter  had  made  the  decision  of  the  colonial  courts  final ;  the  new  per- 
mitted appeals  from  these  tribunals  to  the  privy  council  in  England. 
The  old  charter  had  given  to  the  general  court  full  powers  of  legislation  ; 
the  new  conferred  upon  the  governor  ;the  right  to  veto  any  of  its  measures, 
and  reserved  to  the  crown  the  power  of  cancelling  any  act  of  colonial 
legislation  within  three  years  after  its  passage.  The  council  was  at  first 
appointed  by  the  king,  but  was  subsequently  elected  by  the  joint  ballot 
of  the  two  branches  of  the  general  court. 

To  compensate  the  people  for  the  loss  of  their  political  power  the  king 
greatly  enlarged  the  limits  of  the  colony.  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
were  united  in  one  province,  the  name  of  the  former  being  given  to  the 
whole.  The  Elizabeth  islands  were  also  added  to  the  province,  and  its 
northern  boundary  was  extended  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  Toleration  was 
granted  to  every  religious  sect  except  the  Roman  Catholics.  New 
Hampshire  was  separated  from  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts  and 
made  a  separate  province ;  but  Maine  and  the  vast  wilderness  beyond  it 
were  confirmed  to  the  Bay  colony.  The  charter  bore  the  date  of  October 
7th,  1691.  Upon  the  nomination  of  Increase  Mather,  one  of  the 
colonial  agents,  Sir  William  Phipps,  a  native  of  New  England,  a  well- 
meaning  but  incompetent  man,  who  was  in  religious  matters  strongly 
inclined  to  superstition,  was  appointed  governor  of  Massachusetts. 
William  Stoughton,  "  a  man  of  cold  affections,  proud,  self-willed,  and 
covetous  of  distinction" — a  man  universally  hated  by  the  people — was 
appointed  deputy  governor  to  please  Cotton  Mather.  The  members  of 
the  council  were  chosen  entirely  for  their  devotion  "  to  the  interests  of  the 
churches." 

While  these  matters  were  in  progress  of  settlement,  there  occurred  in 
Massachusetts  one  of  the  most  singular  delusions  recorded  in  history,  and 
which  was  in  some  respects  the  last  expiring  effort  of  ecclesiastical  am- 


HISTORY  OF  THE   V SITED  STATES. 

bitiou  to  control  the  political  affairs  of  the  colony.  The  clergy  liad 
ulwnvs  sought  in  >Vw  England,  as  in  other  lands,  to  fight  their  political 
enemies  with  sj>irituul  weapons.  They  now  carried  this  to  an  extreme 
which  taught  the  people  of  New  England  a  lesson  that  was  not  soon 
forgotten. 

The  belief  in  witchcraft  has  not  been  confined  to  any  single  nation, 
and  at  this  time  was  common  to  America  and  Europe.  "The  people  did 
not  rally  to  the  error ;  they  accepted  the  superstition  only  because  it  had 
not  yet  been  disengaged  from  religion."  It  was  believed  that  as 
Christians  were  united  with  God  by  a  solemn  covenant,  so  were  witches 
leagued  with  the  devil  by  a  tie  which,  once  formed,  they  could  not  dis- 
solve. Those  who  thus  placed  themselves  in  the  archfiend's  power  were 
used  by  him  as  instruments  to  torment  their  fellow-men.  They  were 
given  power  to  annoy  them  by  pinching  them,  thrusting  invisible  pins 
into  them,  pulling  their  hair,  afflicting  them  with  disease,  killing  their 
cattle  and  chickens  with  mysterious  ailments,  upsetting  their  wagons  and 
carts;  and  by  practising  upon  them  many  other  puerile  and  ludicrous 
tricks.  The  witches  generally  exerted  their  arts  upon  those  whom  they 
hated,  but  it  was  a  matter  of  doubt  how  many  persons  were  included  in 
their  dislikes.  One  of  the  most  popular  superstitions  was  that  of  the 
"  Witches'  sacrament,"  a  gathering  at  which  the  devil,  in  the  form  of 
"a  small  black  man,"  presided,  and  required  his  followers  to  renounce 
their  Christian  baptism  and  to  sign  their  names  in  his  book.  They 
were  then  re-baptized  by  the  devil,  and  the  meeting  was  closed  with 
horrid  rites  which  varied  in  different  narratives  according  to  the  imagin- 
ation of  the  relators. 

The  belief  in  the  existence  of  witchcraft  was  held  by  some  of  the 
leading  minds  of  this  period.  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  Lord  Chief  Justice  of 
England,  was  firmly  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  and  it  was 
advocated  by  many  of  the  clergy  in  England.  In  New  England  the 
clergy  held  it  to  be  heresy  to  deny  the  existence  of  witches,  which  they 
claimed  was  clearly  taught  in  the  Scriptures.  It  was  evidently  to  their 
interest  to  maintain  this  belief,  as  it  made  them  the  chief  authorities  in 
such  cases,  and  furnished  them  with  a  powerful  weapon  against  their 
adversaries. 

By  the  early  settlers  of  New  England  the  Indians  were  supposed  tc 
be  worshippers  of  thft  devil,  and  their  medicine-men  to  be  wizards. 
Governor  Hutchinson,  in  his  "History  of  Massachusetts,"  thus  sums  up 
the  casts  of  supposed  witchcraft  that  had  occurred  in  the  colony  previous 
to  the  time  of  which  we  are  now  writing : 

"  The  first  suspicion  of  witchcraft  among  the  English  was  about  the 


WITCHCRAFT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  219 

year  1645,  at  Springfield,  upon  Connecticut  river;  several  persons  wert 
supposed  to  bo  under  an  evil  hand,  and  among  the  rest  two  of  tiif 
minister's  children.  Great  pains  were  taken  to  prove  the.  facts  upon 
several  of  the  persons  charged  with  the  crime,  bat  either  the  nature  of 
;he  evidence  was  not  satisfactory,  or  the  fraud  was  suspected,  and  so  nc 
person  was  convicted  until  the  year  1650,  when  a  poor  wretch,  Mary 
Oliver,  probably  weary  of  her  life  from  the  general  reputation  of  being 
a  witch,  after  long  examination,  was  brought  to  confession  of  her  guilt, 
but  I  do  not  find  that  she  was  executed.  Whilst  this  inquiry  was 
making,  Margaret  Jones  was  executed  at  Charlcstown ;  and  Mr.  Hale 
mentions  a  woman  at  Dorchester,  and  another  at  Cambridge  about  t!.e 
same  time,  who  all  at  their  death  asserted  their  innocence.  Soon  alter, 
Hugh  Parsons  was  tried  at  Springfield,  and  escaped  death.  In  1655 
Mrs.  Hibbins,  the  assistant's  widow,  was  hanged  at  Boston.  In  1662,  at 
Hartford  in  Connecticut,  one  Ann  Cole,  a  young  woman  who  lived  next 
door  to  a  Dutch  family,  and  no  doubt  had  learned  something  of  tile 
language,  was  supposed  to  be  possessed  with  demons,  who  sometimes 
spoke  Dutch  and  sometimes  English,  and  sometimes  a  language  which 
nobody  understood,  and  who  held  a  conference  with  one  another. 
Several  ministers  who  were  present  took  down  the  conference  in  writing 
and  the  names  of  several  persons,  mentioned  in  the  course  of  the  con- 
ference, as  actors  or  bearing  parts  in  it;  particularly  a  woman,  then  in 
prison  upon  suspicion  of  witchcraft,  one  Greensmith,  who  upon  examin- 
ation confessed  and  appeared  to  be  surprised  at  the  discovery.  She 
owned  that  she  and  the  others  named  had  been  familiar  with  a  demon, 
who  had  carnal  knowledge  of  her,  and  although  she  had  not  made  a 
formal  covenant,  yet  she  had  promised  to  be  ready  at  his  call,  and  was  to 
have  had  a  high  frolic  at  Christmas,  when  the  agreement  was  to  have 
been  signed.  Upon  this  confession  she  was  executed,  and  two  more  of 
the  company  were  condemned  at  the  same  time.  In  1669  Susanna 
Martin,  of  Salisbury,  was  bound  over  to  the  court  upon  suspicion  of 
witchcraft,  but  escaped  at  that  time. 

"In  1671  Elizabeth  Knap,  another  ventriloqua,  alarmed  the  people  :>f 
Groton  in  much  the  same  manner  as  Ann  Cole  had  done  those  of  Hai\, 
ford;  but  her  demon  was  not  so  cunning,  for,  instead  of  confining  himself 
to  old  women,  he  railed  at  the  good  minister  of  the  town  and  other 
"people  of  good  character,  and  the  people  could  not  then  be  prevailed  on 
to  believe  him,  but  believed  the  girl  when  she  confessed  that  she  had 
been  deluded,  and  that  the  devil  had  tormented  her  in  the  shape  of 
good  persons;  so  she  escaped  the  punishment  due  to  her  fraud  an, 
imposture. 


220  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATL'S. 

"  In  1673  Eunice  Cole  of  Hampton  was  tried,  and  the  jury  found  her 
not  legally  guilty,  but  that  there  were  strong  grounds  to  suspect  her  of 
familiarity  with  the  devil. 

"In  1679  William  Morse's  house,  at  Newbury,  was  troubled  with  the 
throwing  of  bricks,  stones,  etc.,  and  a  boy  of  the  family  was  supposed  tc 
be  bewitched,  who  accused  one  of  the  neighbors;  and  in  1682  the  house 
of  George  Walton,  a  Quaker,  at  Portsmouth,  and  another  house  at 
Salmon  Falls  (both  in  New  Hampshire),  were  attacked  after  the  same 
manner. 

"  In  1683  the  demons  removed  to  Connecticut  river  again,  where  one 
Desborough's  house  was  molested  by  an  invisible  hand,  and  a  fire 
kindled,  nobody  knew  how,  which  burnt  up  a  great  part  of  his  estate ; 
and  in  1684  Philip  Smith,  a  judge  of  the  court,  a  military  officer  and  ti 
representative  of  the  town  of  Had  ley,  upon  the  same  river  (a  hypochon- 
driac person),  fancied  himself  under  an  evil  hand,  and  suspected  a 
woman,  one  of  his  neighbors,  and  languished  and  pined  away,  and  was 
generally  supposed  to  be  bewitched  to  death.  While  he  lay  ill,  a  number 
of  brisk  lads  tried  an  experiment  upon  the  old  woman.  Having  dragged 
her  out  of  her  house,  they  hung  her  up  until  she  was  near  dead,  let  her 
down,  rolled  her  some  time  in  the  snow,  and  at  last  buried  her  in  it 
and  left  her  there,  but  it  happened  that  she  survived  and  the  melancholy 
man  died." 

These  cases,  which  were  not  generally  regarded  in  the  enlightened 
spirit  of  the  writer  we  have  quoted,  served  to  confirm  the  common  belief 
in  witchcraft.  Increase  Mather  published  a  work  in  1684  containing  an 
account  of  the  cases  which  had  already  occurred  in  the  colony,  and  giving 
detailed  descriptions  of  the  manner  in  which  the  afflicted  persons  had 
exhibited  their  "deviltry."  The  publication  of  this  work  seemed  to 
revive  the  trouble  and  in  a  more  aggravated  form,  for  it  is  a  singular  fact 
that  the  general  discussion  of  delusions  of  this  kind  rarely  fails  to  pro- 
duce an  increase  of  the  evil. 

In  1688  a  case  occurred  which  excited  general  interest,  and  was  the 
beginning  of  one  of  the  saddest  periods  in  the  history  of  New  England, 
The  daughter  of  John  Goodwin,  a  child  of  thirteen  years,  accused  the 
daughter  of  an  Irish  laundress  of  stealing  some  linen.  The  mother 
of  the  laundress,  a  friendless  emigrant,  succeeded  in  disproving  the 
charge,  and  abused  the  girl  soundly  for  making  a  false  accusation 
Soon  after  this,  the  accuser  was  seized  with  a  fit,  and  pretended  to  be 
bewitched  in  order  to  be  revenged  upon  the  poor  Irish  woman.  Her 
younger  sister  and  two  of  her  brothers  followed  her  example.  They 
pretended  tc  be  dumb,  then  deaf,  then  blind,  and  then  ?!1  three  at  once. 


WITCHCRAFT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  221 

"  They  were  struck  dead  at  the  sight  of  the  'Assembly's  Catechism/  " 
says  Governor  Hutchinson,  dryly,  " l  Cotton's  Milk  for  Babes'  and  some 
other  good  books,  but  could  read  in  Oxford  jests,  popish  and  Quaker 
books,  and  the  common  prayer  without  any  difficulty."  Nevertheless 
their  appetite  was  good,  and  they  slept  soundly  at  night.  The  youngest 
•of  these  little  impostors  was  less  than  five  years  old.  It  was  at  once 
given  out  that  the  Goodwin  children  were  bewitched,  and  no  one  sus- 
pected or  hinted  at  the  fraud.  They  would  bark  like  dogs  and  mew 
like  cats,  and  a  physician  who  was  called  in  to  treat  them  solemnly 
declared  that  they  were  possessed  by  devils,  as  he  discovered  many  of 
the  symptoms  laid  down  in  Increase  Mather's  book.  A  conference 
of  the  four  ministers  of  Boston,  and  one  from  Charlestown,  was  held  at 
Goodwin's  house,  where  they  observed  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer. 
As  a  result  of  their  efforts,  the  youngest  child,  a  boy  of  less  than  five 
years,  was  delivered  of  his  evil  spirit.  The  ministers  now  had  no  doubt 
that  the  children  had  been  bewitched,  and  as  the  little  ones  accused  the 
Irish  woman  of  their  misfortune,  she  was  arrested,  tried  for  witchcraft, 
convicted  and  hanged,  notwithstanding  that  many  persons  thought  the 
poor  creature  a  lunatic. 

Among  the  ministers  who  had  investigated  this  case  and  had  procured 
the  execution  of  the  woman  was  Cotton  Mather,  the  son  of  Increase 
Mather,  then  president  of  Harvard  college.  He  was  a  young  man  who 
had  but  recently  entered  the  ministry,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  learned  and  gifted  preachers  in  the  colony.  He  was  withal  a  man 
of  overweening  vanity,  and  full  of  ambition.  He  could  not  bear  con- 
tradiction, and  was  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  the  political  power 
of  the  clergy.  He  was  superstitious  by  nature,  and  was  firmly  con- 
vinced of  the  reality  of  witchcraft.  He  had  become  deeply  interested 
in  the  case  of  the  Goodwin  children,  and  in  order  to  study  it  more 
deeply  took  the  eldest  girl  to  his  house,  where  he  could  observe  and 
experiment  upon  her  devil  at  his  leisure.  She  was  a  cunning  creature,  and 
soon  found  that  it  was  to  her  interest  to  humor  the  young  pastor  in  his 
views,  and  she  played  upon  his  weakness  with  a  shrewdness  and  skill 
which  were  remarkable  in  one  so  young,  and  exhibit  the  credulity  of  the 
investigator  in  a  most  pitiable  light. 

Mather  carried  on  his  experiments  with  a  diligence  which  would  have 
seemed  ludicrous  had  its  object  been  less  baneful  to  the  community.  He 
read  the  Bible,  and  prayed  aloud  in  the  presence  of  the  girl,  who  would 
pretend  to  be  thrown  into  a  fit  by  the  pious  exercise.  At  the  same  time 
she  read  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  or  Quaker  or  Popish  treatises, 
without  any  interruption  from  her  familiar  spirits.  The  minister  then 


222  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

tested  the  proficiency  of  the  devil  in  languages,  by  reading  aloud  pas- 
sages of  the  Bible  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  which  the  girl  professed 
to  understand.  When  he  tried  her  with  an  Indian  dialect,  however,  she 
could  not  comprehend  him.  By  other  experiments,  designed  to  ascertain 
if  the  spirits  could  read  the  thoughts  of  others,  Mather  came  to  the 
sage  conclusion  that  "all  devils  are  not  alike  sagacious."  The  girl  Mat- 
tered his  vanity,  and  lulled  his  suspicion  of  fraud  by  telling  him  that  hi* 
own  person  was  especially  protected  against  the  evil  spirits  by  the  power 
of  God,  and  that  the  devils  did  not  dare  to  enter  his  study. 

The  vani'  v  of  Cotton  Mather  was  elated  to  the  highest  pitch  by  what  he 
deemed  his  successful  experiments,  and  he  wrote  a  book  upon  witchcraft, 
in  which  he  endeavored  to  prove  the  truth  of  his  theories,  and  declared 
that  he  should  esteem  it  a  personal  insult  if  any  one  should  hereafter  ven- 
ture to  deny  the  existence  of  witchcraft.  His  book  was  reprinted  in 
London,  with  a  preface  by  Richard  Baxter,  .he  well-known  author  of 
"  The  Saints'  Rest,"  warmly  indorsing  it.  It  was  very  generally  read  in 
New  England,  and  had  a  most  pernicious  effect  upon  the  people  by  in- 
ducing them  to  give  credit  to  the  stories  of  the  writer  rather  than  to 
listen  to  the  promptings  of  their  own  good  sense.  Still  there  were  some 
in  Boston  who  had  the  boldness  to  differ  with  Mather,  and  these  the 
indignant  divine  denounced  as  "sadducees."  Mather  supported  his  views 
by  his  sermons.  "  There  are  multitudes  of  sadducees  in  our  day,"  he 
declared.  "A  devil  in  the  apprehension  of  these  mighty  acute  philoso- 
phers is  no  more  than  a  quality  or  a  distemper.  .  .  .  Men  counted  it  wis- 
dom to  credit  nothing  but  what  they  say  and  feel.  They  never  saw 
any  witches;  therefore  theie  are  none."  The  ministers  of  Boston  and 
Charlestown  gave  tlieir  young  colleague  their  hearty  support,  and  de- 
clared that  those  who  doubted  the  existence  of  witchcraft  were  guilty  of 
atheism,  and  indorsed  Mather's  book  as  proving  clearly  that  "  there  is 
both  a  God  and  a  devil,  and  witchcraft."  Thus  did  the  clergy  of  Mas- 
sachusetts set  themselves  to  the  task  of  forcing  their  own  narrow  views 
upon  the  people.  It  was  a  needed  lesson.  New  England  had  passed  the 
time  when  clerical  rule  in  political  affairs  could  be  productive  of  good, 
and  was  now  to  be  taught  the  danger  of  permitting  it  to  extend  beyond 
this  period. 

At  this  juncture  Mather's  power  was  greatly  strengthened  by  the 
appointment  of  his  friend  and  parishioner,  Sir  William  Phipps,  as  gov- 
ernor of  the  province,  and  the  nomination  of  his  father-in-law  and  many 
of  his  intimate  friends  to  the  council.  The  ambitious  Stoughton,  the 
deputy  governor,  was  also  subject  to  his  influence.  Here  was  a  fine 
opportunity  to  endeavor  to  establish  the  power  of  the  clergy  upon  the 


WITCHCRAFT  7A*  MASSACHUSETTS.  223 

old  foundations  which  were  being  destroyed  by  the  growing  intelligence 
and  independence  of  the  people.  Many  of  the  ministers,  under  the  lead 
of  Cotton  Mather,  had  committed  themselves  to  the  doctrine  of  witchcraft, 
and  the  people  must  accept  it  upon  their  simple  assertion.  No  inquiry 
must  be  allowed  into  the  matter,  the  opinions  of  the  ministers  must  lr> 
adopted  by  the  laity.  And  so  Mather  and  his  followers  resorted  to  the 
usual  weapons  of  superstition  to  accomplish  the  success  of  their  plans. 

In  1G92  a  ne.v  case  of  witchcraft  occurred  in  Salem  village,  now  the 
town  of  Danvers;  The  minister  of  this  place  was  Samuel  Parris, 
between  whom  and  a  number  of  his  people  there  had  for  some  time 
existed  dissensions  of  such  a  bitter  nature  that  the  attention  of  the  gen- 
eral court  had  been  directed  to  them.  In  February,  1692,  the  daughter 
and  niece  of  Parris,  the  former  a  child  of  nine  years,  and  the  latter  of 
less  than  twelve,  gave  signs  of  being  bewitched.  Parris  at  once  recog- 
nized the  opportunity  which  was  thus  offered  him  for  vengeance  upon  his 
enemies,  and  deliberately  availed  himself  of  it.  He  demanded  of  the 
children  the  names  of  the  persons  who  had  bewitched  them,  and  then 
proceeded  to  accuse  those  whom  he  succeeded  in  inducing  the  girls  to 
denounce.  The  first  victim  was  Rebecca  Nurse.  She  was  known  in  the 
community  as  a  woman  of  exemplary  Christian  character;  but  she  was 
one  of  the  most  resolute  opponents  of  Parris.  Upon  his  accusation  she 
was  arrested  and  imprisoned.  The  next  Sunday  Parris  preached  a  ser- 
mon from  the  text,  "  Have  I  not  chosen  you  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a 
devil."  As  it  was  evident  that  his  remarks  were  to  be  directed  against 
Mistress  Nurse,  Sarah  Cloyce,  a  sister  of  the  accused,  at  once  left  the 
church.  This  in  itself  was  a  serious  offence  in  those  days,  and  Parris 
took  advantage  of  it  to  accuse  the  offender  of  witchcraft,  and  she  was 
sent  to  join  her  sister  in  prison.  Mather,  who  deemed  his  credit  at  stake, 
•lent  his  active  aid  to  the  persecution  of  these  unfortunate  people,  and  had 
the  vanity  to  declare  that  he  regarded  the  efforts  of  "  the  evil  angels  upon 
the  country  as  a  particular  defiance  unto  himself."  Parris  scattered  his 
accusations  right  and  left,  becoming  both  informer  and  witness  against 
those  whom  he  meant  to  destroy  for  their  opposition  to  him.  In  a  few 
weeks  nearly  one  hundred  persons  were  in  prison  upon  the  charge  of 
witchcraft.  Abigail  Williams,  Parris's  niece,  aided  her  uncle  with  her 
tales,  which  the  least  examination  would  have  shown  to  be  absurd. 
George  Burroughs,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Salem,  had  long  been  re- 
i^arded  by  Parris  as  a  rival,  nnd  he  now  openly  expressed  his  disbelief  in 
witchcraft,  and  his  disapproval  of  the  measures  against  those  charged 
with  that  offence.  This  boldness  sealed  his  doom.  He  was  accused  by 
Parris,  and  committed  to  prison  "  with  the  rest  of  the  witches."  "  The 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

gallows  was  to  be  set  up,  not  for  those  who  professed  themselves  witches, 
but  for  those  vho  rebuked  the  delusion." 

Governor  Bnulstreet,  who  had  been  chosen  by  the  people,  was  unwill- 
ing to  procecvl  to  extreme  measures  against  the  accused,  as  he  had  no 
faith  in  the  evidence  against  them.  The  arrival  of  the  royal  governor 
and  the  new  charter  in  Boston  in  May,  1692,  placed  Cotton  Mather  and 
his  fellow-persecutors  in  a  position  to  carry  out  their  bloody  designs. 
The  general  court  alone  had  authority  to  appoint  special  courts,  but  Gov- 
ernor Phipps  lid  not  hesitate  to  appoint  one  himself  for  the  trial  of  the 
accused  persons  at  Salem,  and  this  illegal  tribunal,  with  Stoughton  as  its 
chief  judge,  met  at  Salem  on  the  2d  of  June.  In  this  court  Parris  acted 
as  prosecutor,  keeping  back  some  witnesses,  and  pushing  others  forward 
as  best  suited  his  plans. 

The  first  victim  of  the  court  was  Bridget  Bishop,  "  a  poor,  friendless 
old  woman."  Parris,  who  had  examined  her  at  the  time  of  her  commit- 
ment, was  the  principal  witness  against  her.  Deliverance  Hobbs  being 
also  accused,  a  natural  infirmity  of  her  body  was  taken  as  a  proof  of  her 
guilt,  and  she  was  hanged,  protesting  her  innocence.  Rebecca  Nurse 
was  at  first  acquitted  of  the  charges  against  her,  but  the  court  refused  to 
receive  the  verdict  of  the  jury,  and  Parris  was  determined  that  the 
woman  against  whom  he  had  preached  and  prayed  should  not  escape  him, 
and  the  jury  were  induced  to  convict  her,  and  she  was  hanged.  John 
Willard,  who  had  been  compelled  by  his  duty  as  a  constable  to  arrest  the 
accused,  now  refused  to  serve  in  this  capacity  any  longer,  as  he  had 
become  convinced  of  the  hypocrisy  of  the  instigators  of  the  persecution. 
He  was  immediately  denounced,  tried,  and  hanged. 

When  George  Burroughs,  the  minister,  was  placed  on  trial  the  wit- 
nesses produced  against  him  pretended  to  be  dumb.  "  Who  hinders  these 
witnesses  from  giving  their  testimonies?"  asked  Stoughton,  the  chief 
judge.  "  I  suppose  the  devil,"  replied  Burroughs,  contemptuously. 
"How  comes  the  devil,"  cried  Stoughton,  exultingly,  "so  loath  to  have 
any  testimony  borne  against  you?"  The  words  of  the  prisoner  were 
regarded  as  a  confession,  and  his  remarkable  bodily  strength  was  made 
an  evidence  of  his  guilt.  He  was  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 
He  was  executed  on  the  19th  of  August  with  four  others.  As  he  ascended 
the  scaffold  Burroughs  made  an  appeal  to  the  people  assembled  to  witness 
the  execution,  and  effectually  vindicated  himself  from  the  absurd  charges 
against  him,  and  repeated  the  Lord's  prayer,  which  was  regarded  a»  a 
test  of  innocence.  The  spectators  were  powerfully  affected,  and  seemeci 
about  to  interfere  in  favor  of  the  victim.  Cotton  Mather,  who  was  pres- 
ent on  horseback,  now  exerted  himself  to  complete  the  judicial  murder 


WITCHCRAFT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  225 

He  harangued  the  people,  insisted  on  the  guilt  of  Burroughs,  reminding 
them  that  the  devil  could  sometimes  assume  the  form  of  an  angel  of 
light,  and  even  descended  to  the  falsehood  of  declaring  that  Burroughs 
was  no  true  minister,  as  his  ordination  was  not  valid.  His  appeal  was 
successful,  and  the  execution  was  completed. 

Giles  Cory,  an  old  man  over  eighty  years  of  age,  seeing  that  no  denial 
of  guilt  availed  anything,  refused  to  plead,  and  was  pressed  to  death,  ia 
accordance  with  an  old  English  law,  long  obsolete,  which  was  revived  to 
meet  his  case.  Samuel  Ward  well  confessed  his  guilt,  and  escaped  the 
gallows.  Overcome  with  shame  for  his  cowardice,  he  retracted  his  con- 
fession, and  was  hanged  for  denying  witchcraft.  A  reign  of  terror  pre- 
vailed in  Salem  ;  the  prisons  were  full ;  and  no  one  could  feel  sure  how 
long  he  would  escape  accusation  and  arrest.  Many  persons  confessed 
their  guilt  to  save  their  lives.  Children  accused  their  parents,  parents 
their  children,  and  husbands  and  wives  each  other  of  the  most  impossible 
offences,  in  the  hope  of  escaping  the  persecution  themselves.  Hale,  the 
minister  of  Beverley,  was  P  zealous  advocate  of  the  persecution  until  the 
bitter  cup  was  presented  to  nis  own  lips  by  the  accusation  of  his  wife. 
Many  persons  were  obliged  to  fly  the  colony,  and  the  magistrates,  con- 
scious that  they  were  already  exceeding  their  powers,  were  careful  not  to 
demand  their  surrender. 

We  have  mentioned  only  some  of  the  principal  cases  to  show  the  char- 
acter of  the  persecution,  as  our  limits  forbid  the  relation  of  all.  The 
total  number  hanged  was  twenty;  fifty -five  were  tortured  or  terrified  into 
confessions  of  guilt.  The  accusations  were  at  first  lodged  against  persons 
of  humble  station,  but  at  length  reached  the  higher  classes.  Governor 
Phipps'  wife  and  two  sons  of  Governor  Bradford  are  said  to  have  been 
among  the  accused.  "  Insanity,"  says  Judge  Story,  "  could  hardly  devise 
more  refinements  in  barbarity,  or  profligacy  execute  them  with  more  malig- 
nant coolness/'  Every  principle  of  English  justice  was  violated  to  secure 
the  condemnation  of  the  accused,  and  people  were  encouraged  by  the  magis- 
trates to  accuse  others  as  a  means  of  securing  the  favor  of  the  authorities. 

These  terrible  deeds  were  not  the  work  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts, 
and  under  a  popular  government  would  have  been  impossible;  for 
though  the  belief  in  witchcraft  was  general,  the  sentiment  of  the  people 
was  against  the  barbarity  of  the  court.  The  Salem  tragedies  were  the 
work  of  a  few  men,  not  one  of  whom  was  responsible  in  any  way  to  the 
people.  "Of  the  magistrates  at  that  time,  not  one  held  office  by  the 
suffrage  of  the  people ;  the  tribunal,  essentially  despotic  in  its  origin,  as 
in  its  character,  had  no  sanction  but  an  extraordinary  and  an  illegal  com- 
mission ;  and  Stoughton,  the  chief  judge,  a  partisan  of  Andros,  had  been 
15 


225  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

rejected  by  the  people  of  Massachusetts.  The  responsibility  of  the 
tragedy,  far  from  attaching  to  the  people  of  the  colony,  rests  with  the 
very  few,  hardly  five  or  six,  in  whose  hands  the  transition  state  of  the 
government  left  for  a  season  unlimited  influence.  Into  the  interior  of 
the  colony  the  delusion  did  not  spread  at  all."  : 

Stoughton's  court,  having  hanged  twenty  of  its  victims,  adjourned 
about  The  last  of  September,  1692,  until  November,  and  on  the  18th  of 
October  the  general  court  met.  The  indignation  of  the  people  had  been 
gathering  force,  and  men  were  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  the  judicial 
murders  and  tortures  which  had  disgraced  them  so  long.  Remonstrances 
were  at  once  presented  to  the  assembly  against  "  the  doings  of  the  witch 
tribunals,"  the  people  of  Andover  leading  the  way  in  this  effort.  The 
assembly  abolished  the  special  court,  and  established  a  tribunal  by  public 
law.  It  was  ordered  that  this  court  should  not  meet  until  the  following 
January.  The  governor  attempted  to  undo  the  work  of  the  assembly 
by  appointing  Stoughton  chief  judge  of  the  new  court.  When  that 
tribunal  met  at  Salem  in  January,  1693,  it  was  evident  that  the  public 
mind  had  undergone  a  marked  change.  The  influence  of  the  leaders  of 
the  delusion  was  at  an  end.  The  grand  jury  rejected  the  majority  of  the 
presentments  offered  to  it,  and  when  those  who  were  indicted  were  put  on 
trial,  the  jury  brought  in  verdicts  of  acquittal  in  all  but  three  cases.  The 
governor,  now  alive  to  the  force  of  public  sentiment,  reprieved  all  who 
were  under  sentence  to  the  great  disgust  of  Stoughton,  who  left  the  bench 
in  a  rage  when  informed  of  this  action.  The  persecutors,  anxious  to 
eover  their  defeat  by  the  execution  of  one  more  victim,  employed  all  their 
irts  to  procure  the  conviction  of  a  woman  of  Charlestown,  who  was  com- 
monly believed  to  be  a  witch.  They  supported  their  charge  by  more 
important  evidence  than  had  been  presented  in  any  case  at  Salem,  but  the 
jury  at  once  returned  a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty." 

Cotton  Mather  was  intensely  mortified  by  the  failure  of  his  efforts  to 
force  the  people  into  a  general  acceptance  of  his  views.  He  got  up  a 
case  of  witchcraft  in  Boston,  but  was  careful  to  caution  his  possessed 
people  to  refrain  from  accusing  any  one  of  bewitching  them.  Robert 
Calef,  an  unlettered  man,  but  one  whose  common  sense  could  not  be  led 
astray  by  Mather,  promptly  exposed  the  imposture  in  a  pamphlet,  which 
effectually  destroyed  Mather's  influence  for  harm.  Mather,  unable  to 
reply  to  him,  denounced  him  as  an  enemy  of  religion,  and  complained 
that  Calef 's  book  was  "  a  libel  upon  the  whole  government  and  ministry 
of  the  land,"  forgetting  that  only  seven  or  eight  ministers,  and  no  magis- 
trate commanding  the  confidence  of  the  people,  had  any  share  in  the 

*  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iii.,  p.  88. 


WITCHCRAFT  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  227 

tragedies.  Calef  continued  his  writings,  however,  undismayed  by  the 
indignation  of  his  adversary,  and  his  book  was  finally  published  in  Eng- 
land, where  it  attracted  considerable  attention. 

The  danger  was  now  over.  It  was  no  longer  possible  to  procure  a 
conviction  for  witchcraft.  The  indignant  people  of  Salem  village  at  once 
drove  the  wretched  Parris  and  his  family  from  the  place.  Noyes,  the 
minister  of  Salem,  who  had  been  active  in  the  persecutions,  was  com- 
pelled to  ask  the  forgiveness  of  the  people,  after  a  public  confession  of  his 
error.  The  devotion  of  the  rest  of  his  life  to  works  of  charity  won  him 
the  pardon  he  sought.  Sewall,  one  of  the  judges,  struck  with  horror  at 
the  part  he  had  played  in  the  persecution,  made  an  open  and  frank  con- 
fession of  his  error,  and  implored  the  forgiveness  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
His  sincerity  was  so  evident  that  he  soon  regained  the  favor  he  had  lost. 
Stoughtoii  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  proud  and  haughty  disre- 
gard of  the  opinion  of  his  fellow-men,  scorning  to  make  any  acknowl- 
edgment of  error,  and  evincing  no  remorse  for  his  cruelties. 

As  for  the  prime  mover  of  the  delusion,  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather, 
nothing  could  induce  him  to  admit  that  he  could  by  any  possibility  have 
been  in  error ;  not  even  the  recollection  of  the  sorrow  he  had  brought 
upon  some  of  the  best  people  in  the  colony  could  shake  his  impenetrable 
self-conceit,  or  humble  him.  When  it  was  plain  to  him  that  he  was  the 
object  of  the  indignation  of  all  good  men  in  New  England,  he  had  the 
hardihood  to  endeavor  to  persuade  them  that  after  all  he  had  not  been 
specially  active  in  the  sad  affair.  "  Was  Cotton  Mather  honestly  credu- 
lous ? "  asks  Bancroft.  "  Ever  ready  to  dupe  himself,  he  limited  his 
credulity  only  by  the  probable  credulity  of  others.  He  changes,  or  omits 
to  repeat,  his  statements,  without  acknowledging  error,  and  with  a  clear 
intention  of  conveying  false  impressions.  He  is  an  example  how  far 
selfishness,  under  the  form  of  vanity  and  ambition,  can  blind  the  higher 
faculties,  stupefy  the  judgment,  and  dupe  consciousness  itself.  His  self- 
righteousness  was  complete  till  he  was  resisted." 

And  yet  this  man  was  not  to  die  without  rendering  to  the  country  a 
genuine  service.  In  1721,  having  become  satisfied  that  inoculation  was 
a  sure  preventive  of  small-pox,  he  advocated  the  introduction  of  it  into 
the  colony.  He  was  opposed  by  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy,  who  de- 
clared that  it  was  an  attempt  to  defeat  the  plans  of  the  Almighty,  who 
"  sent  the  small-pox  as  a  punishment  for  sins,  and  whose  vengeance  would 
thus  be  only  provoked  the  more."  The  people  of  the  colony  were  also 
bitterly  opposed  to  inoculation,  and  threatened  to  hang  Mather  if  he  did 
not  cease  his  advocacy  of  it.  His  life  was  at  one  time  in  serious  danger,  but 
he  persevered,  and  at  length  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  practice  of 
inoculation  generally  adopted  by  the  people  who  had  so  hotly  opposed  it. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE    SETTLEMENT   OF   NEW   YORK. 

Voyages  of  Henry  Hudson— He  is  Employed  by  the  Dutch— Discovery  of  the  Huds*» 
River— Early  Dutch  Voyages— Adrian  Block— Fate  of  Hudson— Th^  Dutch  build  a 
Fort  on  Manhattan  Island— Settlement  of  New  Amsterdam— The  Province  named  New 
Netherlands — Fort  Nassau — Peter  Minuits  Governor — The  Dutch  Settlement  of  Dela- 
ware — Wouter  Van  Twiller— Kieft  Governor — His  Unjust  Treatment  of  the  Indians — 
Massacre  of  the  Indians  at  Hoboken— The  Indian  War— Stuy  vesant  Appointed  Governor 
—Disputes  with  the  English  in  Connecticut— The  Swedes  Settle  Delaware— Stuyvesant 
Captures  the  Swedish  Forts — Growth  of  New  Amsterdam — Disputes  between  the  People 
and  Governor— Growing  Spirit  of  Popular  Liberty— The  People  Appeal  to  the  States 
General— Capture  of  New  Netherlands  by  the  English— The  Name  of  the  Province 
changed  to  New  York — Results  of  the  English  Conquest — Progress  of  New  Jersey — 
Andros  Governor  of  New  York— He  Fails  to  Establish  his  Authority  over  Connecticut 
— New  York  allowed  an  Assembly — Discontents  of  the  People — Leister's  Rebellion- 
Execution  of  Leisler  and  Milbourne — Fletcher  Governor — His  Attempt  to  obtain 
Command  of  the  Connecticut  Militia — Episcopacy  Established  in  New  York — The 
Freedom  of  the  Press  Sustained — New  Jersey  a  Royal  Province. 

|  HEN  the  hope  of  finding  a  northwest  passage  to  India  began  to 
die  out,  a  company  of  "  certain  worshipful  merchants  "  of  London 
employed  Henry  Hudson,  an  Englishman  and  an  experienced 
navigator,  to  go  in  search  of  a  northeast  passage  to  India,  around 
the  Arctic  shores  of  Europe,  between  Lapland  and  Nova  Zembla 
and  frozen  Spitzbergen.  These  worthy  gentlemen  were  convinced  that 
since  the  effort  to  find  a  northwest  passage  had  failed,  nothing  remained 
but  to  search  for  a  northeast  passage,  and  they  were  sure  that  if  human 
skill  or  energy  could  find  it,  Hudson  would  succeed  in  his  mission. 
They  were  not  mistaken  in  their  man,  for  in  two  successive  voyages  he 
did  all  that  mortal  could  do  to  penetrate  the  ice-fields  beyond  the  North 
Cape,  but  without  success.  An  impassable  barrier  of  ice  held  him  back, 
and  he  was  forced  to  return  to  London  to  confess  his  failure.  With 
unconquerable  hope,  he  suggested  new  means  of  overcoming  the  difficul- 
ties ;  but  while  his  employers  praised  his  zeal  and  skill,  they  declined  tc 
go  to  further  expense  in  an  undertaking  which  promised  so  little,  and  the 
"bold  Englishman,  the  expert  pilot,  and  the  famous  navigator "  found 
himself  out  of  employment.  Every  effort  to  secure  aid  in  England 
22S 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  229 

failed  him,  and,  thoroughly  disheartened,  he  passed  over  to  Holland, 
whither  his  fame  had  preceded  him. 

The  Dutch,  who  were  more  enterprising  and  more  hopeful  than  his 
own  countrymen,  lent  a  ready  ear  to  his  statement  of  his  plans,  and  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  at  once  employed  him,  and  placed  him  in 
command  of  a  yacht  of  ninety  tons,  called  the  "  Half  Moon,"  manned  by 
a  picked  crew.  On  the  25th  of  March,  1609,  Hudson  set  sail  in  this 
vessel  from  Amsterdam,  and  steered  directly  for  the  coast  of  Nova 
Zembla.  He  succeeded  in  reaching  the  meridian  of  Spitzbergen;  but 
here  the  ice,  the  fogs,  and  the  fierce  tempests  of  the  north  drove  him 
back,  and  turning  to  the  westward,  he  sailed  past  the  capes  of  Greenland, 
and  on  the  2d  of  July  was  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  He  passed 
down  the  coast  as  far  as  Charleston  harbor,  vainly  hoping  to  find  the 
northwest  passage,  and  then  in  despair  turned  to  the  northward,  discover- 
ing Delaware  bay  on  his  voyage.  On  the  3d  of  September  he  arrived 
off  a  large  bay  to  the  north  of  the  Delaware,  and  passing  into  it,  dropped 
anchor  "at  two  cables'  length 
from  the  shore,"  within  Sandy 
Hook.  Devoting  some  days  to 
rest,  and  to  the  exploration  of  the 
bay,  he  passed  through  The  Nar- 
rows on  the  llth  of  September, 
and  then  the  broad  and  beautiful 
"inner  bay"  burst  upon  him  in 
all  its  splendor,  and  from  the  deck  of  his  ship  he  watched  the  swift  cur- 
rent of  the  mighty  river  rolling  from  the  north  to  the  sea.  He  was  full 
of  hope  now,  and  the  next  day  continued  his  progress  up  the  river,  and 
at  nightfall  cast  anchor  at  Yonkers.  During  the  night  the  current  of  the 
river  turned  his  ship  around,  placing  her  head  down  stream ;  and  this 
fact,  coupled  with  the  assurances  of  the  natives  who  came  out  to  the 
"  Half  Moon  "  in  their  canoes,  that  the  river  came  from  far  beyond  the 
mountains,  convinced  him  that  the  stream  flowed  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
and  that  by  sailing  on  he  would  at  length  reach  India — the  golden  land 
of  his  dreams. 

Thus  encouraged,  he  pursued  his  way  up  the  river,  gazing  with  won- 
dering delight  upon  its  glorious  scenery,  and  listening  with  gradually 
fading  hope  to  the  stories  of  the  natives  who  flocked  to  the  water  to  greet 
him.  The  stream  narrowed,  and  the  water  grew  fresh,  and  long  before 
he  anchored  below  Albany,  Hudson  had  abandoned  the  belief  that  he  was 
in  the  northwest  passage.  From  the  anchorage  a  boat's  crew  continued 
the  voyage  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mohawk.  Hudson  was  satisfied  that  he 


COAT   OF  ARMS  OF  NEW  YORK. 


230  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

had  made  a  great  discovery — one  that  was  worth  fully  as  much  as  finding 
the  new  route  to  India.  He  was  in  a  region  upon  which  the  white  man's 
eye  had  never  rested  before,  and  which  offered  the  richest  returns  to 
commercial  ventures.  He  hastened  back  to  New  York  bay,  took  pos- 
session of  the  country  in  the  name  of  Holland,  and  then  set  sail  for 
Europe.  He  put  into  Dartmouth,  in  England,  on  his  way  back,  where 
he  told  the  story  of  his  discovery.  King  James  I.  prevented  his  contin- 
ling  his  voyage,  hoping  to  deprive  the  Dutch  of  its  fruits ;  but  Hudson 
took  care  to  send  his  log-book  and  all  th3  ship's  papers  over  to  Holland, 
and  thus  placed  his  employers  in  full  possession  of  the  knowledge  he  had 
gained.  The  English  at  length  released  the  "Half  Moon,"  and  she 
continued  her  voyage  to  the  Texel,  but  without  her  commander. 

The  discovery  of  Hudson  was  particularly  acceptable  to  the  Dutch,  for 
the  new  country  was  rich  in  fur-bearing  animals,  and  Russia  offered  a 
ready  market  for  all  the  furs  that  could  be  sent  there.  The  East  India 
Company,  therefore,  refitted  the  "Half  Moon"  after  her  return  to 
Holland,  and  despatched  her  to  the  region  discovered  by  Hudson  on  a 
fur  trading  expedition,  which  was  highly  successful.  Private  persons 
also  embarked  in  similar  enterprises,  and  within  two  years  a  prosperous 
and  important  fur  trade  was  established  between  Holland  and  the  country 
along  the  Mauritius,  as  the  great  river  discovered  by  Hudson  had  been 
named,  in  honor  of  the  Stadtholder  of  Holland.  No  government  took 
any  notice  of  the  trade  for  a  while,  and  all  persons  were  free  to  engage 
in  it. 

Among  the  adventurers  employed  in  this  trade  was  one  Adrian  Block, 
noted  as  one  of  the  boldest  navigators  of  his  time.  He  made  a  voyage  to 
Manhattan  island  in  1614,  then  the  site  of  a  Dutch  trading-post,  and 
secured  a  cargo  of  skins,  with  which  he  was  about  to  return  to  Holland, 
when  a  fire  consumed  both  his  vessel  and  her  cargo,  and  obliged  him  to 
pass  the  winter  with  his  crew  on  the  island.  They  built  them  log  huts 
on  the  site  of  the  present  Beaver  street — the  first  houses  erected  on  the 
island — and  during  the  winter  constructed  a  yacht  of  sixteen  tons,  which 
Block  called  the  "  Onrust  "—the  "  Restless."  In  this  yacht  Block  made 
several  voyages  of  discovery,  and  explored  the  coasts  of  Long  Island 
sound,  and  gave  his  name  to  the  small  island  near  the  eastern  end  of  the 
sound.  He  soon  after  went  back  to  Europe. 

In  the  meantime  Hudson  had  not  been  permitted  by  the  English  king 
to  take  service  again  with  the  Dutch,  and  after  apprising  his  employers 
in  Holland  of  his  discoveries,  he  was  engaged  by  an  English  company  to 
make  further  explorations  in  their  behalf.  He  sailed  to  the  north  of  his 
former  route,  reached  the  coast  of  Labrador,  and  passing  through  the 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEK    FORK.  231 

straits,  entered  the  bay  which  bears  his  name.  He  spent  the  remainder 
of  the  season  in  exploring  its  coasts,  and  resolved  to  winter  there,  hoping 
to  push  his  discoveries  still  farther  northward  in  the  spring.  In  the 
spring  of  1611  he  found  it  impossible  to  continue  his  voyage,  as  his 
provisions  had  begun  to  run  low,  and  with  tears  turned  his  vessel's  prow 
homeward.  His  men  now  broke  out  into  mutiny,  and  seizing  Hudson 
and  his  son  and  four  others,  who  were  sick,  they  placed  them  in  the 
shallop  and  set  them  adrift.  And  so  the  great  navigator,  whose  memory 
is  perpetuated  by  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  rivers  of  America,  and  whose 
genius  gave  the  region  through  which  it  flows  to  civilization,  perished 
amid  the  northern  seas,  "The  gloomy  waste  of  waters  which  bears  his 
name  is  his  tomb  and  his  monument," 

In  1614  the  Dutch  built  a  fort  on  the  lower  end  of  Manhattan  island, 
an<,l  in  the  next  few  years  established  forts  or  trading  houses  along  the 
river  as  far  as  Fort  Orange,  on  the  site  of  Albany.  These  were  merely 
trading-posts,  no  effort  being  yet  made  to  occupy  the  country  with  a 
permanent  colony.  In  1621  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  was  organ- 
ized for  the  purpose  of  trading  with  America,  and  took  possession  of  the 
country  along  the  Hudson,  intending  to  hold  it  merely  as  temporary 
occupants.  The  States  General  of  Holland  granted  them  the  monopoly 
of  trade  from  Cape  May  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  named  the  whole  region 
New  Netherland.  The  Dutch  thus  extended  their  claims  into  regions 
already  claimed  by  the  English  and  French,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
future  quarrels  and  complications. 

The  English,  now  awake  to  the  importance  of  Hudson's  discoveries, 
warned  the  Dutch  government  to  refrain  from  making  further  settle- 
ments on  "  Hudson's  river,"  as  they  called  the  Mauritius ;  but  the  latter, 
relying  upon  the  justice  of  their  claim,  paid  no  attention  to  these  warnings, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1623  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  sent  over 
thirty  families  of  Walloons,  or  one  hundred  and  ten  persons  in  all,  to . 
found  a  permanent  colony.  These  Walloons  were  Protestants  from  the, 
frontier  between  France  and  Flanders,  and  had  fled  to  Amsterdam  to? 
escape  religious  persecution  in  their  own  country.  They  were  sound, 
healthy,  vigorous,  and  pious  people,  and  could  be  relied  upon  to  make 
homes  in  the  new  world.  The  majority  of  them  settled  around  the  fort 
Dn  the  lower  end  of  Manhattan  island,  and  the  colony  was  named  Ne\r 
Amsterdam.  The  remainder  established  themselves  on  Long  island, 
about  where  the  Brooklyn  navy  yard  now  stands,  and  there  Sarah  de 
Rapelje,  the  first  white  child  born  in  the  province  of  New  Netherlands,., 
saw  the  light.  Eighteen  families  ascei>ded  the  river  and  settled,  around 
Fort  Orange. 


liISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


In  the  same  year  (1623)  a  party  under  command  of  Cornelis  Jacobsen 
May,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  southern  cape  of  New  Jersey,  ascewled 
<!ie  Delaware,  then  called  the  South  river,  and  built  Fort  Nassau,  on  the 
*ut  side  of  the  river  a  few  miles  below  the  present  city  of  Camden 
This  was  done  in  order  to  establish  the  claim  of  the  Dutch  to  this  region, 

In   1626  the  West  India  Company  sent  out  to  New  Amsterdam  the 


first  regular  governor  of  the  province,  Peter  Minuits  by  name.  He 
brought  with  him  a  koopman,  or  general  commissary,  who  was  also  the 
secretary  of  the  province,  and  a  schout,  or  sheriff,  to  assist  him  in  his 
government.  The  only  laws  prescribed  for  the  colony  were  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  "West  India  Company.  The  colonists,  on  their  part,  were  to 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  233 

regard  the  orders  of  the  governor  as  their  law.  He  was  authorized  to 
punish  minor  offences  at  his  discretion ;  but  cases  requiring  severe  or 
capital  punishment  were  to  be  sent  to  Holland  for  trial.  Minuits  set  to 
work  with  great  vigor  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  colony.  He  called  a 
council  of  the  Indian  chiefs,  and  purchased  the  island  of  Manhattan  from 
diem  for  presents  valued  at  about  twenty-four  dollars  in  American 
money.  He  thus  secured  an  equitable  title  to  the  island  and  won  the 
friendship  of  the  Indians.  To  encourage  emigration  the  company 
granted  to  each  emigrant  as  much  land  as  he  could  properly  cultivate, 
and  it  was  ordered  that  any  member  of  the  company  who  in  four  years 
should  induce  fifty  persons  to  settle  anywhere  within  the  limits  of  New 
Netherland,  the  island  of  Manhattan  alone  excepted,  should  be  termed 
"  Patroon,"  or  "  Lord  of  the  Manor,"  and  should  be  entitled  to  purchase 
a  tract  of  land  sixteen  miles  in  length  by  eight  in  width  for  the  support 
of  this  dignity.  A  number  of  persons  availed  themselves  of  this  privi- 
lege, and  secured  from  the  Indians  by  purchase  the  best  lands  and  the 
most  valuable  trading  places  in  the  province.  Those  who  were  inferior 
to  them  in  wealth  were  of  neces- 
sity compelled  to  become  the  ten- 
ants of  the  patroons,  and  thus  a 
check  was  placed  upon  the  im- 
provement of  the  colony.  In 
order  to  compel  the  colonists  to 
purchase  their  supplies  from  Hol- 
land, the  company  forbade  them 
to  manufacture  even  the  simplest  fabrics  for  clothing,  on  pain  of  banish- 
ment. The  patroons  were  enjoined  to  provide  a  minister  and  a  school- 
master for  their  tenants,  but  no  provision  was  made  for  them  by  the 
company,  which  was  careful,  however,  to  offer  to  furnish  the  patroons 
with  African  slaves  if  their  use  should  be  found  desirable. 

In  1629  Samuel  Godyn  and  Samuel  Blommaert  purchased  from  the 
Indians  the  region  between  Cape  Henlopen  and  the  mouth  of  the  Dela- 
ware river,  and  in  1631  a  colony  of  thirty  souls  was  planted  on  Lewes 
creek,  in  the  present  State  of  Delaware.  "  That  Delaware  exists  as  a 
separate  commonwealth  is  due  to  this  colony.  According  to  English 
rule,  occupancy  was  necessary  to  complete  a  title  to  the  wilderness,  and 
the  Dutch  now  occupied  Delaware."  Less  than  a  year  later  De  Vries 
came  over  from  Holland  with  a  reinforcement,  and  found  only  the  ruins 
of  the  settlement,  the  people  of  which  had  been  massacred  by  the  Indians. 

Under  the  vigorous  administration  of  Minuits  New  Netherland  pros- 
pered ;  houses  were  built,  farms  laid  off;  the  population  was  largely 


COAT  OP  ARMS  OF  DELAWARE. 


234  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

increased  by  new  arrivals  from  Europe.  During  this  period  New 
Amsterdam  fairly  entered  upon  its  career  as  one  of  the  most  important 
places  in  America.  It  was  a  happy  settlement  as  well ;  the  rights  of  the 
people  were  respected,  and  they  were  practically  as  free  as  they  had  been 
in  Holland.  Troubles  with  the  Indians  marked  the  close  of  Minuitf 
administration.  The  latter  were  provoked  by  the  murder  of  some  of 
their  number  by  the  whites,  and  by  the  aid  rendered  by  the  commander 
at  Fort  Orange  to  the  Mohegans  in  one  of  their  forays  upon  the  Mohawks. 
Alarmed  by  the  hostility  of  the  savages,  many  of  the  families  at  Fort 
Orange,  and  from  the  region  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware, 
abandoned  their  settlements  and  came  to  New  Amsterdam  for.  safety, 
thus  adding  to  the  population  of  that  town.  Minuits  was  recalled  in 
1632,  and  left  the  province  in  a  prosperous  condition.  During  the  last 
year  of  his  government  New  Amsterdam  sent  over  $60,000  worth  of  furs 
to  Holland. 

Minuits  was  succeeded  by  Wouter  Van  T wilier,  a  clerk  in  the  com- 
pany's warehouse  at  Amsterdam,  who  owed  his  appointment  to  his  being 
the  husband  of  the  niece  of  Killian  Van  Rensselaer,  the  patroon  of 
Albany.  Irving  has  thus  sketched  this  redoubtable  governor :  "  He  was 
exactly  five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  and  six  feet  five  inches  in  circum- 
ference. His  head  was  a  perfect  sphere,  and  of  such  stupendous 
dimensions  that  dame  Nature,  with  all  her  sex's  ingenuity,  would  have 
been  puzzled  to  construct  a  neck  capable  of  supporting  it ;  wherefore  she 
wisely  declined  the  attempt,  and  settled  it  firmly  on  the  top  of  his  back 
bone  just  between  the  shoulders.  His  body  was  oblong  and  particularly 
capacious  at  bottom,  which  was  wisely  ordered  by  Providence,  seeing 
that  he  was  a  man  of  sedentary  habits  and  very  averse  to  the  idle  labor 
of  walking.  His  legs  were  very  short,  but  sturdy  in  proportion  to  the 
weight  they  had  to  sustain ;  so  that,  when  erect,  he  had  not  a  little  the 
appearance  of  a  beer  barrel  011  skids.  His  face — that  infallible  index  of 
the  mind — presented  a  vast  expanse,  unfurrowed  by  any  of  those  lines 
and  angles  which  disfigure  the  human  countenance  with  what  is  termed 
expression.  Two  small  gray  eyes  twinkled  feebly  in  the  midst,  like  two 
stars  of  lesser  magnitude  in  a  hazy  firmament ;  and  his  full-fed  cheeks, 
which  seemed  to  have  taken  toll  of  everything  that  went  into  his  mouth, 
were  curiously  mottled  and  streaked  with  dusky  red,  like  a  Spitzenberg 
apple.  His  habits  were  as  regular  as  his  person.  He  daily  took  his 
four  stated  meals,  appropriating  exactly  an  hour  to  each ;  he  smoked  and 
doubted  eight  hours,  and  he  slept  the  remaining  twelve  of  the  four-ami- 
twenty." 

Van  Twiller  ruled  the  province  seven  years,  and,  in  spite  of  his 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   YORK.  235 

stupidity,  it  prospered.  In  1633  Adam  Roelantsen,  the  first  school- 
master, arrived — for  the  fruitful  Walloons  had  opened  the  way  by  this 
time  for  his  labors — and  in  the  same  year  a  wooden  church  was  built  in 
the  present  Bridge  street,  and  placed  in  charge  of  the  famous  Dominie 
Everardus  Bogardus.  In  1635  the  fort,  which  marked  the  site  of  the 
present  Bowling  Greenj  and  which  had  been  begun  in  1614,  was  finished, 
and  in  the  same  year  the  first  English  settlers  at  New  Amsterdam  came 
into  the  town.  The  English  in  New  England  also  began  to  give  the 
Dutch  trouble  during  this  administration,  and  even  sent  a  ship  into 
"Hudson's  river"  to  trade  with  the  Indians.  Influenced  by  De  Vric.s, 
the  commander  of  the  fort,  the  governor  sent  an  expedition  up  the  river 
after  the  audacious  English  vessel,  seized  her,  brought  her  back  to  Xcw 
York,  and  sent  her  to  sea  with  a  warning  not  to  repeat  her  attempt. 
The  disputes  between  the  English  and  the  Dutch  about  the  Connecticut 
settlements  also  began  to  make  trouble  for  New  Amsterdam.  Van 
Twiller  possessed  no  influence  in  the  colony,  was  laughed  at  and  snubbed 
on  every  side,  and  was  at  length  recalled  by  the  company  in  1638.  The 
only  memorial  of  Van  Twiller  left  to  us  is  the  Isle  of  Nuts,  which  lies  in 
the  bay  between  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  and  which  he  purchased  as 
his  private  domain.  It  is  still  called  the  "  Governor's  Island." 

Van  Twiller  was  succeeded  by  William  Kieft,  a  man  of  greater  abili- 
ties, but  unscrupulous  and  avaricious.  He  had  become  a  bankrupt  in 
Holland,  and  hoped  to  find  in  America  the  means  of  restoring  his  for- 
tunes. His  administration  of  the  province  was  full  of  troubles,  the 
greater  part  of  which  were  due  to  his  recklessness  and  rapacity. 

The  colonists  were  forbidden  to  sell  fire-arms  to  the  Indians,  but  some 
of  the  traders  along  the  Hudson  had  violated  this  order,  and  it  was  esti- 
mated that  the  Mohawks  had  at  least  four  hundred  warriors  armed  with 
muskets.  They  were  willing  to  pay  large  prices  for  the  guns,  as  these 
weapons  enabled  them  to  meet  on  equal  terms  their  enemies,  the  Canada 
Indians,  who  had  been  arme^  by  the  French.  During  Van  Twiller's 
administration  the  colony  had  been  on  good  terms  with  the  Mohegans 
and  other  tribes  of  the  Algonquin  race,  who  were  generally  known  aa 
the  river  Indians.  Kieft,  soon.after  his  arrival,  demanded  of  them  the 
payment  of  a  tribute,  which  ne  pretended  he  had  been  ordered  by  the 
company  to  levy  upon  them.  They  refused  his  demand  with  contempt, 
and  from  this  time  the  friendship  which  they  had  entertained  for  the 
Dutch  began  to  disappear. 

A  year  or  two  later  the  Raritans,  a  tribe  living  on  the  river  of  thai 
name,  were  accused  of  stealing  some  hogs  from  the  colony.  The  aninui'.- 
had  been  taken  by  some  Dutch  traders;  but  Kieft,  instead  of  inves:'- 


£36  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

gating  the  matter,  sent  a  party  of  soldiers  among  the  Raritans  and 
destroyed  their  corn  and  killed  several  of  their  number.  The  savages 
determined  upon  revenge,  and  with  their  usual  unreasoning  fury  attacked 
the  settlement  which  De  Vries — who  was  always  a  friend  of  the  Indians 
— had  founded  on  Staten  island,  and  killed  four  men.  The  people  of 
the  colony  now  urged  the  governor  to  conciliate  the  savages  by  kind 
treatment,  but  he  refused  to  do  so.  Another  cause  of  trouble  soon  arose. 
Twenty  years  before  a  Dutch  trader  had  killed  an  Indian  chief  in  the 
presence  of  a  little  nephew  of  the  warrior.  That  child,  now  grown  to 
manhood,  came  into  the  colony  in  1641,  and  avenged  his  uncle  by  killing 
an  innocent  settler.  Kieft  ordered  the  Indians  to  surrender  the  young 
man  that  he  might  be  punished  for  his  crime ;  but  the  savages  refused  to 
give  him  up,  but  offered  to  ransom  him.  Kieft  refused  their  proposi- 
tion, and  the  matter  remained  an  open  source  of  trouble. 

With  the  hope  of  finding  a  remedy  for  the  Indian  difficulty,  the  people 
obtained  from  the  governor,  in  1642,  permission  to  hold  a  meeting  of  the 
heads  of  families  at  New  Amsterdam.  These  appointed  twelve  of  their 
number  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  This  was  the  first  repre- 
sentative assembly  of  New  Netherland,  and  its  career  was  short. 
Venturing  to  pass  beyond  the  Indian  question,  and  to  criticise  the 
administration  of  the  governor  in  other  matters,  it  was  dissolved. 

Near  the  end  of  the  year  1642  the  Mohawks  sent  a  band  of  warriors 
armed  with  muskets  to  demand  tribute  of  the  river  tribes.  These,  too 
weak  to  contend  with  their  enemies,  fled  to  the  Dutch  for  protection. 
Kieft  was  at  this  time  angry  with  the  Indians  for  refusing  to  surrender 
to  him  one  of  their  number  who  had  killed  a  Dutchman  who  had  made 
him  drunk  and  then  ill-treated  him,  and  he  resolved  to  take  a  signal 
vengeance  upon  them,  and  exterminate  them.  De  Vries,  to  whom  he 
communicated  his  plan,  remonstrated  with  him  in  the  hope  of  inducing 
him  to  abandon  it.  "  If  you  murder  these  poor  creatures  who  have  put 
themselves  under  your  protection,  you  will  involve  the  whole  colony  in 
ruin,  and  their  blood,  and  the  blood  of  your  own  people,  will  be  required 
at  your  hands,"  said  De  Vries.  Nothing,  however,  could  move  the 
governor  from  his  purpose. 

The  Indians  who  had  sought  the  protection  of  the  Datch  were 
encamped  with  the  Hackensack  tribe  just  above  Hoboken.  On  the  night 
of  the  25th  of  February  the  garrison  of  the  fort  at  New  Amsterdam, 
reinforced  by  the  crews  of  some  Dutch  privateers  in  the  river,  crossed 
the  Hudson  and  attacked  the  unsuspecting  savages.  Nearly  a  hundred 
were  killed,  and  when  the  morning  came  many  of  the  poor  wretches  were 
seen  crowding  along  the  shore  of  the  river  in  the  vain  attempt  to  cross 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  237 

over  to  their  supposed  friends  at  New  Amsterdam.  They  were  forced 
into  the  stream  and  drowned.  A  company  of  Indians,  trusting  to  the 
friendship  of  the  Dutch,  had  encamped  on  Manhattan  island,  near  the 
fort.  They  were  put  to  death  almost  to  a  man. 

The  massacre  was  regarded  by  the  colonists  with  horror  and  detesta- 
tion, and  they  took  no  part  in  the  joy  with  which  the  governor  greeted 
the  troops  on  their  return  from  their  bloody  work.  He  was  not  allowed 
to  rejoice  long,  however.  When  it  became  known  among  the  Algon- 
qutns  that  their  brethren  had  been  murdered,  not  by  the  Mohawks,  but 
by  the  Dutch,  every  tribe  took  up  the  hatchet  to  avenge  them,  and  a 
general  warfare  began  along  the  entire  line  of  the  Dutch  settlements. 
Several  villages  were  destroyed,  and  a  number  of  settlers  were  murdered 
or  carried  into  captivity.  The  colony  was  threatened  with  ruin,  and 
Kiefl  was  obliged  to  open  negotiations  for  peace.  It  was  in  this  war 
that  Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson  and  her  family,  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
territory  of  the  Dutch,  were  murdered  by  the  savages. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1643,  a  conference  was  held  at  Rockaway 
between  sixteen  Indian  chiefs  and  De  Vries  and  two  other  envoys  from 
the  colony.  One  of  the  principal  sachems  arose,  holding  in  his  hands  a 
bundle  of  small  sticks.  "  When  you  first  arrived  on  our  shores,"  said 
the  Indian,  addressing  the  whites,  "you  were  destitute  of  food.  We 
gave  you  our  beans  and  our  corn ;  we  fed  you  with  oysters  and  fish ;  and 
now,  for  our  recompense,  you  murder  our  people."  He  then  laid  down 
one  of  the  little  sticks  and  proceeded :  "  The  traders  whom  your  first 
ships  left  on  our  shores  to  traffic  till  their  return,  were  cherished  by  us 
as  the  apple  of  our  eye.  We  gave  them  our  daughters  for  their  wives. 
Among  those  whom  you  have  murdered  were  children  of  your  own 
blood."  "  I  know  all,"  said  De  Vries,  interrupting  his  recital  of  wrongs. 
He  then  invited  the  chiefs  to  go  with  him  to  the  fort.  They  accom- 
panied him  to  New  Amsterdam,  where  presents  were  exchanged  and  a 
treaty  of  peace  negotiated.  The  younger  warriors  were  not  satisfied. 
Kieft's  presents  w^ere  niggardly.  They  were  not  regarded  by  the 
savages  as  a  sufficient  compensation  for  the  wrongs  they  had  suffered, 
and  the  war  was  renewed. 

The  leader  of  the  Dutch  in  this  campaign  was  Captain  John  Under- 
bill, who  had  served  in  the  Pequod  war  in  New  England,  and  had 
removed  to  New  Amsterdam  in  consequence  of  having  been  made  to  do 
penance  in  public  at  Boston  in  1640.  The  war  continued  for  two  years, 
and  though  the  colony  suffered  severely,  the  Dutch  were  able  to  inflict 
such  heavy  losses  upon  the  savages  that  the  latter  were  at  length  as 
anxious  for  peace  as  the  whites.  Sixteen  hundred  of  the  Indians  had 


238  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

fallen,  but  the  colony  had  been  brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin,  and  the 
population  of  New  Amsterdam  was  reduced  to  one  hundred  souls.  On 
the  30th  of  August,  1645,  the  chiefs  of  'V  Algonquins  and  a  deputation 
from  their  old  enemies,  the  Mohawks,  who  came  as  mediators,  met  the 
whites  on  the  spot  now  known  as  the  Battery,  and  concluded  a  peace. 

The  close  of  the  war  was  hailed  with  rejoicings  throughout  the  colony, 
Kieft  was  regarded  with  universal  hatred  as  the  author  of  the  terrible 
suffering  of  the  struggle,  and  his  barbarous  conduct  was  censured  and 
disavowed  by  the  company,  and  he  was  recalled.  Hated  throughout  the 
colony  he  at  length  determined  to  return  to  Europe.  Freighting  a  ves- 
sel with  his  ill-gotten  gains  he  sailed  from  Manhattan  in  1647.  As  he 
neared  the  shores  of  the  old  world  his  ship  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Wales,  and  all  on  board  perished. 

Kieft,  in  the  vain  hope  of  conciliating  the  people,  appointed,  imme- 
diately after  the  close  of  the  war,  a  new  municipal  council  of  eight 
members.  The  first  act  of  this  council  was  to  demand  of  the  States 
General  of  Holland  the  removal  of  Kieft.  Their  demand  was  complied 
with,  as  we  have  seen,  and  in  1647  Peter  Stuyvesant  was  made  governor 
of  New  Netherlands,  and  reached  New  Amsterdam  in  the  same  year. 

Stuyvesant  was  essentially  a  strong  man.  A  soldier  by  education  and 
of  long  experience,  he  was  accustomed  to  regard  rigid  discipline  as  the 
one  thing  needful  in  every  relation  of  life,  and  he  was  not  slow  to  intro- 
duce that  system  into  his  government  of  New  Amsterdam.  He  had 
served  gallantly  in  the  wars  against  the  Portuguese,  and  had  lost  a  leg  in 
one  of  his  numerous  encounters  with  them.  He  was  as  vain  as  a  pea- 
cock, as  fond  of  display  as  a  child,  and  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  most 
aristocratic  ideas — qualities  not  exactly  the  best  for  a  governor  of  New 
Amsterdam.  Yet  he  was,  with  all  his  faults,  an  honest  man,  he  had 
deeply  at  heart  the  interests  of  the  colony,  and  his  administration  was 
mainly  a  prosperous  one. 

He  energetically  opposed  from  the  first  all  manifestations  in  favor  of 
popular  government.  His  will  was  to  be  the  law  of  the  province.  "  If 
any  one,"  said  he,  "  during  my  administration  shall  appeal,  I  will  make 
him  a  foot  shorter,  and  send  the  pieces  to  Holland,  and  let  him  appeal  in 
that  way."  He  went  to  work  with  vigor  to  reform  matters  in  the  colony, 
extending  his  efforts  to  even  the  morals  and  domestic  affairs  of  the  people. 
He  soon  brought  about  a  reign  of  material  prosperity  greater  than  had 
ever  been  known  before,  and  exerted  himself  to  check  the  encroachments 
Df  the  English  on  the  east,  and  the  Swedes  on  the  south.  He  inaugu- 
rated a  policy  of  kindness  and  justice  toward  the  Indians,  and  soon 
changed  their  enmity  to  sincere  friendship.  One  thing,  however,  he 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   YORK.  239 

dared  not  do — he  could  not  levy  taxes  upon  the  people  without  their  con- 
sent, for  fear  of  offending  the  States  General  of  Holland.  This  forced 
him  to  appoint  a  council  of  nine  prominent  citizens,  and,  although  he 
endeavored  to  hedge  round  their  powers  by  numerous  conditions,  the  nine 
ever  afterwards  served  as  a  salutary  check  upon  the  action  of  the 
governor. 

The  English  in. Connecticut  made  great  efforts  to  extend  their  terri- 
tories westward  at  the  expense  of  New  Netherland,  and  gave  Stuyvesant 
no  little  annoyance  by  their  aggressions.  During  his  administration  the 
colony  received  large  accessions  of  English  emigrants  from  New  England, 
who  came  to  New  Netherland  "to  enjoy  that  liberty  denied  to  them  by 
their  own  countrymen."  They  settled  in  New  Amsterdam,  on  Long 
island,  and  in  Westchester  county.  Being  admitted  to  an  equality  with 
the  Dutch  settlers  they  exercised  considerable  influence  in  the  affairs  of 
the  colony,  and  towards  the  close  of  his  administration  gave  the  governor 
considerable  trouble  by  their  opposition  to  his  despotic  acts.  Stuyvesant 
entered  into  an  arrangement  with  Connecticut  for  the  proper  adjustment 
of  the  boundaries  of  the  two  colonies,  and  left  the  English  in  possession 
of  half  of  Long  island. 

Upon  his  removal  from  his  place  as  governor  of  New  Amsterdam 
Peter  Minuits  offered  his  services  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden, 
who  was  anxious  to  found  in  America  a  colony  which  might  prove  a 
place  of  refuge  for  the  persecuted  Protestants  of  Europe.  The  offer  was 
accepted  by  the  king,  and  the  shores  of  the  Delaware  were  chosen  as  the 
site  of  the  new  settlement.  Near  the  close  of  1637  a  little  company  of 
Swedes  and  Fins  embarked  in  two  vessels  under  the  direction  of  Minuits, 
and  sailed  for  America.  The  Delaware  was  reached  early  in  1638,  and 
the  new-comers  purchased  from  the  natives  the  country  on  the  west  side 
of  the  river  from  Cape  Henlopen  to  Trenton.  A  fort  was  built  within 
the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Delaware,  on  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Wilmington,  and  named  Fort  Christiana,  in  honor  of  the  youth- 
ful queen  of  Sweden,  the  daughter  of  Gustavus. 

Kieft,  the  Dutch  governor  of  New  Netherland,  protested  against  this 
occupation  of  the  country  by  the  Swedes,  as  Holland  claimed  the  region 
along  the  Delaware.  Sweden  was  too  formidable  a  power  for  her  colony 
to  be  attacked,  however,  and  Kieft  contented  himself  with  his  protest. 
Fresh  emigrants  came  out  from  Scandinavia,  and  New  Sweden  grew 
rapidly.  The  Dutch  fort  Nassau  was  renewed,  but  the  Swedes  succeeded 
in  maintaining  their  ascendency  along  the  Delaware  in  spite  of  it.  Their 
plantations  were  extended  along  the  river,  and  the  smallest  of  the  Ameri- 
can commonwealths  was  permanently  settled  by  Europeans. 


240  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

When  Stuyvesant  was  made  governor  of  New  Netherland  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company  resolved  to  enforce  their  claim  to  Delaware,  and 
in  1651  built  Fort  Casimir  on  the  site  of  Newcastle.  The  Swedes 
regarded  this  as  an  encroachment  upon  their  domain,  and  in  1654  eap- 
tured  the  fort.  Upon  the  receipt  of  this  news  the  Dutch  Company  in- 
dignantly ordered  Stuyvesant  "  to  drive  the  Swedes  from  the  river,  or 
compel  their  submission."  In  September,  1655,  Stuyvesant,  with  a  force 
of  six  hundred  men,  sailed  from  Manhattan  into  the  Delaware.  The 
Swedish  forts  were  compelled  to  surrender  one  after  another,  and  the 
colonists  were  forced  to  submit  to  the  establishment  of  the  rule  of  the 
Dutch.  They  were  allowed  to  retain  their  possessions,  and  on  the  whok 
were  treated  well.  Many  of  them,  however,  were  dissatisfied  with  their 
new  rulers,  and  in  the  next  few  years  emigrated  to  Maryland  and 
Virginia. 

The  territory  now  included  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey  was  also 
claimed  by  the  Dutch.  They  built  Fort  Nassau  on  the  Delaware  to 
establish  this  claim,  but  the  Swedes  were  the  first  to  settle  the  country. 
Soon  after,  establishing  themselves  in  Delaware,  they  crossed  over  to  the 
eastern  side  of  the  river,  and  built  a  line  of  trading-posts  extending  from 
Cape  May  to  Burlington. 

New  Amsterdam  continued  to  prosper,  and  was  even  at  this  early  day 
rapidly  becoming  an  important  commercial  town.  Stuyvesant's  arbitrary 
temper  was  held  in  check  to  a  considerable  extent  by  the  more  liberal 
policy  of  the  company,  who  sincerely  desired  the  prosperity  of  the  colony. 
"  Let  every  peaceful  citizen,"  wrote  the  directors,  "  enjoy  freedom  of  con- 
science ;  this  maxim  has  made  our  city  the  asylum  for  fugitives  from 
every  land ;  tread  in  its  steps,  and  you  shall  be  blessed."  The  infant 
metropolis  from  the  first  acquired  a  cosmopolitan  character.  It  contained 
settlers  from  every  nation  of  Europe,  and  even  from  Africa;  for  the 
Dutch  at  an  early  day  introduced  negro  slavery  into  the  colony. 

The  people  of  New  Netherland  had  no  political  rights,  and  the  West 
India  Company,  with  every  disposition  to  treat  the  colony  with  fairness, 
did  not  mean  to  allow  the  settlers  to  have  any  voice  in  governing  them- 
selves. Town  meetings  were  positively  forbidden,  and  every  care  was 
taken  to  discourage  any  manifestation  of  public  spirit.  Nevertheless  the 
colonists  were  beginning  to  feel  the  promptings  of  the  spirit  of  democracy, 
and  the  English  settlers  who  had  come  into  the  province  were  by  no 
means  content  to  remain  without  the  privileges  of  freemen.  A  series  of 
disputes  at  once  arose  with  the  fiery  old  governor,  who  entertained  the 
most  profound  contempt  for  the  people,  and  laughed  in  scorn  at  the  asser- 
tion of  their  ability  to  govern  themselves. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  24i 

The  discontents  went  on  increasing,  however,  and  at  length  the  people 
appointed  a  convention  of  two  delegates  from  each  settlement  for  the 
purpose  of  deliberating  on  the  affairs  of  the  colony.  Stuyvesant  was 
bitterly  opposed  to  this  assembly,  but  deemed  it  best  not  to  seek  to  pre- 
vent its  meeting,  as  such  a  step  would  have  brought  about  a  collision  with 
the  people.  The  convention  addressed  the  governor  as  follows:  "The 
States  General  of  the  United  Provinces  are  our  liege  lords ;  we  submit  to 
the  laws  of  the  United  Provinces ;  and  our  rights  and  privileges  ought 
to  be  in  harmony  with  those  of  the  fatherland,  for  we  are  a  member  of 
the  state,  and  not  a  subjugated  people.  We,  who  have  come  together 
from  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  are  a  blended  community  of  various 
lineage ;  we,  who  have,  at  our  own  expense,  exchanged  our  native  lands 
for  the  protection  of  the  United  Provinces ;  we,  who  have  transformed 
the  wilderness  into  fruitful  farms,  demand  that  no  new  laws  shall  be 
enacted  but  with  the  consent  of  the  people ;  that  none  shall  be  appointed 
to  office  but  with  the  approbation  of  the  people ;  that  obscure  and  obso- 
lete laws  shall  never  be  revived."  This  was  too  much  for  the  governor. 
He  attempted  to  reason  with  the  deputies,  who  had  the  temerity  to  de- 
mand the  right  of  self-government,  and  finding  them  firm  dissolved  the 
convention  with  the  haughty  declaration :  "  We  derive  our  authority 
from  God  and  the  West  India  Company,  not  from  the  pleasure  of  a  few 
ignorant  subjects."  The  West  India  Company  entirely  approved  the 
course  of  the  governor.  "We  approve  the  taxes  you  propose,"  they 
wrote  to  Stuyvesant ;  "  have  no  regard  to  the  consent  of  the  people.  Let 
them  indulge  no  longer  the  visionary  dream  that  taxes  can  be  imposed 
only  with  their  consent." 

Neither  the  company  nor  the  governor  could  understand  that  this  per- 
sistent disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  people  was  alienating  all  classes  of 
the  colonists,  and  making  them  long  for  the  conquest  of  New  Netherland 
by  the  English  as  the  only  means  of  obtaining  the  privileges  of  the  free- 
men of  the  English  colonies. 

Nor  was  this  an  idle  hope.  For  a  long  time  past  the  English  govern- 
ment had  seriously  entertained  the  idea  of  driving  out  the  Dutch,  and 
adding  New  Netherland  to  its  American  possessions.  The  English  claim 
extended  to  the  entire  Atlantic  coast  as  far  south  as  Florida,  and  tho 
Dutch  were  regarded  as  intruders.  Cromwell  and  his  son  had  each  con- 
templated making  such  an  effort,  and  at  the  return  of  Charles  II.  to  the 
throne  the  plan  was  more  seriously  discussed,  and  at  length  put  in  opera- 
tion. Charles,  although  at  peace  with  Holland,  and  in  spite  of  the 
charter  which  he  had  granted  to  Connecticut,  bestowed  upon  his  brother, 
the  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  James  II.,  the  entire  region  between  the 
Id 


242 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK. 


243 


Connecticut  and  Delaware  rivers.  This  was  in  February,  1664.  A 
squadron  was  at  once  fitted  out  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  the  Dutch 
colony,  and  was  placed  in  command  of  Richard  Nicolls,  an  officer  of  the 
Duke  of  York's  household.  The  fleet  touched  at  Boston  to  land  the 
commissioners  sent  out  by  Charles  to  the  New  England  colonies,  and  to 
receive  reinforcements.  Governor  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  also  em- 
barked on  board  of  it. 

The  first  intimation  Stuyvesant  had  of  the  intended  robbery  was  the 
appearance  of  the  fleet  within  the  Narrows  on  the  28th  of  August,  1664. 


THE  CITY   HALL   PARK,   NEW  YORK,   IN   1875. 

The  next  day  Nicolls  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  town  and  fort  of 
Xew  Amsterdam.  Stuyvesant,  who  had  made  preparations  for  defend- 
ing the  place,  endeavored  to  resist  the  demand,  but  the  citizens  refused  to 
sustain  him,  and  he  was  obliged  to  submit.  On  the  8th  of  September  he 
embarked  his  troops  for  Holland,  and  put  to  sea.  The  English  at  once 
took  possession  of  the  fort  and  town,  and  their  vessels  ascending  the 
Hudson,  received  the  submission  of  the  other  Dutch  forts  and  settlements 
along  the  river.  A  few  weeks  later  the  Dutch  and  the  Swedes  along  the 
Delaware  submitted  to  the  English,  and  the  entire  province  was  m  their 


244  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

hands.  The  name  of  New  Amsterdam  was  changed  to  New  York,  which 
name  was  also  bestowed  upon  the  province,  and  Fort  Orange  was  called 
Albany,  all  in  honor  of  the  new  proprietor.  Nicolls  was  appointed 
governor. 

.  The  English  set  themselves  to  work  to  conciliate  the  Dutch  residents, 
JL  task  not  very  difficult,  as  the  English  settlers  in  the  province  had 
already  prepared  the  way  for  the  change,  and  the  treatment  the  colony 
had  received  from  the  West  India  Company  had  prevented  the  formation 
of  any  decided  attachment  to  the  rule  of  Holland.  The  English  system 
of  government  was  introduced,  the  towns  were  allowed  to  elect  their  own 
magistrates,  and  the  desires  of  the  people  for  representative  government 
seemed  about  to  be  gratified. 

The  Mohawks  had  been  the  friends  of  the  Dutch,  and  they  now  readily 
entered  into  r.n  alliance  with  the  English  as  their  successors.  This  alli- 
ance remained  unbroken  all  through  the  colonial  period,  and  during  the 
war  of  the  Revolution;  and  in  the  first-named  period  proved  of  the 

greatest  advantage  to  the  colonies, 
as  the  Mohawks,  whose  hatred  of 
the  French  was  deep  and  unre- 
lenting, proved  a  formidable  ob- 
§^  stacle  in  the  way  of  invading  par- 
ties from  Canada. 

Immediately  upon  becoming 
master  of  the  province  the  Duke 
of  York  proceeded  to  divide  it.  He  sold  to  Lord  Berkeley  and  Sir 
George  Cartaret,  both  of  whom  were  already  proprietaries  of  Carolina, 
the  country  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware.  This  purchase  was 
named  New  Jersey,  in  honor  of  the  island  of  Jersey,  of  which  Cartaret 
was  governor,  and  corresponded  in  size  very  nearly  to  the  present  State 
of  that  name.  The  new  proprietors  made  liberal  offers  to  induce  emi- 
grants to  settle  in  their  territory,  and  among  other  things  offered  them 
lands  free  of  rent  for  five  years.  They  planted  to  the  province  a  politi- 
cal establishment  consisting  of  a  governor,  a  council,  and  assembly  of 
representatives  of  the  people,  who  were  given  the  power  to  make  the 
laws  necessary  for  their  government.  The  proprietors  reserved  the  right 
to  appoint  the  governor  and  judicial  officers,  and  to  veto  the  proceedings 
of  the  assembly.  Negro  slavery  was  also  introduced.  These  offers  drew 
a  large  number  of  settlers  to  New  Jersey,  and  many  families  came  over 
from  Long  island  to  the  new  province.  The  principal  settlement  was 
named  Elizabethtown,  in  honor  of  Cartaret's  wife.  The  colony  pros- 
pered ;  no  trouble  was  experienced  from  the  neighboring  Indians,  whose 


COAT   OF  AKMS  OF   NEW   JEKSKY. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  245 

power  had  been  thoroughly  broken  by  the  Dutch,  and  everything  went 
on  happily  until  the  year  1670,  when  the  proprietaries  demanded  the 
rents  due  for  the  lands  held  by  the  settlers.  The  demand  was  refused. 
Many  of  tlie  colonists  had  lived  in  the  province  under  the  rule  of  the 
Dutch,  and  had  bought  their  lands  from  the  Indians,  and  they  claimed 
that  the  grant  of  the  province  to  Cartaret  could  not  invalidate  these  pur- 
chases, as  the  king  had  no  claim  to  the  lands  which  he  so  lavishly 
bestowed  upon  his  favorites.  Others  refused  to  pay  rent  because 
they  had  made  their  plantations  without  any  assistance  from  the 
proprietaries,  and  did  not  acknowledge  any  debt  to  them.  The 
representative  of  the  proprietaries  was  obliged  to  fly  from  New  Jersey 
for  safety,  and  went  to  England  to  obtain  assistance  in  enforcing  his 
demands. 

The  Duke  of  York  heard  the  complaints  of  the  proprietaries,  but  the 
only  attention  he  paid  to  them  was  to  appoint  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  who 
subsequently  became  infamous  for  his  tyranny  in  New  England,  gov- 
ernor of  New  Jersey.  This  was  a  flagrant  violation  of  the  rights  of 
Cartaret  and  Berkeley,  and  an  act  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  last 
of  the  Stuarts.  Berkeley  in  disgust  sold  his  half  of  the  province,  known 
as  West  Jersey,  to  an  English  Quaker  named  Edward  Byllinge,  who 
subsequently  made  over  his  claim  to  William  Penn,  who  made  an 
arrangement  with  Cartaret  to  divide  the  Jerseys.  Cartaret  retained  East 
Jersey,  and  the  line  of  division  was  drawn  from  the  northwest  corner  of 
the  province  to  the  sea  at  Little  Egg  harbor.  This  purchase  became  the 
cause  of  considerable  litigation  in  after  years,  and  West  Jersey  was 
claimed  by  Pennsylvania  until  the  next  century,  when,  as  we  shall  see, 
the  dispute  was  settled. 

New  Jersey  received  a  considerable  accession  to  her  population  in  con- 
sequence of  the  re-establishment  of  episcopacy  in  Scotland.  The  Cam- 
eronians  or  Covenanters  refused  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  the  church, 
and  thus  became  the  objects  of  a  cruel  persecution.  As  so  many  of  their 
faith  had  done  before  them,  they  sought  refuge  from  their  persecutors  in 
America,  and  in  1683  and  the  following  years  large  numbers  of  them 
came  over  and  settled  in  East  Jersey.  This  portion  of  the  State  was 
the  cradle,  as  it  is  now  one  of  the  strongholds,  of  Presbyterianism  in 
America. 

In  the  meantime  matters  in  New  York  had  not  been  conducted  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  people.  The  promises  made  to  the  colonists  by  the 
English  authorities  were  not  kept.  The  province  was  treated  as  tha 
absolute  property  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  governor  and  his  council 
were  constituted  the  highest  authority  for  both  the  making  and  exe- 


246 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UXITED  STATES. 


cution  of  the  laws.  Representative  government  was  denied  them, 
arbitrary  taxes  were  imposed  by  Governor  Nicolls,  and  the  titles  to  the 
lands  held  by  the  settlers,  not  even  excepting  the  Dutch  patents,  were  de- 
clared invalid,  in  order  that  by  issuing  new  title-deeds  Nicolls  might  gain 
*nortnous  fees.  Lovelace,  the  successor  of  Nicolls,  carried  his  tyranny  to 


BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK,  IN  1875. 


a  still  greater  extent.  His  system  of  government  is  thus  summed  up: 
"The  method  for  keeping  the  people  in  order  is  severity, and  laying  such 
taxes  as  may  give  them  liberty  for  no  thought  but  'how  to  discharge 
them."  When  the  people  of  a  number  of  the  towns  ventured  to  remon- 
strate with  the  governor,  he  ordered  their  petition  for  the  redress  of  their 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  247 

grievances  to  be  publicly  burned  before  the  town  house  in  New  York. 
The  settlements  in  Delaware  were  treated  with  equal  injustice. 

In  1673,  war  having  broken  out  between  Holland  and  England,  a 
Dutch  squadron  entered  the  harbor  of  New  York.  The  people,  thor- 
oughly cured  of  their  partiality  for  English  rule  by  the  injustice  they 
had  suffered,  made  no  resistance  and  surrendered  the  town.  Its  name 
was  changed  to  New  Orange,  and  the  authority  of  the  Dutch  was  again 
extended  over  the  province,  and  also  over  Long  island,  New  Jersey  and 
Delaware.  The  Mohawks  sent  a  deputation  of  their  chiefs  to  congratu- 
late the  Dutch  upon  the  recovery  of  their  colony.  The  next  year,  how- 
ever, peace  was  made  between  England  and  Holland,  and  the  Dutch 
surrendered  their  conquests  in  America.  New  York  passed  once  more 
into  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  York,  and  East  Jersey  into  those  of 
Cartaret. 

In  the  same  year  the  Duke  of  York  appointed  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
governor  of  New  York.  The  eastern  settlements  of  Long  island  were 
anxious  to  adhere  to  Connecticut,  but  the  governor  compelled  them  on 
pain  of  being  declared  rebels  to  acknowledge  themselves  a  part  of  New 
York.  The  claim  of  the  duke  extended  within  the  limits  of  Connecticut 
as  far  as  the  river  of  that  name,  and  in  the  summer  of  1675  Andros 
sailed  with  several  armed  sloops  for  that  colony  to  establish  his  authority 
as  far  as  the  river.  The  government  of  Connecticut,  warned  of  his 
purpose,  determined  to  resist  him,  and  Captain  Bull,  the  commander  of 
the  fort  at  Saybrooke,  was  ordered  to  pay  no  attention  to  his  claim. 
Andros,  arriving-  off  Saybrooke,  hoisted  the  royal  standard  and  demanded 
the  surrender  of  the  fort.  Bull  instantly  ran  up  the  English  colors,  and 
refused  to  comply  with  the  demand.  Andros,  who  was  a  coward  at 
heart,  quailed  before  the  firmness  of  the  Connecticut  captain,  and  aban- 
doned his  undertaking  and  sailed  for  Long  island.  Thus  ended  the 
attempt  of  the  Duke  of  York  to  dismember  Connecticut.  Andros  re- 
turned to  New  York  to  disgust  the  people  of  that  province  with  his 
tyranny. 

When  James  II.  became  king  he  compelled  the  proprietaries  of  New 
Jersey  to  surrender  their  claim  to  the  jurisdiction  of  that  province  to 
him,  and  annexed  it  to  New  York.  In  1683  the  grievances  of  the  people 
of  New  York  had  become  so  unendurable  that  James,  then  Duke  of 
York,  deemed  it  best  to  conciliate  them,  and  allowed  the  freeholders  to 
send  representatives  to  an  assembly.  This  assembly  met  in  October, 
1683,  and  its  first  act  was  to  demand  the  rights  of  Englishmen.  "Su- 
preme legislative  power,"  they  declared,  "  shall  forever  be  and  reside  i» 
the  governor,  council,  and  people,  met  in  general  assembly.  Every  free- 


248  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

holder  and  freeman  shall  vote  for  representation  without  restraint.  No 
freeman  shall  suffer  but  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers;  and  all  trials  shall 
be  by  a  jury  of  twelve  men.  No  tax  shall  be  assessed,  on  any  pretence 
whatever,  but  by  the  consent  of  the  assembly.  No  seaman  or  soldier 
shall  be  quartered  on  the  inhabitants  against  their  will.  No  martial  law 
shall  exist.  No  person  professing  faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ  shall  at 
any  time  be  any  ways  disquieted  or  questioned  for  any  difference  of 
opinion."  These  privileges  were  conceded  by  the  Duke  of  York,  who 
solemnly  promised  not  to  change  them  except  for  the  advantage  of  the 
colony ;  but  he  had  scarcely  become  king  when  he  overturned  the  liberties 
he  had  conceded  and  made  New  York  a  royal  province,  dependent  en- 
tirely upon  his  unrestrained  will  for  its  privileges. 

The  people  of  New  York  were  Protestants,  many  of  whom  had  had 
cause  to  dread  the  restoration  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in  England. 
When  James  gave  evidence  of  his  intention  to  compel  the  acceptance  of 
that  faith  by  all  his  subjects,  the  colonies  included,  they  were  greatly  dis- 
contented. Their  fears  were  increased  by  the  appointment  by  the  king 
of  a  Roman  Catholic  as  collector  of  customs  at  New  York.  Nicholson, 
the  royal  governor,  was  also  exceedingly  unpopular.  As  soon  as  the  news 
of  the  overthrow  of  James  II.  in  England  reached  New  York,  Jacob 
Leisler,  the  senior  captain  of  the  military  companies,  was  requested  by  his 
men  to  take  possession  of  the  fort  and  assume  the  management  of  affairs 
until  the  government  should  be  settled  by  the  orders  of  King  William. 
Leisler  was  a  prominent  merchant  and  was  very  popular  with  the  common 
people,  but  he  was  opposed  by  the  great  land-holders,  who  were  princi- 
pally Dutch,  and  by  the  party  devoted  to  the  Church  of  England.  He 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  about  five  hundred  armed  men,  and  taking 
possession  of  the  fort  avowed  his  intention  to  hold  it  until  the  will  of 
King  William  should  be  known.  He  was  sustained  by  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  of  New  York,  but  the  aristocratic  party,  and  the  church- 
men, who  hated  him,  as  he  was  a  Presbyterian,  denounced  him  as  a  rebel, 
and  sustained  the  council  of  Nicholson,  the  last  governor  appointed  by 
King  James,  which  withdrew  to  Albany  m  August,  1689. 

Leisler  appointed  his  son-in-law,  Milbourne,  his  secretary.  Later  in 
the  year  the  people  of  Albany,  being  in  danger  of  an  attack  from  the 
French  from  Canada,  asked  aid  from  New  York.  Leisler  sent  Mil- 
bourne  with  a  body  of  troops  to  their  assistance,  but  the  old  council 
refused  to  acknowledge  his  authority,  or  to  allow  him  to  assume  the 
command  of  the  fort,  and  he  went  back  with  his  men  to  New  York, 
leaving  the  people  of  Albany  to  depend  upon  their  own  exeitions  for  the 
defeat  of  the  French.  In  their  necessity  they  asked  for  and  received  aid 
from  Connecticut. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW  YORK.  249 

In  December  letters  from  the  English  government  were  received, 
addressed  to  Nicholson,  or,  in  his  absence,  to  "  such  as,  for  the  time  being, 
take  care  for  preserving  the  peace  and  administering  the  law  "  in  New 
York.  A  commission  for  Nicholson  accompanied  these  documents ;  but 
he  was  on  his  way  to  England,  and  Leisler,  who  was  temporarily  in 
authority  in  New  York,  regarded  his  position  as  confirmed  by  the  letters 
from  England,  and  caused  himself  to  be  proclaimed  governor.  He 
ordered  the  members  of  the  old  council  at  Albany  to  be  arrested,  and 
summoned  an  assembly  to  provide  for  the  wants  of  the  colony. 

Upon  first  taking  charge  of  affairs  Leisler  had  addressed  a  letter  to  King 
William  setting  forth  his  reasons  for  his  action,  and  asking  the  king  to 
make  known  his  royal  pleasure  concerning  the  colony.  No  answer  was 
sent  by  the  king  to  this  communication,  but  on  the  30th  of  January,  1691, 
a  ship  suddenly  arrived  in  the  harbor  having  on  board  a  company  of 
English  soldiers,  commanded  by  a  Captain  Ingoldsby,  who  had  been  sent 
by  Colonel  Henry  Sloughter,  whom  King  William  had  appointed 
governor  of  New  York.  The  aristocratic  party  at  once  rallied  around 
Ingoldsby  as  their  leader,  and  that  officer  demanded  of  Leisler  the  sur- 
render of  the  fort.  Leisler  insisted  that  he  should  produce  his  authority 
for  such  a  demand,  and,  as  none  could  be  shown,  refused  to  give  up  the 
fort,  but  offered  Ingoldsby  every  assistance  for  himself  and  his  men,  and 
avowed  his  intention  to  submit  to  Sloughter  upon  his  arrival.  In  the 
time  which  elapsed  between  the  arrivals  of  Ingoldsby  and  the  new  gov- 
ernor party  spirit  ran  so  high  that  a  collision  occurred  between  the  soldiers 
and  the  people,  in  which  one  man  was  wounded. 

Sloughter  reached  New  York  on  the  19th  of  March,  1691.  Leisler  at 
once  sent  messengers  to  receive  his  orders,  but  the  messengers  were 
detained.  The  next  morning  Leisler  addressed  a  letter  to  Sloughter, 
asking  to  whom  he  should  deliver  up  the  fort.  Sloughter  returned  no 
answer  to  this  letter,  but  ordered  Ingoldsby  to  "  arrest  Leisler  and  the 
persons  called  his  council." 

Leisler,  Milbournc,  and  six  others  were  arrested  and  immediately 
arraigned  before  a  tribunal  composed  of  their  inveterate  enemies,  on  a 
charge  of  treason.  This  was  a  frivolous  pretence,  for  it  was  well  known 
that  Leisler,  who  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  King  William,  had 
never  dreamed  of  denying  his  authority ;  but  it  was  as  good  a  charge  as 
any  other,  as  the  fate  of  the  prisoners  was  decided  from  the  first.  The 
prisoners  denied  the  authority  of  the  court,  and  refusing  to  plead  before 
it,  appealed  to  the  king.  The  presiding  officer  of  the  court  was  the 
chief  justice  of  New  York,  the  infamous  Joseph  Dudley,  who  had  been 
driven  out  of  New  England  by  the  people  whose  liberties  he  had  out- 


250  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

raged.     The   prisoners,  in   spite  of  their   appeal,  were  condemned   to 
death.     • 

Sloughter  was  unwilling  to  disregard  their  appeal  as  entirely  as  the 
court  had  done,  and  wished  to  leave  the  matter  to  the  king ;  but  the 
enemies  of  Leisler  were  resolved  upon  his  death.  Taking  advantage  of 
the  known  weakness  of  the  governor,  they  made  him  drunk  at  a  dinner 
party,  and  in  this  state  induced  him  to  sign  the  death  warrant  of  the 
prisoners.  The  next  morning  at  daybreak  (May  16th)  Leisler  and  Mil- 
bourne  were  hurried  from  their  weeping  families  to  the  gallows.  In 
spite  of  a  pouring  rain,  the  people  who  had  gotten  news  of  the  tragedy 
crowded  around  the  place  of  execution  to  cheer  their  martyrs  in  their 
last  moments.  "  Weep  not  for  us,  who  are  departing  to  our  God,"  said 
Leisler  to  the  multitude.  Milbourne  saw  standing  among  the  crowd  one 
of  the  men  who  had  been  prominent  in  their  condemnation,  and  cried  out 
to  him  :  "  Robert  Livingston,  I  will  implead  thee  for  this  at  the  bar  of 
God."  Then  turning  to  the  people,  he  said :  "  I  die  for  the  king  and 
queen,  and  for  the  Protestant  religion,  in  which  I  was  born  and  bred. 
Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  The  judicial  murder  was 
then  completed,  and  New  York's  first  martyrs  laid  down  their  lives  in 
behalf  of  the  rights  of  the  people. 

The  popular  party  was  now  more  than  ever  embittered  against  the 
aristocratic  class,  and  the  principles  which  Leisler  and  Milbourne  upheld 
were  more  than  ever  insisted  upon.  Their  friends,  "  who  were  distin- 
guished always  by  their  zeal  for  popular  power,  for  toleration,  for  opposi- 
tion to  the  doctrine  of  legitimacy,"  continued  the  struggle,  and  at  length 
succeeded  in  making  their  principles  the  law  of  the  colony. 

The  royalist  assembly,  while  denying  to  the  people  an  equality  with 
themselves  in  political  matters,  were  yet  indisposed  to  surrender  to  the 
crown  the  independence  of  the  colony,  and,  with  their  successors,  insisted 
upon  the  right  of  self-government,  and  the  regulation  of  taxation  by  the 
assembly,  with  such  firmness  that  in  1705  Queen  Anne  yielded  so  far  as 
to  permit  the  assembly  to  appoint  "  its  own  treasurer  to  take  charge  of 
extraordinary  supplies." 

The  memory  of  Leisler  and  Milbourne  was  vindicated  after  their 
death.  The  son  of  the  former  made  the  appeal  to  the  king  which  had 
been  denied  his  father,  and  Parliament  at  length  reversed  the  attainder 
under  the  charge  of  treason,  and  restored  their  estates  to  their  families. 
Dudley  exerted  all  his  arts  to  prevent  this  act  of  justice.  As  for  Governor 
Sloughter,  who  was  at  the  best  but  a  poor  weak  adventurer,  he  died  of  the 
effects  of  his  dissipation  six  months  after  the  execution  of  his  victims. 

Iii  1692  Benjamin  Fletcher  was  appointed  to  succeed  Sloughter.     He 


SETTLEMENT  OF  NEW   YORK. 


251 


was  an  officer  of  the  royal  army,  and  was  as  passionate  and  avaricious  as 
ho  was  incompetent  in  other  respects.  He  was  a  firm  ally  of  the  aris- 
tocratic party,  and  a  bitter  foe  to  popular  liberty.  In  1693,  in  order  to 
assist  New  York  against  the  attacks  of  the  French  in  Canada,  all  the 
colonies  were  required  to  contribute  their  quota  of  troops  to  her  defence,, 
An  effort  was  also  made  to  place  the  militia  of  New  Jersey  and  Connect- 
icut under  the  orders  of  the  governor  of  New  York.  The  authorities  of 


NASSAU   STREET,  NEW  YORK,  IN   1875. 

.onnecticut,  however,  were  resolved  not  to  relinquish  the  Control  of  then 
militia,  which  would  have  been  to  sacrifice  the  rights  secured  to  the 
people  by  the  charter.  In  order  to  enforce  his  authority,  Governor 
F'etcher  repaired  to  Hartford,  where  the  assembly  of  Connecticut  was  ia 
session.  At  the  time  of  his  arrival  a  company  of  militia  was  engaged  in 
training  in  the  town.  Governor  Fletcher  rode  up  to  this  force  ;  but  its 


252  If^TOBY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

commander,  Captain  Wads-worth,  paid  no  attention  to  him,  and  did  not 
even  acknowledge  his  presence.  Fletcher,  who  had  boasted  that  he 
would  not  stir  from  the  colony  until  he  was  obeyed,  ordered  his  secretary 
to  read  his  commission  in  the  hearing  of  the  troops.  As  the  secretary 
commenced  to  read,  Wadsworth  ordered  the  drums  to  be  beaten,  and  the 
secretary's  voice  was  drowned.  "Silence!"  cried  Fletcher;  "begin 
again  with  the  commission."  "  Music !  music !  "  ordered  Wadsworth, 
the  same  man  who  had  hid  the  charter  from  Governor  Andros.  The 
drummers  began  again,  and  the  governor,  in  a  rage,  ordered  them  to 
cease  their  music.  Wadsworth  sharply  commanded  the  bewildered 
musicians  to  go  on  with  their  drumming,  and  then  turning  upon  Fletcher, 
said  to  him  fiercely :  "  If  I  am  interrupted  again  I  will  make  daylight 
shine  through  you."  The  voice  and  manner  of  the  man  convinced  the 
governor  that  he  was  in  earnest,  and  he  went  back  to  New  York,  satisfied 
of  the  impossibility  of  bringing  the  Connecticut  militia  under  his  orders. 

New  York  was  the  most  northern  colony  in  which  the  authority  of  the 
Church  of  England  was  established.  A  number  of  its  people  were 
members  of  that  communion,  and  in  the  colonial  government  the  influ- 
ence of  that  church  was  predominant.  The  vast  majority  of  the  people, 
however,  were  hostile  to  it,  and  it  was  not  until  1695  that  Governor 
Fletcher  was  able  to  obtain  for  it  anything  like  favor  from  the  assembly. 
The  representatives  of  the  people  were  fearful  that  if  it  obtained  a  firm 
footing  among  them,  the  British  government  might  bestow  upon  it  a 
power  which  would  be  dangerous  to  the  other  denominations.  Naturally 
it  enjoyed  the  favor  of  the  home  government,  and  engrossed  all  the  pro- 
vision made  by  England  for  religious  matters  in  the  colony.  Lord 
Cornbury,  the  royal  governor,  attempted  in  1705  to  silence  a  Presby- 
terian minister  for  preaching  without  a  license  from  the  governor ;  but 
a  jury,  composed  of  Episcopalians,  acquitted  the  prisoner.  The  same 
governor  connived  at  the  seizure  by  the  Episcopalians  of  a  church  in 
Jamaica,  which  had  been  built  by  the  whole  town ;  but  the  colonial 
court  restored  it  to  its  rightful  owners.  The  spirit  of  popular  liberty 
and  toleration  was  growing  rapidly  in  ^few  York,  and  its  colonial  history 
is  the  story  of  a  constant  struggle  between  the  people  and  the  royal 
governors  for  the  assertion  and  maintenance  of  their  rights.  Nearly  all 
Lie  governors  regarded  their  position  as  but  a  means  of  enriching  them- 
selves, and  systematically  defrauded  both  the  king  and  the  colony.  ' 

By  1732  the  population  of  New  York  city  numbered  a  little  less  than 
nine  thousand  souls.  In  that  year  a  case  of  the  deepest  interest  occurred 
in  that  city.  John  Peter  Zenger  had  established  a  newspaper  called  the 
Weekly  Journal,  which  ventured  to  censure  the  arbitrary  action  of  the 


254  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

governor  and  assembly  in  levying  illegal  taxes  upon  the  colony.  This 
was  a  bold  step,  for  until  now  no  newspaper  had  dared  to  criticise  the 
action  of  the  government.  Cosby,  the  governor  of  New  York,  resolving 
to  make  an  example  of  the  offender,  arrested  Zenger  on  the  charge  of 
4ibel,  and  caused  his  paper  to  be  publicly  burned.  Zenger  employed 
two  lawyers  to  defend  him,  and  these  increased  the  anger  of  the  govern- 
ment by  denying  the  competency  of  the  court,  inasmuch  as  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  chief  justice,  Delancy,  had  been  made  by  Cosby  without  the 
consent  of  the  council,  and  was  therefore  illegal.  The  court  at  once 
struck  their  names  from  its  list  of  attorneys,  and  this  arbitrary  action  so 
intimidated  the  remaining  members  of  the  bar  that  Zenger  found  it  im- 
possible to  procure  counsel. 

In  this  helpless  condition  he  was  put  on  trial,  and  the  court  had 
actually  begun  its  proceedings  when  a  stranger,  a  venerable  and  noble- 
looking  man,  entered  the  room  and  took  his  seat  at  the  bar.  He 
announced  his  name  to  the  court,  and  stated  that  he  had  come  to  act  as 
counsel  for  the  prisoner.  A  murmur  of  admiration  greeted  the  announce- 
ment of  his  name.  He  was  Andrew  Hamilton,  speaker  of  the  assembly 
of  Pennsylvania,  the  famous  "Quaker  lawyer"  of  Philadelphia.  In  the 
trial  which  ensued,  Hamilton  offered  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  alleged 
libel,  but  was  not  allowed  to  do  so;  the  chief  justice  quoting  English 
precedents  in  support  of  his  decision.  Hamilton  then  made  an  eloquent 
appeal  to  the  jury,  declaring  that  they  of  their  own  knowledge  knew  the 
statements  of  Zenger's  paper  to  be  true,  and  urged  them  to  maintain  the 
great  principles  of  the  freedom  of  the  press  and  liberty  of  speech  through- 
out the  colonies,  which  principles,  and  not  John  Peter  Zenger,  he 
solemnly  declared  were  on  trial  before  them.  In  spite  of  the  unfavorable 
charge  of  the  judge,  the  jury  brought  in  a  unanimous  verdict  of 
acquittal,  which  was  announced  amid  the  cheers  of  the  people.  Thus 
while  the  freedom  of  the  press  was  still  in  doubt  in  England,  and  thirty- 
seven  years  before  the  famous  trial  for  libel  of  the  publisher  of  the 
Letters  Junius  established  it  in  the  mother  country,  the  people  of  New 
York  declared  themselves  its  guardians,  and  struck  down  the  effort 
of  the  royal  power  to  impose  shackles  upon  their  most  vigilant  defender. 

In  1702  the  proprietaries  of  New  Jersey  surrendered  their  rights 
of  jurisdiction  to  the  crown,  and  Queen  Anne  united  the  two  Jerseys  in 
one  province,  and  placed  it  under  the  governor  of  New  York.  It  was 
given  a  separate  assembly,  but  this  concession  of  partial  independence  of 
its  neighbor  did  not  suit  the  province,  and  after  many  protests  it  was 
given  its  own  governor  in  the  person  of  Lewis  Morris,  in  1708.  During 
the  rest  of  the  colonial  period  it  remained  a  royal  province. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

COLONIZATION   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  Quakers — Their  Origin  and  Doctrines — William  Penn — Becomes  a  Quaker — Is  Per- 
secuted for  his  Religious  Opinions — Becomes  Interested  in  Ameriein  Colonization — 
Purchases  West  Jersey  from  the  Proprietor — Conceives  the  Idea  of  Founding  a  Fre< 
State  in  America — Purchases  Pennsylvania  from  Charles  II. — Conditions  of  his  Charter 
— Sends  out  a  Colony — Arrival  of  Penn  in  America — Philadelphia  Founded — Penn's 
Treaty  with  the  Indians — Religious  Toleration  Guaranteed — Penn's  Relations  with  his 
Colonists — Rapid  Growth  of  Pennsylvania  in  Population  and  Prosperity — William 
Penn  and  James  II. — Renewal  of  Penn's  Troubles — William  III.  Declares  Pennsyl- 
vania a  Royal  Province — Penn  .is  Vindicated  and  Restored  to  his  Proprietary  Rights — 
His  Return  to  Pennsylvania — Character  of  the  Settlers  of  the  Province — Penn  Goes 
Back  to  England — Efforts  to  deprive  him  of  his  Possessions — His  Death. 
> 

[NE  of  the  most  remarkable  results  of  the  English  Reformation 
was  the  rise  and  growth  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  or  Quakers, 
as  they  came  to  be  called.  Discarding  what  seemed  to  them 
superfluous  and  unnecessary  forms  in  religion,  they  confined 
themselves  to  a  simpler  and  more  primitive  expression  of  their 
faith.  Believing  that  the  only  evil  a  Christian  should  resist  is  the  evil 
of  his  own  heart,  they  opposed  no  resistance  to  persecution  or  to  ill-treat- 
ment from  their  fellow-men  ;  and  as  servants  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  were 
unchangeably  opposed  to  war  and  bloodshed.  They  held  the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity ;  that  we  obtain  salvation  by  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ ; 
that  man  was  created  a  free  and  responsible  agent,  that  he  forfeited  his 
right  to  the  blessings  of  the  Creator  by  his  fall,  and  will  owe  his  restora- 
tion to  his  lost  estate  to  the  mercy  of  God  and  the  blood  of  Christ ;  that 
the  Holy  Scriptures  are  the  work  of  inspiration,  and  a  good  rule  of  life 
and  faith.  With  them  the  test  of  Christianity  was  not  a  man's  standing 
in  the  church,  but  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience ;  the  sense  of  true  in- 
ward communion  between  the  soul  of  the  individual  and  God.  They 
conducted  their  worship  in  silence,  and  regarded  all  their  members  as 
sent  by  God  to  preach  His  gospel ;  therefore,  any  one,  even  women,  was 
free  to  speak  in  their  meetings  the  message  which  came  to  him  from  the 
Holy  Spirit.  They  denied  that  the  right  to  preach  was  restricted  to  any 
particular  class,  and  refused  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  regular 
clergy.  Oaths  were  regarded  as  unlawful  for  Christian  men,  and  temper- 

255 


256  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ance  and  the  utmost  simplicity  in  all  things  were  enjoined  upon  their 
people.  They  refused  to  recognize  the  social  distinctions  which  prevailed 
in  the  world,  though  they  admitted  the  power  of  the  magistrates  to  enforce 
the  laws,  and  regarded  all  men  as  equals.  Their  dress  was  simple,  and 
in  proportion  to  the  means  of  the  wearer,  and  their  lives  were  blameless. 
They  admitted  the  right  of  all  men  to  worship  God  in  their  own  way, 
and  thus  extended  to  all  others  the  perfect  toleration  they  claimed  for 
themselves. 

The  founder  of  this  sect  was  the  good  George  Fox,  the  son  of  a  weaver 
of  Leicestershire,  and  "  by  his  mother  descended  from  the  stock  of  the 
martyrs."  He  began  to  teach  his  doctrines  about  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  at  first  his  converts  were  people  of  the  humbler 
classes  of  England.  He  was  met  with  a  determined  opposition  from 
both  the  established  church  and  the  Presbyterians,  and  was  imprisoned, 
set  in  the  stocks,  cruelly  beaten,  and  otherwise  persecuted,  and  driven 
from  place  to  place.  Yet  he  persevered,  and  his  doctrines  began  to 

spread.  Distressed  by  the  perse- 
cutions to  which  his  followers 
were  subjected,  he  visited  America 
after  the  restoration  of  Charles 
II.,  in  the  hope  of  finding  there  a 
place  of  refuge  for  his  people,  but 
could  find  none.  Puritan  New 

COAT  OP  ARMS  OP  PENNSYLVANIA.  _,         ,          -  -  .,  ,    .          - 

England  was  hostile  to  his  doc- 
trines, and  the  power  of  the  Church  of  England  was  strong  enough  in 
the  southern  colonies  to  defeat  his  object. 

Among  Fox's  converts  were  a  few  from  the  higher  classes  of  English 
society.  One  of  these  was  destined  to  be,  next  to  its  founder,  the  greatest 
benefactor  of  his  faith,  and  one  of  the  choice  instruments  of  the  Almighty 
in  the  settlement  and  Christianization  of  America.  This  was  William 
Penn.  He  was  the  son  and  heir  of  Admiral  Sir  William  Penn,  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  naval  commanders  of  England.  The  admiral 
desired  for  his  son  the  advantages  which  his  high  position  would  readily 
secure  to  him,  but  the  young  man  at  an  early  day,  happening  to  converse 
with  a  simple-minded  Quaker,  became  so  deeply  impressed  with  his 
principles  that  he  adopted  them  as  his  own.  This  greatly  annoyed  the 
father,  but  supposing  that  it  was  a  mere  boyish  notion  which  his  son 
would  outgrow,  William  was  sent  to  study  at  the  University  of  Oxford, 
and  after  leaving  that  institution  was  made  to  travel  through  Europe  to 
improve  his  mind  and  to  remove  his  tendency  to  Quakerism. 

William  returned  to  England,  after  an  absence  of  two  years,  greatly 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  237 

improved  in  mind,  but  still  true  to  his  religious  convictions.  In  1666, 
while  travelling  in  Ireland,  Penn  met  his  old  friend  Thomas  Loe,  and 
heard  him  speak*  of  the  glorious  triumph  of  the  faith  of  a  Christian  over 
the  adversities  of  the  world.  His  enthusiasm  was  once  more  awakened 
to  such  an  extent  that  he  from  that  moment  began  to  seek  to  draw  others 
into  the  communion  which  had  given  him  so  much  happiness.  His 
course  gave  offence  to  the  authorities,  and  he  was  imprisoned.  He 
addressed  a  remonstrance  to  the  viceroy  of  Ireland,  in  which  he  declared : 
"  Religion  is  my  crime  and  rny  innocence ;  it  makes  me  a  prisoner  to 
malice,  but  my  own  freeman." 

Being  liberated,  he  went  back  home,  but  only  to  meet  with  mockery 
and  persecution.  He  was  ridiculed  by  his  companions  of  his  own  rank 
in  life,  and  it  was  a  common  jest  in  society,  says  Pepys,  that  "William 
Penn  was  a  Quaker  again,  or  some  very  melancholy  thing."  His  father, 
disappointed  and  indignant  at  the  failure  of  his  hopes,  turned  him  out  of 
his  house  without  a  penny ;  but  his  mother,  truer  to  her  nature,  supplied 
him  with  sufficient  funds  to  relieve  his  most  pressing  wants. 

Penn  now  began  to  defend  his  doctrines  through  the  press,  and  thus 
brought  them  into  greater  prominence.  This  soon  made  him  the  victim 
of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  the  Bishop  of  London  threatened 
him  with  imprisonment  for  life  if  he  did  not  recant  his  doctrines.  He 
answered  firmly  :  "  Then  my  prison  shall  be  my  grave."  He  was  com- 
mitted to  the  Tower  on  a  charge  of  heresy,  and  kept  in  close  confinement. 
Charles  II.,  naturally  kind-hearted,  was  touched  by  his  firmness,  and 
sent  the  learned  Stillingfleet,  himself  a  man  of  humanity,  to  reason  with 
him.  "  The  Tower,"  said  Penn,  "  is  to  me  the  worst  argument  in  the 
world."  At  the  end  of  a  year  his  father's  friend,  the  Duke  of  York, 
procured  his  release,  for  the  consistency  of  the  young  man  had  won  back 
for  him  the  affection  and  sympathy  of  the  stern  old  admiral. 

Every  effort  was  now  made  to  draw  William  Penn  away  from  his 
faith.  A  high  rank  in  the  royal  navy,  the  favor  of  the  king,  and  many 
other  inducements  were  held  out  to  him ;  but  he  refused  them  all,  and 
remained  true  to  his  principles.  In  less  than  a  year  after  his  release 
from  the  Tower  he  was  arrested  for  having  spoken  at  a  Quaker  meeting. 
He  protested  his  right  to  do  this,  and  declared  that  no  power  on  earth 
should  prevent  him  from  worshipping  the  God  who  made  him.  He  was 
placed  on  trial  for  his  offence,  and  boldly  demanded  to  know  on  what 
law  the  indictment  against  him  was  founded.  "On  the  common  law," 
replied  the  recorder.  "  Where  is  that  law  ?  "  asked  Penn.  "  The  law 
which  is  not  in  being,  far  from  being  common,  is  no  law  at  all."  He 
conducted  his  own  defence,  and  as  he  was  pleading  earnestly  for  his 
17 


258  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

rights  as  an  Englishman,  was  hurried  out  of  court.  He  appealed  to  the 
jury  to  remember  that  they  were  his  judges.  The  jury,  in  spite  of  an 
unfavorable  charge  from  the  judge,  brought  in  a  verdict  of  acquittal. 
The  court  ordered  them  back  to  their  room,  with  the  angry  declaration  : 
"  We  will  have  a  verdict,  by  the  help  of  God,  or  you  shall  starve  for  it." 
"You  are  Englishmen,"  cried  Penn  to  the  jurors,  as  they  were  retiring: 
"Mind  your  privilege;  give  not  away  your  right."  At  last,  after  being 
kept  two  days  and  nights  without  food,  the  jury  repeated  their  verdict  of 
"not  guilty,"  and  were  fined  by  the  court  for  daring  to  assert  their 
independence.  Penn  was  fined  for  contempt  of  court,  and  sent  back  to 
prison.  His  fine  was  soon  discharged  by  his  father,  who  died  shortly 
afterwards.  "  Son  William,"  said  the  dying  admiral,  to  whom  earthly 
honors  now  appeared  in  their  true  light,  "  if  you  and  your  friends  keep 
to  your  plain  way  of  preaching  and  living,  you  will  make  an  end  of  the 
priests." 

Peun  was  now  nearly  twenty-six  years  old,  and  had  inherited  from 
his  father  a  handsome  estate.  He  continued  to 
explain  and  defend  his  doctrines  through  the 
press,  and  in  1671  was  arrested  and  sentenced 
to  six  months'  imprisonment  in  Newgate.  From 
his  prison  he  addressed  a  noble  pica  to  Parlia- 
ment and  to  the  nation  for  toleration.  Upon 
his  release  from  prison,  Penn  travelled  in  Hol- 
land and  Germany,  and  upon  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, in  1673,  married  a  woman  of  great  beauty, 
whose  noble  character  rendered  her  a  fitting  com- 
panion to  him.  He  took  no  part  in  public  affairs 

WILLIAM   PENN.  *  * 

until  the  imprisonment  01  George  rox,  upon  his 

return  to  England  from  America,  called  him  once  more  to  the  defence  oi 
his  brethren.  Fox  being  released,  he  and  Penn  and  several  others 
travelled  through  Holland  and  a  part  of  Germany,  seeking  to  make 
converts  to  their  faith — an  effort  in  which  they  were  very  successful 
among  the  Dutch  and  German  peasantry.  Returning  to  England,  he 
once  more  appealed  to  Parliament,  but  without  success,  to  do  justice  to 
tlie  Quakers,  and  grant  them  the  toleration  to  which  they  were  entitled. 

Despairing  of  success  in  England,  Penn  now  directed  the  whole  of  his 
energies  to  securing  a  home  for  his  persecuted  brethren  in  the  new  world. 
A  number  of  Quakers  were  already  settled  along  the  banks  of  the  Dela- 
ware and  in  New  Jersey,  and  in  1675  the  embarrassments  of  Edward 
Byllinge,  who  had  purchased  Lord  Berkeley's  interest  in  New  Jersey, 
obliged  him  to  sell  his  share  of  that  province.  It  was  purchased  by 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA,  259 

"William  Penn,  Gawen  Lourie,  and  Nicholas  Lucas  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Quakers.  This  placed  the  Friends  in  possession  of  an  asylum,  but  it  left 
them  more  at  the  mercy  of  the  English  government  and  church  than 
they  desired  to  be,  and  New  Jersey  was  divided  into  two  equal  parts ; 
Cartaret,  Berkeley's  former  partner,  retaining  East  Jersey,  and  West 
Jersey  becoming  the  property  of  the  Quakers.  This  was  accomplished 
in  1676,  and  in  March  of  the  following  year  a  government  resting  upon 
the  will  of  the  people,  and  securing  to  the  inhabitants  protection  and 
equality  in  all  their  political  and  religious  rights  and  privileges,  was  set 
up  in  West  Jersey.  The  English  Quakers  came  over  to  the  new  province 
in  great  numbers,  with  the  good  wishes  of  Charles  II.,  and  peaceful 
relations  were  established  with  the  Indians.  Byllinge,  who  had  retained 
some  interest  in  the  province,  now  began  to  be  troublesome,  and  claimed 
the  right  to  nominate  the  deputy  governor.  The  people  denied  his 
claim,  and,  at  the  instigation  of  William  Penn,  amended  their  constitu- 
tion so  as  to  place  the  choice  of  all  their  officers  in  their  own  hands,  and 
then  elected  a  governor. 

Penn  had  now  become  deeply  interested  in  the  colonization  of  America, 
and  wished  to  secure  for  his  faith  a  wider  domain  than  West  Jersey.  He 
had  inherited  from  his  father  a  claim  against  the  English  government 
amounting  to  £16,000.  He  now  proposed  to  exchange  this  claim  for  a 
grant  of  territory  in  America.  Charles  II.,  who  was  always  in  want  of 
money,  and  who  never  set  much  value  upon  the  lands  of  the  new  world, 
readily  accepted  his  offer,  as  it  was  urged  by  Lords  North,  Halifax,  and 
Sunderland,  and  the  Duke  of  York,  who  were  firm  friends  of  William 
Penn.  The  king,  in  1681,  granted  to  Penn  a  district  lying  west  of  the 
Delaware  river,  and  corresponding  very  nearly  to  territory  embraced  in 
the  present  State  of  Pennsylvania,  which  name  the  king  bestowed  upon 
it  in  honor  of  the  proprietor.  The  Duke  of  York  claimed  Delaware  as 
his  own  property,  and  Penn,  who  wished  to  have  free  access  to  the  sea, 
purchased  it  of  him  the  next  year.  The  territory  was  granted  to  Penn 
as  absolute  proprietor;  the  people  were  secured  in  the  right  of  self- 
government;  religious  equality  was  guaranteed  to  all;  the  acts  of  the 
colonial  legislature  were  to  be  submitted  to  the  king  and  council,  who 
had  the  power  to  annul  them  if  contrary  to  the  law  of  England ;  the 
power  of  levying  customs  was  reserved  to  Parliament;  and  no  taxes  wert 
to  be  imposed  upon  the  people  save  by  the  colonial  legislature  or  by  Par- 
liament. 

Penn  then  invited  all  persons  who  desired  to  do  so  to  settle  in  Penn- 
sylvania, and  in  a  proclamation  daclared  his  intention  to  leave  the  settlers 
free  to  make  their  own  laws.  "  I  propose,"  he  said,  "  to  leave  myself 


260  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  successors  no  power  of  doing  mischief,  that  the  will  of  no  one  man 
may  hinder  the  good  of  a  whole  country."  "  God,"  he  declared,  "  has 
furnished  me  with  a  better  resolution,  and  has  given  me  his  grace  to 
keep  it." 

His  resolution  was  soon  tested.  Soon  after  he  obtained  his  patent  a 
company  of  traders  offered  him  six  thousand  pounds  and  an  annual  pay- 
ment of  a  stipulated  sum  for  the  monopoly  of  the  Indian  traffic  between 
the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna.  He  had  already  straitened  himself 
very  much  by  his  expenditures  for  his  colony,  and  his  family  had  been 
obliged  to  endure  some  deprivations  in  consequence.  The  offer  was 
tempting,  but  he  declined  it  firmly.  What  was  free  to  him  should  be 
free  to  every  inhabitant  of  Pennsylvania,  and  he  would  derive  no  advan- 
tage at  the  expense  of  his  people. 

A  company  was  collected  and  sent  out  to  Pennsylvania,  under  William 
Markham,  Penn's  nephew,  and  the  personal  character  of  the  proprietor 
of  the  colony  was  deemed  by  all  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  protection 
of  their  liberties.  Penn  intended  following  this  company  as  soon  as  he 
could,  and  in  the  meantime  enjoined  Markham  to  continue  the  establish- 
ment already  existing  along  the  Delaware,  and  to  govern  in  accordance 
with  the  laws  of  England.  In  1682  he  prepared  to  go  out  to  America 
to  superintend  the  formal  establishment  of  his  colony.  As  he  was  about 
to  sail,  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  devoted  with  all  the  ardor 
of  his  youth  :  "  Live  low  and  sparingly  till  my  debts  be  paid ;  I  desire 
not  riches,  but  to  owe  nothing ;  be  liberal  to  the  poor,  and  kind  to  all." 
With  regard  to  their  children,  he  wrote  :  "  Let  their  learning  be  liberal ; 
spare  no  cost,  for  by  such  parsimony  all  is  lost  that  is  saved." 

Penn  took  out  with  him  one  hundred  emigrants,  and  reached  New- 
castle on  the  27th  of  October,  1682,  after  a  long  and  trying  voyage.  In 
the  presence  of  the  Swedish,  Dutch  and  English  settlers,  who  welcomed 
him  with  joy,  he  took  formal  possession  of  the  province,  which  was  sur- 
rendered to  him  by  the  agents  of  the  Duke  of  York.  He  pledged 
himself  to  the  people  to  grant  them  liberty  of  conscience  and  all  their 
civil  privileges.  From  Newcastle  Penn  went  up  the  river  to  Chester, 
where  a  settlement  had  been  formed  by  emigrants  from  the  north  of 
England,  who  had  preceded  him. 

Early  in  November,  accompanied  by  a  few  friends,  Penn  ascended  the 
Delaware  in  an  open  boat  to  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill,  and  passing  a 
little  distance  beyond  this  landed  on  the  beautiful  site  now  occupied  by 
the  city  of  Philadelphia.  The  place  at  which  he  landed  was  long  known 
as  the  "  Blue  Anchor  Landing,"  from  a  tavern  of  that  name  which  stood 
there.  A  little  later,  under  a  spreading  elm,  Penn  met  the  chiefs  of  the 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


261 


neighboring  Indian  tribes,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  of  peace  and  friend- 
ship with  them.  This  treaty  was  confirmed  by  no  oath,  but  it  remained 
unbroken  for  fifty  years,  and  as  neither  side  sought  to  evade  its  obli- 
gations, which  were  simply  of  peace  and  good  will,  the  colony  of 
Pennsylvania  escaped  in  its  earlier  years  the  horrors  of  a  savage  warfare 
from  which  the  other  settlers  suffered.  '  We  will  live,"  said  the  Indian 
sachems,  "  in  love  with  William  Penn  and  his  children  as  long  as  the 
moon  and  the  sun  shall  endure."  They  kept  their  word.  "  Penn  came 
without  arms ;  he  declared  his  purpose  to  Abstain  from  violence ;  he  had 
no  message  but  peace ;  and  -ot  a  drop  cf  Quaker  blood  was  ever  shed  by 
an  Indian."  The  scene  of  the  treaty  was  at  Shackamaxon,  now  Ken- 
sington, in  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 


PENN'S  TREATY  WITH  THE  INDIANS. 

On  the  pleasant  tract  lying  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Schuylkill, 
which  was  purchased  from  the  Swedes,  who  had  on  their  part  purchased 
it  from  the  Indians,  Penn  ii  7683  laid  cut  the  capital  of  his  province, 
which  he  named  PHIL  A  DELPHI,  the  city  of  Brotherly  Love,  in  token 
of  the  principles  which  he  meant  should  constitute  the  common  law  cf 
his  possessions.  It  was  abundantly  supplied  with  streams  of  pure  watert 
und  was  admirably  situated  for  purposes  of  trade.  He  did  not  wish  it  to 
be  built  after  the  manner  of  European  cities,  but  designed  it  to  be  a 
"greene  country  town,  gardens  round  each  house,  that  it  might  never  be 
burned,  and  always  be  wholesome."  The  streets  were  laid  off  by  mark- 
ing their  course  through  the  primitive  forest  by  blazing  the  trees,  and  the 


262  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

building  of  dwellings  was  begun.  In  the  first  year  of  Penn's  arrival  in 
the  colony,  twenty-three  ships  with  emigrants  arrived  in  Pennsylvania. 
In  three  years  after  its  foundation  Philadelphia  contained  upwards  of 
six  hundred  houses,  and  the  colony  had  a  population  of  ten  thousand. 
The  Indians  proved  the  firm  friends  of  the  colonists,  and  supplied 
them  with  wild  ibwl  and  venison  in  return  for  articles  of  European 
manufacture. 

Penn  from  the  first  refused  to  retain  in  his  hands  the  exercise  of  the 
vast  powers  with  which  the  charter  granted  him  by  the  king  invested 
him.  As  early  as  December,  1682,  he  convened  a  general  convention  of 
the  people,  and  gave  them  a  charter  of  liberties  which  Bancroft  thus 
sums  up:  "  God  was  declared  the  nly  Lord  j  nscience;  the  first  day 
of  the  week  was  reserved  as  a  day  of  leisure,  for  the  ease  of  the  creation. 
The  rule  of  equality  was  introduced  into  families  by  abrogating  the 
privileges  of  primogeniture.  The  word  of  an  honest  man  was  evidence 

without  an  oath. 
The  mad  spirit  of 
speculation  was 
checked  by  a  system 
of  strict  accounta- 
bility, applied  to 
factors  and  agents. 
Every  man  liable  to 
civil  burdens  pos- 
sessed the  right  of 

PENN  LAYING  OUT  THE  PLAN  OF  PHILADELPHIA.  SUIT  rage  J    and,  Wltil- 

out   regard   to   sect, 

every  Christian  was  eligible  to  office.  No  tax  or  custom  could  be  levied 
but  by  law.  The  Quaker  is  a  spiritualist ;  the  pleasures  of  the  senses, 
masks,  revels  and  stage  plays,  not  less  than  bull-baits  and  cock-fights, 
were  prohibited.  Murder  was  the  only  crime  punishable  by  death. 
Marriage  was  esteemed  a  civil  contract;  adultery  a  felony.  The  Quakers 
had  suffered  wrong  from  imprisonment ;  the  false  accuser  was  liable  to 
double  damages.  Every  prison  for  convicts  was  made  a  workhouse. 
There  were  neither  poor-rates  nor  tithes.  The  Swedes,  and  Finns,  and 
Dutch  were  invested  with  the  liberties  of  Englishmen."  *  In  March, 
1683,  the  first  general  assembly  of  Pennsylvania  met  at  Philadelphia. 
i(  I  am  ready,"  said  Penn  to  this  body,  "  to  settle  such  foundations  as 
may  be  for  your  happiness."  Under  the  guidance  of  the  founder  of  the 

*  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii.,  p.  385. 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


263 


colony,  the  assembly  established  a  constitution  which  made  Pennsylvania 
emphatically  a  free  state.  A  government  was  established,  consisting  of  o 
governor,  a  legislative  council  and  an  assembly  composed  of  representa- 
tives of  th3  people.  As  the  charter  made  the  proprietor  responsible  to 
the  king  for  the  legislation  of  the  colony,  no  act  of  legislation  was  to  be 
valid  until  it  had  passed  the  great  seal  of  the  province.  With  tl;;.- 
exception  the  entire  power  of  the  province  was  left  in  the  hands  of  tiie 
people.  "  But  for  the  hereditary  office  of  proprietary,  Pennsylvania  hud 
been  a  representative  democracy.  In  Maryland,  the  council  was  named 
by  Lord  Baltimore;  in  Pennsylvania,  by  the  people.  In  Maryland,  the 
power  of  appointing  magistrates,  and  all,  even  the  subordinate  executive 
officers,  rested  solely  with  the  proprietary;  in  Pennsylvania,  William 
Penn  could  not  appoint  a  justice  or  a  constable ;  every  executive  officer, 
except  the  highest, 
was  elected  by  the 
people  or  their  re- 
presentatives;  and 
the  governor  could 
perform  no  public 
act,  but  with  the 
consent  of  the 
council.  Lord  Bal- 
timore had  a  reve- 
nue derived  from 
the  export  of  to- 
bacco, the  staple 
of  Maryland ;  and 
his  colony  was 
burdened  with  taxes :  a  similar  revenue  was  offered  to  William  Penn, 
and  declined,  and  tax-gatherers  were  unknown  in  his  province." 

Thus  did  the  "Quaker  king"  complete  one  of  the  sublimest  sur- 
renders of  political  power  in  all  the  annals  of  history.  "  I  desired," 
he  said,  in  his  grand  simplicity,  "  to  show  men  as  free  and  happy  as  they 
can  be." 

The  colony  improved  rapidly.  Men  were  attracted  from  all  parts  of 
Great  Britain,  from  Ireland,  the  Low  countries,  from  Germany  and 
Sweden,  to  Pennsylvania.  The  personal  character  of  William  Penn,  not 
less  than  the  advantages  afforded  them,  induced  them  to  settle  in  the 
happy  colony.  Philadelphia  especially  grew  with  rapidity,  and  already 
gave  promise  of  becoming  the  principal  city  of  colonial  America.  Schools 
were  opened,  and  liberally  encouraged,  for  ignorance  had  no  advocates  in 


SETTLEMENT  OF  PHILADELPHIA. 


264 


HISTORY   OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 


this  thrifty  community.  The  printing  press  was  also  set  up,  and  put  to 
work.  In  August,  1684,  Penh,  having  successfully  established  his 
colony,  took  leave  of  his  people,  and  returned  to  England. 

Lord  Baltimore  claimed  Delaware  as  a  part  of  the  country  granted  to 
him.  Penn  sustained  his  claim  to  that  region  by  pleading  the  actual 
settlement  of  the  Dutch  previous  to  the  grant  to  Lord  Baltimore,  and  his 
purchase  of  the  rights  which  the  Duke  of  York  had  derived  from  the 
Dutch.  The  English  courts  decided,  in  1685,  that  Delaware  did  not 
constitute  apart  of  Maryland,  and  sustained  Penn's  claim.  The  bound- 
aries of  the  two  colonies  were  settled  by  a  compromise. 

During  Penn's  absence  in  England  the  people  of  Delaware  began  to 

be  restless.  They  presen- 
ted to  the  proprietary  a 
list  of  grievances,  and 
were  granted  by  Penn  a 
separate  government. 

The  fall  of  James  II., 
who  continued  the  friend 
of  William  Penn,  though 
so  widely  opposed  to  him 
in  religion,  was  the  be- 
ginning of  trouble  for  the 
proprietor  of  Pennsylva- 
nia. Penn  did  not  re- 
linquish his  friendship 
for  the  dethroned  king, 
and  his  enemies  made 
this  constancy,  which  in 
no  way  interfered  with 
his  loyalty  to  William 
and  Mary,  the  means 
of  injuring  him  in  the 
estimation  of  the  new 
king.  William  was  in- 
duced to  believe  the  charges  of  disloyalty  which  were  brought  against 
Penn,  and  deprived  him  of  his  patent  and  proprietorship  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Penn  was  also  imprisoned  several  times  for  disloyalty. 

During  this  period  the  colony  was  much  annoyed  by  a  disturbance  led 
by  one  George  Keith,  who  pushed  the  Quaker  doctrine  of  non-resistance 
to  the  verge  of  absurdity.  He  argued  that  no  Quaker  could  with  con- 
sistency take  part  in  public  affairs  as  a  magistrate  or  legislator.  As  the 


WILLIAM   PENN. 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


265 


liberties  of  the  colony  were  the  work  of  Quakers  the  inference  was  plain. 
If  Keith  was  right,  then  Pennsylvania 'had  no  lawful  government,  and 
must  apply  to  the  king  for  one.  Keith  produced  such  trouble  in  the 
colony  that  even  the  tolerant  Quakers  were  at  length  obliged  to  ky  hands 
on  him.  He  was 
tried  and  fined  for 
using  seditious  lan- 
guage ;  but  lest  their 
action  should  seem 
to  be  a  punishment 
of  opinion  the  Qua- 
ker magistrates  re- 
mitted the  fine.  He 
subsequently  be- 
came a  clergyman  of 
the  English  Church. 
This  disturbance 
gave  the  king  a  pre- 
text for  declaring 
Pennsylvania  a 
royal  province,  and 
in  April,  1693,  Ben- 
jamin Fletcher  was 
appointed  by  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  gov- 
ernor of  Pennsyl- 
vania, to  which  pro- 
vince Delaware  was 
reunited.  The  peo- 
ple, indignant  at  this 
invasion  of  their 
rights,  attempted  no 
resistance,  but  re- 
fused to  recognize 
the  royalist  gov- 
ernor. Some  of  the  magistrates  resigned  their  offices  upon  his  arrival 
Upon  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  the  hostility  to  Fletcher  increased. 
The  members  of  the  assembly  declared  the  laws  they  had  made  under  the 
charter  granted  to  Pcnn  to  be  valid,  and  refused  to  have  new  ones,  or 
recognize  any  other  authority.  A  charter  granted  by  King  Charles  was, 
they  maintained,  as  valid  as  one  granted  by  King  William,  and  they  re- 


CHESTNUT  STREET,  PHILADELPHIA,  IN  1875. 


266 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


fused  to  re-enact  their  old  laws,  as  such  a  course  would  be  to  brand  them 
us  illegal.  Fletcher  demanded  that  the  assembly  should  appropriate  a 
sum  for  the  defence  of  New  York  against  the  Indians.  His  demand  was 
flatly  refused.  The  assembly  was  willing,  however,  to  make  an  appro- 
priation for  the  relief  of  the  people  of  New  York  who  had  suffered  by  this 
war,  but  only  upon  condition  that  this  sum  should  be  disbursed  by  officers 
yf  its  own  appointment.  Fletcher  refused  to  consent  to  this  condition, 
as  he  regarded  it  as  an  infringement  of  the  king's  prerogative,  and  the 
assembly  was  dissolved,  A.  D.  1694. 

In  the  meantime  Penn  had  been  restored  to  his  proprietary  rights. 
The  king  expressed  himself  satisfied  of  his  innocence,  which  was  estab- 


ITNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

lished  before  the  council,  and  in  August,  1694,  the  patent  for  his  restora- 
tion was  formally  issued.  Penn  was  anxious  to  return  to  Pennsylvania, 
but  was  detained  in  England  by  his  inability  to  raise  the  funds  necessary 
for  the  voyage.  He  had  spent  a  large  part  of  his  fortune  in  planting  the 
colony,  and  the  persecutions  and  annoyances  to  which  he  had  been  sub- 
jected in  England  had  caused  him  great  loss.  Nor  was  this  his  only 
trouble.  His  wife  and  eldest  son  had  died  during  his  trials,  and  some 
whom  he  had  imagined  his  friends  in  his  prosperity  had  in  his  adversity 
shown  themselves  his  enemies.  He  retained  his  serenity  of  mind,  how- 
ever, and  persevered  in  the  good  work  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life. 
Being  unable  to  go  to  Pennsylvania  he  pent  his  nephew,  Markham,  as> 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  267 

his  deputy.  Markham  summoned  an  assembly,  and  this  body,  alarmed 
at  the  recent  changes  in  their  charter,  which  had  threatened  to  deprive 
them  of  their  political  rights,  endeavored  to  provide  against  a  recurrence 
of  the  danger  by  assuming  the  power  of  framing  a  constitution  for  them- 
selves. The  assembly  of  1696  made  still  further  changes,  and  placed  the 
control  of  the  colonial  government  entirely  in  the.  hands  of  the  people  by 
giving  them  the  election  of  all  the  officials  of  the  province. 

Penn  returned  to  Pennsylvania  in  November,  1699,  and  sanctioned  the 
action  of  the  people.  One  of  the  members  of  the  council  proposed  that 
they  should  ma'-.e  a  constitution  that  should  be  "firm  and  lasting"  to 
them  and  to  the;  .•  descendants.  "  Keep  whr.i  -  good  in  the  charter  and 
frame  of  governra.nt,"  said  Penn;  "and  lay  aside  what  is  burdensome, 
and  add  v.-hat  may  'jest  suit  th  common  good."  It  was  agreed  by  all 
parties  that  it  would  be  best  to  surrender  the  old  charter  and  frame  a 
new  constitution.  This  was  attended  with  considerable  diijculty,  as 
Delaware  dreaded  the  loss  of  its  independence.  It  was  conciliated  by 
being  given  its  own  legislature,  but  was  under  the  administration  of  the 
governor  of  Pennsylvania.  The  two  colonies  were  never  again  united. 
The  constitution  secured  to  the  people  all  the  political  privileges  they 
claimed.  Peim,  whose  sole  desire  was  for  the  welfare  of  the  colony,  held 
back  nothing  for  hiirself. 

Among  the  earliest  emigrants  to  Pennsylvania  were  many  Germars, 
who  had  been  converted  to  the  Quaker  doctrines  by  William  Penn  dur- 
ing his  missionary  labors  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  They  settled  at 
Germantown,  to  which  they  gave  its  name.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  the  severe  wars  in  Europe  drove  out  large  numbers 
of  Germans  from  the  Rhaie  valley.  They  sought  refuge  in  England  at 
first,  and  from  that  country  passed  over  to  Pennsylvania.  They  were 
chiefly  Lutherans,  and  members  of  the  German  Reformed  Jhurch.  They 
settled  chiefly  in  the  southern  part  of  Pennsylvania,  r.nu  clung  together 
instead  of  separating,  thus  giving  to  this  part  of  th  State  the  peculiar 
characteristics  which  distinguish  it  to  the  present  day.  They  held  aloof 
from  the  English,  and  allowed  the  German  language  alone  to  be  taught 
to  their  children.  They  attracted  other  settlers  from  their  native  country, 
and  the  region  occupied  by  them  was  soon  thickly  settled,  and  was  noted 
as  one  of  the  best  cultivated  sections  of  the  province. 

About  the  beginning  of  tho  eighteenth  century  a  large  emigration  from 
the  north  of  Ireland  and  from  Scotland  began  to  set  in,  and  continued 
for  some  years.  These  people  were  nearly  all  Presbyterians,  and  located 
themselves  chiefly  in  the  eastern  and  central  sections  of  the  province. 
They  were  an  energetic,  industrious,  and  intelligent  community,  and  set 


268 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


to  work  with  a  will  to  improve  their  new  home.  They  advanced  the 
frontier  of  Pennsylvania  steadily  westward  by  their  new  plantations,  and 
proved  themselves  among  the  most  desirable  settlers  that  had  yet  come 
vnto  the  province. 

William  Penn  had  come  to  Pennsylvania  with  the  intention  of  passing 
the  remainder  if  his  Jife  there;  but  rumors  now  began  to  reach  the 
colony  that  it  was  the  intention  rf  the  crown  to  deprive  Pennsylvania  of 

its  charter  and  make 
it  a  royal  province. 
These  reports  made 
it  necessary  for  Penn 
to  return  to  Eng- 
land, a  step  to  which 
nothing  but  the  im- 
portance of  being 
near  the  home  gov- 
ern mcnt  to  defend 
the  liberties  of  his 
people  could  have 
forced  him.  Ho  had 
done  his  work  in 
America  well,  and 
could  go  back  to  his 
native  land  with  the 
satisfaction  that  he 
had  successfully  laid 
the  foundations  of  a 
great  and  rapidly- 
growing  state,  and 
had  placed  the  liber- 
ties of  its  people 
upon  such  a  secure 
basis  that  they  would 
endure  for  all  time. 


MASONIC  TEMPLE,   PHILADELPHIA,  IN   1875. 


He  had  founded  a  democracy,  and  had  proved  by  the  most  generous  sur- 
render of  his  truly  regal  powers  that  his  chief  aim  in  life  was  the  good 
of  his  fellow-men.  After  making  such  arrangements  as  he  deemed  best 
for  the  welfare  of  his  "young  countrie,"  he  went  back  to  England  in  1701. 
There  were  not  wanting  eiforts  after  his  arrival  in  England  to  deprive 
him  of  his  proprietary  rights  and  to  convert  Pennsylvania  into  a  royal 
province;  but  the  deep  reverence  with  which  the  English  people  had  now 


COLONIZATION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.  269 

come  to  regard  the  virtues  of  William  Perm  prevented  the  consummation 
of  these  designs,  and  saved  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  from  the  rule  of 
royal  governors,  such  as  plundered  the  sister  province  of  New  York. 
The  crown  could  never  be  persuaded  to  rob  the  man  whose  pure  life  was 
an  honor  to  the  nation.  In  his  last  years  Penn  was  so  poor  that  he  was 
for  a  while  an  inmate  of  a  debtors'  prison.  He  had  bought  the  province 
of  Pennsylvania  from  Charles  II.,  and  had  confirmed  his  claim  by  pur- 
chasing the  lands  from  the  Indians,  so  that  he  was  absolute  owner  of  the 
unoccupied  lands  of  the  colony.  He  thus  had  it  in  his  power  to  relieve 
his  distress  by  selling  his  claims,  but  in  his  deepest  poverty  he  refused  to 
part  with  Pennsylvania,  except  upon  terms  which  would  secure  to  his 
people  the  full  and  perfect  enjoyment  of  the  liberties  he  had  guaranteed 
them.  He  died  in  1718,  peacefully,  and  amid  the  sympathy  of  his  coun- 
trymen in  England,  and  the  sorrow  of  those  whom  he  had  befriended  in 
his  beloved  Pennsylvania.  By  his  pure  life  he  won  for  the  people  of  his 
faith  the  respect  of  all  candid  men,  and  by  his  fidelity  to  the  principles  he 
professed  he  became  the  benefactor  of  millions  who  will  ever  count  it  a 
privilege  to  honor  his  name. 

Penn  left  three  sons,  who  were  all  minors  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
They  succeeded  to  his  rights  as  proprietary  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
government  of  the  colony  was  administered  for  them  by  deputies  until  the 
Revolution,  when  their  claims  were  purchased  by  the  State. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

SETTLEMENT   OF   THE   CAROLINAS. 

iradual  Settlement  of  North  Carolina  from  Virginia — Charles  II.  grants  Carolina  tc 
Clarendon  and  others — The  "Grand  Model" — An  Ideal  Aristocracy  Proposed  for 
Carolina — The  Authority  of  the  Proprietaries  Established  in  North  Carolina — Continued 
Settlement  of  that  Kegion — Characteristics  of  the  Early  Settlers  of  North  Carolina — 
The  People  Eeject  the  Grand  Model — Hostility  of  England  to  the  Colonial  Commerce — 
Insurrection  in  North  Carolina — Slothel  Governor — Settlement  of  South  Carolina — 
Charleston  Founded — The  Proprietary  Constitutions  Rejected  by  South  Carolina — Rapid 
Growth  of  the  Colony — Introduction  of  Slavery — Characteristics  of  the  Early  Settlers 
of  South  Carolina — Efforts  to  Enforce  the  Navigation  Acts — Resistance  of  the  People — 
The  Proprietaries  Abandon  their  Constitutions — Archdale's  Reforms — Religious  Intoler- 
ance— Establishment  of  the  Church  of  England  in  South  Carolina — Action  of  the 
Crown — Continued  Prosperity  of  South  Carolina — Governor  Moore  Attacks  St.  Augus- 
tine— Failure  of  the  Effort — The  Spaniards  are  Repulsed  in  an  Attempt  to  Capture 
Charleston — Indian  War  in  North  Carolina — The  Tuscaroras  Driven  Northward — War 
with  the  Yemmassees — Destruction  of  their  Power — Separation  of  the  Carol  inas. 

,£.<__ 

I E  have  related  the  efforts  of  the  French  to  colonize  the  shores  of 

the  beautiful  region  which  they  named  Carolina,  and  the  failure 
of  Raleigh's  attempt  to  found  a  city  upon  Roanoke  island.  We 
have  now  to  consider  the  successful  planting  of  this  same  region 
with  English  settlements. 
After  the  settlement  of  Virginia  the  attention  of  the  English  was  fre- 
quently drawn  to  the  fertile  region  south  of  the  James,  and  as  their  plan- 
tations spread  in  that  direction  adventurous  explorers  went  into  this 
region,  and  returned  with  reports  of  its  great  beauty  and  fertility. 
When  the  severe  measures  of  the  Virginia  colony  for  enforcing  conformity 
to  the  established  church  were  put  in  operation,  many  dissenters  with- 
drew from  the  limits  of  the  colony  and  settled  in  what  are  now  the  north- 
eastern councies  of  North  Carolina.  Among  these  were  a  company  of 
Presbyterians,  who  settled  upon  the  Chowan.  Others  followed  them,  and 
by  the  year  1663  these  counties  contained  a  prosperous  and  growing 
community  of  English-speaking  people. 

In  1663  Charles  II.,  who  always  displayed  the  most  remarkable  liber- 
ality in  his  gifts  of  American  lauds,  granted  to  eight  of  his  favorites  the 
vast  region  extending  from  the  present  southern  boundary  of  Virginia  to 
the  St.  John's  river  in  Florida,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 
2T70 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAROLINA J.  271 

Those  upon  whom  this  rich  gift  was  bestowed  were  the  Earl  of  Claren- 
don, the  prime  minister,  Lord  Ashley  Cooper,  who  was  afterwards  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury,  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  Lord  Craven,  Sir  John  Colleton, 
Lord  John  Berkeley,  his  brother,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  governor  of 
Virginia,  and  Sir  George  Cartaret.  They  were  given  absolute  power 
over  their  territory,  the  king  reserving  only  a  claim  upon  their  allegiance. 
The  country  had  been  called  Carolina  by  the  first  French  settlers  in 
honor  of  Charles  IX.  of  France ;  the  old  name  was  retained  in  honor  of 
Charles  II.  of  England. 

The  proprietors  had  but  one  object  in  view :  to  enrich  themselves ;  hut 
they  claimed  to  be  influenced  by  a  "pious  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel."  They  at  once  set  to  work  to  prepare  a  code  of  laws  for  the 
government  of  their  province.  This  task  was  committed  to  Ashley 
Cooper,  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  and  the  great  philosopher,  John  Locke,  then 
an  almost  unknown  man.  These  produced  a  code  known  as  "  The  Grand 
Model,"  or  "Fundamental  Constitutions."  This  was  a  system  which 
might  have  been  successful  if  the 
people  for  whom  it  was  intended 
had  been  some  European  com- 
munity of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  it 
was  utterly  unsuited  to  a  colony  in 
the  woods  of  America,  composed  of 
men  whose  personal  independence 

-  -          ,  .,      „  ,  COAT   OF  ARMS  OF   NORTH   CAROLINA. 

and  sturdy  love  of  freedom  were 

the  indispensable  conditions  of  the  success  of  their  enterprise.  By  the 
terms  of  the  "  Grand  Model "  an  order  of  nobility  was  created,  into  whose 
hands  the  sole  right  to  rule  was  committed.  Earls,  barons,  and  squires 
were  made  the  natural  heads  of  the  various  classes  of  society,  and  the 
common  people  were  attached  to  the  soil  as  tenants.  A  simple  tenant 
could  never  rise  above  his  humble  position,  and  was  denied  the  right  of 
suffrage;  only  those  who  possessed  fifty  acres  of  land  were  allowed  this 
right,  or  were  entitled  to  the  name  of  freemen.  The  freerren  were 
allowed  an  assembly,  but  that  body  was  placed  entirely  under  the  control 
of  the  nobility.  Religious  freedom  was  promised  to  all  persons,  but  the 
constitution  expressly  declared  that  the  only  orthodox  establishment  was 
the  Church  of  England.  Trial  by  jury  was  guaranteed,  but  with  th« 
destructive,  provision  that  a  majority  should  decide  the  verdict  of  the  jury. 
It  was  very  clear  that  this  magnificent  constitution  would  not  suit  the 
settlers  in  the  log  cabins  of  North  Carolina,  but  the  proprietors,  ignorant 
of  the  people  they  had  to  deal  with,  proceeded  to  organize  their  govern- 
ment in  England  by  electing  the  Duke  of  Albemarle  to  the  rank  of 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE   V 'SITED  STATES. 

Palatine,  as  the  head  of  their  system  was  termed.  Sir  William  Berkeley, 
then  governor  of  Virginia,  was  ordered  to  establish  the  authority  of  the 
proprietors  over  the  settlers  on  Albemarle  sound.  This  he  did,  and 
appointed  William  Drununond,  a  Scotchman  and  one  of  the  settlers, 
governor.  This  was  the  same  Drummond  who  afterwards  took  part  in 
Bacon's  rebellion  in  Virginia,  and  was  hanged  by  Berkeley,  as  has  been 
related.  A  simple  form  of  government  was  established,  and  the  people 
of  North  Carolina  were  left  in  peace  until  it  should  be  time  to  collec; 
the  quit-rents  which  the  proprietors  claimed  as  due  for  their  occupation 
of  their  lands. 

In  1661,  a  few  years  previous  to  this  action  of  Berkeley,  a  company 
from  New  England  had  made  a  settlement  on  the  Cape  Fear  river.  The 
colony  did  not  prosper,  however,  though  liberal  inducements  were  held 
out  to  it,  and  many  of  the  emigrants  returned  home.  In  1664  a  colony 
from  the  Barbadpes  joined  the  settlers  on  the  Cape  Fear.  The  new- 
comers had  been  sent  out  by  a  company  at  the  Barbadoes,  who  purchased 
from  the  Indians  a  tract  of  land  thirty-two  miles  square  on  the  Cape 
Fear,  and  asked  of  the  proprietors  of  Carolina  a  confirmation  of  their 
purchase  and  a  separate  charter  of  government.  A  liberal  charter  was 
granted  them,  the  country  was  named  Clarendon,  and  Sir  John  Yeamans, 
a  resident  of  Barbadoes,  was  appointed  governor.  He  was  instructed  to 
"  make  things  easy  to  the  people  of  New  England ;  from  thence  the 
greatest  supplies  are  expected."  In  1665  he  led  a  company  of  emigrants 
from  Barbadoes,  and  formed  a  settlement  on  the  Cape  Fear.  The  effort 
to  found  a  town  was  unsuccessful,  and  the  emigrants  found  great  diffi- 
culty in  contending  against  the  natural  barrenness  and  poverty  of  the 
region  in  which  they  had  located.  They  devoted  themsc^^es  to  the 
cutting  and  export  of  lumber,  and  established  a  trade  in  boards,  staves 
and  shingles  to  the  West  Indies,  which  is  still  carried  on  by  their  de- 
scendants. .  This  trade  was  found  to  be  profitable,  and  emigration 
increased.  In  1666  the  colony  is  said  to  have  had  a  population  of 
eight  hundred  souls. 

In  the  meantime  the  settlements  on  Albemarle  sound  and  the  Chowan 
had  prospered,  and  had  increased  steadily  in  population,  under  the  simple 
government  established  over  them.  This  government  consisted  of  a 
council  of  six  persons  named  by  the  proprietaries  and  six  chosen  by  the 
assembly,  and  an  assembly  consisting  of  the  governor,  the  council  and 
twelve  representatives  chosen  by  the  freeholders  of  the  colony.  The 
proprietaries  had  confirmed  the  colonists  in  the  possession  of  their  lands, 
and  had  solemnly  promised  them  religious  toleration  and  exemption 
from  taxation  except  by  the  colonial  legislature.  In  1669  the  assembly, 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAROLINA**.  273 

feeling  secure  in  these  guarantees,  enacted  a  series  of  laws  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  colony,  which  remained  in  force  in  North  Carolina  until 
near  the  close  of  the  next  century.  It  was  enacted  that  no  emigrant 
should  be  sued  for  a  debt  contracted  before  his  settlement  in  the  colony 
until  he  had  been  a  resident  of  the  province  for  five  years.  Marriage 
was  made  a  civil  contract,  and  for  its  validity  required  simply  the  con- 
sent of  the  contracting  parties  before  a  magistrate  in  the  presence  of 
witnesses.  No  emigrant  could  be  taxed  during  his  first  year's  residence 
in  the  colony.  New  settlers  were  invited  by  the  offer  of  large  bounties 
in  lands,  but  no  title  to  these  lands  could  be  obtained  until  after  a  two 
years'  residence  in  the  colony.  The  governor's  salary  and  the  other 
expenses  of  the  province  were  secured  by  the  imposition  of  a  fee  of  thirty 
pounds  of  tobacco  in  every  law  suit.  The  members  of  the  assembly 
served  without  compensation. 

In  1670  the  constitution  of  Shaftesbury  and  Locke  was  sent  over  by 
the  proprietaries,  and  the  governor  was  ordered  to  establish  it  in  the 
colony.  It  met  with  a  determined  resistance  from  both  legislature  and 
people,  who  could  never  be  induced  to  submit  to  it. 

The  people  upon  whom  the  proprietaries  endeavored  to  force  their 
"  Grand  Model "  were  in  many  respects  the  most  singular  community  in 
America.  Many  of  them  had  fled  from  injustice  and  persecution  in  other 
colonies,  and  in  the  solitude  of  the  forests  of  North  Carolina  had  become 
possessed  of  an  independence  which  scorned  any  control  but  that  of  the 
government  established  by  their  own  consent.  The  plantations  were 
chiefly  along  the  rivers  and  the  shores  of  Albemarle  sound ;  there  were 
no  roads  but  the  paths  marked  through  the  forests  by  the  blazing  of  the 
trees;  the  inhabitants  visited  each  other  and  travelled  through  the 
country  in  their  boats,  scarcely  any,  even  among  the  women  and  children, 
being  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  the  oar.  The  people  were  attached 
to  their  beautiful  "summer  land,"  and  to  the  freedom  which  they  enjoyed 
in  it.  They  had  little  use  for  laws,  for  they  were  mainly  a  simple- 
hearted  and  virtuous  race,  who,  by  pursuing  the  paths  of  right,  gave  no 
cause  for  restraint.  They  had  no  court-house  until  1722.  Their  first 
church  was  not  built  until  1705,  and  the  freedom  of  conscience  which 
they  enjoyed  was  perfect.  Yet  they  were  a  God-fearing  people,  and 
George  Fox,  who  visited  them  in  1672,  testifies  to  their  readiness  to  hear 
the  word  of  God  and  to  their  homely  virtues.  They  were  cut  off  from 
the  world,  careless  of  the  struggles  which  rocked  Europe  to  its  founda- 
tions, and  anxious  only  to  live  in  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  the  good 
things  God  had  given  them,  and  to  rear  their  children  in  the  ways  which 
they  deemed  conformable  to  his  will.  There  were  no  towns  in  the  colony 
18 


I 

274  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  in  power  and  importance  North  Carolina  could  not  compare  with  any 
of  her  more  northern  sisters ;  but  there  were  no  communities  in  which 
the  people  were  happier  or  more  contented  than  in  this  one.  When  ilie 
cruelties  of  Berkeley  drove  many  of  the  Virginians  from  their  province', 
they  fled  to  North  Carolina,  and  were  kindly  received  by  the  people,  win- 
treated  Berkeley's  demands  to  surrender  the  refugees  for  punishment  will:. 
contempt.  "Are  there  any  who  doubt  man's  capacity  for  self-govern- 
ment, let  them  study  the  early  history  of  North  Carolina;  its  inhabitants 
were  restless  and  turbulent  in  their  imperfect  submission  to  a  government 
imposed  on  them  from  abroad;  the  administration  of  the  colony  was  firm, 
humane  and  tranquil,  when  they  were  left  to  take  cure  of  themselves. 
Any  government  but  one  of  their  own  institution  was  oppressive."  * 

These  were  the  people  for  whom  the  "Grand  Model"  was  designed, 
and  who  successfully  resisted  its  imposition.  The  proprietaries  had 
withdrawn  the  government  they  had  first  established,  at  the  time  when 
the  constitutions  of  Shaftesbury  and  Locke  were  offered  to  the  colony, 
and  the  refusal  of  these  constitutions  by  the  colonists  left  North  Carolina 
without  any  regularly  established  system  of  government.  In  this  state 
of  affairs  Stevens,  the  governor,  continued  to  administer  the  old  system 
until  a  settlement  of  the  matter  in  dispute  could  be  had.  He  died  in 
1674,  and  the  assembly  elected  Cartwright,  their  speaker,  as  his  successor, 
by  whom  the  government  was  administered  for  two  years.  Eastchurch, 
the  new  speaker,  was  sent  to  England  to  explain  the  grievances  of  the 
colony  to  the  proprietaries,  and  to  endeavor  to  secure  the  withdrawal  of 
the  obnoxious  constitution.  Without  withdrawing  their  favorite  system, 
the  proprietaries,  who  were  disposed  to  conciliate  the  colony,  thought 
best  to  leave  matters  in  their  present  condition,  and  appointed  East- 
church  governor.  They  did  away  with  much  of  the  good  effect  of  this 
measure  by  coupling  this  appointment  with  that  of  Miller  as  collector  of 
customs.  He  had  been  driven  out  of  the  colony  by  the  people  some 
time  before,  and  he  was  now  sent  to  compel  the  payment  of  the  revenues 
claimed  by  the  proprietaries,  and  to  enforce  the  navigation  acts  in  North 
Carolina. 

The  enforcement  of  the  navigation  acts  meant  simply  the  certain 
crippling  and  the  probable  ruin  of  the  industry  of  North  Carolina.  The 
commerce  of  the  colony  was  small,  and  was  already  struggling  against 
natural  difficulties.  The  whole  province  contained  a  little  less  than  foui 
thousand  inhabitants,  and  its  exports  consisted  of  about  eight  hundred 
hogsheads  of  tobacco,  a  small  quantity  of  Indian  corn,  and  a  few  cattle. 
These  were  shipped  in  a  few  small  vessels  which  came  for  them  from 

*  Bancroft's  Hlstoi-y  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii.,  p.  158. 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAROLINAS. 


275 


New  England,  and  brought  in  return  the  few  articles  of  foreign  manu- 
facture which  the  planters  could  afford  to  purchase.  Yet  this  humble 
trade  was  made  the  object  of  the  envy  of  the  English  merchants,  and  it 
was  resolved  by  a  rigorous  enforcement  of  the  navigation  acts  to  cut  the 
North  Carolinians  oif  from  the  use  of  the  New  England  markets,  and  to 
compel  them  to  send  their  products  to  England  for  sale.  Never  was  the 
iniquitous  policy  of  England  toward  her  colonies  more  strikingly  and 
perfectly  illustrated  than  in  her  treatment  of  North  Carolina  at  this 
period. 

The  effort  to  enforce  the  navigation  act  was  met  by  a  deliberately 
planned  and  executed  insur- 
rection of  the  people,  who 
published  to  the  world  a  de- 
claration of  the  causes  which 
had  impelled  them  to  this 
action,  and  which  were  chiefly 
the  loss  of  their  liberties  by 
the  changes  in  the  govern- 
ment, the  imposition  of  exces- 
sive taxes,  and  the  interrup- 
tion of  their  commerce  by  the 
burdens  laid  upon  it  by  the 
navigation  acts.  The  leader 
of  the  movement  was  John 
Culpepper.  One  of  the  mem- 
bers of  tho  council  joined  the 
insurrection;  but  the  rest, 
with  Miller,  who,  in  addition 
to  his  office  of  collector,  had 
been  acting  as  governor  in  the 
absence  of  Eastchurch,  were 
arrested  and  imprisoned. 
When  Eastchurch  arrived,  the 
colonists  refused  either  to 
acknowledge  his  authority  or  to  allow  him  to  enter  the  colony.  In  the 
meantime  they  arranged  matters  upon  the  old  popular  system,  and  sent 
Culpepper  and  another  of  their  number  to  England  to  negotiate  a  settle- 
ment with  the  proprietaries. 

Miller  escaped  from  confinement  and  repaired  to  England  to  oppose 
the  efforts  of  Culpepper.  By  cunningly  making  himself  the  champion  of 
the  navigation  acts,  Miller  succeeded  in  arousing  a  strong  sentiment 


A  SETTLER'S  CABIN. 


276  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNiTED  STATE*. 

against  Culpepper,  who  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  resisting  the  collec- 
tion of  the  revenue  and \embezzl ing  the  public  funds.  In  support  of  this 
arbitrary  act,  the  government  pleaded  an  old  statute  of  Henry  VIII., 
by  which  a  colonist  could  be  arraigned  in  England  for  an  offence  com- 
mitted in  a  colony.  Culpepper  demanded  to  be  tried  in  North  Carolina; 
upon  the  scene  of  his  alleged  crime ;  but  this  was  refused  him,  and  he 
was  put  on  trial  in  England.  The  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  shrewdly  per- 
ceiving that  such  a  course  was  repugnant  to  the  real  sentiment  of  tho 
English  people,  and  that  it  offered  him  an  opportunity  to  increase  his 
popularity,  undertook  the  defence  of  Culpepper,  and  procured  his 
acquittal. 

The  proprietaries  now  appointed  as  governor  one  of  their  number,  Seth 
Slothel,  who  had  purchased  the  rights  of  Lord  Clarendon.  Slothel  on 
hig  voyage  out  was  captured  by  the  Algerine  pirates,  and  during  his 
absence  the  government  of  North  Carolina  was  administered  by  gov- 
ernors appointed  by  the  insurgents,  who  seem  to  have  acted  with  the 

consent,  or  at  least  without  the 
opposition  of  the  proprietaries,  who 
were  much  at  a  loss  to  know  how 
to  enforce  their  authority  in  the 
province.  They  instructed  the  col- 
onists to  "  settle  order  among  them- 
selves," and  appear  to  have  left 

COAT  OF  ARMS  OF  SOUTH   CAROLINA.  ,  1       •  T 

them  very  much  to  their  own  de- 
rices.  The  government  was  well  and  fairly  administered  and  order  was 
maintained ;  an  act  of  amnesty  was  published ;  and  when  Slothel  reached 
the  colony,  in  1683,  after  his  release  from  his  captivity,  he  found  it 
peaceful  and  orderly. 

The  administration  of  Slothel  was  unfortunate  for  the  province.  He 
conld  enforce  neither  the  constitutions  of  the  proprietaries  nor  the  navi- 
gation acts,  as  he  was  expected  to  do ;  so  he  devoted  his  energies  to  the 
task  of  enriching  himself,  which  he  accomplished  by  robbing  the  colo- 
nists and  defrauding  his  proprietary  associates  in  England.  In  1688 
the  colonists,  greatly  exasperated  by  his  exactions,  to  which  they  had 
submitted  for  about  five  years,  drove  him  out  of  the  province  by  con- 
demning him  to  an  exile  of  a  year,  and  forever  disqualifying  him  from 
holding  the  office  of  governor.  This  was  their  boldest  act  yet,  and  was 
an  open  defiance  of  the  proprietaries. 

In  the  meantime  the  southern  portion  of  Carolina  had  been  brought 
under  English  rule.  In  1670  a  company  of  emigrants  was  sent  out  by 
the  proprietaries,  under  the  direction  of  William  Sayle  and  Joseph  West, 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAEOLINAS.  277 

tiie  latter  of  whom  was  the  commercial  agent  of  the  proprietaries.  They 
went  by  way  of  Barbadoes,  and  landed  at  Port  Royal,  where  the  ruins 
of  Fort  Carolina,  which  had  been  erected  by  the  French,  were  still  to  be 
seen.  After  a  short  delay  here,  they  removed  to  a  more  favorable  loca- 
tion farther  northward,  between  two  rivers,  which  they  named  the 
Ashley  and  Cooper,  in  honor  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  one  of  the  pro- 
prietaries. In  1080  this  settlement  was  abandoned  for  a  better  situation 
nearer  the  harbor.  This  last  settlement  was  the  foundation  of  the  city 
of  Charleston.  The  first  plantation  on  the  Ashley  river  was  afterwards 
known  as  Old  Charleston.  At  present  not  even  a  log  cabin  remains  to 
mark  the  site. 

The  emigrants  to  South  Carolina  had  been  furnished  with  a  copy  of 
the  constitutions  of  Shaftesbury  and  Locke ;  but  they  were  as  averse  to 
the  acceptance  of  them  as  were  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  for  they 
perceived  that  such  a  system  as  that  devised  by  the  proprietaries  could 
not  be  put  in  operation  in  America.  Immediately  upon  their  arrival 
they  proceeded  to  establish  a  form  of  government  suited  to  their  needs. 
It  consisted  of  a  governor,  a  council  composed  of  five  members  appointed 
by  the  proprietaries  and  five  by  the  assembly,  and  an  assembly  of  twenty 
delegates  chosen  by  the  people.  Thus  was  representative  government 
established  as  the  basis  of  the  political  life  of  the  province,  and  through- 
out all  her  subsequent  history  it  was  cherished  by  South  Carolina  as  her 
most  precious  possession. 

The  colony  grew  rapidly  in  population;  the  delightful  climate,  the 
rich  soil,  and  the  liberal  offers  of  lands  by  the  proprietaries  attracting 
settlers  in  considerable  numbers.  In  1671  Sir  John  Yeamans  brought 
over  African  slaves  from  Barbadoes,  thus  introducing  negro  slavery  into 
the  colony  at  the  very  outset  of  its  existence.  This  species  of  labor  being 
found  well  suited  to  the  necessities  of  the  province  was  generally  adopted 
in  the  remaining  years  of  the  century,  and  became  the  basis  of  the 
industry  of  South  Carolina,  which  was  from  the  first  a  purely  agricul- 
tural State.  The  negroes  multiplied  rapidly  by  natural  increase  and  by 
fresh  importations ;  "  so  rapidly,"  says  Bancroft,  "  that  in  a  few  years,  we 
are  told,  the  blacks  were  to  the  whites  in  the  proportion  of  twenty-two  tc 
twelve ;  a  proportion  that  had  no  parallel  north  of  the  West  Indies." 

The  white  population  also  increased  rapidly.  The  dissenters,  as  all 
the  Protestant  sects  who  differed  from  the  Church  of  England  were 
called,  came  over  to  the  colony  in  large  numbers,  hoping  to  find  there 
the  toleration  they  were  denied  at  home.  They  consisted  of  Dutch  and 
German  Protestants,  and  Presbyterians  from  the  north  of  Ireland  and 
from  Scotland.  The  last  were  generally  people  of  culture,  and  gave  to 


278  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

the  colony  many  clergymen,  physicians,  lawyers,  and  schoolmasters. 
Churchmen  from  England  also  emigrated  in  considerable  numbers,  as  the 
"  Grand  Model "  established  their  church  as  the  orthodox  faith  of  the 
province.  Dutch  emigrants  came  also  from  New  York  to  escape  the 
•;ut  rages  of  the  English  governors  of  that  province.  Last  of  all  were  the 
Huguenots,  who  were  induced  to  settle  in  South  Carolina  by  Charles  II., 
who  was  sincerely  anxious  to  give  them  a  refuge  from  their  persecutions 
in  Europe,  and  who  wished  them  to  establish  in  Carolina  the  culture  of 
the  vine,  the  olive,  and  the  silk-worm.  The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes  drove  thousands  of  the  Huguenots  from  France.  Large  numbers 
of  them  joined  their  brethren  in  South  Carolina.  They  were  almost 
invariably  persons  of  education  and  refinement.  In  France  they  had 
constituted  the  most  useful  and  intelligent  part  of  the  population.  They 
had  almost  monopolized  the  mechanical  skill  and  mercantile  enterprise 
of  their  native  land,  and  their  loss  was  severely  felt  by  it  for  many  gener- 
ations. In  South  Carolina  they  soon  became  sufficiently  numerous  to 
constitute  an  important  part  of  the  population,  and  their  influence  was 
felt  in  a  marked  degree,  and  for  the  good  of  the  colony.  They  brought 
with  them  the  virtues  which  had  won  them  the  respect  and  confidence 
of  the  people  of  Europe,  and  the  industry  which  could  not  fail  to  place 
them  among  the  most  prosperous  citizens  of  the  new  state.  They  mingled 
freely  and  intermarried  with  the  other  classes  of  the  people  of  the 
province,  and  thus  became  the  ancestors  of  a  splendid  race  who  did  honor 
to  their  country  and  upheld  her  cause  with  their  valor  in  her  hour  of 
trial  in  the  next  century. 

The  early  years  of  South  Carolina  were  marked  by  a  constant  struggle 
between  the  colonists  and  the  proprietaries.  The  latter  vainly  attempted 
to  introduce  the  "Grand  Model"  as  the  law  of  the  province,  and  the 
former  steadily  resisted  it.  A  little  later  the  proprietaries  offered  to  make 
some  modifications  in  their  constitutions,  but  these  concessions  were  re- 
jected also.  The  governor,  Sir  John  Yeamans,  regarded  his  office  solely 
as  a  means  of  repairing  his  fortunes  at  the  expense  of  both  proprietaries 
and  colonists,  and  was  dismissed  by  his  employers.  West,  who  was  a 
man  of  ability  and  liberality,  was  appointed  his  successor,  and  under  him 
the  colony  prospered,  but,  as  he  was  too  friendly  to  the  people,  he  was 
removed  also. 

In  1684  a  small  colony  under  Lord  Cardross,  a  Presbyterian,  settled 
at  Port  Royal.  These  settlers  had  fled  to  America  to  escape  persecution 
in  England,  but  their  effort  to  find  an  abiding  place  in  the  new  world 
was  not  destined  to  be  successful.  Lord  Cardross  returned  to  Europe  in 
A  year  or  two,  and  in  1686  the  Spaniards  from  St.  Augustine,  who 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAROLISAS.  279 

claimed  the  region  as  a  dependency  of  their  own,  invaded  the  litt'ie  settle- 
ment and  laid  it  waste.  Of  the  ten  families  which  had  constituted  the 
colony,  some  returned  to  Scotland,  while  the  remainder  disappeared 
among  the  colonists  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Cooper  and  Ashley  rivers. 

In  1685  the  proprietaries  ordered  the  colonial  authorities  to  enforce 
the  navigation  acts  in  the  ports  of  the  province.  A  rigid  execution  of 
this  order  would  have  been  as  fatal  to  the  feeble  commerce  of  South 
Carolina  as  to  that  of  the  settlements  in  the  northern  part  of  the  prov- 
ince, and  it  was  resisted  by  the  colonists  as  a  violation  of  their  natural 
rights  and  of  the  promises  made  to  them  at  the  time  of  their  emigration. 
In  order  to  establish  their  authority  more  firmly  the  proprietaries 
appointed  James  Colleton  governor,  with  the  rank  of  landgrave.  He 
was  the  brother  of  one  of  the  proprietaries,  and  it  was  supposed  that  this 
fact  and  his  aristocratic  rank  would  give  him  a  moral  power  which  his 
predecessors  had  not  possessed.  The  new  governor  attempted  to  enforce 
the  constitutions,  but  was  met  with  a  determined  resistance,  and  when  he 
undertook  to  collect  the  rents  claimed  by  the  proprietaries,  and  the  taxes 
he  had  been  ordered  to  levy,  the  assembly  seized  the  records  of  the  prov- 
ince, imprisoned  the  colonial  secretary,  and  defied  the  governor  to  exe- 
cute his  orders.  In  1690  they  went  still  further,  and  having  proclaimed 
William  and  Mary,  disfranchised  Colleton,  and  banished  him  from  South 
Carolina. 

Disputes  now  ran  high  in  the  colony,  chiefly  in  regard  to  rents  and 
land  tenures.  The  "cavaliers  and  ill-livers,"  as  the  party  devoted  to 
the  interests  of  the  proprietaries  was  termed,  endeavored  to  compel  the 
remainder  of  the  settlers — the  Presbyterians,  Quakers,  and  Huguenots, 
the  last  of  whom  had  recently  been  admitted  to  all  the  privileges  of  citi- 
zenship— to  submit  to  their  high-handed  measures.  They  hoped  among 
other  things  to  secure  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
colony,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  a  majority  of  the  people  were  dis- 
senters. The  troubles  went  on  increasing,  and  at  length  the  proprietors, 
in  the  hope  of  putting  an  end  to  them,  consented  to  abandon  their  effort 
to  force  upon  the  Carolinas  the  legislation  of  Shaftesbury  and  Locke. 
In  April,  1693,  they  abolished  the  fundamental  constitutions  by  a  formal 
vote,  and  decided  to  allow  the  government  of  the  province  to  be  con- 
ducted according  to  the  terms  of  the  charter. 

Thomas  Smith  was  appointed  governor,  but  in  spite  of  his  many  vir- 
tues he  was  unacceptable  to  the  people,  and  the  proprietaries  determined 
to  send  out  to  Carolina  one  of  their  own  number  with  full  powers  to 
investigate  and  remedy  the  grievances  of  the  colony.  John  Archdale, 
"  an  honest  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,"  was  chosen,  and  at  onct: 


280  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

repaired  to  Carolina.  He  was  a  man  of  great  moderation,  and  was  well 
suited  to  the  task  before  him.  He  succeeded  in  harmonizing  the  hostile 
factions  which  divided  the  province,  and  in  the  formation  of  the  council 
selected  two  men  of  the  moderate  party  to  one  high  churchman,  an 
arrangement  which  fairly  represented  the  actual  state  of  parties,  and  gav<i 
satisfaction  to  the  mass  of  the  people.  He  remitted  the  quit-rents  for 
three  and  four  years,  and  arranged  the  price  of  lands  and  the  system  of 
conveyances  upon  an  equitable  basis,  and  gave  the  colonists  the  privilege 
of  paying  their  dues  to  the  proprietaries  either  in  money  or  in  produce. 
He  established  peaceful  relations  with  the  Indians,  and  put  an  end  to  the 
infamous  practice  of  kidnapping  them,  which  had  prevailed  since  the 
establishment  of  the  colony.  The  savages  in  the  Cape  Fear  region  had 
suffered  especially  from  this,  and  now  showed  their  gratitude  by  treating 
with  kindness  the  sailors  who  were  cast  away  on  their  coast.  Friendly 
relations  were  also  begun  with  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine.  Several 
Yemmassee  Indians,  who  had  been  converted  by  the  missionaries,  having 
been  captured  and  exposed  for  sale  in  Carolina,  were  ransomed  by  Arch- 
dale,  who  sent  them  to  the  governor  of  St.  Augustine.  The  Spaniard 
gratefully  acknowledged  this  kindness,  and  returned  it  by  forwarding  to 
South  Carolina  the  crew  of  an  English  vessel  which  had  gone  ashore  on 
the  coast  of  Florida.  The  colonial  government  was  organized  by  Arch- 
dale  on  a  plan  similar  to  that  of  Maryland.  The  council  was  appointed 
by  the  proprietaries,  and  the  assembly  elected  by  the  people;  and  the 
militia  were  charged  with  the  defence  of  the  colony.  Archdale's  admin- 
istration was  so  satisfactory  to  all  parties  that  upon  his  withdrawal  from 
the  province  the  assembly  declared  that  he  had,  "  by  his  wisdom,  patience, 
and  labor,  laid  a  firm  foundation  for  a  most  glorious  superstructure." 

Archdale  went  back  to  England  in  1697,  and  the  proprietaries,  failing 
to  profit  by  the  lesson  of  his  success,  attempted  to  introduce  a  measure 
which  would  give  the  political  power  of  the  colony  exclusively  into  the 
hands  of  the  landowners.  This  measure  was  resolutely  rejected  by  the 
colonial  assembly.  The  majority  of  the  people  of  the  colony  were,  as 
has  been  stated,  dissenters,  Presbyterians,  Quakers,  and  Huguenots. 
They  had  consented,  in  order  to  pacify  the  high  church  party,  that  one 
minister  of  the  Church  of  England  should  be  maintained  at  the  public 
expense,  but  the  churchmen  were  resolved  to  force  their  system  upon 
them.  In  1704  the  churchmen  had  a  majority  of  one  in  the  assembly; 
the  governor  was  favorable  to  them,  and  the  council  was  no  longer 
arranged  upon  the  just  plan  of  Archdale.  The  assembly,  in  violation  of 
the  plainest  principles  of  justice,  disfranchised  the  dissenters,  and  estab- 
lished the  Church  of  England  as  the  religion  of  the  colony.  This  action 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAROLINAS.  281 

was  approved  by  the  council  and  governor,  and  was  sustained  by  the  pro- 
prietaries in  spite  of  the  earnest  opposition  of  Archdale.  The  disfran- 
chised people  appealed  for  justice  to  the  queen  and  the  House  of  Lords. 
The  committee  of  the  lords  declared  that  the  proprietaries  had  forfeited 
their  charter,  and  advised  its  recall,  and  the  house  pronounced  the  intol- 
erant acts  null  and  void,  which  decision  was  proclaimed  by  the  queen  in 
June,  1706.  In  November  of  the  same  year  the  colonial  legislature  re- 
pealed its  acts,  and  restored  to  the  dissenters  their  political  rights,  but 
the  laws  establishing  the  Church  of  England  as  the  religion  of  the 
province  remained  unrepealed  until  the  Revolution. 

The  disputes  in  the  colony  went  on,  but  in  spite  of  them  South  Caro- 
lina continued  to  prosper,  and  its  population  increased  rapidly.  During 
Archdale's  residence  in  the  colony  the  captain  of  a  ship  from  Madagascar 
gave  him  some  rice,  which  he  distributed  among  the  planters  for  the 
purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  it  could  be  cultivated  in  the  maritime 
regions  of  the  province,  which  were  unsuited  to  the  culture  of  wheat. 
The  experiment  was  entirely  successful,  and  the  colony  at  once  embarked 
in  the  culture  of  rice,  which  has  ever  since  been  one  of  its  principal 
industries.  Carolina  rice  soon  took  rank  as  the  best  grown  in  any 
country.  The  fur  trade  was  also  carried  on  with  great  activity,  and  the 
manufacture  of  tar  and  the  export  of  lumber  also  became  prominent 
sources  of  wealth.  It  was  believed  that  the  colony  could  successfully 
manufacture  a  large  part  of  the  woollen  fabrics  necessary  to  the  supply 
of  its  wants,  and  the  attempt  Avas  made.  It  was  struck  down  by  the 
British  government  in  pursuance  of  its  plan  to  compel  the  colonies  to 
depend  upon  England  for  all  their  supplies.  Parliament  forbade  the 
several  colonies  to  export  woollen  goods  to  any  other  province  or  to  any 
foreign  port.  They  were  to  ship  their  products  to  England  alone,  and  to 
receive  their  supplies  from  her  only.  English  merchants  were  to  be 
privileged  to  set  a  price  to  suit  their  own  interests  upon  the  products  of 
the  colonies,  and  also  upon  the  articles  of  European  manufacture  sold 
them  in  return.  The  effect  of  this  iniquitous  law  upon  Carolina  was  to 
drive  her  back  into  agricultural  pursuits,  and  thus  to  increase  the 
demand  for  slaves,  which  was  promptly  supplied  by  British  traders. 

In  1702  England  was  at  war  with  France  and  Spain,  and  James 
Moore  was  governor  of  Carolina.  He  was  a  needy  adventurer,  who 
endeavored  to  fill  his  purse  by  kidnapping  Indians  and  selling  them  as 
slaves.  This  being  too  slow  a  process,  he  determined  to  plunder  the 
Spanish  settlement  of  St.  Augustine.  He  attacked  that  place  with  a 
force  of  whites  and  Indians.  The  town  was  readily  taken,  but  he  could 
make  no  impression  upon  the  citadel,  and  despatched  a  vessel  to  Jamaica 


282 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


for  cannon  to  reduce  the  fort.  The  garrison  in  the  meantime  sent  ais 
Indian  runner  to  Mobile  with  news  of  their  situation,  and  word  was  sent 
from  Mobile  to  Havana.  In  a  short  while  two  Spanish  ships  of  war 
arrived  at  St.  Augustine  to  the  relief  of  the  garrison,  and  Moore  was 
obliged  to  raise  the  siege.  He  abandoned  his  stores  and  retreated  over- 
land to  Charleston.  The  only  result  of  his  expedition  was  the  accumula- 
tion of  a  debt  which  the  colony  was  obliged  to  carry  for  many  years. 

Moore's  next  effort  was  directed  against  the  Appalachee  Indians  of 
Florida.  These  had  been  converted  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  by  the 
Spanish  missionaries,  and  had  begun  to  adopt  habits  of  civilization ;  they 
lived  in  villages,  and  supported  themselves  by  cultivating  the  soil.  They 
were  also  very  friendly  to  the  French,  who  had  settled  Louisiana. 
Moore  professed  to  be  very  apprehensive  of  the  effects  of  the  Spanish  and 
French  influence  upon  the  Appalachees,  and  declared  his  intention  to 
cripple  them  before  they  could  do  any  harm  to  the  English  settlements. 

His  real  motive  was 
the  hope  of  plunder. 
The  only  crime  of 
the  poor  savages  was 
their  adoption  of  the 
Roman  faith.  In 
1705,  with  a  force  of 
about  fifty  white  men 
and  one  thousand 
Seminole  warriors, 
Moore  invaded  the 
settlements  of  the  Appalachees,  destroyed  them,  killed  many  of  the 
natives,  and  made  prisoners  of  large  numbers,  who  were  removed  to  the 
region  of  the  Altamaha.  The  churches  were  plundered  and  destroyed, 
and  the  country  of  the  Appalachees  was  given  to  the  Seminoles  as  a 
reward  for  their  services.  They  at  once  occupied  it,  and  thus  became  a 
barrier  between  their  English  friends  and  the  Spanish  settlements. 

In  1706  the  Spaniards  and  French  sent  a  combined  fleet  to  Charleston 
to  avenge  the  attacks  upon '  St.  Augustine  and  the  Appalachees.  The 
attack  of  the  fleet  was  repulsed  by  the  people,  who  were  led  by  William 
Khet  and  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson,  and  the  assailants  were  forced  to  with- 
draw with  the  loss  of  one  ship  belonging  to  the  French  and  upwards  of 
three  hundred  men. 

North  Carolina  continued  to  prosper.  Her  people  were  happy  and 
contented  under  their  simple  system  of  government,  which  was  described 
by  Spotswood  as  "  scarce  any  government  at  all."  In  1704  the  proprie- 


ATTACK   OP   THE   SPANIARDS   ON   CHARLESTON   IN    1706. 


VIEW  TN  THE  GRAND  CANOS   OF  THE  COLORADO  RIVEB. 


283 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

taries  attempted  to  establish  the  Church  of  England  in  this  part  of  their 
province,  the  people  of  which  were  nearly  all  Presbyterians,  Quakers, 
and  Lutherans.  It  was  ordered  that  all  who  refused  to  submit  to  the 
laws  for  the  establishment  and  support  of  the  English  church  should  be 
disfranchised.  The  people  opposed  a  general  and  determined  resistance 
to  this  measure,  and  at  the  end  of  a  year  there  was  but  one  clergyman  of 
the  English  church  within  the  limits  of  the  colony.  The  resistance 
finally  culminated  in  open  rebellion.  The  colony  was  divided  into  two 
parties,  one  of  which  sustained  the  authority  of  the  proprietors,  the  other 
the  rights  of  the  people.  Each  party  had  its  governor  and  assembly,  and 
for  six  years  the  colony  remained  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  Quakers 
were  the  leading  spirits  of  the  popular  party,  and  maintained  their  rights 
with  a  steadfastness  characteristic  of  their  race. 

Thus  far  North  Carolina  had  escaped  a  war  with  the  Indians.  The 
Tuscaroras,  who  occupied  the  central  and  northwestern  portions  of  the 
present  State,  had  emigrated  at  some  remote  period  from  the  north,  and 
they  now  viewed  with  jealousy  and  distrust  the  encroachments  of  the 
whites  upon  their  lands.  About  1711  the  proprietaries  assigned  large 
tracts  in  the  country  of  this  tribe  to  a  company  of  Germans  from  the 
region  of  the  Neckar  and  the  Rhine,  who  had  fled  to  America  to  escape 
religious  persecution.  A  company  of  these  exiles  had  come  out  under 
the  direction  of  De  Graffenreid,  and  in  September,  1711,  De  Graffenreid 
accompanied  Lawson,  the  surveyor-general  of  the  province,  in  an  expedi- 
tion up  the  Neuse,  for  the  purpose  of  locating  these  lands  and  of  ascer- 
taining how  far  the  river  was  navigable.  They  were  captured  by  a  party 
of  sixty  Indians  and  hurried  to  a  distant  village  of  the  Tuscaroras. 
Lawson  was  regarded  with  bitter  hostility  by  the  Indians,  who  looked 
upon  him  as  responsible  above  all  others  for  the  loss  of  their  lands,  as  he 
had  been  compelled  by  his  duties  to  locate  the  grants  of  the  proprietaries, 
and  he  was  put  to  death  with  cruel  torments.  De  Graffenreid  was  also 
condemned  to  die ;  but  he  told  the  savages  that  he  had  been  but  a  short 
time  in  the  country,  and  that  he  was  the  "chief  of  a  different  tribe  from 
the  English,"  and  promised  that  he  would  take  no  more  of  their  land. 
The  Indians  kept  him  a  prisoner  for  five  weeks,  and  then  permitted  him 
to  return  to  his  friends.  During  this  time  the  Tuscaroras  and  Corees, 
whom  they  had  drawn  into  an  alliance  with  them,  attacked  the  settle- 
ments of  the  whites  on  the  Roanoke  and  Pamlico  sound,  and  for  three 
days  spread  death  and  devastation  all  along  the  frontier  of  the  colony. 
A  large  number  of  the  unoffending  settlers  were  slain  and  many  home- 
steads .vere  destroyed. 

Th&  people  of  North  Carolina  appealed  to  Virginia  and  South  Carolina 


SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  CAROLINAS.  285 

for  assistance.  South  Carolina  sent  a  small  body  of  troops  and  a  force 
of  friendly  Indians;  and  Governor  Spotiwood  of  Virginia,  unable  to 
send  assistance,  engaged  one  tribe  of  the  Tuscaroras  in  a  treaty  of  peace. 
The  people  of  North  Carolina,  divided  by  their  internal  dissensions,  took 
scarcely  any  part  in  the  struggle.  The  South  Carolina  forces  attacked 
the  Tuscaroras  in  their  fort  and  compelled  them  to  make  peace.  The 
troops,  however,  on  their  return  home,  violated  the  treaty  by  seizing  some 
of  the  Indians  for  the  purpose  of  selling  them  as  slaves.  The  war  broke 
out  again,  and  was  prosecuted  with  vigor  for  about  a  year,  and  resulted 
in  the  expulsion  of  the  Tuscaroras  from  North  Carolina. 

The  Yemmassees  had  for  some  time  been  hostile  to  the  Spaniards,  as 
they  resented  the  eiforts  of  the  priests  to  convert  them  to  Christianity. 
They  had  acted  as  the  allies  of  the  English  in  the  war  with  the  Tusca- 
roras, but  after  the  close  of  that  struggle  the  unscrupulous  traders,  who 
regarded  them  as  "  a  tame  and  peaceable  people,"  had  treated  them  so 
badly,  and  plundered  them  so  systematically,  that  they  were  driven  into 
hostility  to  the  English.  They  thereupon  renewed  their  friendship  with 
the  Spaniards,  and  induced  the  Catawbas,  the  Creeks,  and  Cherokees, 
who  had  also  been  friendly  to  the  English,  to  join  them  against  their 
former  allies.  In  1715  the  savages,  suddenly,  and  without  warning, 
attacked  the  settlements  on  the  frontier.  The  alarm  was  sent  to  Port 
Royal  and  Charleston,  and  the  assailed  people  fled  towards  the  settle- 
ments along  the  coast.  The  Indians  continued  their  depredations,  and 
the  colony  prepared  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  resist  them.  Aid  was 
sent  from  North  Carolina,  wrhose  government  had  now  been  placed 
on  a  more  stable  footing.  Governor  Craven  took  the  field  without  delay, 
with  such  troops  as  he  could  raise,  and  a  long  and  bloody  struggle  ensued. 
The  power  of  the  savages  was  broken,  however.  The  Yemmassees  were 
compelled  to  take  refuge  in  Florida,  where  they  were  provided  for  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  other  tribes  were  driven  farther  westward. 

The  contests  between  the  proprietaries  and  the  colonists  now  came  to 
an  end.  The  proprietaries  had  made  no  effort  to  help  the  colonists  during 
their  struggle  with  the  Indians,  and  the  latter  determined  to  have  no 
more  to  do  with  their  former  lords.  The  dispute  was  carried  before 
Parliament,  which  body  declared  that  the  proprietaries  had  forfeited  their 
charter.  In  1720  the  king  appointed  Francis  Nicholson  provisional 
governor  of  Carolina.  In  1729  the  controversy  was  ended  by  the  pur- 
chase of  the  proprietaries'  interests  by  the  crown  for  the  sum  of  $110,000. 
Carolina  thus  became  a  royal  province,  and  was  divided  by  the  king  into 
two  separate  states,  known  respectively  as  North  and  South  Carolina,  to 
each  of  which  a  royal  governor  was  appointed. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

SETTLEMENT   OF   GEORGIA. 

General  James  Edward  Oglethorpe — His  Efforts  to  Reform  Prison  Discipline  of  England 
— Proposes  to  Found  a  Colony  in  America  for  the  Poor  and  for  Prisoners  for  Debt — A 
Charter  Obtained  from  the  King — Colonization  of  Georgia — Savannah  Settled — First 
Years  of  the  Colony — Labors  of  Oglethorpe — Arrival  of  New  Emigrants — Augusta 
Founded — The  Moravian  Settlements — The  Wesleys  in  America — George  Whitefield — 
War  between  England  and  Spain — Ogle  horpe  Invades  Florida — Failure  of  the  Attack 
upon  St.  Augustine — The  Spaniards  Invade  Georgia — Oglethorpe's  Stratagem — Its  Suc- 
cess— Battle  of  "  Bloody  Marsh  "-r-Close  of  the  War — Charges  against  Ogletliorpc — His 
Vindication — His  Return  to  Europe — Changes  in  the  Colonial  Government — Introduc- 
tion of  Slavery  into  Georgia — Prosperity  of  the  Colony. 

HE  severe  laws  in  force  in  England  in  the  last  century  against 
debtors  aroused  the  opposition  of  many  philanthropists,  who 
strove  to  procure  their  abolition  or  amelioration.  Among  these 
was  General  James  Edward  Oglethorpe,  an  officer  of  the  English 
army  and  a  member  of  Parliament.  He  was  a  man  of  fortune, 
and  of  generous  nature,  and  devoted  himself  with  energy  to  reform  not 
only  the  laws  against  debtors  but  the  entire  prison  discipline  of  England. 
There  were  at  this  time  upwards  of  four  thousand  men  in  prison  for 
debt.  Their  condition  was  most  pitiful.  They  had  no  hope  of  relief 
save  through  the  mercy  of  the  creditors  who  had  consigned  them  to  their 
prisons,  and  were  treated  with  a  severity  due  only  to  criminals.  It 
seemed  an  outrage  to  the  generous  Oglethorpe  to  visit  such  heavy  punish- 
ments upon  persons  whose  only  crimes  were  their  misfortunes,  and  he 
endeavored  to  have  the  laws  authorizing  imprisonment  for  debt  repealed, 
and  failing  in  this  conceived  the  plan  of  establishing  in  America  a  place1 
of  refuge  to  which  the  poor  and  unfortunate  might  resort,  and  earn  a 
support  by  their  own  industry.  He  succeeded  in  interesting  others  in  his 
benevolent  scheme,  and  in  1732  a  petition,  signed  by  a  number  of  men 
of  rank  and  influence,  was  presented  to  George  II.,  praying  him  to  grant 
to  the  petitioners  a  tract  of  unoccupied  land  in  America  for  the  purpose 
of  founding  such  an  asylum  as  that  proposed  by  Oglethorpe.  The  kinu 
responded  favorably  to  this  appeal,  and  granted  to  Oglethorpe  and 
twenty  other  persons  the  region  l>etween  the  Savannah  and  the  Altamalia 
286 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA.  287 

rivers.  This  region  was  to  be  held  "  in  trust  for  the  poor,"  for  a  period 
of  twenty-one  years,  by  the  trustees  named  in  the  charter,  and  was  to 
constitute  a  home  for  unfortunate  debtors  and  Protestants  from  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe,  who  might  wish  to  seek  safety  there  from  persecution. 
The  territory  thus  assigned  formed  a  part  of  South  Carolina,  but  was 
formally  separated  from  it  and  named  Georgia  in  honor  of  the  king. 
The  "  free  exercise  of  religion  "  was  secured  to  all  sects  "  except  Papists." 
No  grant  of  land  to  any  single  settler  was  to  exceed  five  hundred  acres, 
a  condition  which  it  was  hoped  would  prevent  the  rich  from  securing  the 
best  lands,  and  give  to  the  poor  an  opportunity  to  become  landowners. 
It  was  believed  that  the  climate  and  soil  of  the  new  province  were  speci- 
ally adapted  to  the  raising  of  silk-worms  and  the  cultivation  of  the  vine. 
The  scheme  of  Oglethorpe  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  all  classes  of  the 
English  people.  Liberal  donations  were  made  in  its  behalf,  and  its 
benevolent  projector  exerted  himself  with  energy  to  secure  a  colony  with 
which  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  new  state.  It  was  determined  to 
take  none  but  the  poorest  and  most 
helpless,  and  Oglethorpe  himself 
decided  to  accompany  them,  and 
give  his  personal  care  to  the  plant- 
ing of  the  colony.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  persons,  comprising  thirty- 
five  families,  were  embarked,  and 
they  sailed  from  England  in  No- 
vember, 1732.  They  reached  Charleston  in  fifty -seven  days,  and  were 
formally  welcomed  by  the  assembly  of  South  Carolina  and  presented  with 
a  supply  of  cattle  and  rice.  From  Charleston  the  company  sailed  to 
Port  Royal,  while  Oglethorpe  hastened  to  explore  the  Savannah  and 
select  a  site  for  the  settlement.  He  chose  a  location  at  Yamacraw 
Bluff,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  about  twenty  miles  from  its  mouth. 
He  purchased  the  land  from  the  Yamacraw  Indians,  and  the  foundations 
of  a  town  were  laid.  The  place  was  named  Savannah  from  the  river  on 
v.'hich  it  stood.  Oglethorpe  hastened  forward  the  clearing  of  the  land 
and  the  building  of  houses,  but  for  nearly  a  year  contented  himself  with 
a  tent  which  was  erected  under  four  wide-spreading  pines.  "  The  streets 
were  laid  out  with  the  greatest  regularity;  in  each  quarter  a  publL 
square  was  reserved;  the  houses  were  planned  and  constructed  on  one 
model — each  a  frame  of  sawed  timber,  twenty-four  feet  by  sixteen, 
floored  with  rough  deals,  the  sides  with  feather-edged  boards,  unplaned, 
and  the  roof  shingled."  A  garden  was  laid  off  by  the  river-side,  to  be 
the  nursery  of  European  fruits  and  other  productions. 


COAT  OF  AKMS  OF  GEORGIA. 


288  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

Friendly  relations  were  cultivated  with  the  Indians.  The  chief  of  the 
Yamacraws  came  in  bringing  a  buffalo  skin,  on  the  inner  side  of  whicfc 
was  painted  the  head  and  feathers  of  an  eagle.  "  Here  is  a  little  present," 
said  Tomo-chichi,  as  the  chief  was  named.  "  The  feathers  of  the  eagle 
are  soft,  and  signify  love ;  the  buffalo  skin  is  warm,  and  is  the  emblem 
of  protection ;  therefore  love  and  protect  our  little  families."  The  Mus- 
cogees,  Creeks,  Cherokees,  and  Oconees  also  sent  their  chiefs  to  Savannah 
to  make  an  alliance  with  the  English.  The  savages  were  well  pleased 
with  the  noble  and  commanding  appearance  of  Oglethorpe  and  his  frank 
and  kind  manner  of  dealing  with  them,  and  trusted  implicitly  in  the 
promises  he  made  them.  The  distant  Choctaws  also  sent  messengers  to 
open  friendly  relations  with  the  new  settlers,  and  a  profitable  trade  was 
established  with  the  tribes  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi. 

Thus  far  the  colony  of  Georgia  was  a  success,  and  the  friends  of  the 
movement  in  England  were  no*  slow  to  make 
public  the  accounts  which  came  to  them  of  its 
delightful  climate  and  fertile  soil,  and  all  who 
were  oppressed  or  in  need  were  invited  to  seek 
the  protection  and  advantages  which  the  new 
land  offered.  The  fame  of  the  colony  attracted 
the  attention  of  a  number  of  German  Protes- 
tants in  and  around  Salzburg,  who  were  under- 
going a  severe  persecution  for  the  sake  of  their 
religion.  Their  sufferings  enlisted  the  sympa- 
thy of  the  people  of  England,  and  the  "  Society 
OGLETHORPE.  ^°r  *ne  Propagation  of  the  Gospel"  invited 

them  to  emigrate  to  Georgia,  and  secured  for 

them  the  means  of  doing  so.  The  Germans  readily  accepted  the  offer, 
and  rejoiced  greatly  that  they  were  thus  afforded  an  opportunity  of 
spreading  the  gospel  among  the  Indians.  Nearly  one  hundred  persons 
get  out  from  Salzburg,  taking  with  them  their  wives  and  little  ones  in 
wagons,  and  journeyed  across  the  country  to  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
They  carried  with  them  their  Bibles  and  books  of  devotion,  and  as  they 
journeyed  lightened  their  fatigues  with  those  grand  old  German  hymn? 
which  they  were  to  make  as  precious  in  the  new  world  as  they  were  to 
the  people  of  God  in  the  old.  From  Frankfort  they  proceeded  to  the 
Rhine  and  floated  down  that  stream  to  Rotterdam,  where  being  joined  by 
two  clergymen — Bolzius  and  Gronau — they  sailed  to  England.  They 
were  warmly  received  by  a  committee  of  the  trustees  of  the  colony  and 
forwarded  to  Georgia.  ?• 

A  stormy  passage  of  fifty-seven  days  brought  them  to  Charleston,  in 


19 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

March,  1734,  where  they  were  met  by  Oglethorpe,  who  led  them  to  their 
destination.  They  were  assigned  a  location  on  the  Savannah,  a  short 
distance  above  the  town  of  Savannah,  where  they  began  without  delay  tc 
lay  off  a  town  which  they  named  Ebenezer,  in  gratitude  to  God  for  hi.s 
guidance  of  them  into  a  land  of  plenty  and  of  rest  from  persecution. 
Others  of  their  countrymen  joined  them  from  time  to  time,  and  their 
settlement  grew  rapidly,  and  became  noted  as  one  of  the  most  orderly, 
thrifty,  and  moral  communities  in  the  new  world. 

In  1734  the  town  of  Augusta  was  laid  out  at  the  head  of  boat  naviga- 
tion on  the  Savannah,  and  soon  became  an  important  trading-post. 
Emigrants  came  over  from  England  in  large  numbers,  and  Oglethorpe 
had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  colony  fairly  started  upon  the  road  to 
prosperity.  He  was  justly  proud  of  the  success  of  the  colony,  for  it  was 
mainly  due  to  his  disinterested  efforts.  Governor  Johnson  of  South 
Carolina,  who  had  watched  the  labors  of  Oglethorpe  with  the  deepest 
interest,  wrote :  "  His  undertaking  will  succeed,  for  he  nobly  devotes  all 
his  powers  to  serve  the  poor  and  rescue  them  from  their  wretchedness." 
The  pastor  of  Ebenezer  bore  equally  emphatic  testimony  to  his  devotion. 
•'  He  has  taken  care  of  us  to  the  best  of  his  ability,"  said  the  pastor. 
'•'  God  has  so  blessed  his  presence  and  his  regulations  in  the  land,  that 
others  would  not  in  many  years  have  accomplished  what  he  has  brought 
about  in  one." 

In  April,  1734,  Oglethorpe,  whose  presence  was  required  in  Europe, 
sailed  from  Savannah,  taking  with  him  several  Indians,  and  enough  of 
the  raw  silk  which  had  been  produced  in  the  colony  to  make  a  dress  for 
the  queen.  Georgia  was  left  to  manage  its  own  affairs  during  the  absence 
of  the  founder.  As  the  colonists  regarded  the  use  of  ardent  spirits  as  the 
sure  cause  of  the  dsbt  and  misery  from  which  they  had  fled,  they  prohib- 
ited their  introduction  into  the  colony ;  but  it  was  found  impossible  to 
enforce  this  law.  The  importation  of  negro  slaves  was  also  forbidden. 
The  colony  was  a  refuge  for  the  distressed  and  oppressed  of  all  nations, 
and  it  seemed  a  violation  of  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  founded  to  hold 
men  in  bondage.  "  Slavery,"  said  Oglethorpe,  "  is  against  the  gospel  as 
well  as  the  fundamental  law  of  England.  We  refused,  as  trustees,  to 
make  a  law  permitting  such  a  horrid  crime." 

The  visit  of  Oglethorpe  to  England  was  productive  of  great  benefit  to 
Georgia.  Parliament  was  induced  to  grant  it  assistance,  and  the  king 
became  deeply  interested  in  the  province  which  had  been  called  by  his 
name.  Emigrants  from  England  continued  to  seek  its  hospitable  shores, 
and  the  trustees  induced  a  band  of  Moravians,  or  United  Brethren,  tc 
emigrate  to  the  colony.  They  came  in  1735,  with  the  intention  of 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA.  291 

becoming  missionaries  of  the  gospel  among  the  savage  tribes,  and  under 
their  leader  Spangenberg,  formed  a  new  settlement  on  the  Ogeechee,  south 
of  the  Savannah.  They  claimed  and  received  a  grant  of  fifty  acres  of 
land  for  each  of  their  number,  in  accordance  with  a  law  which  had  been 
passed  for  the  encouragement  of  emigration.  In  the  same  year  a  com- 
pany of  Scotch  Highlanders,  under  their  minister,  John  McLeod,  arrived, 
and  founded  the  town  of  Darien,  on  the  Altamaha.  In  1736  Oglethorpe 
himself  returned,  bringing  with  him  three  hundred  emigrants. 

Among  the  new-comers  were  two  brothers,  men  of  eminent  piety,  who 
were  destined  to  exercise  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  world.  They 
wore  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  sons  of  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  themselves  ministers  of  that  communion.  Charles  Wesley 
had  been  selected  by  Oglethorpe  as  his  secretary,  and  John  Wesley  came 
with  the  hope  of  becoming  the  means  of  converting  the  Indians  to 
Christianity.  He  did  not  succeed  in  realizing  his  noble  ambition,  but  we 
cannot  doubt  that  his  experience  in  America  formed  a  very  important 
part  of  the  training  by  which  God  was  preparing  him  for  the  great  work 
he  meant  to  intrust  to  him  at  a  later  day.  The  preaching  of  Wesley  had 
a  marked  effect  upon  the  colony.  Crowds  flocked  to  hear  him,  neglecting 
their  usual  amusements  in  their  eagerness  to  listen  to  him.  His  austerity 
of  life,  however,  involved  him  in  troubles  with  the  people,  and  his  popu- 
larity at  length  disappeared.  His  brother  Charles  was  too  tenderly 
moulded  for  so  rough  a  life  as  that  of  the  infant  colony,  and  his  health 
sank  under  it.  The  brothers  remained  in  Georgia  only  two  years,  and 
then  went  back  to  Europe,  never  to  return  to  America. 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  the  Wesleys  came  to  the  colony  George 
Whitefield,  their  friend  and  associate,  the  "golden-mouthed"  preacher 
of  the  century.  In  his  own  land  he  had  begun  to  preach  the  message  of 
his  Master  when  but  a  mere  youth,  and  had  proclaimed  it  to  the  inmates 
of  the  prisons  and  to  the  poor  in  the  fields,  and  now  he  had  come  to 
bring  the  gospel  to  the  people  of  the  new  world.  He  visited  the 
Lutherans  at  Ebenezer,  and  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  care  with 
which  they  protected  the  orphan  and  helpless  children  of  their  com- 
munity. He  determined  to  establish  an  institution  similar  to  the  orphan 
house  at  Halle  in  Germany,  and  by  his  personal  exertions  succeeded  in 
raising  in  England  and  America  the  funds  necessary  for  the  success  of 
his  enterprise.  He  thereupon  established  near  Savannah  the  first  orphan 
asylum  in  America.  He  watched  it  with  unceasing  care  during  his  life, 
but  after  his  death  it  languished  and  was  at  length  discontinued.  White- 
field  did  not  confine  his  labors  to  Georgia.  He  visited  eveiy  colony  in 
America,  and  finally  died  and  was  buried  in  New  England.  The  memory 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  his  wonderful  eloquence  is  still  retained  in  this  country  by  the  children 
of  those  who  listened  to  him. 

Immediately  upon  his  return  to  Georgia,  Oglethorpe  proceeded  to  visit 
the  Lutheran  settlement  at  Ebenezer,  to  encourage  the  people  and  lay  out 
their  town.  The  Germans  repaid  his  care  by  their  industry,  and  in  a 
fviw  years  their  total  annual  product  of  raw  silk  amounted  to  ten  thousand 
pounds.  The  culture  of  indigo  was  also  carried  on  by  them  with  marked 
success. 

Oglethorpe,  having  visited  the  Scotch  settlement  at  Darien,  now 
resolved  to  come  to  a  definite  understanding  with  the  Spaniards  at  St. 
Augustine  respecting  the  southern  border  of  Georgia,  and  to  sustain  the 
pretensions  of  Great  Britain  to  the  country  as  far  south  as  the  St.  John's. 
Proceeding  with  a  detachment  of  Highlanders  to  Cumberland  island,  he 
marked  out  the  location  for  a  fort,  to  be  called  St.  Andrew's,  and  on  the 
southern  end  of  Amelia  island,  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John's,  built  Fort 
St.  George.  The  Spaniards  on  their  part  claimed  the  whole  coast  as  far 
north  as  St.  Helena's  sound,  and  Oglethorpe,  a  little  later,  decided  to 
abandon  Fort  St.  George,  but  strengthened  Fort  St.  Andrew,  as  it 
defended  the  entrance  to  the  St.  Mary's,  which  stream  was  finally  settled 
upon  as  the  boundary  between  Georgia  and  Florida.  Oglethorpe  was 
commissioned  a  brigadier-general  by  the  king,  and  was  charged  with  the 
defence  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  He  repaired  to  England  and 
raised  a  regiment  of  troops,  with  which  he  returned  to  Georgia  in  1738. 

Spain  and  England  were  rapidly  drifting  into  war.  The  system  of 
restrictions  by  which  the  European  governments  sought  to  retain  the 
exclusive  possession  of  the  commerce  of  their  respective  colonies  was 
al'.vays  a  fruitful  source  of  trouble.  It  now  operated  to  bring  England 
and  Spain  to  open  hostilities.  The  Spanish  colonies  were  forbidden  by 
law  to  trade  with  any  port  but  that  of  Cadiz.  The  merchants  of  this 
place,  being  given  a  monopoly  of  the  colonial  commerce,  were  enabled  to 
fix  their  prices  without  fear  of  competition,  and  thus  earned  large 
fortunes.  The  trade  of  the  Spanish-American  colonies,  however,  was  too 
tempting  not  to  produce  rivals  to  the  merchants  of  Cadiz.  The  English, 
who  had  watched  its  growth  with  eager  eyes,  determined  to  ,<jain  a  share 
of  it.  By  the  terms  of  a  treaty  between  the  two  nations,  an  English 
vessel  w;;s  allowed  to  visit  Portobello,  in  the  West  Indies,  once  a  year, 
and  dispose  of  its  cargo.  This  vessel  was  followed  by  stnaller  ones, 
which  in  the  night  replaced  with  their  cargoes  the  bales  of  goods  that 
had  been  discharged  during  th4  day.  An  active  smuggling  trade  sprang 
up  between  the  English  and  Spanish- American  ports,  and  English  vessels 
repeatedly  sought  these  ports,  under  the  pretence  of  distress,  and  sold 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA. 


293 


their  goods.  These  enterprises  were  carried  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
Spanish  merchants  were  unable  to  compete  with  the  English  smugglers 
in  the  colonial  markets,  and  the  tonnage  of  the  port  of  Cadiz  fell  from 
fifteen  thousand  to  two  thousand  tons.  The  Spaniards  visited  with  severe 
punishments  all  who  were  detected  in  engaging  in  this  illicit  traffic, 
oome  of  the  offenders  were  imprisoned,  and  others  were  deprived  of  their' 


GATHERING   SUGAB-CANE. 

ears.  The  English  people  resented  the  punishment  of  these  traders  BK 
•w  infringement  of  the  freedom  of  trade,  and  regarded  the  smugglers  who 
nad  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Spanish  justice  as  martyrs.  The  popular 
sentiment  was  therefore  in  favor  of  a  war  with  Spain,  and  the  English 
government,  which  had  all  along  connived  at  this  illicit  trade,  which  was 
rapidly  crippling  a  rival  power,  shared  the  national  feeling. 

The  English  colonists,  who  had  watched  the  growth  of  the  trouble 


294  HISTORY   Of  THE   V SITED  STATES. 

tatween  the  two  European  countries,  had  grievances  of  their  own.  Soutb 
Carolina  was  a  sufferer  by  the  loss  of  numerous  runaway  negro  slaves, 
who  escaped  to  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine.  The  return  of  these 
fugitives  was  demanded,  and  was  refused,  not  because  the  Spaniards  were 
>pposed  to  slavery,  but  because  they  were  always  ready  to  injure  the 
English  colonies  by  any  means  in  their  power.  Moreover,  the  Spanish 
authorities  of  Florida  had  ordered  the  English  to  withdraw  from 
Georgia,  and  it  was  not  certain  that  they  would  refrain  from  seeking  to 
enforce  this  order.  Oglethorpe  had  become  convinced  that  war  was  in- 
evitable, and  in  order  to  be  prepared  for  it  had  visited  Europe  and  raised 
a  regiment  of  six  hundred  men;  as  has  been  related. 

War  was  declared  against  Spain  by  England  in  October,  1739. 
Admiral  Vernon  was  sent  against  Portobello  with  his  fleet,  and  captured 
that  town  and  its  fortifications,  and  gained  some  other  successes  over  the 
Spaniards  in  Central  America.  In  1740  the  American  colonies  were 
ordered  by  the  British  government  to  contribute  each  its  quota  to  a  grand 
expedition  against  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the  West  Indies.  Each 
colony  made  its  contribution  promptly,  and  Pennsylvania,  in  the  place 
of  troops,  voted  a  sum  of  money.  The  expedition  reached  Jamaica  in 
January,  1741,  but  instead  of  proceeding  at  once  to  attack  Havana, 
which  was  only  three  days  distant,  and  the  conquest  of  which  would 
have  made  England  supreme  in  the  West  Indies,  the  fleet  was  detained 
for  over  a  month  at  Jamaica  by  the  dissensions  between  Wentworth,  the 
incompetent  commander  of  the  land  forces,  and  Vernon,  the  admiral  of 
the  fleet.  The  expedition  numbered  over  one  hundred  vessels,  of  which 
twenty -nine  were  ships  of  the  line,  and  was  manned  with  fifteen  thousand 
sailors  and  twelve  thousand  troops,  and  supplied  with  every  requisite  for 
a  successful  siege.  Havana  might  have  been  taken,  and  England  have 
gained  a  hold  upon  the  southern  waters  of  America  which  could  never 
have  been  wrested  from  her.  Instead  of  undertaking  this  important 
measure,  the  expedition  attacked  Carthagena,  the  strongest  fortress  in 
Spanish  America.  The  Spaniards  defended  it  with  obstinacy  and  held 
the  English  in  check  until  the  besieging  force,  decimated  by  the  ravager 
of  the  climate,  was  compelled  to  withdraw.  The  war  continued  through 
the  next  year,  but  England  gained  no  advantage  in  the  West  Indies 
which  could  at  all  compensate  her  for  her  losses  in  the  struggle. 

In  the  autumn  of  1739,  upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  Oglethorpe 
was  ordered  to  invade  Florida  and  attack  St.  Augustine.  He  hastened 
to  Charleston  and  urged  upon  the  authorities  of  South  Carolina,  which 
formed  a  part  of  his  military  command,  the  necessity  of  acting  with 
promptness  and  decision.  He  was  granted  supplies  and  a  force  of  four 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA.  295 

hundred  men,  which,  added  to  his  own  regiment,  gave  him  a  force  of  one 
thousand  white  troops.  He  was  also  furnished  with  a  body  of  Indian 
warriors  by  the  friendly  tribes,  and  with  his  little  army  invaded  Florida 
in  the  spring  of  1741,  and  laid  siege  to  St.  Augustine.  He  found  the 
garrison  more  numerous  and  the  fortifications  stronger  than  he  had  been 
led  to  believe.  The  Indians  soon  became  disheartened  and  began  to 
desert,  and  the  troops  from  South  Carolina,  "  enfeebled  by  the  heat,  dis- 
pirited by  sickness  and  fatigued  by  fruitless  efforts,  marched  away  in 
large  bodies."  The  small  naval  force  also  became  dissatisfied,  and  Ogle- 
thorpe,  left  with  only  his  own  regiment,  was  obliged  to  withdraw  into 
Georgia  after  a  siege  of  five  weeks.  During  this  campaign  Oglethorpe 
made  a  few  prisoners,  whom  he  treated  with  kindness.  He  prevented 
the  Indians  from  maltreating  the  Spanish  settlers,  and,  throughout  the 
invasion,  "  endured  more  fatigues  than  any  of  his  soldiers ;  and  in  spite 
of  ill  health,  consequent  on  exposure  to  perpetual  damps,  he  was  always 
at  the  head  in  every  important  action." 

The  invasion  of  Florida  was  a  misfortune  for  Georgia  in  every  way. 
Not  only  were  some  of  the  inhabitants  lost  to  the  colony  by  death,  and 
the  industry  of  the  province  greatly  interfered  with  by  the  calling  off  of 
the  troops  from  their  ordinary  avocations,  but  a  serious  misfortune  was 
sustained  in  the  withdrawal  of  the  Moravians  from  the  province.  Un- 
compromisingly opposed  to  war  they  withdrew  from  Georgia  in  a  body, 
and  settled  in  Pennsylvania,  where  they  founded  the  towns  of  Bethlehem 
and  Nazareth. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  war,  1742,  the  Spaniards  resolved  to  avenge  the 
attack  upon  Florida  by  driving  the  English  out  of  Georgia.  A  strong 
fleet  with  a  considerable  land  force  was  sent  from  Cuba  to  St.  Augustine, 
from  which  it  proceeded  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Mary's.  Oglethorpe 
had  constructed  a  strong  work  called  Fort  William,  on  the  southern  end 
of  Cumberland  island,  for  the  defence  of  this  river.  With  no  aid  from 
Carolina,  and  with  less  than  a  thousand  men,  Oglethorpe  was  left  to  de- 
fend this  position  as  well  as  he  could.  He  posted  his  main  force  at 
Frederica,  a  small  village  on  St.  Simon's  island.  The  Spanish  fleet 
attacked  Fort  William  in  June,  and  succeeded  in  passing  it  and  entering 
the  harbor  of  St.  Simon's.  The  troops  were  landed,  and  arrangements 
were  made  for  a  combined  attack  upon  Frederica. 

Oglethorpe  now  resolved  to  anticipate  the  attack  of  the  enemy  by  a 
night  assault  upon  their  position,  but  as  his  forces  were  approaching  the 
Spanish  camp,  under  cover  of  darkness,  one  of  his  soldiers,  a  French- 
man, betrayed  the  movement  by  firing  his  gun,  and  escaping  into  the 
enemy's  lines,  where  he  gave  the  alarm.  Oglethorpe  by  a  happy  strata- 


296  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

gem  now  induced  the  enemy  to  withdraw,  and  drew  upon  the  deserter  the 
punishment  he  merited.  He  bribed  a  Spanish  prisoner  to  carry  a  letter 
to  the  deserter,  in  which  he  addressed  the  Frenchman  as  a  spy  of  the 
English,  and  urged  him  to  use  every  effort  to  detain  the  Spaniards  before 
Frederica  for  several  days  longer,  until  a  fleet  of  six  English  ships  of 
war,  which  had  sailed  from  Charleston,  could  reach  and  destroy  St. 
Augustine.  The  letter  was  delivered  by  the  released  prisoner  to  the 
Spanish  commander,  as  Oglethorpe  had  known  would  be  the  case,  and 
the  deserter  was  placed  in  confinement.  Fortunately,  at  this  moment, 
some  vessels  from  South  Carolina,  laden  with  supplies  for  Oglethorpe, 
appeared  in  the  offing.  These  the  Spanish  commander  was  confident 
were  the  ships  on  their  way  to  attack  St.  Augustine.  He  determined  to 
strike  a  vigorous  blow  at  Frederica  before  sailing  to  the  relief  of  his 
countrymen  in  Florida.  On  his  march  towards  the  English  position  he 
was  ambuscaded  and  defeated,  with  great  loss,  at  a  place  since  called 
"  Bloody  Marsh."  The  next  night  he  embarked  his  forces,  and  sailed 
for  St.  Augustine  to  defend  it  from  the  attack  which  had  no  existence 
save  in  the  fertile  brain  of  Oglethorpe,  whose  stratagem  was  thus  entirely 
successful.  On  their  withdrawal  the  Spaniards  renewed  their  attempt  to 
capture  Fort  William,  but  without  success.  The  firmness  and  vigor  of 
Oglethorpe  had  saved  Georgia  and  Carolina  from  the  ruin  which  the 
Spaniards,  who  had  no  intention  of  occupying  the  country,  had  designed 
for  them. 

Yet  the  founder  and  brave  defender  of  Georgia  was  not  to  escape  the 
experience  of  those  who  seek  with  disinterested  zeal  to  serve  their  fellow- 
men.  The  disaffected  settlers  sent  an  agent  to  England  to  lodge  com- 
plaints against  him  with  the  government.  In  July,  1743,  having  made 
sure  of  the  tranquillity  and  safety  of  the  colony,  Oglethorpe  sailed  for 
England  to  meet  his  accuser,  and  upon  arriving  in  his  native  country  de- 
manded an  investigation  of  his  conduct  in  the  land  for  which  he  had 
sacrificed  so  much.  The  result  of  the  inquiry  was  the  triumphant 
acquittal  of  Oglethorpe,  and  the  punishment  of  his  accuser  for  making 
false  charges.  Oglethorpe  was  promoted  to  the  grade  of  major-general 
in  the  English  army.  He  did  not  return  to  Georgia  again,  but  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  during  his  ten  years  of  sacrifice  and  toil 
in  America  he  had  successfully  laid  the  foundations  of  a  vigorous  state, 
and  had  placed  it  far  beyond  the  possibility  of  failure,  and  that  his  name 
was  honored  and  loved  by  the  people  for  whom  he  had  given  his  best 
efforts  without  any  personal  reward.  He  died  at  the  age  of  ninety  years. 
After  the  departure  of  Oglethorpe  many  improvements  were  made  in  the 
government  of  Georgia,  which  was  changed  from  a  military  rule  to  a 


SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA.  297 

civil  establishment.  The  forms  and  customs  of  the  English  law  were 
introduced,  and  the  usual  magistrates  appointed. 

Slavery  had  been  forbidden  by  the  trustees,  but  the  majority  of  the 
people  were  dissatisfied  with  this  prohibition.  The  Germans  and  the 
Scotch  were  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  stave  labor,  but  the  greater 
number  of  the  English,  many  of  whom  had  been  reduced  to  poverty  by 
iheir  idleness  and  wastefulness,  -,vcre  of  the  opinion  that  the  agricultural 
wealth  of  the  colony  could  not  be  properly  developed  by  white  labor 
alone.  "They  were  unwilling  to  labor,  but  were  clamorous  for  privileges 
to  which  they  had  no  right."  They  declared  that  the  u?e  of  strong 
liquors  was  rendered  absolutely  necessary  by  the  climate,  and  demanded 
the  repeal  of  the  laws  against  their  introduction.  Negro  slaves  were 
hired  from  ^he  Carolina  planters  at  first  for  a  few  years,  and  finally  for  a 
term  of  one  hundred  years,  which  was  a  practical  establishment  of  sla- 
very in  the  colony.  Within  seven  years  after  Oglethorpe's  departure 
slave-ships  from  Africa  brought  their  cargoes  direct  to  Savannah,  and 
sold  them  there.  The  scruples  of  the  Germans  were  at  length  overcome, 
and  they  were  induced  to  believe  that  negroes  might  be  led  into  the 
Christian  fold  by  their  proper  treatment  by  Christian  masters,  and  that 
in  this  way  their  change  of  country  might  result  in  benefit  to  them.  "  If 
you  take  slaves  in  faith,"  wrote  their  friends  from  Germany,  "  and  with 
the  intent  of  conducting  them  to  Christ,  the  action  will  not  be  a  sin,  but 
may  prove  a  benediction."  Even  the  pious  Whitefield  took  this  view  of 
;he  subject,  and  urged  the  trustees  to  grant  permission  to  the  colonists  to 
.hold  slaves,  as  indispensable  to  the  prosperity  of  Georgia. 

The  trustees  were  so  strongly  urged  to  this  step  by  all  classes  of  the 
colony,  and  so  overrun  with  complaints,  that  the  twenty-one  years  of 
their  guardianship  having  expired,  they  \vere  glad  to  surrender  their 
trust,  which  they  did  in  1752,  and  Georgia  became  a  royal  province. 
Privileges  similar  to  those  granted  the  other  colonies  were  allowed  it. 
The  king  appointed  the  governor  and  some  of  the  other  higher  officials, 
and  the  assembly  discharged  the  duties,  and  enjoyed  the  rights  appertain- 
ing to  similar  bodies  in  the  other  provinces.  Georgia  was  always  a  favored 
colony.  Among  the  most  important  privileges  bestowed  upon  it  was  the 
right  to  import  and  hold  negro  slaves,  which  was  conferred  upon  it  by 
Parliament  after  a  careful  examination  into  the  matter.  After  this  the 
colony  grew  rapidly,  and  cotton  and  rice  were  largely  cultivated.  In 
1752,  at  the  time  of  the  relinquishment  of  the  colony  to  the  crown,  G*x>r- 
gia  contained  a  population  less  than  2500  whites,  and  about  400  negroes. 
In  1775,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  the  population  numbered 
i'>out  75,000  souls,  and  its  exports  were  valued  at  over  half  a  million  of 
dollars. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE   FRENCH   IN  THE   VALLEY  OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

Origin  of  the  Hostility  of  the  Iroquois  to  the  French — Settlement  of  Canada — Plans  ol 
the  French  respecting  the  Indians — The  Jesuits — Their  Work  in  America — Success  of 
their  Missions — The  Early  Missionaries — Foundation  of  a  College  at  Quebec — Efforts 
of  the  Jesuits  to  Convert  the  Iroquois — Father  Jogues — Death  of  Ahasistari — Father 
AlloUez — The  Missions  on  the  Upper  Lakes — Father  Marquette — His  Exploration  of 
the  Upper  Mississippi — Death  of  Marquette — La  Salle — Efforts  of  France  to  secure  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi — La  Salle  Descends  the  Mississippi  to  its  Mouth — His  Effort 
to  Colonize  the  Lower  Mississippi — The  First  Colony  in  Texas — Its  Failure — Death  of 
La  Salle — Lemoine  d'Ibberville — Settlement  of  Louisiana — Colony  of  Biloxi — Settle- 
ment of  Mobile — Crozat's  Monopoly — Founding  of  New  Orleans — Detroit  Founded — 
Slow  Growth  of  the  French  Colonies — Occupation  of  the  Ohio  Valley  by  the  French- 
Wars  with  the  Indians — Extermination  of  the  Natchez  Tribe — War  with  the  Chickasaws. 

|  E  have  already  spoken  of  the  explorations  of  Samuel  Charaplain 
in  Canada  and  in  the  northern  part  of  New  York.  It  is  neces- 
sary now,  in  order  to  obtain  a  proper  comprehension  of  the 
period  at  which  we  have  arrived,  to  go  back  to  the  time  of  his 
discoveries  and  trace  the  efforts  of  France  to  extend  her  domin- 
ion over  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  We  have  seen  Champlain 
in  one  of  his  last  expeditions  accompanying  a  war  party  of  the  Hurons 
and  Algonquins  against  their  inveterate  enemies,  the  Iroquois,  or  Five 
Nations.  By  his  aid  the  former  were  enabled  to  defeat  the  Iroquois,  and 
that  great  confederacy  thus  became  the  bitter  and  uncompromising 
enemies  of  the  French  nation.  They  cherished  this  hostility  to  the  latest 
period  of  the  dominion  of  France  in  Canada,  and  no  effort  of  the  French 
governors  was  ever  able  to  overcome  it. 

The  efforts  of  Champlain  established  the  settlement  of  Canada  upon  a 
sure  basis  of  success,  and  after  his  death  settlers  came  over  to  Canada 
from  France  in  considerable  numbers.  Quebec  became  an  important 
place,  and  other  settlements  were  founded.  It  was  apparent  from  the 
first  that  the  French  colonies  must  occupy  a  very  different  footing  from 
those  of  England.  The  soil  and  the  climate  were  both  unfavorable  to 
agriculture,  and  the  French  settlements  were  of  necessity  organized 
chic-fly  as  trading-posts.  The  trade  in  furs  was  immensely  valuable,  and 
the  French  sought  to  secure  the  exclusive  possession  of  it.  To  this  end 
298 


300  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

it  was  indispensable  to  secure  the  friendship  of  the  Indians,  especially  of 
those  tribes  inhabiting  the  country  to  the  north  and  west  of  the  groat 
lakes. 

In  1634,  three  years  before  the  death  of  Champlain,  Louis  XIII. 
granted  a  charter  to  a  company  of  French  nobles  and  merchants,  bestowing 
upon  them  the  entire  region  embraced  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
then  known  as  New  France.  Richelieu  and  Champlain,  who  were  mem- 
bers of  this  company,  were  wise  enough  to  understand  that  their  country- 
men were  not  suited  to  the  task  of  colonization,  and  that  if  France  was 
to  found  an  empire  in  the  new  world,  it  must  be  by  civilizing  and  Chris- 
tianizing the  Indians,  and  bringing  them  under  the  rule  of  her  king,  and 
not  by  seeking  to  people  Canada  with  Frenchmen.  From  this  time  it 
became  the  policy  of  France  to  bring  the  savages  under  her  sway.  The 
efforts  of  the  settlers  in  Canada  were  mainly  devoted  to  trading  with  the 
Indians,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  found  an  agricultural  state. 

Champlain  had  conceived  a  sincere  desire  for  the  conversion  of  the 
savages  to  Christianity,  and  had  employed  several  priests  of  the  order  of 
St.  Francis  as  his  companions,  and  these  had  gained  sufficient  success 
among  the  savages  to  give  ground  for  the  hope  that  the  red  men  might 
yet  be  brought  into  the  fold  of  Christ.  Father  Lc  Caron,  one  of  this 
order,  had  penetrated  far  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  had  explored  the  southern 
coast  of  Lake  Ontario,  and  had  even  entered  Lake  Huron.  He  brought 
back  tidings  of  thousands  of  the  sons  of  the  forest  living  in  darkness  and 
superstition,  ignorant  of  the  gospel,  and  dying  "  in  the  bondage  of  their 
sins."  In  France  a  sudden  enthusiasm  was  awakened  in  behalf  of  the 
savages,  and  at  court  zeal  for  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  became  the 
sure  road  to  distinction.  Much  of  this  was  the  result  of  genuine  dis- 
interested regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  red  men,  but  much  also  M-a3  due 
to  the  conviction  that  by  such  a  course  the  power  of  France  would  be 
most  surely  established  in  Canada. 

The  missions  were  placed  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Jesuits,  an  order 
well  suited  to  the  task  demanded  of  it.  It  had  been  established  by  its 
founder  for  the  express  design  of  defeating  the  influences  and  the  work 
of  the  Reformation,  and  its  members  were  chosen  with  especial  regard  to 
their  fitness  for  the  duties  required  of  them.  They  were  to  meet  and 
refute  the  arguments  by  which  the  Reformers  justified  their  withdraw.",1, 
from  the  Roman  Church,  to  beat  back  the  advancing  wave  of  Protes- 
tantism, and  bring  all  Christendom  once  more  in  humble  submission  to 
the  feet  of  the  Roman  pontiff.  The  Reformers  had  made  a  most  success- 
ful use  of  education  in  winning  men  from  Rome;  the  Jesuits  would  take 
their  own  weapons  against  the  Protestants.  They  would  no  longer  com- 


VALLEV  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  301 

mand  absolute  and  unquestioning  submission  to  their  church ;  but  would 
educate  the  people  to  accept  the  faith  of  Rome  as  the  result  of  study  and 
investigation ;  and  in  order  that  study  and  investigation  should  lead  to 
this  desired  result,  the  control  of  these  processes  should  be  placed  exclu- 
sively in  the  hands  of  the  members  of  the  Jesuit  order,  who  should  direct 
them  as  they  deemed  best.  Such  a  task  required  a  band  of  devoted  men, 
carefully  trained  for  their  special  work ;  and  such  an  order  the  Jesuits 
became.  Surrendering  his  conscience  and  will  to  the  direction  of  his 
superiors,  and  sinking  his  personality  in  that  of  his  order,  the  Jesuit 
became  a  mere  intellectual  machine  in  the  hands  of  his  superior.  Bound 
by  a  most  solemn  oath  to  obey  without  inquiry  or  hesitation  the  com- 
mands of  the  Pope,  or  the  superiors  of  the  order,  the  Jesuit  holds  him- 
self in  readiness  to  execute  instantly,  and  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  any 
task  imposed  upon  him.  Neither  fatigue,  danger,  hunger,  nor  suffering, 
was  to  stand  in  his  way  of  perfect  and  unhesitating  obedience.  No  dis- 
tance was  to  be  considered  an  obstacle,  and  no  lack  of  ordinary  facilities 
of  travel  was  to  prevent  him  from  attempting  to  reach  the  fields  in  which 
he  was  ordered  to  labor.  The  merit  of  obedience  in  his  eyes  atoned  for 
every  other  short-coming ;  devotion  to  the  church,  the  glory  of  making 
proselytes,  made  even  suffering  pleasure  and  death  a  triumph,  if  met  in 
the  discharge  of  duliy.  Such  an  order  was  in  every  way  qualified  for  the 
work  of  Christianizing  the  savages,  and  America  offered  the  noblest  field 
to  which  its  energies  had  yet  been  invited.  There,  cut  off  from  the  am- 
bitious schemes  and  corrupt  influences  which  had  enlisted  their  powers  in 
Europe,  the  Jesuits  could  achieve,  and  did  achieve  their  noblest  and  most 
useful  triumphs.  There,  their  influence  was  for  good  alone,  and  their 
labors  stand  in  striking  contrast  with  those  which  won  for  the  order  the 
universal  execration  of  Europe.  Not  only  did  they  win  the  honor  of 
gaining  many  converts  to  the  Christian  faith,  but  they  were  the  means 
of  extending  the  dominion  of  their  country  far  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Canada,  and  of  bringing  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi  under  the 
authority  of  France. 

By  the  year  1536  there  were  thirteen  Jesuit  missionaries  in  Canada 
laboring  among  the  Indians.  Not  content  with  remaining  around  the 
posts,  they  pushed  out  beyond  the  frontier  settlements  into  the  boundless 
forest,  making  new  converts  and  important  discoveries.  Each  convert 
was  regarded  as  a  subject  of  France  and  the  equal  of  the  whites,  and  the 
kindliest  relations  were  established  between  the  French  and  the  natives. 
Many  of  the  traders  took  them  Indian  wives,  and  from  these  marriages 
sprang  the  class  of  half-breeds  afterwards  so  numerous  in  Canada 

The  limits  of  Canada  were  too  narrow  for  the  ambition  of  the 


102 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


they  burned  to  carry  Christianity  to  the  tribes  in  the  more  distant  regions 
beyond  the  lakes.  In  the  autumn  of  1634  Fathers  Brabcuf  and  Daniel 
accompanied  a  party  of  Hurons,  who  had  come  to  Quebec  on  a  trading 
expedition,  to  their  home  on  the  shores  of  the  lake  which  bears  thei.* 
name.  It  was  a  long  and  difficult  journey  of  nine  hundred  miles,  and  it 
taxed  the  endurance  of  the  missionaries  to  the  utmost,  but  they  per- 
severed, and  finally  gained  a  resting-place  at  the  Huron  villages  on 
Georgian  bay  and  Lake  Simcoe.  There  they  erected  a  rude  chapel  in  a 
little  grove,  and  celebrated  the  mysteries  of  their  religion  in  the  midst  of 
the  wondering  red  men,  who  looked  on  with  awe  and  not  without 
Interest.  Six  missions  were  soon  established  among  the  Indian  villages 
in  this  part  of  the  lake,  and  converts  began  to  reward  the  labors  of  the 


^ir  j-1^^,^   -r 
DULUTH,  AT   THE   HEAD   OF   LAKE   SUPERIOR. 

devoted  priests.  Father  Brabeuf  had  not  an  idle  moment.  The  first 
four  hours  of  the  day  were  passed  in  prayer  and  in  the  flagellation  of  his 
body ;  he  wore  a  shirt  of  hair,  and  his  fasts  were  frequent  and  severe. 
The  remainder  of  the  day  was  given  to  catechizing  and  teaching  the 
Indians.  As  he  passed  along  the  streets  of  the  village  he  would  ring  his 
little  bell,  and  in  this  way  summon  the  warriors  to  converse  with  him 
upon  the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith.  He  spent  fifteen  years  in  his 
labors  among  the  Indians,  and  hundreds  of  converts  were  by  means  oi 
him  gained  to  Christ  among  the  dusky  children  of  the  forest. 

The  great  Huron  chief,  Ahasistari,  was  among  the  converts  of  Father 
Brabeuf.  "  Before  you  came  to  this  country,"  he  said  to  the  missionary, 
"  when  I  hr.ve  incurred  the  greatest  perils  and  have  alone  escaped,  I  have 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPr~.  303 

said  to  myself,  'Some  powerful  Spirit  has  the  guardianship  of  my  days/" 
That  Spirit  he  now  declared  was  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  he  had  before 
jdored  him  in  ignorance,  he  now  became  his  acknowledged  servant. 
Being  satisfied  of  his  sincerity,  Father  Brabeuf  baptized  him,  and  the 
chief,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  his  new  belief,  exclaimed,  "  Let  us  strive  to 
make  the  whole  world  embrace  the  faith  in  Jesus." 

The  report  of  the  successful  efforts  of  the  missionaries  gave  great  satis- 
faction in  France,  and  the  king  and  queen  and  the  nobles  made  liberal 
donations  in  support  of  the  missions  and  for  the  assistance  of  the  con- 
verts. A  college  for  the  education  of  missionaries  was  founded  at 
Quebec  in  1635.  This  was  the  first  institution  of  learning  established  in 
America,  and  preceded  the  founding  of  Harvard  College  by  two  years. 
Madame  de  la  Peltrie,  a  wealthy  young  widow  of  Alengon,  with  the  aid 
of  three  nuns,  established  in  1639  the  Ursuline  Convent  for  the  edu- 
cation of  Indian  girls.  The  three  nuns  came  out  from  France  to 
take  charge  of  it,  and  were  received  with  enthusiasm,  especially 
by  the  Indians.  Montreal  being  regarded  as  a  more  suitable  place,  the 
institution  was  removed  to  that  island  and  permanently  established  there. 

The  labors  of  the  missionaries  had  thus  far  been  confined  to  the  Huron 
and  Algonquin  tribes,  whom  they  found  very  willing  to  listen  to  them, 
and  among  whom  they  counted  their  converts  by  thousands.  They  had 
encountered  but  little  hostility  from  them,  and  the  dangers  of  the  enter- 
prise were  merely  those  inseparable  from  the  unsettled  condition  of 
the  country.  They  were  anxious  to  extend  their  efforts  to  the  fiercer  and 
more  powerful  Iroquois,  as  the  conversion  of  the  tribes  of  this  confederacy 
would  not  only  swell  the  number  of  their  converts,  but  would  extend  the 
influence  of  France  to  the  very  borders  of  the  English  settlements  on  the 
Atlantic  coast. 

The  Iroquois,  or  Five  Nations,  consisted,  as  has  been  said,  of  the 
Seneca,  Cayuga,  Onondaga,  Oneida  and  Mohawk  tribes.  They  occupied 
almost  all  that  part  of  Canada  south  of  the  Ottawa,  and  between  Lakes 
Ontario,  Erie  and  Huron,  the  greater  part  of  New  York  and  the  country 
lying  along  the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  now  included  in  the  States 
of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania.  They  were  generally  called  by  the 
English  the  Mohawks.  They  were  the  most  intelligent,  as  well  as  the 
most  powerful,  of  the  tribes  with  whom  the  French  missionaries  came  in 
contact.  Their  traditions  related  that  their  confederacy  had  been  formed 
in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of  Hiawatha,  the  greatest  and  wisest 
of  their  chiefs,  who  had  been  blessed  by  the  Great  Spirit  with  more  than 
b'iman  beauty  and  wisdom  and  courage.  He  had  made  his  people  great, 
flnited  and  prosperous;  had  then  taken  a  solemn  leave  of  them,  and  had 


304 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


sailed  out  into  the  distant  sunset  in  a  snow-white  canoe  amid  the  sweetest 
music  from  the  spirit  land.  They  wore  regarded  with  dread  by  the  sur- 
rounding tribes,  many  of  which  were  tributary  to  them.  Their  influence 
extended  eastward  as  far  as  New  England,  and  westward  as  far  as  the 
countries  of  the  Illinois  and  the  Miamis.  They  regarded  the  Hurons  as 
their  hereditary  enemies,  and  the  French,  as  the  allies  of  the  Hurons, 
now  shared  this  hostility.  The  savages  long  remembered,  and  never 
forgave,  the  alliance  of  Champlain  with  the  Hurons  and  Algonquins,  to 
which  reference  has  been  made. 

The  Jesuit  missionaries  vainly  endeavored  to  add  the  tribes  of  the 
Vive  Nations  to  their  converts.  The  latter,  regarding  the  French  as 
enemies,  could  never  be  made  to  look  upon  the  missionaries  of  that  race 
as  friends,  and  considered  the  efforts  of  the  good  fathers  in  their  behalf 


DUBUQUE,  IOWA. 

as  a  species  of  incantation  designed  for  their  destruction.  They  closed 
the  region  south  of  Lake  Ontario  to  the  French  traders  and  priests,  and 
kept  a  vigilant  watch  over  the  passes  of  the  St.  Lawrence  for  the  purpose 
of  breaking  up  the  trade  of  the  French  at  Montreal  with  the  tribes  on 
the  lakes.  The  only  route  by  which  the  lakes  could  be  reached  in  safety 
was  by  the  Ottawa  and  through  the  wilderness  beyond.  Yet  occasionally 
a  trading  party  would  slip  through  the  blockade  established  by  the 
Iroquois,  and,  descending  the  lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  reach  Montreal 
and  Quebec  in  safety.  These  expeditions  constituted  the  only  means  by 
which  the  Jesuit  missionaries  in  the  remote  regions  could  communicate 
with  their  principal* establishment  at  Montreal. 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  305 

In  the  summer  of  1642  Father  Jogues,  who  had  labored  with  great 
success  in  the  country  now  embraced  in  the  State  of  Michigan,  left  the 
Sault  Sainte  Marie  under  the  escort  of  the  great  Huron  war  chief  Ahasis- 
tari  and  a  number  of  his  braves,  and,  descending  the  Ottawa  and  the  St. 
Lawrence,  reached  Montreal  and  Quebec  in  safety.  On  the  1st  of 
August  he  set  out  on  his  return,  accompanied  by  a  larger  fleet  of  Huron 
canoes.  Before  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa  was  reached  the  party  wa.j 
attacked  by  a  band  of  Mohawks,  and  the  canoes  were  so  much  damaged 
that  the  occupants  were  forced  to  make  for  the  opposite  shore.  The 
greater  number  escaped,  but  a  few,  among  whom  were  Father  Jogues 
and  Father  Goupil,  a  fellow-priest,  were  taken  prisoners.  Ahasistari 
had  succeeded  in  reaching  a  place  of  safety,  and  from  his  concealment 
saw  the  missionaries  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  their  cnemic?.  He  knew 
the  fate  that  awaited  them,  and  resolved  to  share  it  with  them.  Father 
Jogues  might  have  escaped,  but  as  there  were  among  the  prisoners  several 
converts  who  had  not  yet  received  baptism,  he  decided  to  remain  with 
them  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  administer  the  sacred  rite  to  them 
before  their  execution.  Ahasistari  strode  through  the  midst  of  the 
astonished  Mohawks  to  the  side  of  the  priest.  "  My  brother,"  said  the 
chief,  "  I  made  oath  to  thee  that  I  would  share  thy  fortune,  whether 
death  or  life ;  here  am  I  to  keep  my  vow."  He  received  absolution  from 
the  hands  of  his  teacher,  and  died .  at  the  stake  with  the  firmness  of  a 
Christian  and  a  hero.  Jogues  and  Goupil  were  carried  to  the  Mohawk, 
and  in  each  village  through  which  they  were  led  were  compelled  to  run 
the  gauntlet.  On  an  ear  of  corn  which  was  thrown  to  them  for  food  a 
few  drops  of  the  dew  had  remained,  and  with  these  Father  Jogues  bap- 
tized two  of  his  converts.  Goupil  was  not  so  fortunate.  He  was  seen  in 
the  act  of  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  an  Indian  child,  and  was 
struck  dead  by  a  blow  from  the  tomahawk  of  the  child's  father,  who 
supposed  he  was  working  a  spell  for  the  little  one's  harm.  Father  Jogues 
had  expected  the  same  fate,  but  he  was  spared,  and  even  allowed  to  erect 
a  large  cross  near  the  village  at  which  he  was  detained,  and  to  worship 
before  it  at  pleasure.  He  escaped  at  length  and  reached  Albany,  where 
he  was  kindly  received  by  the  Dutch,  who  enabled  him  to  return  to 
France,  from  which  country  he  sailed  again  for  Canada.  He  went  boldly 
into  the  Mohawk  country  and  began  again  the  efforts  which  he  had  made 
during  his  captivity  to  convert  his  enemies  to  the  true  faith,  but  his 
labors  were  soon  cut  short  by  his  murder  by  a  Mohawk  warrior.  Other 
missionaries  sought  the  country  of  these  tribes,  but  only  to  meet  torture 
and  death  at  their  hands. 

In  1645  the  French,  who  desired  to  secure  their  possessions,  made  a 
20 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

treaty  of  peace  with  the  Five  Nations.  The  latter  professed  to  forget 
and  bury  the  wrongs  of  the  past,  and  agreed  to  be  the  true  friends  of  the 
French.  The  Algonquins  joined  in  the  peace,  but  neither  tribe  was 
sincere  in  its  professions  of  friendship. 

The  Abenakis  of  Maine,  who  had  heard  of  the  good  deeds  of  the 
Jesuit  fathers,  sent  messengers  to  Montreal  asking  that  missionaries  might 
be  sent  to  dwell  among  them.  Their  appeal  was  favorably  considered, 
and  Father  Dreuilettes  made  his  way  across  the  wilderness  to  the  head 
of  the  Kennebec,  and  descended  that  stream  to  a  point  within  a  few  miles 
of  its  mouth,  where  he  established  his  mission.  Large  numbers  of  the 
savages  came  to  him  for  religious  instruction,  and  he  found  them  ready 
to  embrace  the  truths  he  taught  them.  He  entered  heartily  into  all  the 
modes  of  Indian  life,  hunting  and  fishing  with  them,  and  winning  their 
confidence  and  affection.  After  remaining  with  them  about  a  year  he 
returned  to  Quebec,  escorted  by  a  band  of  his  converts.  He  gave  such 
favorable  accounts  of  the  disposition  of  the  Maine  Indians  that  a  per- 
manent mission  was  established  among  them. 

By  the  close  of  the  year  1646  the  French  had  established  a  line  of 
missions  extending  across  the  continent  from  Lake  Superior  to  Nova 
Scotia,  and  between  sixty  and  seventy  missionaries  were  actively  engaged 
in  instructing  and  preaching  to  the  savages.  How  far  the  labors  of  these 
devoted  men  were  actually  successful  will  never  be  known,  as  their  work 
was  of  a  character  which  cannot  be  submitted  to  any  human  test.  They 
did  not  succeed,  however,  in  changing  either  the  character  or  the  habits 
of  their  converts.  They  were  still  wild  men,  who  scorned  to  engage  in 
the  labor  of  cultivating  their  lands,  and  lived  by  hunting  and  fishing. 
They  learned  to  engage  in  the  religious  services  of  the  missionaries,  to 
chant  matins  and  vespers,  but  they  made  no  approach  to  civilization. 
When  in  after  years  the  zeal  of  the  whites  for  their  conversion  became 
less  active,  and  the  missionaries  less  numerous,  they  fell  back  into  their 
old  ways. 

In  1648  the  peace  between  the  Mohawks  and  the  Hurons  was  broken, 
and  the  war  blazed  up  again  fiercer  than  ever.  Bands  of  Mohawk  war- 
riors invaded  the  territory  of  the  Hurous,  and  both  the  savage  and  the 
missionary  fell  victims  to  their  fury.  On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  July 
the  village  of  St.  Joseph,  on  Lake  Simcoe,  was  attacked  by  a  Avar  party 
of  the  Mohawks.  The  Huron  braves  were  absent  on  a  hunting  expedi- 
tion, and  only  the  old  men  and  the  women  and  children  of  the  tribe 
were  left  in  the  village.  This  was  the  village  founded  by  the  mission- 
aries Brabeuf  and  Daniel,  the  latter  of  whom,  now  an  old  man,  was 
still  dwelling  with  his  converts.  At  the  opening  of  the  attack  the  good 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  307 

priest  hastened  to  baptize  such  as  he  could,  and  to  give  absolution  10  all 
whom  he  could  reach.  Then,  as  the  Mohawks  forced  the  stockade  which 
protected  the  village,  and  swarmed  in  among  the  wigwams,  he  advanced 
calmly  from  the  chapel  to  meet  them, and  fell  pierced  with  numerous  arrows. 

During  the  next  year  the  Jesuit  missions  in  Upper  Canada  were 
broken  up.  At  the  capture  of  the  village  Father  Brabeuf  and  his  com- 
panion Gabriel  Lallemand  were  made  prisoners,  and  were  subsequently 
put  to  death  with  the  cruellest  tortures.  They  bore  their  sufferings  with 
a  firmness  which  astonished  their  persecutors.  The  Hurons  were  scat- 
tered, and  their  country  was  added  to  the  dominion  of  the  Five  Nations. 
Many  of  the  captive  Hurons  were  adopted  into  the  conquering  tribes.  A 
large  number  of  these  had  embraced  Christianity — so  many,  indeed,  that 
the  Jesuits,  who  had  been  in  nowise  discouraged  by  the  terrible  scenes 
which  had  marked  the  war,  began  to  cherish  the  hope  that  the  presence 
of  these  converts  would  induce  the  Iroquois  to  receive  a  missionary 
among  them.  It  was  decided  to  make  the  attempt  among  the  Onondagas, 
and  Oswego,  which  was  their  principal  village,  was  chosen  as  the  site  of 
the  mission.  The  Iroquois  made  no  effort  to  disturb  the  missionaries, 
and  priests  were  sent  among  the  other  tribes  of  the  confederacy.  En- 
couraged by  this  reception  the  French  undertook  to  secure  a  firm  footing 
in  this  inviting  region  by  establishing  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Oswego,  and  fifty  persons  were  despatched  to  that  point  to  begin  a  settle- 
ment there.  This  aroused  the  alarm  of  the  Indians,  who  compelled  the 
colonists  to  withdraw,  and  forced  the  missionaries  to  depart  with  them. 
This  was  the  last  effort  of  the  .French  to  obtain  possession  of  New  York. 
The  Five  Nations  were  not  to  be  reconciled  with  them  on  any  terms,  and 
their  hostility  made  it  useless  to  attempt  the  colonization  of  that  fertile 
region. 

Defeated  in  their  hope  of  obtaining  a  footing  in  the  country  of  the 
Five  Nations,  the  Jesuit  fathers  turned  their  attention  more  energetically 
to  the  vast  region  beyond  the  lakes.  In  1654  two  young  fur-traders  had 
penetrated  into  the  country  beyond  Lake  Superior,  and  after  an  absence 
of  two  years  had  returned  to  Quebec,  bringing  with  them  accounts  of  the 
powerful  and  numerous  tribes  occupying  that  region.  They  brought 
with  them  a  number  of  Indians,  who  urged  the  French  to  open  commer- 
cial relations  with  and  send  missionaries  among  these  tribes.  Their 
request  was  promptly  granted,  and  missionaries  were  soon  on  the  ground. 
One  of  these,  the  aged  Father  Mesnard,  while  journeying  through  the 
forests,  wandered  off  from  his  attendants,  and  was  never  seen  again.  His 
cassock  and  breviary  were  found  by  the  Sioux  and  were  long  retained  by 
them  as  a  protection  against  evil. 


308  HISTORY  OF  THE   V SITED  STATES. 

In  1665  Father  Claude  Alloiiez  ascended  the  Ottawa,  and  crossed  the 
wilderness  to  the  Sault  Ste-Marie,  on  a  mission  to  the  tribes  of  the  far 
west.  In  October  he  reached  the  principal  town  of  the  Chippewas  at  the 
head  of  Lake  Superior.  He  found  the  tribe  in  great  excitement;  the 
voung  warriors  were  eager  to  engage  in  a  war  against  the  formidable 
Sioux,  and  the  old  men  were  seeking  to  restrain  them.  A  grand  council- 
was  in  progress,  which  was  attended  by  the  chiefs  of  ten  or  twelve  of  the 
neighboring  tribes  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  peace  if  possible. 
Father  Allouaz  was  admitted  to  this  assembly,  and  exhorted  the  warriors 
to  abandon  their  hostile  intentions,  and  urged  them  to  join  the  French  in 
an  alliance  against  the  Five  Nations.  His  appeal  was  successful;  the 
war  against  the  Sioux  was  abandoned,  and  the  savages  came  in  from  all 
parts  of  the  surrounding  country  to  listen  to  the  words  of  the  missionary. 
A  chapel  was  built  on  the  shore  of  the  lake,  and  the  mission  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  founded.  The  fame  of  the  missionary  spread  far  to  the  west 
and  north,  and  the  tribes  dwelling  north  of  Lake  Superior,  the  Pottawat- 
omies  from  Lake  Michigan,  who  worshipped  the  sun,  and  the  Sioux  and 
the  Illinois  from  the  distant  prairies  of  the  west,  came  to  the  mission  to 
hear  the  teachings  of  the  missionary.  They  told  him  of  their  country, 
•an  unbroken  expanse  of  level  land,  without  trees,  but  covered  with  long, 
rich  grass,  upon  which  grazed  innumerable  herds  of  buffalo  and  deer ;  of 
the  rice  which  grew  wild  in  their  distant  homes ;  of  the  rich  yield  of 
maize  which  their  fields  produced ;  of  the  copper  mines  of  which  they 
but  dimly  comprehended  the  value ;  and  of  the  great  river  which  flowed 
through  their  country  from  the  far  north  to  the  unknown  regions  of  the 
south,  and  which  Allouez  understood  them  to  call  the  "  Messipi."  After 
remaining  at  his  mission  for  two  years  Allciiaz  returned  to  Quebec  to  ask 
for  other  laborers  in  the  great  field  around  him,  and  to  urge  the  French  tft 
establish  permanent  settlements  of  emigrants  or  traders  in  the  Lake 
Superior  country.  He  remained  at  Quebec  two  days,  was  given  an  assist- 
ant, and  at  once  returned  to  his  post,  where  he  continued  his  labors  for 
many  years.  "  During  his  long  sojourn  he  lighted  the  torch  of  faith  for 
more  than  twenty  different  nations." 

In  1668  the  French  West  India  Company,  under  whose  auspices  the 
settlement  of  Canada  had  been  conducted,  relinquished  their  monopoly 
of  the  fur-trade,  and  a  great  improvement  in  the  condition  and  prospects 
of  Canada  ensued.  In  the  same  year  Fathers  Claude  Dablon  and  James 
Marquette  established  the  mission  of  Ste-Marie  at  the  rapids  through 
which  the  waters  of  Lake  Superior  rush  into  those  of  Huron.  "  For 
the  succeeding  years/'  says  Bancroft,  "  the  illustrious  triumvirate,  Alloiiez, 
Dablon,  and  Marquette,  were  employed  in  confirming  the  influence  of 


VALLEY   OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  SQL 

France  in  the  vast  regions  that  extend  from  Green  bay  to  the  head  of 
Lake  Superior,  mingling  happiness  with  suffering,  and  winning  enduring 
glory  by  their  fearless  perseverance." 

In  1669  Father  Alloiiez  went  to  establish  a  mission  at  Green  bay,  and 
Father  Marquette  took  his  place  at  the  mission  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Mar- 
quette  had  heard  so  much  of  the  Mississippi  that  he  resolved  to  under- 
take the  discovery  of  the  upper  waters  of  that  stream.  He  employed  a 
young  Illinois  warrior  as  his  companion,  and  from  him  learned  the  dia- 
lect of  that  tribe.  In  1673,  accompanied  by  a  fellow-priest  named  Joliet, 
five  French  boatmen,  and  some  Indian  guides  and  interpreters,  bearing 
their  canoes  on  their  backs,  Marquette  set  out  from  his  mission,  and 
crossing  the  narrow  portage  which  divides  the  Fox  river  from  the  Wis- 
consin, reached  the  headwaters  of  the  latter  stream.  There  the  guides 
left  them,  wondering  at  their  rashness  in  seeking  to  venture  into  a  region 
which  the  simple  imagination  of  the  savages  filled  with  vague  terrors. 
The  adventurers  floated  down  the  Wisconsin,  and  in  seven  days  entered 
the  Mississippi,  "  with  a  joy  that  could  not  be  expressed."  Raising  the 
sails  of  their  canoes  they  glided  down  the  mighty  father  of  waters,  gaz- 
ing with  wonder  upon  the  magnificent  forests  which  lined  its  shores,  and 
which  swarmed  with  game,  and  admiring  the  boundless  prairies  which 
stretched  away  from  either  bank  to* the  horizon. 

One  hundred  and  eighty  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  the 
voyagers  for  the  first  time  discovered  signs  of  human  beings.  They 
landed,  and  found  an  Indian  village  a  few  miles  distant  from  the  river. 
They  were  kindly  received  by  the  inhabitants,  who  spoke  the  language 
of  the  Indians  who  had  come  with  Marquette,  and  a  week  was  passed  at 
this  hospitable  village.  The  villagers  told  the  travellers  that  the  lower 
river  extended  far  to  the  south,  where  the  heat  was  deadly,  and  that  in 
those  latitudes  the  stream  abounded  with  monsters  which  destroyed  both 
men  and  canoes.  At  the  departure  of  the  whites  the  chief  of  the  tribe 
hung  around  Marquette's  neck  the  peace-pipe,  and  explained  to  him  that 
it  would  prove  a  safeguard  to  him  among  the  tribes  into  whose  territory 
his  journey  would  lead  him. 

Continuing  their  voyage  the  explorers  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
souri, and  noticed  the  strong,  muddy  stream  which  it  poured  into  the 
Mississippi.  "When  I  return,"  said  Marquette,  "I  will  ascend  that 
river  and  pass  beyond  its  headwaters,  and  proclaim  the  gospel."  One 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  farther  south  they  passed  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  of  which  river  they  had  heard  from  the  Illinois  at  the  village  they 
had  visited.  As  they  proceeded  farther  south  the  heat  became  more  in- 
tense, for  it  was  the  month  of  July.  They  met  with  Indians,  whose 


310 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


hostility  was  disarmed  by  the  peace-pipe  which  Marquette  bore.  Some 
of  these  Indians  were  armed  with  axes  of  Kuro}>ean  manufacture,  which 
they  had  obtained  either  from  the  Spaniards  in  the  far  south,  or  from  the 
English  in  Virginia.  The  voyage  was  continued  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Arkansas.  Marquette  was  now  satisfied  that  the  great  river  flowed  into  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  as  he  was  fearful  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards  in  that  region  he  decided  to  bring  his  voyage  to  an  end,  and 
return  to  the  lakes.  The  task  of  ascending  the  river  was  accomplished 
with  great  difficulty,  and  at  length  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  was  reached. 
As  they  supposed  this  stream  would  lead  them  to  the  lakes  the  voyagers 


ALTOT,  ILI* 

ascended  it  to  its  headwaters,  and  then  crossed  the  country  to  the  site  of 
Chicago,  from  which  they  continued  the  voyage  by  way  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan to  Green  bay. 

Marquette  despatched  Joliet  to  Quebec  to  report  the  results  of  the 
voyage,  but  himself  remained  at  Green  bay.  It  was  his  purpose  to 
preach  the  gospel  among  the  Illinois,  who  had  begged  him  during  his 
voyage  to  come  back  to  them.  He  was  detained  at  Green  bay  for  some 
time  by  feeble  health,  bat  in  1675  went  back  to  the  Illinois,  and  began 
his  labors  among  them.  Feeling  that  his  end  was  near  he  undertook  to 
return  to  the  mission  of  St.  Mary's,  but  fell  ill  on  the  way.  He  gave 
absolution  to  all  his  companions,  and  retired  *o  pi-ay.  An  hour  after- 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  311 

\rarrls,  uneasy  at  his  absence,  his  people  went  to  seek  him,  and  found  him 
kneeling,  but  praying  no  longer,  for  his  spirit  had  gone  to  receive  its  re- 
ward. Ho  was  buried  on  the  banks  of  the  river  that  bears  hie  name, 
und  his  memory  was  long  cherished  with  affection  by  the  Indians. 

The  work  of  exploration  which  Marquette  had  begun  was  taken  up  by 
a  bolder  and  firmer  hand.  Robert  Cavalier  de  la  Salle,  a  man  of  good 
family,  had  been  educated  for  the  service  of  the  Jesuits,  but  had  aban- 
doned his  design  of  entering  that  order  after  completing  his  educa- 
tion. In  1667  he  had  emigrated-  to  Canada  to  seek  his  fortune,  and 
had  established  himself  as  a  fur-trader  on  Lake  Ontario.  Encouraged 
by  the  governor  of  Canada  he  had  explored  Lake  Ontario,  and  had 
ascended  to  Lake  Erie.  When  the  French  governor  a  few  years  later 
built  Fort  Frontenac  to  guard  the  outlet  of  Lake  Ontario,  La  Salle  was 
granted  an  extensive  domain,  including  Fort  Frontenac,  now  the  town  of 
Kingston,  on  condition  that  he  would  maintain  the  fort.  He  thus 
obtained  the  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade  with  the  Five  Nations.  Here  he 
was  residing  at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Marquette. 

The  news  of  Marquette's  discoveries  filled  him  with  the  deepest  interest, 
and  he  was  eager  to  continue  the  exploration  of  the  river  at  the  point  at 
which  Marquette  had  discontinuec\  it,  and  to  trace  it  to  its  mouth.  He 
was  already  on  the  road  to  fortune,  but  the  prospect  of  winning  greater 
fame  was  too  tempting  to  be  resisted,  and  leaving  his  possessions  on  Lake 
Ontario,  he  sailed  for  France  and  laid  before  Colbert,  the  minister,  the 
schemes  he  had  formed  for  the  exploration  and  colonization  of  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi.  He  obtained  a  grant  of  valuable  privileges  and 
received  permission  to  attempt  the  task  of  adding  that  vast  region  to  the 
dominions  of  France.  He  returned  to  Fort  Frontenac  in  the  autumn  of 
1678,  bringing  with  him  as  his  lieutenant  an  Italian  veteran  named 
Tonti  and  a  number  of  mechanics  and  seamen,  together  with  the  materials 
for  rigging  a  ship.  Before  the  winter  had  set  in  he  ascended  Lake 
Ontario  to  the  Niagara  river,  where  he  built  a  trading-post.  Then 
passing  around  the  falls,  he  constructed  a  vessel  of  sixty  tons  at  the  foot 
of  Lake  Erie.  Tonti  and  Father  Hennepin,  a  Franciscan,  went  among 
the  Senecas  during  the  construction  of  the  ship  and  established  friendly 
relations  with  them,  and  La  Salle  exerted  himself  to  procure  furs  with: 
which  to  freight  his  vessel.  The  vessel  completed,  he  ascended  Lake 
Erie,  passed  through  the  straits  into  Lakes  Huron  and  Michigan,. and 
entered  Green  bay.  Then  loading  his  vessel  with  a  cargo  of  valuable 
furs,  he  sent  her  to  the  Niagara,  with  orders  to  return  with  supplies  as 
soon  as  possible.  During  her  absence  La  Salle  and  his  companions 
ascended  Lake  Michigan  in  canoes  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph's^. 


./1 2 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


they  built  a  fort.  Then  crossing  over  to  the  valley  of  the  Illinois, 
he  built  a  fort  on  a  bluff  near  the  site  of  Peoria,  and  awaited  the  return 
of  the  "  Griffin."  The  vessel  had  been  wrecked  on  the  voyage  to  Niagara, 
and  when  it  became  evident  that  she  would  not  return,  Lu  Salle  named 
his  fort  Crevecceur  ("  Heartbreak ''). 

Supplies  were  necessary  to  the  exploration  of  the  Mississippi,  and  Li 
Salle  being  determined  to  obtain  them,  took  with  him  three  companions 
and  crossed  the  wilderness  to  Fort  Frontenac,  which  he  reached  in  tha 
spring  of  1680.  During  his  absence  Father  Hennepin,  by  his  order% 


FALLS  OF  ST.  ANTHONY. 

explored  the  upper  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  fails,  which  he  named  ir 
honor  of  St.  Anthony,  the  patron  saint  of  the  expedition.  In  the  summer 
of  1680  La  Salle  returned  to  the  Illinois,  but  various  causes  intervening 
to  delay  him,  he  was  not  able  to  undertake  his  exploration  of  the  Missis 
sippi  until  1682.  In  that  year  he  built  a  barge  on  the  upper  Illinra, 
and  embarking  with  his  companions,  floated  down  that  stream  to  the 
Mississippi,  which  he  descended  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  named  the 
country  along  the  banks  of  the  river  LOUISIANA,  in  honor  of  Louis  XIV., 
King  of  France.  Then  ascending  the  Mississippi,  he  returned  by  the 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  313 

lakes  to  Quebec,  and  in  1683  sailed  for  France  to  enlist  the  government 
and  people  in  his  project  for  colonizing  the  country  along  the  lower 
Mississippi. 

His  design  was  encouraged  by  the  king,  and  emigrants  were  readily 
found.  In  1684  he  sailed  from  France  with  four  ships  and  two  hundred 
and  eighty  persons  to  plant  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
Unhappily  the  commander  of  the  fleet  was  not  in  sympathy  with  La 
Salle,  and  being  jealous  of  his  authority,  manifested  a  degree  of  stubborn- 
ness which  was  fatal  to  the  expedition.  One  hundred  of  the  colonists 
were  soldiers ;  of  the  rest,  some  were  volunteers,  some  mechanics,  some 
women,  and  some  priests.  After  a  long  voyage  they  entered  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  in  January,  1685.  They  sailed  past  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  when  La  Salle  perceived  his  error,  Beaujeu,  the  commander  of  the 
fleet,  refused  to  return,  but  continued  his  western  course  until  the  bay  of 
Matagorda  was  reached.  There  La  Salle,  weary  of  his  disputes  with 
Beaujeu,  resolved  to  land,  hoping  that  lie  might  yet  find  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi.  A  careless  pilot,  in  attempting  to  get  the  store-ship  into 
the  harbor,  wrecked  her,  and  all  the  supplies  which  Louis  XIV.  had 
provided  with  a  lavish  hand  were  lost. 

The  colony,  which  was  named  Fort  St.  Louis,  was  from  the  first 
doomed  to  misfortune,  and  in  a  little  more  than  two  years  was  reduced 
by  disease  and  suffering  to  thirty-six  persons.  In  January,  1687,  La 
Salle,  leaving  twenty  men  at  Fort  St.  Louis,  set  out  with  sixteen  men  to 
march  across  the  continent  to  Canada  to  obtain  aid  for  the  settlement. 
His  remarkable  courage  and  determination  would  doubtless  have  accom- 
plished this  feat,  but  on  the  way  he  was  murdered  by  two  of  his  men, 
who  regarded  him  as  the  author  of  their  sufferings.  Of  the  rest  of  his 
companions,  five  who  kept  together  reached  a  small  French  post  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  after  a  journey  of  six  months.  The  twenty  men 
left  at  Fort  St.  Louis  were  never  heard  of  again.  The  effort  to  colonize 
Texas  completely  failed,  and  all  that  was  accomplished  by  La  Salle's 
enterprise  was  the  establishment  of  the  claim  of  France  to  this  region. 

To  La  Salle  is  due  the  credit  of  having  been  the  first  to  comprehend 
the  importance  of  securing  to  France  the  great  region  watered  by  the 
Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  and  it  was  through  his  efforts  that  the 
attention  of  France  was  seriously  directed  to  its  colonization.  Hie 
remarkable  qualities  must  always  command  the  admiration  and  hie  sad 
fate  elicit  the  sympathy  of  all  generous  hearts. 

While  La  Salle  was  vainly  striving  to  accomplish  some  good  result 
with  the  Texas  colony,  his  friend  and  lieutenant  Tonti,  in  obedience  to 
his  instructions,  started  from  the  Illinois  and  descended  the  Mississippi 


314  HISTORY  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES. 

almost  to  its  mouth,  hoping  to  meet  him.  At  length,  despairing  of  seeing 
him,  Tonti  engraved  a  cross  and  the  arms  of  France  upon  a  tree  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  and  returned  to  the  Illinois. 

In  1699,  twelve  years  after  the  death  of  La  Salle,  another  and  this 
time  a  successful  effort  was  made  to  secure  Louisiana  to  France.  Lemoine 
d'Ibberville,  a  native  of  Canada  and  a  man  of  ability  and  courage, 
resolved  to  plant  a  colony  near  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  With  four 
vessels  and  two  hundred  emigrants,  some  of  whom  were  women  and 
children,  he  sailed  from  Canada  for  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  He 
landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Pascagoula,  and  with  two  barges 
manned  by  forty-eight  men  searched  the  coast  for  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi.  He  found  it  and  ascended  as  high  as  the  mouth  of  the  Red 
river.  Here  he  was  met  by  the  Indians,  who,  to  his  astonishment,  gave 
him  a  letter  which  had  been  placed  in  their  charge  fourteen  years  before. 
It  was  from  Tonti,  and  was  addressed  to  La  Salle.  He  had  given  it  to 
the  Indians,  and  had  charged  them  to  deliver  it  to  the  first  Frenchman 
they  met.  D'Ibberville  returned  to  the  gulf  by  way  of  Lakes  Maurepas 
and  Pontchartrain,  which  he  named  after  two  of  the  ministers  of  Louis 
XIV.  Deeming  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi  too  marshy  for  coloniza- 
tion, D'Ibberville  formed  a  settlement  at  Biloxi,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Pascagoula,  within  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Mississippi,  and  soon 
afterwards  sailed  for  France  to  obtain  reinforcements  and  supplies, 
leaving  one  of  his  brothers,  Sauville  by  name,  as  governor,  and  the  other, 
Bienville,  to  explore  the  Mississippi  and  the  country  along  its  banks. 

Early  in  1700  D'Ibberville  returned  from  France,  and  about  the  same 
time  Tonti,  La  Salle's  former  lieutenant,  now  an  aged  man,  arrived  from 
the  country  of  the  Illinois.  Acting  upon  Tonti's  advice,  D'Ibberville 
ascended  the  Mississippi  for  four  hundred  miles,  and  on  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  Natchez  built  a  fort  which  he  named  Rosalie,  in  honor  of 
the  Duchess  of  Pontchartrain.  Neither  the  settlement  at  Biloxi  nor 
Rosalie  prospered,  however.  The  colonists  were  a  shiftless  set,  and 
instead  of  seeking  to  cultivate  the  soil  and  establish  homes  for  themselves, 
Went  farther  west  to  seek  for  gold.  In  1702  D'Ibberville  removed  the 
colony  from  Biloxi  to  Mobile,  which  was  founded  in  that  year,  and 
became  the  capital  of  Louisiana  and  the  centre  of  the  French  influence  in 
the  scuth.  This  settlement  languished,  however,  and  in  ten  years  only 
two  hundred  emigrants  were  added  to  its  population.  It  was  forced  to 
depend  upon  the  French  colonies  in  the  West  Indies  for  subsistence. 

In  1714  the  French  government,  becoming  convinced  that  it  was 
necessary  to  make  a  more  vigorous  effort  to  colonize  Louisiana  if  it 
meant  to  hold  that  country,  granted  a  monopoly  of  trade  to  Arthur 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI 


315 


Crozat,  who  agreed  to  send  over  'every  year  two  ships  laden  with  emi- 
grants and  supplies,  and  also  a  cargo  of  African  slaves.  The  king,  on 
his  part,  agreed  to  furnish  the  sura  of  ten  thousand  dollars  annually  for 
the  protection  of  the  colony.  In  the  same  year  a  trading-house  was 
established  at  Natch  itoches  on  the  Red  river,  and  another  on  the  Ala- 
bama, near  the  present  site  of  Montgomery.  Fort  Rosalie  was  made  the 
centre  of  an  important  trade,  and  matters  began  to  wear  a  new  aspect  in 
Louisiana.  In  1718  Bienville,  who  had  become  satisfied  of  the  propriety 
of  removing  the  seat  of  government  from  Mobile  to  the  more  productive 
region  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  put  the  convicts  to  work  to  clear  up  the 
thicket  of  cane  which  covered  the  site  on  which  he  meant  to  locate  his 


HUMBOLDT  PALISADES,  PACIFIC  RAILWAY. 

new  city,  and  upon  the  ground  thus  prepared  erected  a  few  huts,  the 
germ  of  the  great  city  of  New  Orleans.  It  grew  more  rapidly  than  any 
of  the  settlements  in  Louisiana.  In  1722  it  contained  about  one  hundred 
log  huts,  and  a  population  of  seven  hundred.  In  1723  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment was  removed  from  Mobile  to  New  Orleans;  and  in  1727  the 
construction  of  the  levee  was  begun. 

While  these  efforts  were  in  progress  on  the  lower  Mississippi  the  French 
were  even  more  active  in  the  west.  Detroit  was  founded  in  1701,  an.i 
the  villages  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cabokia  were  formed  around  the  stations 
of  the  missionaries  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  above  the  mouth 
of  the  Ohio.  The  French  population  in  America  grew  very  slowly, 


?,18  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

however.  In  1690  the  population  of  Canada  was  only  twelve  hundred  ; 
that  of  Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia,  less  than  one  \  tousand ;  and  that  of 
Louisiana  less  than  five  hundred. 

France  had  formed  a  deliberate  and  magnificent  plan  w,ith  respect  to 
her  American  possessions.  She  meant  to  build  up  a  mighty  empire  in 
ihe  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  extending  from  the  great  lakes  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  and  touching  Canada.  Her  efforts  to  accomplish  this  were 
lavish  and  persistent,  but  the  unhealthiness  of  the  climate  and  the  almost 
constant  wars  with  the  Natchez  and  Chickasaw  Indians  disheartened  the 
settlers,  and  the  French  population  grew  so  slowly  that  it  could  not 
accomplish  the  destiny  demanded  of  it  by  the  government  at  home.  As 
late  as  1740  Louisiana  contained  only  about  five  thousand  whites  and  less 
than  two  thousand  five  hundred  negroes.  The  slow  increase  of  the  popu- 
lation made  it  necessary  to  hold  the  country  by  a  series  of  military  posts. 
By  the  year  1750  more  than  sixty  of  these  posts  had  been  built  between 
Lake  Ontario  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  by  way  of  Green  bay,  the  Illinois, 
the  Wabash,  and  the  Maumee  rivers,  and  along  the  Mississippi  to  Xew 
Orleans.  Tli3  most  important  of  these  forts  were  held  by  garrisons  of 
regular  troop&;  who  were  relieved  once  in  six  years.  They  accomplished 
this  in  the  face  of  the  constant  hostility  of  their  old  enemies,  tne  tribes 
of  the  Five  Nations,  and  the  Natchez  and  Chickasaws.  In  1748  the 
French  extended  their  claim  to  the  country  south  of  Lake  Erie,  as  far 
east  as  the  mountains,  which  they  explored,  and  took  formal  possession 
of  by  burying  at  the  most  important  points  leaden  plates  engraved  with 
the  arms  of  France.  According  to  the  ideas  of  the  times  their  claim  was 
a  valid  one. 

In  the  meantime  the  settlements  of  Louisiana  had  been  obliired  to 

O 

struggle  against  the  constant  hostility  of  the  Natchez  Indians,  who  occu- 
pied the  country  around  the  present  city  which  bears  their  name.  They 
were  not  very  numerous,  but  were  more  intelligent  and  civilized  than  the 
tribes  among  whom  they  dwelt.  They  worshipped  the  sun,  from  which 
deity  their  principal  chief  claimed  to  be  descended.  They  watched  the 
growing  power  of  the  French  with  alarm,  and  at  length  resolved  to  put 
R  stop  to  the  progress  of  the  whites  by  a  general  massacre.  On  the  28tli 
ui  November,  1729,  they  fell  upon  the  settlement  at  Fort  Rosalie  and 
massacred  the  garrison  and  settlers,  seven  hundred  in  number.  They 
were  not  long  permitted  to  exult  over  their  success.  When  the  news  of 
the  massacre  reached  New  Orleans  Bienville  resolved  to  retaliate  severely 
upon  the  aggressors.  He  applied  to  the  Choctaws,  the  hereditary  enemies 
of  the  Natchez,  for  assistance,  and  \vas  furnished  by  them  with  sixteen 
hundred  warriors.  With  these  and  his  own  troops  Bienville  besieged  the 


VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  217 

Natchez  in  their  fort;  but  they  escaped  under  the  cover  of  the  night  and 
fled  west  of  the  Mississippi,  They  were  followed  by  the  French  and 
forced  to  surrender ;  after  which  they  were  taken  to  New  Orleans  and 
sent  to  St.  Domingo,  where  they  were  sold  as  slaves.  The  Great  Sun 
•was  among  the  captives,  and  the  tribe  of  the  Natchez  was  completely 
destroyed. 

It  was  well  known  to  the  French  that  the  Chickasaws,  a  powerful 
tribe  dwelling  between  the  territory  of  the  Natchez  and  the  Ohio  on  the 
north,  and  as  far  as  the  country  of  the  Cherokees  on  the  east,  had  incited 
the  Natchez  against  them.  Bienville  therefore  resolved  to  turn  his  arms 
against  them.  They  had  also  given  great  trouble  to  the  French  by 
attacking  and  plundering  their  trading-boats  descending  the  Mississippi" 
from  the  posts  on  the  Illinois.  Bienville  concerted  measures  for  a  com- 
bined attack  upon  the  Chickasaws  with  D'Artaguette,  governor  of  the 
Illinois  country,  and  two  expeditions  were  despatched  against  the  Indians. 
Bienville,  Avith  a  strong  force  of  French  troops  and  twelve  hundred 
Choctaw  warriors,  sailed  in  boats  from  New  Orleans  to  Mobile  and 
ascended  the  Tombigbee  five  hundred  miles,  to  the  place  now  known  as 
Cotton  Gin  Point.  He  landed  here  an/i  marched  twenty-five  miles  over- 
land to  the  principal  fort  of  the  Chickasaws,  which  he  at  once  attacked. 
He  was  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  one  hundred  men,  and  was  so  discour- 
aged that  he  returned  to  New  Orleans.  D'Artaguette  entered  the 
Chickasaw  country  with  fifty  Frenchmen  and  one  thousand  Indians.  He 
was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner,  and  was  burned  at  the  stake  in  May, 
1735.  In  1740  another  effort  was  made  by  the  French  to  crush  the 
Chickasaws,  but  was  equally  unsuccessful. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE   ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH   COME  IN   CONFLICT. 

Relations  between  the  English  and  the  Five  Nations — The  Hostility  of  the  Latter  to  the 
French — King  William's  War — Destruction  of  Dover — The  Jesuit  Missionaries  incite 
the  Indians  to  attack  the  English — Expedition  against  Quebec — Attack  on  Dustin'« 
Farm — Peace  of  Ryswick — Hostility  of  the  English  to  Roman  Catholics — Queen  Anne's 
War — Burning  of  Deerfield — Eunice  Williams — Cruelties  of  the  French — Effort  of 
New  England  to  Conquer  Acadia — Capture  of  Port  Royal — Failure  of  the  Expedition 
against  Quebec — King  George's  War — Expedition  against  Louisburg — Its  Composition 
— Arrival  of  the  Fleet  at  Cape  Breton — Good  Conduct  of  the  Provincials — Capture  of 
Louisburg — Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle — Unjust  Treatment  of  the  Colonies  by  England 
— Sentiment  of  the  Americans  towards  England. 

HE  territory  of  the  Five  Nations  lay  between  the  English  and 
French  colonies.  The  friendship  which  these  tribes  had  borne 
to  the  Dutch  was  transferred  to  the  English  upon  the  conquest 
of  New  Netherlands  by  the  latter,  and  they  remained  the  faith- 
ful and  devoted  allies  of  Great  Britain  until  after  the  Revolution. 
Though  they  remained  at  peace  with  the  French  for  some  years  after  the 
treaty  which  has  been  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chapter,  they  regarded 
a  renewal  of  hostilities  with  them  as  certain,  and  were  on  the  whole 
anxious  to  resume  the  struggle  at  the  earliest  moment.  James  II.,  eager 
to  establish  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in  America,  instructed  the  gov- 
ernor of  New  York  to  cultivate  friendly  relations  with  the  French,  and 
to  exert  all  his  influence  to  induce  the  Five  Nations  to  receive  Jesuit 
missionaries.  The  governor,  however,  saw  that  the  French  were  rapidly 
monopolizing  the  fur-trade,  and  he  encouraged  the  Five  Nations  to  regard 
them  with  suspicion  and  dislike.  The  French  by  their  own  bad  treat- 
ment of  the  Mohawks  put  an  end  to  the  hope  of  a  lasting  peace  with  thera 
Upon  the  escape  of  James  II.  to  France,  Louis  XIV.  warmly  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  dethroned  king,  which  he  declared  was  the  cause  of 
legitimate  monarchy  as  opposed  to  the  right  of  the  people  to  self-govern- 
ment ;  and  the  war  which  was  thus  begun  in  Europe  spread  to  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  rival  powers  in  America.  The  objects  of  the  two  parties 
in  America  were  very  different.  That  of  the  people  of  New  England, 
who  were  principally  interested  in  the  struggle,  was  to  secure  their  north- 
ern frontier  against  invasion  from  Canada,  and  to  get  possession  of  the 
318 


ENGLISH  ASD  FIIESUI  LX  CONFLICT.  319 

fisheries.  The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  wished  to  obtain  entire  control  of 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  would  make  them  sole  masters  of  the 
fur-trade,  and  to  extend  their  power  over  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  thus  obtain  control  of  the  fisheries  also.  To  accomplish  their  first 
object  the  friendship  of  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  valiey  of  the  Mississippi 
was  indispensable,  and  they  exerted  every  means  of  which  they  were  pos- 
sessed to  gain  it.  They  renewed  their  efforts  to  win  over  the  Five 
Nations,  but  without  success.  The  war  between  these  tribes  and  the 
French  -.vas  soon  renewed,  as  has  been  related,  and  on  the  25th  of  August, 
1689,  a  band  of  fifteen  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  surprised  and  captured 
Montreal,  and  put  two  hundred  of  the  inhabitants  to  death  with  horrible 
erti.  <ty.  An  equal  number  of  whites  were  made  prisoners. 


BURNING   OF   DOVER. 


/n  the  same  year  Count  Frontenac  was  appointed  governor  of  Canada 
i  v  the  second  time.  He  came  resolved  to  break  the  power  of  the 
Knglish,  and  reached  Canada  just  in  time  to  hear  of  the  capture  of  Mon- 
treal. He  at  once  set  to  work  to  incite  the  Indians  to  a  series  of  incur- 
sions against  the  English  settlements  which  should  thoroughly  establish 
his  influence  over  the  savage  warriors,  who  would  obey  none  but  a 
successful  chief,  and  at  the  same  time  strike  terror  to  the  enemies  of 
France.  The  first  blow  was  struck  at  Dover,  in  New  Hampshire.  The 
commander  of  the  garrison  at  this  place  was  Major  Richard  Waldron. 
Thirteen  years  before,  during  King  Philip's  war,  two  hundred  Eastern 
1  ndians  came  to  Dover  to  treat  of  peaeo.  Waldron  treacherously  seized 
them  and  sent  them  to  Boston,  where  some  of  their  were  hanged  and  the 


320  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATP1S. 

remain  *er  sold  into  slavery.  The  savages  had  neither  forgotten  nor 
forgiven  the  wrongs  of  their  brothers,  and  now  they  resolved  to  meet  the 
whites  with  their  own  weapons  of  deceit  and  treachery. 

On  the  evening  of  the  27th  of  June,  1689,  two  Indian  squaws  came  to 
Dover  and  asked  for  a  night's  lodging.  Waldron,  now  an  old  man  of 
eighty,  was  unsuspicious  of  harm.  Their  request  was  granted,  and  the 
squaws  were  lodged  in  his  house.  In  the  dead  of  the  night  the  womei 
arose,  unbarred  the  gates,  and  admitted  the  warriors  who  had  lain  in 
ambush  near  the  town.  Waldron's  house  was  first  entered  ;  the  first  duty 
of  the  savages  being  to  discharge  their  debt  of  vengeance.  The  brave 
old  man  seized  his  sword  and  defended  himself  until  he  was  felled  to  the 
floor  by  a  blow  which  stunned  him.  He  was  then  seated  in  a  chair  and 
placed  on  a  table,  and  the  savages  saluted  him  with  jeers.  "  Who  will 
judge  Indians  now  ?  "  they  asked.  "  Who  will  hang  our  brothers  ?  Will 
the  pale  face  Waldron  give  us  life  for  life  ?  "  As  they  spoke  they  gasned 
him  across  the  breast  with  their  knives,  inflicting  wounds  equal  in  number 
to  their  friends  whom  he  had  betrayed.  The  old  man  bore  his  tortures 
firmly  until  he  died;  the  Indians  then  set  fire  to  the  house  and  burned 
the  rest  of  the  settlement.  Nearly  half  the  inhabitants  were  murdered, 
and  the  remainder  were  carried  into  captivity. 

The  other  frontier  towns  suffered  severely  from  Maine  to  New  York. 
A  band  of  French  and  Indians,  in  February,  1690,  toiled  across  the 
wilderness  from  Montreal  to  central  New  York  on  snow-shoes,  and 
surprised  Schenectady.  The  place  was  burned,  the  majority  of  the  settlers 
were  killed,  and  many  women  and  children  were  carried  into  captivity. 
A  few  escaped  through  the  snow  to  Albany.  Deerfield  and  Haverhill  in 
Massachusetts,  Salmon  Falls  in  New  Hampshire,  and  Casco  in  Maine 
met  a  similar  fate.  The  French  had  resolved  to  make  the  war  one  of 
extermination,  and  neither  they  nor  their  savage  allies  showed  any  mercy 
to  the  English  in  their  hour  of  triumph. 

The  savages  were  incited  to  their  bloody  task  by  the  Jesuit  mission- 
aries. The  first  race  of  missionaries,  whose  good  deeds  we  have  chron- 
icled in  the  last  chapter,  had  died  out,  and  their  successors  could  conceive 
of  no  higher  standard  of  duty  than  the  extermination  of  the  Englisn 
heretics.  They  roused  the  fury  of  their  dusky  converts  against  the 
English  as  the  enemies  of  the  Roman  religion,  and  then  confessing  anc' 
absolving  the  savage  warriors,  sent  them  forth  to  murder  and  destroy, 
with  the  solemn  assurance  that  such  acts  on  their  part  would  win  them 
the  favor  of  their  Father  in  heaven.  Wrhen  peace  was  made  two  Jesuit 
priests,  Thury  and  Bigot,  induced  the  Eastern  Indians  to  break  the 
treaty  and  renew  the  war,  and  even  took  pride  in  acknowledging  them- 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  IN  CONFLICT.  321 

the  instigators  of  the  atrocities  of  the  savages.  These  things  were 
well  understood  among  the  English,  and  they  caine  to  regard  the  Jesuit 
missionaries  as  the  enemies  of  mankind.  Menaced  by  the  French  and 
Indians  on  the  frontiers,  the  English  Protestants  may  be  excused  for 
regarding  with  suspicion  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Maryland.  So  deep 
was  the  horror  which  the  work  of  the  Jesuits  aroused,  that  even  in  Rhode 
Island,  the  home  of  perfect  toleration,  it  was  enacted  that  a  Roman 
Catholic  should  not  become  a  freeman  of  the  province. 

In  May,  1690,  a  congress  of  delegates  from  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
tnd  New  York  was  held  at  New  York  for  the  purpose  of  concerting  a 
plan  for  an  invasion  of  Canada.  It  was  resolved  to  send  an  army  against 
Montreal  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain,  while  Massachusetts  should 
despatch  a  fleet  to  attack  Quebec.  The  first  expedition,  composed  of  the 
troops  of  New  York  and  Connecticut,  advanced  to  Lake  Champlain, 
attended  by  a  strong  force  of  Mohawk  allies.  Frontenac  promptly 
assembled  his  French  and  Indians  for  the  defence  of  Montreal,  and 
succeeded  in  inflicting  a  sharp  defeat  upon  the  Mohawks,  under  Colonel 
Philip  Schuyler,  who  led  the  advance  of  the  English  army.  The 
Mohawks  were  unable  to  regain  their  lost  ground,  and  the  provincial 
troops  were  delayed  by  the  dissensions  of  their  leaders  until  the  provis- 
ions ran  short  and  the  small-pox  broke  out  among  the  men.  It  then 
became  necessary  to  abandon  the  attempt. 

In  the  meantime  Massachusetts  equipped  a  fleet  of  thirty-two  vessels 
and  two  thousand  men,  and  despatched  it  to  the  St.  Lawrence  under  the 
command  of  the  governor,  Sir  William  Phipps,  whose  incompetency 
produced  the  failure  of  the  expedition.  Frontenac  was  promptly  informed 
of  the  departure  of  the  fleet  by  an  Indian  runner  from  the  Piscataqua, 
who  reached  Montreal  in  twelve  days.  Frontenac  at  once  set  out  for 
Quebec,  and  arrived  there  three  days  in  advance  of  the  English  fleet, 
which  was  obliged  to  feel  its  way  cautiously  up  the  St.  Lawrence.  When 
the  hostile  vessels  arrived  off  the  city,  Quebec  was  prepared  to  offer  a 
determined  resistance.  After  a  few  harmless  demonstrations,  Sir  William 
Phipps  withdrew  and  returned  to  Boston,  to  the  great  disappointment  of 
the  colony.  A  large  debt  had  been  incurred  in  this  enterprise  and  a 
number  of  valuable  lives  had  been  lost,  but  nothing  had  been  gained. 

The  Eastern  Indians  continued  their  aggressions,  but  were  severely 
punished  by  Captain  Samuel  Church,  who  had  served  with  distinction  in 
King  Philip's  war.  On  one  occasion  he  was  so  exasperated  by  the  cruel- 
ties of  the  savages  that  he  put  a  number  of  his  prisoners,  including  some 
women  and  children,  to  death.  The  savages  mercilessly  avenged  the 
murder  of  their  friends,  and  carried  death  and  desolation  along  the  boi> 
21 


322  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ders  of  New  England.  Nearly  every  settlement  in  Maine  was  destroyed 
by  them  or  abandoned  by  the  inhabitants,  who  fled  to  the  other  colonies 
for  protection.  The  Indians  prowled  around  the  frontier  posts.  They 
had  been  well  armed  by  the  French,  and  shot  down  the  men  without 
mercy.  The  women  and  children  were  generally  spared  and  carried  to 
Canada,  where  they  were  sold  to  the  French  as  slaves.  In  1693  peace 
was  made  with  the  Abenakis,  or  Eastern  Indians ;  but  within  a  year  the 
Jesuits  had  succeeded  in  inducing  the  savages  to  resume  hostilities. 

A  party  of  Indians  attacked  the  house  of  a  farmer  named  Dustin, 
residing  near  Haverhill.  He  was  at  work  in  the  field  when  the  shouts 
of  the  savages  warned  him  of  the  danger  of  his  wife  and  children. 
Throwing  himself  on  his  horse,  he  hastened  to  their  rescue,  and  on  the 
way  met  his  children  flying  for  safety  pursued  by  the  savages.  He  threw 
himself  in  front  of  the  little  ones,  and  by  a  few  well-aimed  shots  kept  the 
pursuers  back  until  the  children  reached  a  place  of  safety.  Hannah 
Dustin,  her  youngest  child — only  a  few  days  old — her  nurse,  and  a  boy 
from  Worcester,  unable  to  fly,  were  made  prisoners  by  the  Indians.  The 
little  one  was  killed,  and  the  two  women  and  the  boy  were  carried  away 
by  the  savages  to  their  village,  situated  on  an  island  in  the  Merrimac, 
just  above  Concord.  Hannah  Dustin  resolved  to  escape,  and  communi- 
cated her  plan  to  her  companions.  Each  secured  a  tomahawk,  and  at 
night  began  the  destruction  of  their  captors,  twelve  in  number.  Ten 
Indians  were  killed  and  one  squaw  was  wounded.  The  twelfth,  a  child, 
was  purposely  spared.  Then  collecting  the  gun  and  tomahawk  of  the 
murderer  of  her  infant,  and  a  bag-full  of  scalps,  the  heroic  woman 
secured  a  canoe,  and  embarking  in  it  with  her  companions,  floated  down 
the  Merrimac  and  soon  reached  Haverhill,  where  they  were  received  with 
astonishment  and  delight  by  their  friends. 

This  struggle,  which  is  known  in  American  history  as  King  IVUIiam's 
War,  was  brought  to  a  close  in  September,  1697,  by  the  Peace  of  Rys- 
wick.  It  had  lasted  seven  years,  and  had  caused  severe. suffering  to  the 
northern  colonies,  without  yielding  them  any  compensating  advantages. 

The  Five  Nations  were  also  severe  sufferers.  Failing  to  win  them 
from  their  alliance  with  the  English,  Frontenac  several  times  invaded 
their  country  with  an  army  of  French  troops  and  Indians,  and  ravaged 
it  with  great  cruelty.  Frontenac  led  these  expeditions  in  person,  though 
he  was  seventy-four  years  old. 

The  people  of  New  York,  regarding  the  Jesuits  as  the  true  authors  of 
the  miseries  endured  by  the  English  and  their  allies,  enacted  a  law  io 
1 700,  that  every  Romish  priest  who  voluntarily  came  into  the  province 
should  be  hanged. 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH 


CONFLICT. 


323 


Five  years  after  the  Peace  of  Ryswick,  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Suc- 
aession,  or,  as  it  is  known  in  American  history,  Queen  Anne's  War, 
began  in  Europe,  It  soon  extended  to  America,  and  embroiled  the 
English  and  French  in  this  country.  The  English  settlements  on  the 
Western  frontier  of  New  England  were  almost  annihilated  by  the  Indians, 
.^id  the  French  were  unusually  active. 

The  people  of  Deerfield  were  warned  by  the  friendly  Mohawks 


BURKING   CF  EEERFIELD,  MASS. 

the  French  and  Indians  were  meditating  an  attack  upon  their  settlement 
and  through  the  winter  of  1703-4  a  vigilant  watch  was  kept  by  night 
and  day.  The  winter  was  very  severe ;  the  snow  lay  four  feet  deep,  and 
the  clear,  cold  atmosphere  made  it  almost  as  hard  as  ice.  Profiting  by 
this,  a  war  party  of  about  two  hundred  French  and  one  hundred  and 
forty-two  Indians,  under  the  command  of  Hertel  de  Rouville,  set  out 


324  HISTORY  OF  THE^  UNITED 

from  Canada,  and  by  the  aid  of  snow-shoes  crossed  the  country  on  the 
snow  and  reached  the  vicinity  of  Deerfield  on  the  last  night  of  February, 
1704.  Towards  daybreak  on  the  1st  of  March  the  sentinels,  supposing 
that  all  was  safe,  left  their  posts  at  Deerfield,  and  the  enemy  at  once 
silsntly  mounted  on  the  snow-drifts  to  the  top  of  the  palisades  and 
entered  the  enclosure,  which  had  an  area  of  twenty  acres.  A  general 
massacre  followed.  The  town  was  destroyed,  forty  persons  were  killed, 
and  one  hundred  and  twelve  were  carried  away  into  Canada. 

Among  the  captives  were  the  minister  Williams,  his  wife  Eunice,  and 
their  five  children.  The  sufferings  of  the  prisoners  on  the  march  to 
Canada  were  fearful.  Two  men  starved  to  death.  The  infant  whose 
cries  disturbed  the  captors  was  tossed  out  into  the  snow  to  die;  and  the 
mother  who  faltered  from  fatigue  or  anguish  was  despatched  by  a  blow 
from  the  tomahawk.  Eunice  Williams  had  brought  her  Bible  along 
with  her,  and  in  the  brief  intervals  afforded  by  the  halts  of  the  savages 
for  rest,  drew  from  its  sacred  pages  the  consolations  she  so  sorely  needed. 
Her  strength  soon  failed,  as  she  had  but  recently  recovered  from  her 
confinement.  Her  husband  sought  to  cheer  her  by  pointing  her  to  "  the 
house  not  made  with  hands,"  and  she  assured  him  that  she  was  satisfied 
to  endure  any  suffering,  counting  it  gain  for  Christ's  sake.  Perceiving 
that  her  end  was  near,  she  commended  her  children  to  God  and  to  their 
father's  care,  and  was  immediately  killed  by  the  savages,  as  she  could  go 
no  farther.  The  Williams  family  were  taken  to  Canada,  and  a  few  years 
later  were  ransomed,  with  tho  exception  of  the  youngest  daughter,  with 
whom  the  savages  refused  to  part.  She  was  adopted  into  a  village  of 
Christian  Indians  near  Montreal,  and  became  a  convert  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith,  and  subsequently  married  a  Mohawk  chief.  Years  after- 
wards she  appeared  at  Deerfield  clad  in  the  dress  of  her  tribe.  She  had 
come  to  visit  her  relatives ;  but  no  entreaties  could  induce  her  to  remain 
with  them,  and  she  went  back  to  her  adopted  people  and  to  her  children. 

The  war  was  conducted  with  brutal  ferocity  by  the  French.  Hertel 
de  Rouville  gained  eternal  infamy  by  his  butcheries  of  helpless  womep 
and  children.  Vaudreuil,  the  governor  of  Canada,  urged  on  his  forces 
to  deeds  of  fresh  atrocity,  but  at  length  the  savages  became  disgusted 
with  their  bloody  work  and  refused  to  murder  any  more  English.  The 
French  succeeded,  however,  in  inducing  some  of  them  to  continue  their 
assistance,  and  in  1708  Haverhill  was  surprised  by  the  French  and 
Indians  under  Rouville,  and  its  inhabitants  massacred  with  the  most 
fiendish  cruelty.  None  of  them  escaped  death  or  captivity.  Filled  with 
horror  and  indignation,  Colonel  Peter  Schuyler,  of  New  York,  wrote  to 
the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil :  "  I  hold  it  my  duty  towards  God  and  my 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  IN  CONFLICT. 


325 


neighbor,  to  prevent,  if  possible,  these  barbarous  and  heathen  cruelties. 
My  heart  swells  with  indignation  when  I  think  that  a  war  between 
Christian  princes,  bound  to  the  exactest  laws  of  honor  and  generosity, 
which  their  noble  ancestors  have  illustrated  by  brilliant  examples,  is 
degenerating  into  a  savage  and  boundless  butchery.  These  are  not  the 
nethods  for  terminating  the  war." 

"  Such  fruitless  cruelties,"  says  Bancroft,  "  inspired  our  fathers  with  a 
deep  hatred  of  the  French  missionaries;  they  compelled  the  employment 
of  a  large  part  of  the  inhabitants  as  soldiers,  so  that  there  was  one  year 


\ 


RETURN  OF  THE  DAUGHTER  OP  EUNICE  WILLIAMS  TO  THE  INDIANS. 

during  this  war  when  even  a  fifth  part  of  all  who  were  capable  of  bearing 
arms  were  in  active  service.  They  gave  birth  also  to  a  willingness  to 
exterminate  the  natives.  The  Indians  vanished  when  their  homes  were 
invaded ;  they  could  not  be  reduced  by  usual  methods  of  warfare ;  hence 
a  bounty  was  offered  for  every  Indian  scalp ;  to  regular  forces  under  pay 
the  grant  was  ten  pounds — to  volunteers  in  actual  service,  twice  that 
sum ;  but  if  men  would,  of  themselves,  without  pay  make  up  parties  and 
patrol  the  forests  in  search  of  Indians,  as  of  old  the  woods  were  scoured 
for  wild  beasts,  the  chase  was  invigorated  by  the  promised  'encourage- 
ment of  fifty  pounds  per  scalp/  " 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

In  1707  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  and  Rhode  Island  made  a 
combined  attempt  to  conquer  Acadia.  A  fleet  was  despatched  against 
Port  Royal,  but  without  success.  In  1710  a  second  expedition  was  sent 
from  Boston  against  Port  Royal,  aided  this  time  by  an  English  fleet. 
Port  Royal  was  taken,  the  French  were  driven  out  of  the  greater  part 
of  Acadia,  and  that  province  was  annexed  to  the  English  dominions  and 
called  Nova  Scotia.  The  name  of  Port  Royal  was  changed  to  Annapolis, 
in  honor  of  the  Queen  of  England. 

Encouraged  by  this  success,  the  English  government  the  next  year 
attempted  the  conquest  of  Canada  by  two  expeditions,  one  by  land  and 
the  other  by  sea.  A  powerful  fleet  and  a  strong  army  was  despatched 
from  England  to  cooperate  with  the  colonists.  The  effort  was  unsuc- 
cessful. The  fleet,  which  was  badly  handled  by  the  admiral  in  attempt- 
ing to  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  wrecked  with  the  loss  of  eight  vessels 
and  eight  hundred  and  eighty-four  men,  and  was  obliged  to  return  to 
Boston.  The  failure  of  the  fleet  to  accomplish  anything  compelled  the 
abandonment  of  the  land  expedition  against  Montreal.  In  1713  the 
war  was  brought  to  an  end  by  the  treaty  of  Utrecht,  by  which  Acadia 
was  ceded  permanently  to  Great  Britain,  and  became  a  province  of  the 
English  crown. 

After  the  close  of  Queen  Anne's  Avar  the  colonies  remained  at  peace 
for  nearly  thirty  years,  during  which  time  they  were  molested  by  neither 
French  nor  Indians.  In  1744  the  disputes  in  Europe  concerning  the 
succession  to  the  Austrian  throns  culminated  in  a  war,  which  is  known 
in  European  history  as  the  war  of  the  Austrian  succession,  and  in 
America  as  King  George's  war.  As  usual,  England  and  France  were 
arrayed  on  opposite  sides,  and  their  colonies  in  America  soon  became 
involved  in  hostilities.  The  French  were  the  first  to  receive  information 
from  Europe  of  the  existence  of  war,  and  began  the  struggle  by  attacking 
and  capturing  the  English  fort  at  Canso  and  carrying  the  garrison  pris- 
oners to  Louisburg. 

Louisburg,  the  principal  port  of  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  was  at 
this  time  the  strongest  fortress  in  America,  and  from  its  secure  harbor 
the  French  were  constantly  despatching  privateers  against  the  merchant 
vessels  and  fishermen  of  New  England.  These  depredations  caused  such 
serious  loss  to  the  eastern  colonies  that  at  length  Governor  Shirley  pro- 
posed to  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  to  undertake  the  capture  of 
Louisburg  as  the  only  means  of  putting  a  stop  to  them,  and  this  measure 
was  laid  by  the  general  court  before  the  other  colonies.  It  was  under- 
stood that  no  aid  was  to  be  expected  from  the  mother  country,  which  was 
too  busily  engaged  in  conducting  the  war  in  Europe,  and  that  the  colonies 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  I  If  CONFLICT.  327 

would  be  obliged  to  depend  entirely  upon  their  own  resources  for  their 
success.  Nevertheless,  the  measure  was  popular,  and  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  colonists  was  aroused  to  the  highest  point.  Nearly  all  the  northern 
colonies  had  suffered  severely  at  the  hands  of  the  French  and  Indians, 
and  in  every  shipping  port  were  to  be  found  scores  of  men  who  had  bec'ii 
robbed  and  otherwise  maltreated  by  the  French  privateers.  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  Jersey,  under  the  influence  of  the  Quaker  dislike  of  war, 
declined  to  send  troops,  but  furnished  a  fair  supply  of  money  to  defray 
their  share  of  the  expenses  of  the  expedition ;  New  York  made  a  contri- 
bution of  money  and  of  a  number  of  pieces  of  artillery ;  Connecticut  gave 
five  hundred  men,  and  New  Hampshire  and  Rhode  Island  each  con- 
tributed a  regiment.  Massachusetts,  being  the  most  interested  in  the 
success  of  the  expedition  by  reason  of  being  the  largest  owner  of  shipping, 
undertook  the  principal  part  of  the  expense  and  agreed  to  furnish  a 
majority  of  the  troops  and  the  vessels.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  pro- 
curing volunteers,  but  those  who  offered  themselves  were  civilians,  ignor- 
ant of  military  discipline,  and  utterly  unprepared  to  attempt  the  reduc- 
tion of  such  a  fortress  as  that  against  which  the  expedition  was  directed. 
These  disadvantages,  however,  were  lost  sight  of  in  the  enthusiasm 
aroused  by  the  hope  of  destroying  the  ability  of  the  French  to  prey  upon 
the  commerce  of  the  colonies.  Sir  William  Pepperell,  a  wealthy  merchant 
of  Maine,  was  elected  commander  of  the  expedition,  which  rendezvoused 
at  Boston  in  the  early  spring  of  1745.  One  hundred  vessels  and  a  force 
of  over  three  thousand  men  were  assembled,  and  about  the  1st  of  April 
sailed  for  Canso,  which  was  reached  on  the  7th.  The  ice  was  drifting  in 
such  quantities  that  the  fleet  could  not  enter  the  harbor  of  Louisburg,  and 
was  obliged  to  remain  at  Canso  for  more  than  two  weeks.  Admiral 
Warren,  commanding  the  West  India  squadron,  had  been  invited  to  join 
the  expedition,  but  in  the  absence  of  instructions  from  England  had 
declined  to  do  so.  Almost  immediately  afterwards  he  received  orders 
from  home  to  render  Massachusetts  every  aid  in  his  power,  and  at  once 
joined  the  New  England  fleet  at  Canso  with  four  ships  of  war  and  a 
detachment  of  regular  troops. 

At  length,  the  ice  having  moved  southward,  the  New  England  fleet 
entered  the  harbor  of  Louisburg  on  the  30th  of  April.  The  fortress  was 
built  on  a  neck  of  land  on  the  south  side  of  the  harbor,  and  its  walls 
were  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high  and  forty  feet  thick  at  the  base,  and 
were  surrounded  with  a  ditch  eighty  feet  in  width.  Outlying  forts  pro- 
tected the  main  work,  and  there  was  not  a  foot  of  the  walls  that  was  not 
swept  by  the  fire  of  the  artillery.  Nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  cannon 
of  all  sizes  constituted  the  armament  of  the  fortress,  and  the  principal 


328  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

outwork,  the  "  royal  battery,"  was  deemed  capable  of  withstanding  an 
attack  of  five  thousand  men.  The  garrison  numbered  sixteen  hundred 
men.  To  attack  this  fortress  the  New  England  troops  brought  with 
them  eighteen  cannon  and  three  mortars. 

As  the  fleet  drew  near  the  town  the  French  marched  down  to  the  beach 
<;o  oppose  the  landing  of  the  troops.  Immediately  the  whale-boats  of 
the  ships  were  lowered  and  manned,  and  at  a  signal  from  the  flagship 
darted  fo*  the  shore  with  a  speed  which  astonished  and  struck  terror  to 
the  French,  who  were  quickly  driven  to  the  woods.  The  landing  was 
secured,  and  the  next  day  a  detachment  of  four  hundred  men  marched 
by  the  town,  giving  it  three  cheers  as  they  passed,  and  took  position  near 
the  northeast  harbor,  completely  cutting  off  the  fortress  from  communi- 
cation with  the  country  in  its  rear.  This  completed  the  investment,  as 
the  fleet  closed  the  harbor,  and  prevented  the  approach  of  relief  by  sea. 
That  night  the  troops  in  the  royal  battery  spiked  the  guns  of  that  work, 
abandoned  it,  and  retreated  into  the  town.  It  was  immediately  occupied 
by  the  New  Englanders,  who  drilled  the  spikes  out  of  the  vent-holes  of 
the  guns,  and  turned  them  against  the  town.  Batteries  were  erected  by 
the  colonial  troops,  and  their  fire  opened  upon  Louisburg.  The  volun- 
teers proved  admirable  soldiers,  exciting  the  surprise  of  the  English 
naval  officers  by  the  readiness  and  facility  with  which  they  discharged  the. 
various  duties  required  of  them.  Numbers  of  them  were  mechanics  by 
profession,  and  their  skill  was  of  the  greatest  service  in  this  emergency. 
A  New  Hampshire  colonel,  who  was  a  carpenter,  constructed  sledges  with 
which  to  drag  the  artillery  across  a  morass  to  the  positions  assigned  the 
batteries.  The  weather  was  mild  and  singularly  dry,  and  the  men  were 
healthy.  "All  day  long  the  men,  if  not  on  duty,  were  busy  with  amuse- 
ments— firing  at  marks,  fishing,  fowling,  wrestling,  racing,  or  running 
ifter  balls  shot  from  the  enemy's  guns." 

In  the  meantime  the  ships  of  Admiral  Warren  blockaded  the  harbor, 
and  not  only  prevented  French  vessels  from  entering  the  port,  but  suc- 
ceeded in  decoying  into  the  midst  of  the  English  fleet  the  French  frigate 
"Vigilante"  of  sixty  guns,  which  was  captured  after  a  sharp  engagement 
of  several  hours.  She  was  loaded  with  stores  for  the  fortress,  and  these 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors. 

The  French  commander,  who  had  shoAvn  but  little  energy  during  the 
siege,  was  now  so  thoroughly  disheartened  that  on  the  17th  of  June,  juw 
seven  weeks  after  the  commencement  of  the  investment,  he  surrendered 
the  town  and  fortifications.  As  the  colonial  troops  entered  the  place  tc 
take  possession  of  it  they  were  astonished  at  the  strength  of  the  works. 
"  God  has  .gone  out  of  the  way  of  his  common  providence,  in  a  remark- 


ENGLISH  AND  FRENCH  IN  CONFLICT.  329 

abls  and  miraculous  manner,"  they  said,  "  to  incline  the  hearts  of  the 
French  to  give  up,  and  deliver  this  strong  city  into  our  hands."  The 
capture  of  Lotiisburg  by  the  undisciplined  volunteers  of  America  was 
the  greatest  success  achieved  by  England  during  the  war.  The  colonists 
were  justly  proud  of  it.  Bells  were  rung  and  bonfires  lighted  in  all  the 
colonies,  and  the  people  rejoiced  greatly  at  the  success  of  their  brethren 
and  friends.  England  with  characteristic  selfishness  claimed  the  glory 
exclusively  for  the  squadron  of  Admiral  Warren. 

France  was  greatly  alarmed  at  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  which  seri- 
ously threatened  her  dominion  in  America,  and  measures  were  at  once 
begun  for  its  recovery,  and  for  the  destruction  of  the  English  colonies. 
In  1 746  a  large  fleet  was  despatched  to  America  under  the  Duke  d' An- 
vil le,  but  many  of  the  vessels  were  lost  at  sea,  and  the  fleet  was  greatly 
weakened  by  pestilence.  In  the  midst  of  these  misfortunes  the  Duke 
d'Anville  suddenly  died,  and  his  successor  lost  his  mind,  and  committed 
suicide.  The  expedition  made  no  serious  demonstration  against  the  Eng- 
lish, and  resulted  in  total  failure.  In  1747  another  fleet  was  sent  out 
from  France  for  the  same  purpose,  but  was  captured  after  a  severe  fight 
by  an  English  fleet  under  Admirals  Anson'and  Warren. 

In  spite  of  these  successes,  however,  the  frontiers  of  the  northern 
colonies  suffered  considerably,  and  the  English  government  resolved  to 
attempt  once  more  the  conquest  of  Canada.  All  the  colonies  were  re- 
quired to  furnish  men  or  money  to  this  enterprise,  and  eight  thousand 
men  were  enlisted.  The  British  government  delayed,  however,  and 
finally  abandoned  the  enterprise.  On  the  18th  of  October,  1748,  the 
treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  closed  the  war.  The  treaty  required  that  all 
places  taken  by  either  party  during  the  war  should  be  restored,  and 
Louisburg  was  delivered  up  to  the  French,  to  the  great  disgust  of  the 
New  England  colonies,  who  saw  all  the  results  of  their  sacrifices  thrown 
away,  and  their  commerce  and  fisheries  once  more  placed  at  the  mercy  of 
the  French.  England  had  never  regarded  the  interests  of  her  colonies 
as  worth  considering,  however,  and  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  she 
should  manifest  any  concern  for  them  now. 

It  was  commonly  believed  in  America,  and  with  good  reason,  that  the 
king  did  not  desire  that  New  England  should  enjoy  the  security  necessary 
to  her  prosperity.  His  majesty  was  beginning  to  be  jealous  of  his  Ameri- 
can subjects,  who  had,  as  Admiral  Warren  expressed  it,  "  the  highest, 
notion  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  an  Englishman,"  and  he  was  resolved 
to  keep  them  so  weak  that  they  should  not  forget  their  dependence  upon 
him.  Peter  Kalm,  a  Swedish  traveller,  who  visited  New  York  in  1748, 
thus  records  the  prevailing  sentiment  in  America  at  this  period  •,  "  The 


330  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

English  colonies  in  this  part  of  the  world  have  increased  so  much  in 
wealth  and  population  that  they  will  vie  with  European  England.  But 
to  maintain  the  commerce  and  the  power  of  the  metropolis  they  are  for- 
bid to  establish  new  manufactures,  which  might  compete  with  the  Eng- 
lish ;  they  may  dig  for  gold  and  silver  only  on  condition  of  shipping 
•them  immediately  to  England ;  they  have,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
fixed  places,  no  liberty  to  trade  to  any  ports  not  belonging  to  the  English 
dominions,  and  foreigners  are  not  allowed  the  least  commerce  with  these 
American  colonies.  And  there  are  many  similar  restrictions.  These 
oppressions  have  made  the  inhabitants  of  the  English  colonies  less  tender 
to  their  mother  land.  This  coldness  is  increased  by  the  many  foreigners 
who  are  settled  among  them ;  for  Dutch,  Germans,  and  French  are  here, 
blended  with  English,  and  have  no  special  love  for  old  England.  Be- 
sides, some  people  are  always  discontented,  and  love  change ;  and  exceed- 
ing freedom  and  prosperity  nurse  an  untamable  spirit.  I  have  been  told 
not  only  by  native  Americans,  but  by  English  emigrants,  publicly,  that 
within  thirty  or  fifty  years  the  English  colonies  in  North  America  may 
constitute  a  separate  state  entirely  independent  of  England.  But  as  this 
whole  country  is  towards  the  sea  unguarded,  and  on  the  frontier  is  kept 
uneasy  by  the  French,  these  dangerous  neighbors  are  the  reason  why  the 
love  of  these  colonies  for  their  metropolis  does  not  utterly  decline.  The 
English  government  has,  therefore,  reason  to  regard  the  French  in  North 
America  as  the  chief  power  that  urges  their  colonies  to  submission." 

The  war  not  only  served  to  confirm  the  hostility  of  the  Americans  to 
France,  but  it  also  aided  in  opening  the  eyes  of  some  of  the  most  scep- 
tical of  the  colonists  as  to  the  deliberate  intention  of  the  mother  country 
to  persist  in  the  injustice  with  which  she  had  for  so  long  treated  her  col- 
onies. Great  Britain  was  slowly  but  surely  alienating  her  American 
subjects,  and  was  preparing  them  in  the  most  certain  manner  for  the  great 
effort  they  were  shortly  to  make  to  rid  themselves  of  her  tyranny. 

During  the  last  year  of  the  war  an  incident  occurred  at  Boston  which 
might  have  opened  the  eyes  of  the  ministry  to  the  growing  determination 
of  the  Americans  to  resist  any  interference  with  their  liberties.  Deser- 
tions from  the  English  ships-of-war  in  Boston  harbor  had  become  so  fre- 
quent that  Sir  Charles  Knowles,  the  commanding  officer,  sent  his  boats 
up  to  Boston  one  morning  and  seized  a  number  of  seamen  in  the  vessels 
at  the  wharves,  and  a  number  of  mechanics  and  laborers  engaged  in 
work  on  shore.  The  people  of  Boston  indignantly  demanded  of  the 
governor  the  release  of  the  impressed  men.  As  his  excellency  declined 
to  interfere  in  the  matter  the  people  seized  the  commanders  and  officers 
of  the  ships  who  happened  to  be  in  the  town,  and  kept  them  prisoner?; 
antil  they  agreed  to  release  the  men  they  had  unlawfully  seized. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE   FRENCH    AND   INDIAN   WAR. 

England  Claims  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio — Organization  of  the  Ohio  Company — The  French 
extend  their  Posts  into  the  Ohio  Country — Washington's  Mission  to  the  French  at  Fort 
Duquesnc — Mis  Journey — Keception  by  the  French — His  Journey  Home — A  Perilous 
Undertaking — Organization  of  the  Virginia  Forces — Washington  made  Second  in  Com  • 
1 1 land — The  French  Drive  the  English  from  the  Head  of  the  Ohio — Fort  Duquesre 
Built  by  them — Washington  Crosses  the  Mountains — The  Fight  at  Great  Meadows  - 
Beginning  of  the  French  and  Indian  War — Surrender  of  Fort  Necessity  to  the  French- ~ 
Unjust  Treatment  of  the  Colonial  Officers — Congress  of  the  Colonies  at  New  York-  - 
Franklin's  Plan  of  a  Union  of  the  Colonies — Its  Failure — Reasons  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment for  Rejecting  it — England  assumes  the  Direction  of  the  War — Arrival  of  General 
Braddock — Plan  of  Campaign — Obstinacy  of  Braddock — He  Passes  the  Mountains— - 
Defeat  of  Braddock — Heroism  of  Washington — Retreat  of  Dunbar  beyond  the  Moun- 
tains— Vigorous  action  of  Pennsylvania — Armstrong  defeats  the  Indians  and  burns  th* 
town  of  Kittanning. 

HE  three  wars  between  the  English  and  French  in  America  which 
we  have  just  considered  were  but  a  prelude  to  the  great  struggle 
which  was  to  decide  which  of  these  powers  should  control  the 
destinies  of  the  new  world.  The  English,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
growing  stronger  and  more  numerous  along  the  Atlantic  coast, 
and  were  directing  their  new  settlements  farther  into  the  interior  with 
each  succeeding  year.  The  French  held  Canada  and  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  but  their  tenure  was  that  of  a  military  occupation  rather 
than  a  colonization. 

Between  the  possessions  of  these  hostile  nations  lay  the  valley  of  the 
Ohio,  a  beautiful  and  fertile  region,  claimed  by  both,  but  occupied  as  yet 
by  neither.  The  French  had  explored  the  country,  and  had  caused 
leaden  plates  engraved  with  the  arms  of  France  to  be  deposited  at  its 
principal  points  to  attest  their  claim ;  and  had  opened  friendly  relations 
with  the  Indians.  The  region  had  been  frequently  visited  by  the  traders, 
who  brought  back  reports  of  its  remarkable  beauty  and  fertility  an'd  of 
its  excellent  climate.  The  British  government  regarded  this  region  as  a 
portion  of  Virginia,  and  one  of  the  chief  desires  of  the  Earl  of  Halifax, 
the  prime  minister  of  England,  was  to  secure  the  Ohio  valley  by  plant- 
ing an  English  colony  in  it.  A  company  was  organized  in  Virginia  ano 

331 


332  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Maryland  for  this  purpose  and  for  the  purpose  of  trading  with  the  Indian?, 
and  was  warmly  supported  by  the  Earl  of  Halifax.  It  was  named  the 
Ohio  Company,  and  at  length  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  favorable  charter 
from  the  king,  who,  in  March,  1749,  ordered  the  governor  of  Virginia 
to  assign  to  the  Ohio  Company  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  lying 
between  the  Monongahela  and  Kanawha  rivers,  and  along  the  Ohio. 
The  company  were  required  to  despatch  within  seven  years  at  least  one 
hundred  families  to  the  territory  granted  them,  to  locate  without  delay 
at  least  two-fifths  of  the  lands  they  desired  to  occupy,  and  to  build  and 
garrison  a  fort  at  their  own  cost.  They  were  granted  an  exemption  from 
quit  rents  and  other  dues  for  ten  years,  and  this  freedom  from  taxation 
was  extended  by  the  company  to  all  who  would  settle  in  their  domain. 

A  number  of  Indian  traders  had  located  themselves  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  and  in  order  to  supply  these  with  the  articles  needed  for  their 
traffic  with  the  Indians,  the  Ohio  Company  built  a  trading-post  at  Wills' 
creek,  within  the  limits  of  Maryland,  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Cumberland.  Here  one  of  the  easiest  of  the  passes  over  the  Alleghauics 
began,  and  by  means  of  it  the  traders  could  easily  transport  their  goods 
to  the  Indian  country  west  of  the  mountains  and  return  with  the  furs 
flieir  traffic  enabled  them  to  collect. 

Being  anxious  to  explore  the  country  west  of  the  mountains,  the  com- 
pany employed  Christopher  Gist,  one  of  the  most  experienced  Indian 
traders,  and  instructed  him  "  to  examine  the  western  country  as  far  as  the 
falls  of  the  Ohio,  to  look  for  a  large  tract  of  good  level  land,  to  mark  the 
passes  in  the  mountains,  to  trace  the  courses  of  the  rivers,  to  count  the 
falls,  to  observe  the  strength  and  numbers  of  the  Indian  nations." 

Gist  set  out  on  his  perilous  mission  on  the  last  day  of  October,  1750, 
and  crossing  the  mountains  reached  the  Delaware  towns  on  the  Alleghany 
river,  from  which  he  passed  down  to  Logstown,  a  short  distance  below 
the  head  of  the  Ohio.  '  You  are  come  to  settle  the  Indians'  lands ;  you 
shall  never  go  home  safe,"  said  the  jealous  people ;  but  in  spite  of  their 
threats  they  suffered  him  to  proceed  without  molestation.  He  traversed 
the  country  to  the  Muskingum  and  the  Scioto,  and  then  crossing  the 
Ohio  explored  the  Kentucky  to  its  source,  and  returned  to  Wills'  creek  in 
safety.  He  reported  that  the  region  he  had  traversed  merited  all  the 
praise  that  had  been  bestowed  upon  it ;  that  it  possessed  a  pleasant  and 
healthy  climate,  and  was  a  land  of  great  beauty.  The  soil  was  fertile 
and  the  streams  abundant  and  excellent.  The  land  was  covered  with  a 
rich  growth  of  the  most  valuable  and  beautiful  trees,  and  abounded  ii 
small  level  districts  and  meadows  covered  with  long  grass  and  white 
clover,  on  which  the  elk,  the  deer,  and  the  buffalo  grazed  in  herds.  Wild 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR.  333 

turkeys  and  other  game  abounded,  and  the  country  offered  every  attrac- 
tion to  settlers  who  were  willing  to  improve  it.  Gist  also  reported  that 
the  agents  of  the  French  were  actively  engaged  in  seeking  to  induce  the 
western  tribes  to  make  war  upon  the  English  and  prevent  them  from 
obtaining  a  footing  west  of  the  mountains.  The  purposes  of  the  English 
were  well  known  to  the  French,  who  viewed  them  with  alarm,  as  the 
successful  occupation  of  the  Ohio  valley  by  the  English  would  cut  off  the 
communication  established  by  the  French  between  Canada  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi. This  the  French  were  resolved  to  prevent  at  any  cost.  The 
Indians  regarded  both  of  the  white  nations  as  intruders  in  their  country. 
They  were  willing  to  trade  with  both,  but  were  averse  to  giving  up  their 
lands  to  either.  "If  the  French,"  said  they,  "take  possession  of  the 
north  side  of  the  Ohio,  and  the  English  of  the  south,  where  is  the 
Indian's  land?" 

The  possession  of  the  Ohio  valley  was  thus  of  the  highest  importance 
to  the  French.  Their  fortified  post  of  Fort  Frontenac  gave  them  the 
command  of  Lake  Ontario,  which  they  further  secured  by  constructing 
armed  vessels  for  the  navigation  of  the  lake.  They  retained  their  hold 
upon  Lake  Erie  by  strengthening  Fort  Niagara,  which  La  Salle  had  built 
at  the  foot  of  that  lake.  They  entered  into  treaties  with  the  Shawnees, 
the  Delawares,  and  other  powerful  tribes  between  the  lake  and  the  Ohio, 
and  steadily  pushed  their  way  eastward  towards  the  mountains.  They ' 
began  their  advance  into  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  by  building  a  fort  at 
Presque  Isle,  now  the  city  of  Erie,  in  Pennsylvania,  another  on  French 
creek,  on  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Waterford,  and  a  third  on  the 
site  of  the  present  town  of  Franklin,  at  the  confluence  of  French  creek 
with  the  Alleghany. 

These  rapid  advances  eastward  alarmed  the  English  government,  which 
instructed  the  governor  of  Virginia  to  address  a  remonstrance  to  the 
French  authorities  and  to  warn  them  of  the  consequences  which  must 
result  from  their  intrusion  into  the  territory  of  the  English.  To  do  this 
it  was  necessary  for  the  governor  to  despatch  his  communication  to  the 
nearest  French  post  by  the  hands  of  some  messenger  of  sufficient  resolu- 
tion to  overcome  the  natural  dangers  of  such  an  undertaking,  and  of  suffi- 
cient intelligence  to  gain  information  respecting  the  designs  and  strength 
of  the  French ;  and  Governor  Dinwiddie  was  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  find 
such  a  person.  Fortunately  the  man  needed  was  at  hand,  and  the  atten- 
tion of  the  governor  being  called  to  him,  his  excellency  decided  to  intrust 
him  with  the  delicate  and  dangerous  mission. 

The  person  selected  for  this  task  was  a  young  man  in  the  twenty -second 
year  of  his  age,  George  Washington  by  name.  He  was  a  native  of  West- 


THE  BRONZE   DOOR   IN  THE  NATIONAL  CAPITOL  COMMEMORATING  IH£  HYJiNXS  OS 
LIFE  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON. 

334 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR.  335 

moreland  county,  Virginia,  where  he  was  born  on  the  22d  of  February, 
1732.  He  was  a  great-grandson  of  the  Colonel  John  Washington  whom 
we  have  noticed  as  the  leader  of  an  expedition  against  the  Indians  in  the 
time  of  Sir  William  Berkeley.  His  father,  Augustine  Washington,  was 
a  wealthy  planter,  but  his  death,  when  George  was  eleven  years  old, 
deprived  his  son  of  his  care  and  also  of  the  means  of  acquiring  an  educa- 
tion. He  soon  acquired  all  the  learning  that  it  was  possible  to  gain  at  a 
country  school,  from  which  he  passed  to  an  academy  of  somewhat  higher 
grade,  where  he  devoted  himself  principally  to  the  study  of  mathematics. 
His  half  brother,  Lawrence,  who  was  fourteen  years  older  than  himself, 
had  received  a  careful  education  and  directed  the  studies  of  his  younger 
brother,  to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached. 

Though  deprived  of  the  care  of  his  father  at  such  an  early  age  it  was 
the  good  fortune  of  George  Washington  to  possess  in  his  mother  a  guide 
well  qualified  to  fill  the  place  of  both  parents  to  her  fatherless  children. 
She  was  a  woman  of  rare  good  sense,  of  great  decision  of  character,  and 
one  whose  life  was  guided  by  the  most  earnest  Christian  principle.  Her 
tenderness  and  sweet  womanly  qualities  won  the  devoted  love  of  her 
children,  and  her  firmness  enforced  their  obedience.  From  her  George 
inherited  a  quick  and  ardent  temper,  and  from  her  he  learned  the  lesson 
of  self-control  which  enabled  him  to  govern  it. 

As  a  boy,  Washington  was  noted  for  his  truthfulness,  his  courage,  and 
his  generosity.  He  was  both  liked  and  respected  by  his  schoolmates,  and 
such  was  their  confidence  in  his  fairness  and  good  judgment  that  he  was 
usually  chosen  the  arbiter  of  their  boyish  disputes.  He  joined  heartily 
in  their  sports,  and  was  noted  for  his  skill  in  athletic  exercises.  He  was 
a  fearless  rider,  and  a  good  hunter,  and  by  his  fondness  for  manly  sjwrts 
developed  his  naturally  vigorous  body  to  a  high  degree  of  strength.  He 
was  cheerful  and  genial  in  temper,  though  reserved  and  grave  in  man- 
ner. He  early  acquired  habits  of  industry  and  order,  and  there  arc  still 
existing  many  evidences  of  the  careful  and  systematic  manner  in  which 
he  discharged  every  duty  assigned  him  at  this  early  age. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  it  was  decided  that  he  should  enter  the  navy, 
and  his  brother  Lawrence,  who  had  served  with  credit  in  that  branch  of 
the  royal  service,  had  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  for  him  a  midshipman's 
warrant.  The  ship  he  was  to  join  lay  in  the  Potomac,  and  his  trunk 
was  sent  on  board ;  but  at  the  last  moment  his  mother,  dreading  the  effect 
of  the  temptations  of  a  son  man's  life  upon  a  boy  so  young,  appealed  to 
him  by  his  affection  for  h-  r  to  remain  with  her.  Washington  was  sorely 
disappointed,  but  he  yielded  cheerfully  to  his  mother's  wish. 

The  marriage  of  his  brother  Lawrence  gave  to  the  young  man  a  second 


336  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

home  at  Mount  Veriion,  where  he  passed  a  large  part  of  his  time.  Here 
he  was  brought  into  constant  contact  with  the  most  cultivated  and  refined 
society  of  Virginia,  an  association  which  had  a  happy  influence  upon  the 
formation  of  his  character.  There  also  he  formed  the  acquaintance  and 
.von  the  friendship  of  Lord  Fairfax,  the  grandson  of  Lord  Culpepper, 
and  the  inheritor  of  Culpepper's  vast  estates  in  Virginia,  which  com- 
prised about  one-seventh  of  the  area  of  the  State  of  Virginia  as  it  existed 
prior  to  the  separation  of  West  Virginia  in  1861.  Lord  Fairfax  con- 
ceived a  great  fondness  for  the  young  man,  and  took  a  deep  interest  in 
hi.s  future  welfare.  Washington,  upon  leaving  school,  had  chosen  the 
profession  of  a  surveyor  as  his  future  avocation,  and  soon  after  his  first 
meeting  with  Lord  Fairfax  was  employed  by  that  nobleman  to  survey 
the  lands  belonging  to  him,  many  of  which  had  been  occupied  by  settlers 
without  right  or  title.  It  was  an  arduous  and  responsible  task,  and 
Washington,  who  was  just  entering  his  seventeenth  year,  seemed  almost 
too  young  for  it;  but  "  Lord  Thomas"  had  satisfied  himself  of  his  young 
friend's  capability  for  it,  and  the  result  justified  the  opinion  he  had 
formed.  His  work  was  done  with  care  and  accuracy,  and  his  measure- 
ments were  so  exact  that  they  are  still  relied  upon. 

His  life  as  a  surveyor  was  in  many  respects  a  hard  one,  but  he  enjoyed 
it.  It  gave  new  vigor  to  his  naturally  robust  constitution  and  his 
splendid  figure,  and  while  yet  a  youth  he  acquired  the  appearance  and 
habits  of  mature  manhood.  He  also  learned  forest  life  in  all  its  various 
phases,  and  by  his  constant  intercourse  with  the  hunters  and  Indians, 
gained  a  knowledge  of  the  character  and  habits  of  these  wild  men  which 
in  after  years  was  of  infinite  value  to  him. 

During  his  surveying  expeditions  Washington  was  a  frequent  visitor 
at  Greenway  Court,  the  seat  of  Lord  Fairfax,  where,  in  addition  to  the 
other  attractions,  there  was  a  well-selected  library,  of  which  the  young 
man  regularly  availed  himself.  His  reading  was  of  a  serious  and  useful 
nature;  "Addison's  Spectator"  and  the  "History  of  England"  were 
among  his  favorite  works. 

Though  the  heir  to  a  considerable  estate,  Washington  supported  him- 
self during  this  period  by  his  earnings  as  a  surveyor.  "  His  father  had 
bequeathed  to  the  eldest  son,  Lawrence,  the  estate  afterwards  called 
Mount  Vernon.  To  Augustine,  the  second  son,  he  had  given  the  old 
homestead  in  Westmoreland  county.  And  George,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years,  was  to  inherit  the  house  and  lands  in  Suffolk  county.  As  yet, 
however,  he  derived  no  benefit  from  this  landed  property.  But  his 
industry  and  diligence  in  his  laborious  occupation  supplied  him  with 
abundant  pecuniary  means.  His  habits  of  life  were  simple  and  economi- 
cal; he  indulged  in  no  gay  and  expensive  pleasures." 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN    WAR. 


337 


In  1751,  in  order  to  prepare  for  any  emergency  to  which  the  hostility 
of  the  French  and  Indians  might  give  rise,  the  colony  of  Virginia  was 
divided  into  military  districts,  each  of.  which  was  placed  in  charge  of  an 
adjutant  and  inspector,  with  the  rank  of  Major,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
keep  the  militia  in  readiness  for  instant  service.  Washington  had  at  an 
early  day  evinced  a  great  fondness  for  military  exercises,  and  as  a  boy 
had  often  drilled  his  school-fellows  in  the  simplest  manoeuvres  of  the 
troops.  As  he  advanced  towards  manhood,  his  brother  Lawrence, 


THE   WASHINGTON   STATUE   IN   UNION   SQUAKE,  NEW   YORK. 

Adjutant  Muse,  of  Westmoreland,  and  Jacob  Vanbraam,  a  fencing- 
master,  and  others,  had  given  him  numerous  lessons  in  the  art  of  war. 
Though  but  nineteen  years  old,  he  was  regarded  by  his  acquaintance  as 
one  of  the  best-informed  persons  upon  military  matters  in  the  colony,  and 
at  the  general  desire  of  those  who  knew  him  he  was  commissioned  a 
major  in  the  colonial  forces,  and  placed  in  command  of  ona  of  the  military 
districts.  He  discharged  his  duties  with  ability  and  zeal,  and  gave  such 
satisfaction  that  when  Governor  Dimviddie,  in  1752,  divided  the  province 
into  four  military  districts,  Major  Washington  was  placed  in  command 
22 


000 

tlOO 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


of  the  northern  district.  "The  counties  comprehended  in  this  division 
he  promptly  and  statedly  traversed,  and  he  soon  effected  the  thorough 
discipline  of  their  militia  for  warlike  operations."  He  was  .discharging 
the  duties  of  this  position  when  selected  by  the  governor  of  Virginia  to 
bear  his  message  to  the  commander  of  the  French  forces  on  tlie  Ohio. 

Governor  Dinwiddie  intrusted  to  his  young  envoy  a  letter  addressed  to 
the  commander  of  the  French  forces  on  the  Ohio,  in  which  he  demanded 
of  him  his  reasons  for  invading  the  territory  of  England  while  Great 
Britain  and  France  were  at  peace  with  each  other.  Washington  was 
instructed  to  observe  carefully  the  numbers  and  positions  of  the  French, 
the  strength  of  their  forts,  the  nature  of  their  communications  Avith 
Canada  and  with  their  various  posts,  and  to  endeavor  to  ascertain  the 
real  designs  of  the  French  in  occupying  the  Ohio  valley,  and  the  proba- 
bilities of  their 
being  vigorously 
supported  from 
Canada.  "  Ye're 
a  braw  lad,"  said 
the  governor,  as 
he  delivered  his 
instructions  to  the 
young  major,  "and 
gin  you  play  your 
cards  weel,  my 
boy,  ye  shall  hae 
nae  cause  to  rue 
your  bargain." 

Washington  re- 
ceived his  instruc- 
tions on  the  30th  of  October,  1753,  and  on  the  same  day  set  out  for 
Winchester,  then  a  frontier  post,  from  which  he  proceeded  to  Wills' 
creek,  where  he  was  to  cross  the  mountains.  Having  secured  the  ser- 
vices of  Christopher  Gist  as  guide,  and  of  two  interpreters,  and  four  others, 
Washington  set  out  on  his  journey  about  the  middle  of  November. 
They  crossed  the  mountains,  and  journeyed  through  an  unbroken  country, 
with  no  paths  save  the  Indian  trails  to  serve  as  guides,  across  rugged 
ravines,  over  steep  hills,  and  across  streams  swollen  with  the  recent  rains, 
until  in  nine  days  they  reached  the  point  where  the  Alleghany  and 
Monongahela  unite  and  form  the  Ohio.  Washington  carefully  examined 
the  place,  and  was  greatly  impressed  with  the  advantages  offered  for  the 
location  of  a  fort  by  the  point  of  land  nt  the  junction  of  the  two  rivers. 


WASHINGTON'S  JOURNEY  TO  THE  OHIO. 


FREXCII  AXD  INDIAN   WAR.  329 

The  judgment  expressed  by  him  at  the  time  was  subsequently  confirmed 
by  the  choice  of  this  spot  by  the  French  for  one  of  their  most  important 
posts — Fort  Duquesne. 

Washington  had  been  ordered  by  the  governor  to  proceed  direct  tc 
Loo-stown,  where  he  was  to  hold  an  interview  with  the  Delaware  chief 

O  / 

known  as  the  Half  King,  to  acquaint  the  Indians  with  the  nature  of  his 
mission,  and  ascertain  their  disposition  towards  the  English.  While  he 
svas  at  this  place  he  met  several  French  deserters  from  the  posts  on  the 
lower  Ohio,  who  told  him  the  location,  number,  and  strength  of  the 
French  posts  between  Quebec  and  New  Orleans  by  way  of  the  Wabash 
and  the  Maumee,  and  informal  him  of  the  intention  of  the  French  to 
occupy  the  Ohio  from  its  head  to  its  mouth  with  a  similar  chain  of  forts. 
The  Half  King  confirmed  the  story  of  the  deserters.  He  had  heard  that 
the  French  were  coming  with  a  strong  force  to  drive  the  English  out  of 
the  land.  A  "grand  talk  "  was  held  with  the  chiefs  in  council  by  Wash- 
ington, and  they  answered  him,  by  the  Half  King,  that  what  he  had  said 
was  true ;  they  were  brothers,  and  would  guard  him  on  his  way  to  the 
nearest  French  post.  They  wished  neither  the  English  nor  the  French 
to  settle  in  their  country ;  but  as  the  French  were  the  first  intruders  they 
were  willing  to  aid  the  English  in  their  efforts  to  expel  them.  They 
agreed  to  break  off  friendly  relations  with  the  French ;  but  AVashington, 
who  knew  the  Indian  character  well,  was  not  altogether  satisfied  with 
their  promises. 

On  the  30th  of  November  he  set  out  from  Logstown  with  his  compan- 
ions, attended  by  the  Half  King  and  three  other  Indians,  and  on  the  4th 
arrived  at  the  French  post  at  Venango.  The  officer  in  command  of  this 
fort  had  no  authority  to  receive  his  letter,  and  referred  him  to  the  Cheva- 
lier St.  Pierre,  the  commander  of  the  next  post.  They  treated  the 
English  with  courtesy,  and  invited  Washington  to  sup  with  them.  When 
the  wine  was  passed  around  they  drank  deeply  and  soon  lost  their  discre- 
tion. The  sober  and  vigilant  Washington  noted  their  words  with  great 
attention,  and  recorded  them  in  his  diary.  "  They  told  me,"  he  writes, 
"that  it  was  their  absolute  design  to  take  possession  of  the  Ohio,  and,  by 
G — d,  they  would  do  it;  for,  that  although  they  were  sensible  the 
English  could  raise  two  men  for  their  one,  they  knew  their  motions  were 
too  slow  and  dilatory  to  prevent  any  undertaking  of  theirs.  They  pre- 
tend to  have  an  undoubted  right  to  the  river,  from  a  discovery  made  by 
one  La  Salle  sixty  years  ago;  and  the  rise  of  this  expedition  is  to  prevent 
our  settling  on  the  river  or  waters  of  it,  as  they  heard  of  some  families 
moving  out  in  order  thereto."  The  French  officers  then  informed 
Washington  of  their  strength  south  of  the  lakes,  and  of  the  number  and 
location  of  their  posts  between  Montreal  and  Var.an^e 


340 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STAIES. 


The  French  exerted  every  stratagem  to  detach  the  Indians  from  Wash- 
ington's party,  and  they  met  with  enough  success  to  justify  Washington's 
distrust  of  them.  All  had  come  to  deliver  tip  the  IVench  speech-belts,  or. 
in  other  words,  to  break  off  friendly  relations  with  the  French.  The 
Delaware  chiefs  wavered  and  failed  to  fulfil  their  promise;  "but  the 
Half  King  clung  to  Washington  like  a  brother,  and  delivered  up  his  belt 
as  he  had  promised." 

The  party  left  Venango  on  tin  7th  of  December,  and  reached  Fort  Le 
Boeuf,  the  next  post,  on  the  llth.  It  was  a  strong  work,  defended  by 
cannon,  and  near  by  Washington  saw  a  number  of  canoes  and  boats,  and 
the  materials  for  building  others,  sure  indications  that  an  expedition 
down  the  river  was  about  to  be  attempted.  He  obtained  an  interview 
with  St.  Pierre,  the  commander,  an  officer  of  experience  and  integrity, 

greatly  beloved  as  well  as  feared  by 
the  Indians.  He  received  the  young 
envoy  with  courtesy,  but  refused  to 
discuss  questions  of  right  with  him. 
"  I  am  here,"  he  said,  "  by  the  orders 
of  my  general,  to  which  I  shall  con- 
form with  exactness  and  resolution." 
On  the  14th  St.  Pierre  delivered  to 
Washington  his  answer  to  the  letter  of 
Governor  Dinwiddie.  and  next  day  the 
party  set  out  on  its  return.  The)' 
descended  French  creek  in  canoes,  at 
no  little  risk,  as  the  stream  was  ful 
of  ice.  At  Venango,  which  wag 
reached  on  the  22d,  they  found  their 
horses,  which  were  so  feeble  that  it 
was  doubtful  whether  they  would  be  able  to  make  the  journey  home.  "  I 
put  myself  in  an  Indian  walking-dress,"  says  Washington,  "and  continued 
with  them  three  days,  until  I  found  there  was  no  possibility  of  their 
getting  home  in  any  reasonable  time.  The  horses  became  less  able  to 
travel  every  day ;  the  cold  increased  very  fast,  and  the  roads  were  becom- 
ing much  worse  by  a  deep  snow  continually  freezing ;  therefore,  as  I  was 
uneasy  to  get  back  tp  make  report  of  my  proceedings  to  his  honor  the 
governor,  I  determined  to  prosecute  my  journey  the  nearest  way  through 
the  woods  on  foot." 

Taking  Gist  as  his  only  companion,  and  directing  their  way  by  thfe 
compass,  Washington  set  out  on  the  26th,  by  the  nearest  way  across  the 
country,  for  the  head  of  the  Ohio.  The  next  day  an  Indian  who  had 


THE  HALF  KIXG. 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR. 


341 


lain  in  wait  for  them  fired  at  Washington  at  a  distanci  of  only  fifteen 
steps,  but  missed  him,  and  was  made  a  prisoner  by  him.  Gist  was  anxious 
to  kill  the  savage  on  the  spot,  but  Washington  would  not  allow  this, 
and  they  kept  the  fellow  until  dark,  and  then  released  him.  They  trav- 
elled all  night  and  all  the  next  day  in  order  to  make  sure  of  escaping 
from  the  enemies  they  felt  certain  their  freed  captive  would  set  upon 
their  trail. 

At  dark  on  the  28th  they  reached  the  Alleghany,  and  spent  the 
night  on  the  banks  of  that  stream.  The  next  morning  they  set  to  work 
with  one  poor  hatchet  to  construct  a  raft,  on  which  to  pass  the  river. 
y,'hich  was  full  of  floating  ice.  They  completed  their  raft  about  sunset, 


WASHINGTON  AND  GIST  CROSSING  THE  ALLEGIIAXY. 

and  launched  it  upon  the  stream.  It  was  caught  in  the  floating  ice,  ami 
Washington  was  hurled  off  into  the  water  and  nearly  drowned.  Unable 
to  reach  the  opposite  shore,  they  made  for  an  island  in  mid-stream,  and 
passed  the  night  there.  The  cold  was  intense,  and  Gist  had  all  his  fingers 
and  several  of  his  toes  frozen.  The  next  morning  the  river  was  a  solid 
mass  of  ice,  hard  enough  to  bear  their  weight.  They  at  once  crossed  to 
the  opposite  bank  and  continued  their  journey,  and  on  the  16th  of 
January,  1754,  were  at  Williamsburg,  where  Washington  delivered  to 
the  governor  of  Virginia  the  reply  of  the  French  commander,  and 
reported  the  results  of  his  journey. 

The  French  commander  returned  a  courteous  but  evasive  answer  to 
Governor  Dinwiddie's  commi  uication.  and   referred   him  for  a  definite 


342  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

settlement  of  the  matter  to  the  Marquis  Duquesne,  the  governor  of 
Canada.  It  was  clear  from  the  tone  of  his  letter  that  he  meant  to  hold 
on  to  the  territory  he  had  occupied,  and  the  governor  of  Virginia  v/as 
satisfied  from  Major  Washington's  report  of  his  observations  that  St. 
Pierre  was  about  to  extend  the  line  of  French  posts  down  the  Ohio. 
The  authorities  of  Virginia  resolved  to  anticipate  him,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1754  the  Ohio  Company  sent  a  force  of  about  forty  men  to  build  a 
fort  at  the  head  of  the  Ohio,  on  the  site  to  which  Washington  had  called 
attention. 

In  the  meantime,  measures  were  set  on  foot  in  Virginia  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  frontiers.  A  regiment  of  troops  was  ordered  to  be  raised, 
and  it  was  the  general  wish  that  Major  Washington  should  be  appointed 
to  the  command.  He  declined  the  commission  when  tendered  him,  on 
the  ground  of  his  youth  and  inexperience,  and  was  made  lieutenant- 
colonel,  the  command  of  the  regiment  being  conferred  upon  Colonel  Joc:hua 
Fry.  Washington  was  ordered  to  repair  to  the  west  to  take  charge  of 
the  defence  of  the  frontiers,  and  in  April,  1754,  reached  Wills'  creek 
with  three  companies  of  his  regiment. 

Just  at  this  moment  news  arrived  that  the  party  sent  to  build  a  fort  at 
the  head  of  the  Ohio  had  been  driven  away  by  the  French.  A  force  of 
one  thousand  men,  with  artillery,  under  Captain  Coutrecoeur,  had 
descended  the  Alleghany  and  had  surrounded  the  English.  One  hour  was 
given  them  to  surrender,  and  being  utterly  unable  to  offer  any  resistance, 
they  capitulated  upon  condition  of  being  allowed  to  retire  to  Virginia. 
Immediately  upon  the  withdrawal  of  the  English  the  French  forces  occu- 
pied the  unfinished  work,  completed  it,  and  named  it  Fort  Duquesne. 
This  was  a  more  important  act  than  either  party  believed  it  at  the  time. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  the  final  struggle  by  which  the  power  of  France 
in  America  was  broken.  In  the  history  of  Europe  this  struggle  is  known 
as  the  Seven  Years'  War ;  in  our  own  history  as  the  French  and  Indian 
War. 

Hostilities  were  now  inevitable,  and  Washington,  who  was  on  his 
march  to  the  Ohio  when  the  news  of  the  aggression  of  the  French  was 
received,  resolved  to  push  forward  without  delay.  Colonel  Fry  had 
fallen  sick,  and  the  direction  of  affairs  on  the  border  had  passed  entirely 
into  the  hands  of  the  young  lieutenant-colonel.  He  intended  to  proceed 
to  the  junction  of  Red  Stone  creek  and  the  Monongahela,  the  site  occu- 
pied by  the  present  town  of  Brownsville,  to  erect  a  fort  there,  and  hold 
it  until  he  could  be  reinforced.  His  force  was  poorly  provided  with 
clothing  and  tents,  and  was  deficient  in  military  supplies  of  all  kinds. 
The  country  to  be  traversed  was  a  wild,  unbroken  region,  without  roads 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN    WAR.  343 

or  Lridgos,  and  through  it  the  artillery  and  wagons  were  to  be  trans- 
ported. The  little  force  moved  slowly  and  with  difficulty,  and  Wash- 
ington pushed  on  in  advance  with  a  small  detachment,  intending  to  secure 
the  position  on  the  Monongahela  and  await  the  arrival  of  the  main  body, 
when  the  whole  force  could  descend  the  river  in  flat-boats  to  Fort 
Duqucsne. 

On  the  20th  of  May  he  reached  the  Youghiogheuy  and  there  received 
a  message  from  his  ally,  the  Half  King,  telling  him  that  the  French 
were  in  heavy  force  at  Fort  Duquesne.  This  report  was  confirmed  at 
the  Little  Meadows  by  the  traders,  and  by  another  message  from  the 
Half  King  on  the  25th  of  May,  warning  Washington  that  a  force  of 
French  and  Indians  had  left  Fort  Duquesue  on  a  secret  expedition. 
Washington  was  sure  that  this  expedition  was  destined  to  attack  him,  and 
advanced  to  the  Great  Meadows  and  took  position  there.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  27th  Gist  arrived  and  reported  that  he  had  seen  the  trail  of 
the  French  within  five  miles  of  the  Great  Meadows.  In  the  evening  of 
the  same  day  a  runner  came  in  from  the  Half  King,  and  with  a  message 
that  the  French  were  close  at  hand.  Taking  with  him  forty  men, 
Washington  set  off  for  the  Half  King's  camp,  and  by  a  difficult  night- 
march  through  a  tangled  forest  in  the  midst  of  a  driving  rain,  reached  it 
about  daylight.  The  runners  of  the  Half  King  found  the  French  eii- 
camped  in  a  deep  glen  not  far  distant,  and  it  was  decided  to  attack  them 
at  once.  The  Half  King  and  his  warriors  placed  themselves  under 
Washington's  orders,  and  the  march  was  resumed  towards  the  French 
camp.  The  French  were  surprised,  and  an  action  of  about  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  ensued.  The  French  lost  ten  men  killed,  among  whom  was  their 
commander,  Jumonville,  and  twenty-one  prisoners.  This  was  the  first 
blood  shed  on  the  American  continent  in  the  long  struggle  which  won 
America  for  the  free  institutions  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

Washington  was  very  anxious  to  follow  up  the  advantage  he  had 
gained,  and  had  already  appealed  to  the  governors  of  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania  for  assistance,  but  no  aid  reached  him.  Unable  to  advance 
in  the  face  of  the  rapidly  increasing  forces  of  the  French,  he  threw  up  a 
stockade  fort  at  Great  Meadows,  which  he  named  Fort  Necessity,  from 
the  fact  that  the  provisions  of  the  troops  were  so  nearly  exhausted  that 
the  danger  of  a  famine  was  imminent.  On  the  3d  of  July  six  hundred 
French  and  one  hundred  Indians  suddenly  appeared  before  the  fort  and 
occupied  the  hills  surrounding  it.  The  attacking  party  were  able  to 
shelter  themselves  behind  trees  and  could  command  the  fort  from  their 
safe  position,  while  the  English  were  greatly  exposed,  and  it  was  evident 
to  the  most  inexperienced  that  the  fort  was  untenable.  Nevertheless,  the 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

work  was  held  for  nine  hours  under  a  heavy  fire,  and  amid  the  discom- 
forts of  a  severe  rain-storm.  At  length  De  Villiers,  the  French  com- 
mander, fearing  that  his  ammunition  would  be  exhausted,  proposed  a 
parley  and  offered  terms  to  Washington.  The  English  had  lost  thirty 
killed  and  the  French  but  three.  The  terms  of  capitulation  proposed  by 
De  Villiers  were  interpreted  to  Washington,  who  did  not  understand 
French,  and  in  consequence  of  the  interpretation,  which  was  made  by  "  a 
Dutchman  little  acquainted  with  the  English  tongue,"  Washington  and 
his  officers  "were  betrayed  into  a  pledge  which  they  would  never  have 
consented  to  give,  and  an  act  of  moral  suicide  which  they  could  never 
have  deliberately  committed.  They  understood  from  Vanbraam's  inter- 
pretation, that  no  fort  was  to  be  built  beyond  the  mountains  on  lands  be- 
longing to  the  King  of  France ;  but  the  terms  of  the  articles  are,  ( neither 
in  this  place  nor  beyond  the  mountains.'"  The  Virginians  were  allowed 
to  march  out  of  the  fort  with  the  honors  of  war,  retaining  their  arms  and 
all  their  stores,  but  leaving  their  artillery.  This  they  did  on  the  next 
morning,  July  4th,  1754.  The  march  across  the  mountains  was  rendered 
painful  by  the  lack  of  provisions,  and  after  much  suffering  the  troops 
arrived  at  Fort  Cumberland  in  Maryland.  Although  the  expedition  had 
been  unsuccessful,  the  conduct  of  Washington  had  been  marked  by  so 
m,nch  prudence  and  good  judgment  that  he  received  the  thanks  of  the 
general  assembly  of  Virginia. 

Governor  Dinwiddie  had  already  thrown  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
the  defence  of  the  colony,  and  he  now  refused  to  reward  the  provincial 
officers  with  the  promotions  they  had  so  well  earned.  In  order  to  avoid 
this  he  dissolved  the  Virginia  regiment,  and  reorganized  it  into  inde- 
pendent companies,  no  officer  of  which  was  to  have  a  higher  rank  than 
that  of  captain.  It  was  also  ordered  that  officers  holding  commissions 
from  the  king  should  take  precedence  of  those  holding  commissions  from 
the  colonial  government.  Washington,  feeling  that  he  could  no  longer 
remain  in  the  service  with  self-respect,  resigned  his  commission  and  with- 
drew to  Mount  Vernon.  Soon  afterwards  Governor  Sharpe,  of  Mary- 
land, having  been  appointed  by  the  king  commandcr-in-chief  of  the  forces 
of  the  southern  colonies,  proposed  to  Washington,  through  a  friend,  to 
return  to  the  army  and  accept  the  rank  of  colonel,  but  with  the  actual 
authority  of  a  captain.  Washington  declined  the  offer  with  characteristic 
dignity.  "If  you  think  me,"  he  wrote,  "capable  of  holding  a  commis- 
sion that  has  neither  rank  nor  emolument  annexed  to  it,  you  must  main- 
tain a  very  contemptible  opinion  of  my  weakness,  and  believe  me  more 
<empty  than  the  commission  itself." 

In  the  meantime,  although  peace  still  remained  nominally  unbroken 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR. 


345 


between  England  and  France,  each  nation  was  perfectly  convinced  of  the 
certainty  of  a  conflict  in  America,  and  each  began  to  prepare  for  it. 
France  sent  large  reinforcements  to  Canada,  and  the  English  went  on 
rapidly  with  their  plans  for  the  conquest  of  that  country.  The  British 
government  was  very  anxious  that  the  colonies  should  bear  the  brunt  of 
the  struo-o-le,  thong-! i  it  was  fully  determined  to  send  a  royal  army  to  their 
assistance,  and  urged  upon  them  to  unite  in  some  plan  for  their  common 
defence. 

For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  wishes  of  the  home  government  a 
convention  of  delegates  from  seven  of  the  colonies  assembled  at  Albany, 
New  York,  on  the  19th  of  June,  1754.  "  The  Virginia  government  was 
represented  by  the  presiding  officer,  Delancey,  the  lieutenant-governor 
of  New  York;"  but  New 
Hampshire,  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  and  Maryland 
were  represented  by  their 
own  delegates.  The  first  ob- 
ject of  this  convention  was  to 
secure  the  friendship  of  the 
powerful  confederacy  of  the 
Six  Nations,  on  the  northern 
border,  and  this  was  suc- 
cessfully accomplished. 

The  leading  man  of  this 
convention  was  Benjamin 
Franklin.  Ho  was  a  native 
of  Boston,  and  the  son  of  a 
tallow  chandler.  While  still 
a  youth  he  had  removed  to 
Philadelphia,  and  by  the  force  of  his  own  genius  had  risen  from  poverty 
and  obscurity  to  great  prominence  among  the  public  men  of  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  the  literary  and  scientific  men  of  his  day.  He  had  chosen  the 
avocation  of  a  printer;  and  by  his  industry,  energy,  and  integrity  had 
accumulated  property  enough  to  make  him  independent.  He  was 
among  the  most  active  men  in  America  in  promoting  the  advancement 
of  literary,  scientific,  and  benevolent  institutions,  and  had  already  won  a 
world-wide  reputation  by  his  discoveries  in  science,  and  especially  by  his 
investigations  in  electricity  and  lightning.  He  was  not  inexperienced  in 
public  affairs.  He  had  served  as  clerk  to  the  general  assembly  of  Penn- 
sylvania, as  postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  as  a  member  of  the  provincial 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN. 


346  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  and  in  1753  had  been  appointed  by  the  king 
postmaster-general  of  the  American  colonies.  In  each  of  these  positions 
he  had  served  with  distinction,  and  now,  at  the  ripe  age  of  forty-eight, 
he  had  come  to  take  part  in  the  most  important  convention  ever  held  in 
America. 

Franklin  had  long  been  of  the  opinion  that  the  true  interests  of  the 
colonies  required  their  union  in  all  measures  relating  to  their  common 
welfare.  Believing  that  the  force  of  circumstances  would  soon  drive  them 
into  such  a  union,  he  sought  to  accomplish  that  end  through  the  medium 
of  this  convention.  Accordingly  he  presented  to  the  convention  a  plan 
for  the  union  of  all  the  American  colonies,  which  union  he  intended 
should  be  perpetual.  He  proposed  that  while  each  colony  should  retain 
the  separate  and  independent  control  of  its  own  affairs,  all  should  unite 
in  a  perpetual  union  for  the  management  of  their  general  affairs.  This 
confederacy  was  to  be  controlled  by  a  general  government  to  consist  of  a 
governor-general  and  a  council.  The  seat  of  the  federal  government  was  to 
be  Philadelphia,  which  city  he  regarded  as  central  to  all  the  colonies.  The 
governor-general  was  to  be  appointed  and  paid  by  the  king,  and  was  to  have 
the  power  of  vetoing  all  laws  which  should  seem  to  him  objectionable. 
The  members  of  the  council  were  to  be  elected  triennially  by  the  colonial 
legislatures,  and  were  to  be  apportioned  among  the  colonies  according  to 
their  respective  population.  "The  governor-general  was  to  nominate  mili- 
tary officers,  subject  to  the  advice  of  the  council,  which,  in  turn,  was  tr> 
nominate  all  civil  officers.  No  money  was  to  be  issued  but  by  their  joint 
order.  Each  colony  was  to  retain  its  domestic  constitution ;  the  federal 
government  was  to  regulate  all  relations  of  peace  or  war  with  the  In- 
dians, affairs  of  trade,  and  purchases  of  lands  not  within  the  bounds  of 
particular  colonies ;  to  establish,  organize,  and  temporarily  to  govern  new 
settlements ;  to  raise  soldiers,  and  equip  vessels  of  force  on  the  seas, 
rivers,  or  lakes ;  to  make  laws,  and  levy  just  and  equal  taxes.  The 
grand  council  were  to  meet  once  a  year  to  chose  their  own  speaker,  and 
neither  to  be  dissolved  nor  prorogued,  nor  continue  sitting  longer  than 
six  weeks  at  any  one  time,  but  by  their  own  consent." 

This  plan  met  with  considerable  opposition,  was  thoroughly  discussed. 
and  was  finally  adopted  by  the  convention.  It  was  not  altogether  accept- 
able to  the  colonies,  each  of  which  dreaded  that  the  establishment  of  a 
central  government  would  result  in  the  destruction  of  the  liberties  of  the 
individual  provinces.  Connecticut  promptly  rejected  ft,  New  York  re- 
ceived it  with  coldness,  and  Massachusetts  showed  &  roore  active  opposit'on 
to  it.  Upon  its  reception  in  England  it  was  at  once  thrown  aside  by  the 
royal  government.  The  union  proposed  by  the  plan  was  too  pcrfx.*  .::d 


FRENCH  ASD  INDIAN    WAR.  347 

would  make  America  practically  independent  of  Great  Britain,  and  so 
the  board  of  trade  did  not  even  bring  it  before  the  notice  of  the  king. 

Franklin  regarded  the  failure  of  his  plan  of  union  with  great  regret, 
In  after  years  he  wrote:  "The  colonies  so  united  would  have  been  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  defend  themselves.  There  would  then  have  been  no 
need  of  troops  from  England ;  of  course  the  subsequent  pretext  for  tax- 
ing America,  and  the  bloody  contest  it  occasioned,  w  uld  have  been 
avoided.  But  such  mistakes  are  not  new ;  history  is  full  of  the  errors  of 
states  and  princes." 

The  plan  for  the  union  of  the  colonies  having  failed,  the  British  gov- 
ernment resolved  to  take  into  its  own  hands  the  task  of  carrying  on  the 
war,  with  such,  assistance  as  the  colonies  might  be  willing  to  afford.  A 
million  of  pounds  was  voted  for  the  defence  of  the  British  possessions  in 
America,  and  four  strong  fleets  were  sent  to  sea,  together  with  numerous 
privateers,  which  nearly  destroyed  the  French  Yvest  Indian  trade.  In 
1755  Major-General  Edward  Braddock  was  appointed  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  English  forces  in  America.  He  had  served  under  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  in  his  expedition  into  Scotland  against  the  Pretender 
Charles  Edward,  in  1746,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  promising 
officers  in  his  majesty's  service.  Braddock  sailed  from  Cork,  in  Ireland, 
early  in  January,  1755,  and  on  the  20th  of  February  arrived  at  Alex- 
andria, in  Virginia.  He  was  soon  followed  by  two  regiments  of  infantry, 
consisting  of  five  hundred  men  each,  the  largest  force  of  regulars  Great 
Britain  had  ever  assembled  in  America. 

A  conference  of  the  colonial  governors  with  the  new  commander-in- 
chief  was  held  at  Alexandria,  and  a  plan  of  campaign  was  de^i  led  .upon. 
Four  expeditions  were  to  be  despatched  against  the  French.  The  first 
under  Braddock  in  person,  was  to  advance  upon  Fort  Duquesne ;  the 
second,  under  Governor  Shirley  of  Massachusetts,  was  to  attempt  the 
capture  cf  F»ft  Niagara ;  the  third,  under  William  John,  the  Indian 
agent  among;  the  Mohawks,  and  a  man  of  great  influence  over  them,  was 
to  be  directed  against  Crown  Point ;  and  the  fourth  -^as  to  capture  the 
French  posts  near  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  expel  the  French 
from  Acadia. 

It  was  now  evident  that  the  war  was  about  to  commence  in  good 
earnest,  and  the  colonies  exerted  themselves  to  support  the  efforts  of  the 
mother  country  to  the  extent  of  their  ability. 

General  Braddock  was  thoroughly  proficient  in  the  theory  of  his  pro- 
fession, but  his  experience  of  actual  warfare  had  been  limited  to  a  single? 
campaign,  and  that  a  brief  one.  He  possessed  the  entire  confidence  of 
his  superiors  in  England,  and  his  faith  in  himself  was  boundless.  He 


&48 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


believed  that  the  regulars  of  the  British  army  were  capable  of  accom- 
plishing any  task  assigned  them,  and  entertained  a  thorough  contempt  for 
the  provincial  troops  that  were  to  form  a  part  of  his  command.  Soon 
after  his  arrival  in  Virginia  he  offered  Washington  a  position  on  his  staff 
as  aid-de-camp,  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  which  was  promptly  accepted. 

Had  General  Braddock  been  a  different  man  the  presence  of  Washington 
in  his  military  family  might  have  been  of  the  greatest  service  to  him,  for 
the  experience  of  the  young  colonel  would  have  made  him  an  invaluable 
counsellor.  Braddock  was  in  a  strange  country,  and  was  charged  with 


WILLS    CREEK  NARROWS,   MD. 

tii ;  conduct  of  a  campaign  in  which  the  ordinary  rules  of  warfare  r.s 
practised  in  Europe  could  not  be  adhered  to.  He  knew  nothing  of  the 
ditticulties  of  marching  his  army  through  a  tangled  wilderness  and  over 
a  mountain  range  of  the  first  magnitude.  Unfortunately  for  him  he  was 
not  aware  of  his  ignorance,  and  would  neither  ask  for  nor  listen  to  advice 
or  information  upon  the  subject.  "He  was,  I  think,  a  brave  man,"  says 
Franklin,  "and  might  probably  have  made  a  figure  as  a  good  officer  in 
some  European  war.  But  he  had  too  much  self-confidence,  too  high  an 
opinion  of  the  validity  of  regular  troops,  and  too  mean  a  one  of  both 


FRESCII  AND  AVDAi.V    ll.i/J.  349 

Americans  and  Indians."  During  on :  of  his  interviews  witli  him  Frank- 
lin undertook  to  impress  upon  him  the  necessity  of  guarding  agaii:3t  the 
danger  of  Indian  ambuscades.  ''  KJ  smiled  at  my  ignorance,"  says 
Franklin,  and  replied :  '  These  esvages  may  indeed  be  a  formidable 
enemy  to  your  raw  American  militia ;  but  upon  the  king's  -regular  and 
disciplined  troops,  sir,  it  is  impossible  they  should  maka  iny  impres- 
sion. ' ' 

The  army  assembled  at  Wills'  creek,  to  which  place  General  Braddock 
repaired  in  his  coach.  The  bad  roads  had  put  him  in  a  passion,  and  had 
broken  his  coach,  and  he  was  in  no  mood  upon  his  arrival  to  pursue  a 
sensible  course.  He  was  advised  to  employ  Indians  as  scouts  on  the 
march,  or  to  use  them  to  protect  a  force  of  Pennsylvanians  who  were 
making  a  road  over  the  mountains  for  the  passage  of  the  army,  but  he 
refused  to  do  either.  Washington  urged  him  to  abandon  his  wagon-train, 
to  use  pack"h.orses  in  place  of  these  vehicles,  and  to  move  with  as  little 
baggage  as  possible.  Braddock  ridiculed  this  suggestion.  Neither  he 
nor  any  of  his  officers  wculd  consent  to  be  separated  from  their  cumbrous 
baggage,  or  to  dispense  with  any  of  the  luxuries  they  had  been  used  to. 

A  month  was  lost  at  Wills'  creek,  and  in  Juna  the  army  began  its 
march.  It  was  greatly  impeded  by  the  difficulty  of  dragging  the  wagons 
and  artillery  over  roads  filled  with  the  stumps  of  trees  and  witl  rocks. 
Such  little  progress  was  made  that  Braddock,  greatly  disheartened,  pri- 
vately asked  Washington  to  advise  him  what  to  do.  As  it  was  known 
that  the  garrison  at  Fort  Duquesne  was  small,  Washington  advised  him 
to  hasten  forward  with  a  division  of  the  army  in  light  marching  order, 
and  seize  the  fort  before  reinforcements  could  arrive  from  Canada.  Brad- 
dock  accordingly  detached  a  division  of  twelve  hundred  men  and  ten 
pieces  of  cannon,  with  a  train  of  pack-horses  to  carry  the  baggage,  and 
pushed  on  in  advance  with  them,  leaving  Colonel  Dunbar  to  bring  up 
the  main  division  as  promptly  as  possible.  A  famous  hunter  and  Indian- 
fighter  named  Captain  Jack,  who  was  regarded  as  the  most  experienced 
man  in  savage  warfare  in  the  colonies,  now  offered  his  services  and  those 
of  his  men  to  Braddock  to  act  as  scouts.  Braddock  received  him  with 
frigid  courtesy,  and  refused  his  offer,  saying  that  he  "  had  experienced 
troops  upon  whom  he  could  rely  for  all  purposes." 

Instead  of  pushing  on  with  energy  with  his  advance  division,  Braddock 
moved  very  slowly,  gaining  but  a  little  more  than  three  miles  a  day. 
"They  halt,"  wrote  Washington,  "to  level  every  mole  hill  and  to  erect 
a  bridge  over  every  brook."  On  the  8th  of  July  the  army  reached  the 
east  bank  of  the  Monongahela,  about  fifteen  miles  above  Fort  Duquesne, 
having  taken  about  double  the  necessary  time  in  the  march  from  Wills' 


350  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

creek.     On  the  same  day,  Washington,  who  had  been  ill  for  some  days, 
and  was  still  unwell,  rejoined  Braddock. 

'  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  9th  of  July  the  march  was  resumed. 
The  Monongahela  was  forded  a  short  distance  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Youghiogheny,  and  the  advance  continued  along  the  southern  bank  of 
that  river.  About  noon  the  Monongahela  was  forded  again,  and  the 
army  was  planted  upon  the  strip  of  land  between  the  rivers  which  form 
the  Ohio.  Washington  was  well  convinced  that  the  French  and  Indians 
were  informed  of  the  movements  of  the  army,  and  would  seek  to  interfere 
with  it  before  its  arrival  before  the  fort,  which  was  only  ten  miles  distant, 
and  urged  Braddock  to  throw  in  advance  the  Virginia  Rangers,  three 
hundred  strong,  as  they  were  experienced  Indian  fighters.  Braddock 
angrily  rebuked  his  aide,  and  as  if  to  make  the  rebuke  more  pointed, 
ordered  the  Virginia  trocps  and  other  provincials  to  take  position  in  the 
rear  of  the  regulars.  The  general  was  fully  convinced  of  the  ability  of 
his  trained  troops  to  take  care  of  themselves.  They  made  a  gallant  show 
as  they  marched  along  with  their  gay  uniforms,  their  burnished  arms  and 
flying  colors,  and  their  drums  beating  a  lively  march.  Washington 
could  not  repress  his  admiration  at  the  brilliant  sight,  nor  his  anxiety  for 
the  result. 

In  the  meantime  the  French  at  Fort  Duquesne  had  been  informed  by 
their  scouts  of  Braddock's  movements,  and  had  resolved  to  ambuscade 
him  on  his  march.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  9th  a  force  of  about 
two  hundred  and  thirty  French  and  Canadians  and  six  hundred  and 
thirty-seven  Indians,  under  De  Beaujeu,  the  commandant  at  Fort 
Duquesne,  was  despatched  with  orders  to  occupy  a  designated  spot  and 
attack  the  enemy  upon  their  approach.  Before  reaching  it,  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  they 'encountered  the  advanced  force  of  the 
English  army,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Thomas  Gage,  and  at  once 
attacked  them  with  spirit. 

The  English  army  at  this  moment  was  moving  along  a  narrow  road 
about  twelve  feet  in  width,  with  scarcely  a  scout  thrown  out  in  advance 
or  upon  the  flanks.  The  engineer  who  was  locating  the  road  was  the 
first  to  discover^ the  enemy,  and  called  out  "French  and  Indians!" 
Instantly  a  heavy  fire  was  opened  upon  Gage's  force,  and  his  indecision 
allowed  the  French  and  Indians  to  seize  a  commanding  ridge,  from  which 
they  maintained  their  attack  with  spirit.  There,  concealed  among  the 
trees,  they  were  almost  invisible  ^o  the  English,  who  were  fully  exposed 
to  their  fire,  as  they  occupied  a  broad  ravine,  covered  with  low  shrubs, 
immediately  below  the  eminence  held  by  the  French. 

The  regulars  were  quickly  thrown  into  confusion  by  the  heavy  fire  and 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR. 


Sol 


ch9  fierce  ycliS  cf  the  Indians,  who  could  nowhere  be  seen,  and  their 
losses  were  so  severe  and  sudden  that  they  became  panic-stricken.  They 
were  ordered  to  charge  up  the  hill  and  drive  the  French  from  their  cover, 
but  refused  to  move,  and  in  their  terror  fired  at  random  into  the  woods. 
In  the  meantime,  the  Indians  were  rapidly  spreading  along  the  sides  of 
the  ravine  and  continuing  their  fire  from  their  cover  among  the  trees 
with  fearful  accuracy.  The  advance  of  the  English  was  driven  back,  and 
it  crowded  upon  the  second  division  in  utter  disorder.  A  reinforcement 
of  eight  hundred  men  under  Colonel  Burton  arrived  at  this  moment,  but 
only  to  add  to  the  confusion.  The  French  pushed  their  lines  forward 
nowand  increased  the  disorder  of  the  English,  who  had  by  this  time  lost 
nearly  all  their  officers.  Braddock  now  came  up,  and  gallantly  exerted 
himself  to  restore  order,  but  "the  king's  regulars  and  disciplined  troops" 
\vpere  so  utterly  demoralized  that  not  one  of  his  commands  was  obeyed. 

The  only  semblance  of  resistance  maintained  by  the  English  was  by 
the  Virginia  Rangers,  whom  Braddock  hud  insulted  at  the  beginning  of 
the  day's  march. 
Immediately  upon 
the  commencement 
of  the  battle  they 
had  adopted  the 
tactics  of  the  In- 
dians, and  had 
thrown  themselves 
behind  trees,  from 
which  shelter  they 
were  rapidly  pick- 
ing off  the  Indians. 

Washington  entreated  Braddock  to  allow  the  regulars  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  Virginians,  but  he  refused,  and  stubbornly  endeavored  to 
form  them  in  platoons  under  the  fatal  fire  that  was  bein£  poured  upon 
them  by  their  hidden  assailants.  Thus  through  his  obstinacy  many 
'.'..-;eful  lives  were  needlessly  thrown  away.  The  officers  did  not  share  the 
jvinic  of  the  men,  but  behaved  with  the  greatest  gallantry.  They  were 
the  especial  marks  of  the  Indian  sharpshooters,  and  many  of  them  were 
killed  or  wounded.  Two  of  Braddock's  aides  were  seriously  wounded, 
aud  their  duties  devolved  upon  Washington  in  addition  to  his  own.  He 
passed  repeatedly  over  the  field  carrying  the  orders  of  the  commander 
and  encouraging  the  men.  When  sent  to  bring  up  the  artillery,  he  found 
ii  surrounded  by  Indians,  its  commander,  Sir  Peter  Halket,  killed,  an;1 
the  men  standing  helpless  from  fear.  Springing  from  his  horse  he 


BRADDOCK  S   DEFEAT. 


352 


11IST02Y  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


appealed  to  the  men  to  save  the  guns,  pointed  a  field  piece  and  discharged 
it  at  the  savages,  and  entreated  the  gunners  to  rally.  He  could  accom- 
plish nothing  by  cither  his  words  or  example.  The  men  deserted  the 
guns  and  fled.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother,  Washington  wrote :  "  I  had 
four  bullets  through  my  coat,  two  horses  shot  under  me,  yet  escaped 
unhurt,  though  death  was  levelling  r.iy  companions  on  every  side 
around  me."  * 

Bruddock  had  five  horses  shot  und:r  him,  and  at  length  himself 

received  a  mortal 
wound.  As  he  fell, 
Captain  Stewart,  of 
the  Virginia  troops, 
caught  him  in  his 
arms.  He  was  borne 
from  the  field,  though 
he  begged  to  be  left 
to  die  on  the  scene 
of  his  defeat.  PI  is 
fall  was  fortunate  for 
the  army,  which  it 
saved  from  destruc- 
tion. The  order  was 
given  to  fall  back, 
and  the  "  regulars 
fled  like  sheep  before 
the  hounds."  The 
French  and  Indians 
pressed  forward  in 
pursuit,  and  all  would 
have  been  lost  had 
not  the  Virginia 
Rangers  themselves 
been  in  the  rear,  and 
covered  the  flight  of 
the  regulars  with  a 

determination  which  checked  the  pursuers.  The  artillery,  wagons,  and 
all  the  camp  train  were  abandoned,  and  the  savages,  stopping  to  plunder 
these,  allowed  the  fugitives  to  recross  the  river  in  safety. 

*  Washington  attributed  his  wonderful  escape  from  even  a  wound  to  the  overruling 
providence  of  God.  The  Indians  regarded  the  matter  in  the  same  light.  About  fifteen 
years  after  the  h«ttle,  while  examining  some  lands  near  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha 


KETREAT  OF   BRADDOCK'S  ARMY. 


FRESCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR.  353 

Having  seen  the  general  as  comfortable  as  circumstances  would  permit, 
Washington  rode  all  that  night  and  the  next  day  to  Dunbar's  camp  to 
procure  wagons  for  the  wounded  and  soldiers  to  guard  them.  With 
these  he  hastened  back  to  the  fugitives. 

Braddock,  unable  to  ride  or  to  endure  the  jolting  of  a  wagon,  was 
carried  in  a  litter  as  far  as  the  Great  Meadows.  He  seemed  to  be  heart- 
broken and  rarely  spoke.  Occasionally  he  would  say,  as  if  speaking  to 
himself,  with  a  deep  sigh,  "Who  would  have  thought  it?"  It  is  said 
that  he  warmly  thanked  Captain  Stewart  for  his  care  and  kindness,  and 
apologized  to  Washington  for  the  manner  in  which  he  had  received  his 
advice.  He  had  no  wish  to  live,  and  he  died  at  Fort  Necessity  on  the 
night  of  the  13th  of  July.  He  was  buried  the  next  morning  before 
daybreak  as  secretly  as  possible  for  fear  that  the  savages  might  find  and 
violate  his  grave.  Close  by  the  national  road,  about  a  mile  west  of  Fort 
Necessity,  a  pile  of  stones  still  marks  his  resting-place. 

The  losses  of  the  English  in  the  battle  were  terrible.  Out  of  eighty- 
six  officers,  twenty-six  were  killed  and  thirty-six  wounded.  Upward  of 
seven  hundred  of  the  regulars  were  killed  or  wounded.  The  Virginia 
Rangers  had  suffered  terrible  losses,  for  they  had  not  only  borne  the 
brunt  of  the  battle,  but  had  lost  many  of  their  number  by  the  random 
fire  of  the  frightened  regulars.  Dunbar,  who  succeeded  Braddock  in  the 
command,  still  had  fifteen  hundred  effective  men  left  to  him ;  but  he  was 
too  badly  frightened  to  attempt  to  retrieve  the  disaster,  which  a  compe- 
tent officer  might  have  done  with  such  a  force.  He  broke  up  his  camp, 
destroyed  his  stores,  and  retreated  beyond  the  mountains.  Disregarding 
the  entreaties  of  the  colonists  not  to  leave  the  frontiers  exposed  to  the 
savages,  he  continued  his  retreat  to  Philadelphia,  and  went  into  winter 
quarters  there. 

The  effect  of  these  reverses  upon  the  colonists  was  most  marked. 
When  they  understood  that  Braddock's  splendid  force  of  disciplined 
regulars  had  been  routed  by  a  mere  handful  of  French  and  Indians,  their 
respect  for  the  invincibility  of  British  troops  was  destroyed ;  and  their 
confidence  in  their  own  prowess  was  greatly  increased  by  the  proud 
reflection  that  the  only  thing  that  had  been  done  to  save  the  army  of 
Braddock  from  total  destruction  had  been  accomplished  by  the  provin- 

river,  Washington  was  visited  by  an  old  chief.  The  chief  told  him  "  he  was  present  at  the 
Battle,  and  among  the  Indian  allies  of  the  FrencL  ;  that  he  singled  him  out,  and  repeatedly 
lired  his  rifle  at  him;  that  he  also  ordered  his  young  warriors  to  make  him  their  only 
mark  ;  but  that  on  finding  all  their  bullets  turned  aside  by  some  invisible  and  inscrutable 
interposition,  he  was  convinced  that  the  hero  at  whom  he  had  so  often  and  so  truly  aimed 
must  be,  for  some  wise  purpose,  specially  protected  by  the  Great  Spirit.  He  now  came, 
therefore,  to  testify  his  veneration."  \ 
23 


354 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


ei&ls.  Washington's  conduct  was  a  subject  of  praise  in  all  the  colonies, 
and  brought  his  name  conspicuously  l>cfore  the  whole  people  of  America. 
In  a  sermon  preached  a  few  months  after  Braddock's  defeat,  the  llev. 
Samuel  Davies,  a  learned  clergyman,  spoke  of  him  as  "  that  heroic  youth, 
Colonel  Washington,  whom  I  cannot  but  hope  Providence  has  hil!icrt:> 
preserved  in  so  signal  a  manner  for  some  important  service  to  his 
2ountry." 

The  retreat  of  Dunbar  left  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania 
it  the  mercy  of  the  savages,  who  maintained  a  desultory  but  destructive 
warfare  along  the  entire  border.  The  defence  of  this  exposed  region  was 


BURNING   OP   K1TTANNING  BY   GENERAL   ARMSTRONG. 

intvusted  to  Colonel  Washington ;  but  he  had  so  few  men  as  to  make  his 
undertaking  a  hopeless  one.  The  frontier  settlements  of  Virginia  were 
destroyed ;  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Shenandoah  was  ravaged  with 
^merciless  fury,  and  the  more  protected  regions  were  kept  in  a  state  of 
constant  uneasiness  and  alarm.  Governor  Dimvicldie  was  repeatedly 
appealed  to  to  furnish  more  men,  but  refused,  and  endeavored  to  excuse 
his  delinquency  by  saying :  "  We  dare  not  part  with  any  of  our  white 
men  to  any  distance,  as  we  must  have  a  watchful  eye  over  our  negro 
slaves." 

Pennsylvania   met  the  troubles  with   greater  vigor   and    resolution. 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR.  355 


About  thirty  miles  above  Fort  Duquesne,  on  the  Alleghany  river, 
the  Indian  village  of  Kittanning,  the  home  of  a  noted  chief  named 
Captain  Jacobs.  Together  with  the  Delaware  chief  Shingis,  he  had,  at 
the  instigation  of  the  French,  kept  up  a  continual  warfare  upon  the 
frontier  settlements.  A  military  force  for  the  defence  of  the  frontier  was 
raised  by  the  colony  and  placed  under  the  command  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin as  colonel.  He  soon  resigned,  and  was  succeeded  by  Colonel  John 
Armstrong,  a  man  better  suited  to  the  position,  and  who  subsequently 
became  a  major-general  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Armstrong 
resolved  to  destroy  Kittanniug  and  the  tribe  inhabiting  it  as  the  bess 
means  of  putting  a  stop  to  their  outrages,  and  called  for  volunteers  for 
the  enterprise.  Three  hundred  men  responded.  Towards  the  last  of 
September,  1756,  they  crossed  the  mountains  on  horseback,  and  in  A  few 
days  reached  the  vicinity  of  Kittanning.  Dismounting  and  leaving  their 
horses  in  charge  of  a  guard,  they  silently  surrounded  the  village.  The 
Indians  spent  the  night  in  carousing  within  hearing  of  the  whites,  and 
retired  to  rest  at  a  very  late  hour.  Just  before  daybreak  the  whites 
attacked  the  village  and  set  it  on  fire.  It  was  completely  destroyed,  and 
Jacobs  and  all  but  a  handful  of  his  men  were  slain.  The  few  survivors 
fled  farther  west,  and  the  Pennsylvania  frontier  was  relieved  of  the 
ings  it  had  so  long  endured. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE   FRENCH   AND   INDHtf  WAR  —  CONTINUED. 

Expedition  against  Acadia  —  Brutal  Treatment  of  the  Acadians  —  They  are  Expelled  from 
their  Country  —  A  Sad  Story  —  Fate  of  the  Acadians  —  Johnson  at  Lake  George  —  March 
of  Dieskau  —  Battle  of  Lake  George  —  Failure  of  Shirley's  Expedition  —  Arrival  of  the 
Earl  of  Loudon  —  Montcalm  in  Canada  —  Capture  of  Oswego  by  the  French  —  Outrages 
of  the  Earl  of  Loudon  upon  New  York  and  Philadelphia  —  Expedition  against  Louis- 
burg  —  How  the  Earl  of  Loudon  Beat  the  French  —  Capture  of  Fort  William  Henry  by 
Montcalm  —  Massacre  of  the  Prisoners  by  the  Indians—  Efforts  of  Montcalm  to  save  them 
—  The  Royal  Officers  attempt  to  cover  their  Failures  by  outraging  the  Colonies. 


the  events  we  have  related  were  transpiring  in  the  Ohio 
valley  other  expeditions  were  despatched  against  the  French. 
One  of  these  was  directed  against  that  part  of  Acadia,  or  Nova 
Scotia,  which  still  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  French.  It  lay 
at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  and  was  defended  by  two 
French  forts.  This  region  was  the  oldest  French  colony  in  North 
America,  having  been  settled  sixteen  years  before  the  landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims, but  was  regarded  by  the  English  as  within  their  jurisdiction.  In 
May,  1755,  an  expedition  of  three  thousand  New  England  troops  was 
despatched  from  Boston,  under  Colonel  John  Winslow,  to  attack  these 
forts  and  establish  the  English  authority  over  the  French  settlements. 
Upon  reaching  the  Bay  of  Fundy  Winslow  was  joined  by  three  hundred 
English  regulars  under  Colonel  Monckton,  who  assumed  the  command. 
The  forts  were  taken  with  comparatively  little  eifort,  and  the  authority 
of  England  was  extended  over  the  whole  of  Nova  Scotia.  The  Acadians 
agreed  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  their  new  masters,  and  to  observe 
a  strict  neutrality  between  France  and  England  in  the  war  ;  and  the 
English  on  their  part  promised  not  to  require  of  them  the  usual  oaths  of 
allegiance,  to  excuse  them  from  bearing  arms  against  France,  and  to  pro- 
tect them  in  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion. 

The  Acadians  numbered  about  seventeen  thousand  souls.  They  were 
a  simple  and  harmless  people,  and  were  enjoying  in  a  marked  degree  the 
blessings  of  industry  and  thrift.  They  had  begun  their  settlements  by 
depending  upon  the  fur-trade  and  the  fisheries  for  their  support,  but  had 
abandoned  ithese  ^pursuits  for  that  of  agriculture,  which  was  already 
356 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR.  357 

yielding  them  rich  rewards  for  their  skill  and  labor.  They  were  proud 
of  their  farms  and  took  but  little  interest  in  public  affairs,  scarcely  know- 
ing what  was  transpiring  in  the  world  around  them.  It  is  hard  to 
imagine  a  more  peaceful  or  a  happier  community  than  this  one  at  the 
time  they  passed  under  the  baleful  rule  of  England.  Crime  was  unknown 
among  them,  and  they  seldom  carried  their  disputes  before  the  English 
magistrates,  but  settled  them  by  the  arbitration  of  their  old  men.  They 
encouraged  early  marriages  as  the  best  means  of  preserving  the  morality 
of  their  people ;  and  when  a  young  man  married,  his  neighbors  turned 
out  in  force  and  built  him  a  house,  and  for  the  first  year  of  his  marriage 
aided  him  to  establish  himself  firmly,  while  the  bride's  relatives  helped 
her  to  furnish  the  home  thus  prepared.  Thus  the  people  were  taught  to 
regard  and  practise  neighborly  kindness  as  one  of  the  cardinal  Christian 
virtues.  They  were  devoted  Catholics,  and  practised  their  religion  with- 
out bigotry.  They  were  attached  to  the  rule  of  France  by  language  and 
religion,  and  would  have  been  glad  to  see  her  authority  re-established 
over  them ;  but  they  submitted  peacefully  to  the  rule  of  the  English  and 
faithfully  observed  the  terms  of  their  surrender. 

Unfortunately  for  the  Acadians  their  possessions  soon  began  to  excite 
the  envy  of  the  English.  Lawrence,  the  governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  ex- 
pressed this  feeling  in  his  letter  to  Lord  Halifax,  the  English  premier. 
"  They  possess  the  best  and  largest  tract  of  land  in  this  province,"  he 
wrote ;  "  if  they  refuse  the  oaths,  it  would  be  much  better  that  they  were 
away."  The  English  authorities  had  prepared  a  cunningly  devised 
scheme  for  dispossessing  those  simple  people  of  their  homes,  and  they 
now  proceeded  to  put  it  in  execution.  The  usual  oaths  of  allegiance  had 
not  been  tendered  to  the  Acadians  upon  their  surrender,  as  it  was  known 
that  as  Frenchmen  and  Catholics  they  could  not  take  them,  as  they 
required  them  to  bear  arms  against  their  own  brethren  in  Canada,  and  to 
make  war  upon  their  religion.  It  was  resolved  now  to  offer  the  oaths  to 
them,  and  thus  either  drive  them  into  rebellion  or  force  them  to  abandon 
their  homes.  When  this  intention  was  known,  the  priests  urged  them  to 
refuse  the  oaths.  "  Better  surrender  your  meadows  to  the  sea,"  they  de- 
clared, "  and  your  houses  to  the  flames,  than,  at  the  peril  of  your  souls, 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  British  government."  As  for  the 
Acadians  themselves,  "  they,  from  their  very  simplicity  and  anxious  sin- 
cerity, were  uncertain  in  their  resolves ;  now  gathering  courage  to  flee 
beyond  the  isthmus,  for  other  homes  in  New  France,  and  now  yearning 
for  their  own  houses  and  fields,  their  herds  and  pastures." 

The  officers  sent  by  the  English  authorities  to  enforce  their  demands 
conducted  themselves  with  a  haughtiness  and  cruelty  which  added  greatly 


358  HISTORY  Of   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

to  the  sorrows  of  the  Acadians.  Their  titles  to  their  lands  were  declared 
null  and  void,  and  all  their  papers  and  title-deeds  were  taken  from  them. 
Their  property  was  taken  for  the  public  service  without  compensation, 
and  if  they  failed  to  furnish  wood  at  the  times  required,  the  English 
soldiers  "  might  take  their  houses  for  fuel."  Their  guns  were  seized,  and 
they  were  deprived  of  their  boats  on  the  pretext  that  they  might  be  used 
to  communicate  with  the  French  in  Canada.  At  last,  wearied  out  with 
these  oppressions,  the  Acadians  offered  to  swear  allegiance  to  Great 
Britain.  This,  however,  formed  no  part  of  the  plan  of  their  persecutors, 
and  they  were  answered,  that  by  a  British  statute  persons  who  had  been 
once  offered  the  oaths,  and  who  had  refused  them,  could  not  be  permitted 
to  take  them,  but  must  be  treated  as  Popish  recusants. 

This  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  the  English  now  resolved  to  strike 
the  decisive  blow.  A  proclamation  was  issued,  requiring  "  the  old  men. 
and  young  men,  as  well  as  all  lads  over  ten  years  of  age,"  to  assemble  on 
the  5th  of  September,  1 755,  at  a  certain  hour,  at  designated  places  in 
their  respective  districts,  to  hear  the  "wishes  of  the  king."  In  the 
greater  number  of  places  the  order  was  obeyed.  What  happened  at  the 
village  of  Grand  Pre',  the  principal  settlement,  will  show  the  course  pur- 
sued by  the  English  in  all  the  districts.  Four  hundred  and  eighteen  of 
the  men  of  the  place  assembled.  They  were  unarmed,  and  were  marched 
into  the  church,  which  was  securely  guarded.  Winslow,  the  New  England 
commander,  then  addressed  them  as  follows  :  "  You  are  convened  together 
to  manifest  to  you  his  majesty's  final  resolution  to  the  French  inhabitants 
of  this  his  province.  Your  lands  and  tenements,  cattle  of  all  kinds,  and 
live  stock  of  all  sorts,  are  forfeited  to  the  crown,  and  you  yourselves  are 
to  be  removed  from  this  his  province.  I  am,  through  his  majesty's 
goodness,  directed  to  allow  you  liberty  to  carry  off  your  money  and  house- 
hold goods,  as  many  as  you  can,  without  discommoding  the  vessels  you 
go  in."  He  then  declared  them,  together  with  their  wives  and  children, 
a  total  of  nineteen  hundred  and  twenty-three  souls,  the  king's  prisoners. 
The  announcement  took  the  unfortunate  men  by  surprise,  and  filled  them 
with  the  deepest  indignation ;  but  they  were  unarmed,  and  unable  to  re- 
sist. They  were  held  close  prisoners  in  the  church,  and  their  homes, 
which  they  had  left  in  the  morning  full  of  hope,  were  to  see  them  no 
more.  They  were  kept  without  food  for  themselves  or  their  children 
that  day,  and  were  poorly  fed  during  the  remainder  of  their  captivity. 
They  were  held  in  confinement  until  the  10th  of  September,  when  it  was 
announced  that  the  vessels  were  in  readiness  to  carry  them  away.  They 
were  not  to  be  allowed  to  join  their  brethren  in  Canada  lest  they  should 
serve  as  a  reinforcement  to  the  French  in  that  provinrp  but  were  to  be 


FRENCH  A3D  ISDIAX   WAR.  351) 

scattered  as  paupers  through  the  English  colonies,  among  people  of 
another  race  and  a  different  i'uith. 

On  the  morning  of  the  10th,  the  captives  were  drawn  up  six  deep. 
The  English,  intending  to  make  their  trial  as  bitter  and  as  painful  n.s 
possible,  had  resolved  upon  the  barbarous  measure  of  separating  the 
families  of  their  victims.  The  young  men  and  boys  were  driven  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  from  the  church  to  the  ship  and  compelled  to  em- 
bark. They  passed  amid  the  rows  of  their  mothers  and  sisters,  \vhos 
kneeling,  prayed  heaven  to  bless  and  keep  them.  Then  the  fathers  and 
husbands  were  forced  by  the  bayonet  on  board  of  another  ship,  and  as  the 
vessels  were  now  full,  the  women  and  children  were  left  behind  until 
more  ships  could  come  for  them.  They  were  kept  for  weeks  near  the 
sea,  suffering  greatly  from  lack  of  proper  shelter  and  food,  and  it  was 
December  before  the  last  of  them  were  removed.  Those  who  tried  to 
escape  were  ruthlessly  shot  down  by  the  sentinels.  "  Our  soldiers  hate 
them,"  wrote  an  English  officer,  "  and  if  they  can  but  find  a  pretext  to 
kill  them  they  will." 

In  some  of  the  settlements  the  designs  of  the  English  were  suspected 
and  the  proclamation  was  not  heeded.  Some  of  the  people  fled  to 
Canada ;  others  sought  shelter  with  the  Indians,  who  received  them  with 
kindness ;  others  still  fled  to  the  woods,  hoping  to  hide  there  till  the 
storm  was  over.  The  English  at  once  proceeded  to  lay  waste  their 
homes ;  the  country  was  made  desolate  in  order  that  the  fugitives  might 
be  compelled  through  starvation  to  surrender  themselves. 

Seven  thousand  Acadians  were  torn  from  their  homes  and  scattered 
among  the  English  colonies  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  from  New  Hampshire 
to  Georgia.  Families  were  utterly  broken  up,  never  to  be  re-united. 
The  colonial  newspapers  for  many  years  were  filled  with  mournful  adver- 
tisements, inquiring  for  a  lost  husband  or  wife;  parents  sought  their 
missing  children,  and  children  their  parents  in  this  way.  But  of  all 
these  inquiries  few  were  answered.  The  exiles  were  doomed  to  a  parting 
worse  than  death,  and  their  captors  had  done  their  work  so  well  that 
human  ingenuity  could  not  undo  it.  Some  of  those  who  had  been  carried 
to  Georgia  attempted  to  return  to  their  homes.  They  escaped  to  sea  in 
bouts,  and  coasted  from  point  to  point  northward,  until  they  reached  New 
England,  when  they  were  sternly  ordered  back.  Their  homes  were  their 
own  no  longer. 

More  than  three  thousand  Acadians  fled  to  Canada,  and  of  these  about 
fifteen  hundred  settled  south  of  the  Ristigouche.  Upon  the  surrender  of 
Canada  they  were  again  subjected  to  the  persecutions  of  the  English. 
"Once  those  who  dwelt  in  Pennsylvania  presented  a  humble  petition  tc 


360 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


the  Earl  of  London,  then  the  British  commander-in-chief  in  America ; 
and  the  cold-hearted  peer,  offended  that  the  prayer  was  made  in  French, 
seized  their  five  principal  men,  wjio  in  their  own  land  had  been  person-; 
of  dignity  and  substance,  and  shipped  them  to  England,  with  the  request 
that  they  might  be  kept  from  ever  again  becoming  troublesome  by  being 
consigned  to  service  as  common  sailors  on  board  ships  of  war.  No  doubt 
existed  of  the  king's  approbation.  The  lords  of  trade,  more  merciless 
than  the  savages  and  than  the  wilderness  in  winter,  wished  very  much 
that  every  one  of  the  Acadians  should  be  driven  out ;  and  when  it  seemed 


~< 


SCENE   ON   THE   COLORADO. 

that  the  work  was  done,  congratulated  the  king  that  'the  zealous  endeavors 
of  Lawrence  had  been  crowned  with  an  entire  success.'  I  know  not  if 
the  annals  of  the  human  race  keep  the  record  of  sorrows  so  wantonly  in- 
flicted, so  bitter  and  so  perennial,  as  fell  upon  the  French  inhabitants  of 
Acadia.  'We  have  been  true,5  they  said  of  themselves,  '  to  our  religion, 
and  true  to  ourselves;  yet  nature  appears  to  consider  us  only  as  the  ob- 
jects of  public  vengeance.'  The  hand  of  the  English  official  seemed 
under  a  spell  with  regard  to  them;  and  was  never  uplifted  but  to  curse 
them."  * 

*  Bancroft'*  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iv.,  p.  206. 


FRENCH  ASD  INDIAN   WAR.  36l 

While  these  sorrows  were  being  heaped  upon  the  helpless  Acadians  by- 
England  the  provincial  forces  were  serving  the  cause  elsewhere  with 
more  credit  to  their  manhood.  As  has  been  stated  the  expedition  against 
the  French  fort  at  Crown  Point,  on  Lake  Champlain,  had  been  intrusted 
to  General  William  Johnson.  His  army  consisted  principally  of  troops 
from  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  They  were  joined  at  Albany  by  a 
regiment  from  New  Hampshire.  The  troops  rendezvoused  at  the  head 
of  boat  navigation,  on  the  Hudson,  in  July,  1755,  under  the  command 
of  General  Lyman.  They  numbered  about  six  thousand  men.  A  fort 
was  built  and  named  by  the  troops,  in  honor  of  their  commander,  Fort 
Lyman.  In  August  Johnson  arrived  with  the  stores  and  artillery,  and 
assumed  the  command  of  the  expedition.  He  ungenerously  changed  the 
name  of  the  fort  to  Fort  Edward.  Leaving  a  strong  force  to  garrison  it 
he  moved  with  five  thousand  men  to  the  head  of  Lake  George,  from 
which  he  intended  to  descend  the  lake  in  boats. 

The  French  had  been  informed  of  Johnson's  movements  by  their 
scouts.  Baron  Dieskau,  the  governor  of  Canada,  placed  the  entire  arms- 
bearing  population  of  the  Montreal  district  in  the  field,  and  resolved  to 
prevent  Johnson  from  reaching  Crown  Point  by  attacking  him  in  his  own 
country.  With  a  force  of  two  hundred  French  regulars,  and  about 
one  thousand  two  hundred  Indians,  he  set  out  across  the  country  to  attack 
Fort  Edward.  Upon  arriving  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  the  Indians 
learned  that  it  was  defended  by  artillery,  of  which  they  were  greatly 
afraid,  and  refused  to  attack  it.  Dieskau  was,  therefore,  compelled  to 
change  his  plan,  and  resolved  to  strike  a  blow  at  Johnson's  camp,  which 
he  was  informed  was  without  cannon. 

In  the  meantime  the  scouts  of  the  English  had  detected  the  movement 
against  Fort  Edward.  Ignorant  of  the  change  in  Dieskau's  plans  John- 
son sent  a  force  of  one  thousand  men,  under  Colonel  Ephraim  Williams 
of  Massachusetts,  and  two  hundred  Mohawks,  under  their  famous  chief 
Hendrick,  to  the  relief  of  the  fort.  Their  march  was  reported  to  the 
French,  who  placed  themselves  in  ambush  along  the  road  they  were  pur- 
suing, and  attacked  them  as  soon  as  they  had  fairly  entered  the  defile. 
The  English  were  at  once  thrown  into  confusion.  Hendrick  was  shot 
down  at  the  first  fire,  and  Williams  fell  a  few  moments  later.  The  Eng- 
lish and  Mohawks  then  began  a  rapid  retreat  to  their  camp,  closely 
pursued  by  their  assailants. 

The  sound  of  the  firing  was  soon  heard  in  Johnson's  camp,  and  as  it 
drew  nearer  it  became  apparent  that  the  detachment  was  retreating.  The 
troops  were  gotten  under  arms,  and  the  trees  in  front  of  the  camp  were 
hurriedly  felled  to  form  a  rude  breastwork.  A  few  cannon  had  just 


3f>2  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

•arrived  from  the  Hudson,  and  these  were  placed  to  command  the  road 
/>y  which  the  French  were  approaching.  These  arrangements  were  just 
completed  when  the  fugitives  of  Williams'  command  appeared  in  fuli 
retreat,  w'ih  the  French  and  Indians  but  a  few  hundred  yards  behind 
them.  J  ieskau  urged  his  men  forward  with  the  greatest  energy,  intend- 
ing to  i  /roe  his  way  into  the  English  camp  along  with  the  fugitives. 
The  artillery  was  carefully  trained  upon  the  road  by  which  he  was 
advancing,  and  the  moment  the  fugitives  were  past  the  guns  they  opened 
with  a  terrific  fire  of  grape,  which  caused  the  Canadians  and  Indians  to 
break  in  confusion,  and  take  to  the  woods  for  shelter.  The  regulars  held 
their  ground,  and  maintained  a  determined  contest  of  five  hours,  in  which 
they  were  nearly  all  slain.  The  Indians  and  Canadians  did  little  execu- 
tion, as  they  stood  in  dread  of  the  artillery.  At  length  Dieskau,  seeing 
that  his  effort  had  failed,  drew  off  his  men,  and  retreated.  He  was  pur- 
sued for  some  distance  by  the  English.  Towards  evening  he  was  sud- 
denly attacked  by  the  New  Hampshire  regiment,  which  was  inarching 
from  Fort  Edward  to  Johnson's  assistance.  The  French  were  seized 
with  a  panic  at  this  new  attack,  and  abandoning  their  brave  commander, 
fled  for  their  lives.  Dieskau,  who  had  been  severely  wounded  several 
times,  was  taken  prisoner.  He  was  kindly  treated,  and  was  subsequently 
sent  to  England,  where  he  died. 

General  Johnson  was  slightly  wounded  at  the  commencement  of  the 
battle,  and  withdrew  from  the  field,  leaving  the  command  to  General 
Lyman,  to  whom  the  victory  was  really  due.  Notwithstanding  this  John- 
son did  not  even  mention  Lyman's  name  in  his  report  of  the  battle,  but 
claimed  all  the  honor  for  himself.  He  was  rewarded  by  the  king  with  a 
baronetcy,  and  the  gift  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  General  Lyman 
was  not  even  thanked  for  his  services. 

Johnson  made  no  effort  to  improve  his  victory.  The  expedition 
against  Crown  Point,  which  might  now  have  been  undertaken  with  a 
better  prospect  of  success,  was  abandoned,  and  Johnson  contented  him- 
self with  building  a  useless  log  fort  at  the  head  of  Lake  George,  which 
he  named  Fort  William  Henry.  Late  in  the  fall  he  placed  a  garrison  in 
this  fort,  and  then  returned  to  Albany,  where  he  disbanded  his  army. 

The  expedition  under  Governor  Shirley,  against  Fort  Niagara,  was 
equally  unsuccessful.  By  the  month  of  August  Shirley  had  advanced 
no  farther  than  Oswego.  Here  he  received  the  news  of  Braddock's 
defeat,  which  so  disheartened  him  that,  after  building  and  garrisoning  two 
forts  at  Oswego,  he  returned  to  Albany.  By  the  death  of  Braddock 
Shirley  succeeded  to  the  chief  command  of  all  the  royal  forces  in 
America. 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR.  363 

In  December,  1755,  Shirley  held  a  conference  with  the  colonial  gov- 
ernors, at  New  York,  to  decide  upon  the  campaign  for  the  next  year.  It 
was  agreed  that  three  expeditions  should  be  undertaken  in  1756:  one 
against  Niagara ;  a  second  against  Fort  Duquesne,  and  a  third  against 
Crown  Point.  In  the  meantime  Lord  Loudon  was  appointed  by  the 
king  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  in  America.  He  sent  over  Gen- 
eral Abercrombie  as  his  lieutenant.  Abercrombie  arrived  in  Junt  with 
several  regiments  of  British  regulars.  He  relieved  General  Shirley  from 
command,  but  nothing  was  to  be  done  until  the  arrival  of  the  comman- 
der-in-chief, who  did  not  reach  America  until  July. 

Lord  Loudon  was  a  more  pompous  and  a  slower  man  than  Braddock, 
and  more  incompetent.  A  force  of  seven  thousand  men  was  assembled 
at  Albany  for  the  expedition  against  Ticouderoga  and  Crown  Point,  and 
Loudon  at  once  repaired  thither,  and  assumed  the  command.  The  col- 
onists were  confident  that  something  of  importance  would  now  be  accom- 
plished ;  but  they  were  destined  to  disappointment.  The  commander-in- 
chief  and  his  subordinates  spent  their  time  in  settling  the  relative  rank 
of  the  royal  and  provincial  officers.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  all 
that  had  been  accomplished  during  the  war  had  been  gained  by  the  colo- 
nial forces,  there  was  an  iniquitous  regulation  which  gave  the  precedence 
to  the  lowest  officer  holding  a  royal  commission  over  one  holding  a  higher 
rank  from  any  of  the  colonies.  This  led  to  many  disputes,  and  the 
colonists  saw  themselves  robbed  of  the  honors  they  had  so  fairly  won. 
This  was  onlv  one  of  the  manv  wrongs  by  which  Great  Britain  succeeded 

••  •*  O  J 

in  alienating  the  people  of  America  from  their  attachment  to  her. 

In  the  meantime  Dieskau  had  been  succeeded  as  governor  of  Canada 
by  the  Marquis  de  Montcalm,  the  ablest  of  the  rulers  of  New  France. 
He  was  a  man  of  genuine  ability  and  of  indomitable  energy.  He 
reached  Quebec  in  1756,  and  at  once  set  out  for  Ticonderoga,  which  he 
placed  in  a  state  of  defence.  Perceiving  the  exposed  condition  of  the 
English  forts  at  Oswego  he  resolved  to  capture  them.  Collecting  a  force 
of  five  thousand  Frenchmen,  Canadians,  and  Indians,  lie  crossed  the  lake 
from  Frontenac,  and  reached  Oswego  on  the  5th  of  August  He  soon 
drove  the  English  out  of  Fort  Oswego ;  but  Fort  Ontario,  the  second 
work,  opposed  a  more  vigorous  resistance  to  him.  The  garrison  held  out 
until  their  commander,  Colonel  Mercer,  was  killed,  and  they  had  lost  all 
hope  of  receiving  aid  from  Albany,  when  they  capitulated.  An  immense 
amount  of  military  stores,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  pieces  of  cannon, 
and  all  the  boats  and  vessels  Shirley  had  prepared  for  the  expedition 
against  Niagara  fell  into  the  hands  of  Montcalm.  The  Iroquois  had 
viewed  the  erection  of  the  forts  at  Oswego  by  the  English  with  grea; 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

jealousy,  and  in  order  to  conciliate  them  Montcalm  wisely  destroyed  the 
works,  and  withdrew  into  Canada. 

Loudon  had  detached  a  force  under  Colonel  Webb  to  the  assistance  of 
the  Osvvego  forts,  but  it  was  sent  so  late  that  it  was  met  on  the  way  by 
the  news  of  the  capture  of  the  forts.  Colonel  Webb,  in  dismay,  fell  back 
rapidly,  and  obstructed  the  road  to  Albany. 

Having  failed  to  accomplish  anything  against  the  enemy  Lord  Loudon 
now  undertook  to  subjugate  the  colonies  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 
He  was  firmly  convinced  that  the  colonists  needed  to  be  taught  submis- 
sion to  the  will  of  the  royal  commander,  and  as  he  had  been  made  a  sort 
of  viceroy  of  all  the  colonies,  he  thought  the  present  a  fitting  occasion  to 
teach  them  this  lesson.  He  demanded  of  the  cities  of  Albany,  New 
York,  and  Philadelphia  free  quarters  for  his  troops  during  the  winter. 
The  mayor  of  New  York  refused  the  demand  "  as  contrary  to  the  laws 
of  England  and  the  liberties  of  America."  "  G — d  d — n  my  blood,"  said 
the  viceroy  to  the  mayor ;  "  if  you  do  not  billet  my  officers  upon  free 
quarters  this  day,  I'll  order  here  all  the  troops  in  North  America  under 
my  command,  and  billet  them  myself  upon  the  city."  There  was  no 
reasoning  with  "  the  master  of  twenty  legions,"  and  the  magistrates  were 
obliged  to  get  up  a  subscription  for  the  free  support,  during  the  winter,  of 
an  army  that  had  passed  a  whole  campaign  without  coming  in  sight  of 
the  enemy.  In  Philadelphia  the  matter  was  settled  very  much  in  the 
same  way.  Albany  was  also  obliged  to  submit,  but  the  magistrates  took 
occasion  to  tell  the  royal  officers  that  they  did  not  want  their  services,  as 
they  could  defend  their  frontiers  themselves.  "The  frontier  was  left 
open  to  the  French ;  this  quartering  troops  in  the  principal  towns,  at  the 
expense  of  the  inhabitants,  by  the  illegal  authority  of  a  military  chief, 
was  the  great  result  of  the  campaign."  It  was  becoming  clear  to  the 
colonists  that  their  safety  from  the  depredations  of  the  French  and  sav- 
ages was  not  to  be  gained  by  the  royal  troops,  but  by  their  owu  efforts. 

A  congress  of  governors  was  held  at  Boston  in  January,  1757,  and  it 
was  resolved  that  there  should  be  but  one  expedition  this  year,  and  that 
this  should  be  sent  under  the  Earl  of  Loudon  against  Louisburg.  The 
frontier  posts,  especially  Forts  Edward  and  William  Henry,  were  to  be 
defended,  and  Washington,  with  the  Virginia  troops,  was  to  guard  the 
border  of  that  colony  against  the  expeditions  of  the  French  from  Fort 
Duquesne.  The  last  was  a  difficult  and  almost  impossible  duty,  for  the 
French  from  Fort  Duquesne  could  choose  their  point  of  attack  any- 
where on  the  long  and  exposed  frontier,  while  the  force  under  Washing- 
ton was  utterly  inadequate  to  the  task  of  watching  the  entire  line. 

Leaving  Bouquet  to  guard  the  frontier  of  Carolina  against  the  Chero- 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR. 


365 


kees,  and  Webb  to  hold  the  country  between  Lake  George  and  the 
Hudson,  Lord  London,  on  the  20th  of  June,  1757,  sailed  from  New 
York  with  six  thousand  regulars  to  attack  Louisburg.  He  proceeded  to 
Halifax,  where  he  was  joined  by  a  fleet  of  eleven  ships  of  war  and  four 
thousand  troops,  bringing  his  whole  force  to  ten  thousand  regulars  and 
sixteen  ships  of  the  line  and  a  number  of  frigates.  The  campaign  of  this 
redoubtable  warrior  is  thus  described  by  Bancroft:  "He  landed  (at 
Halifax),  levelled  the  uneven  ground  for  a  parade,  planted  a  vegetable 


ft 


SITE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM   HENRY   ON   LAKE  GEORGE. 

garden  as  a  precaution  against  the  scurvy,  exercised  the  men  in  mock 
battles  and  sieges  and  stormings  of  fortresses,  and  when  August  came, 
and  the  spirit  of  the  army  was  broken,  and  Hay,  a  major-general, 
expressed  contempt  so  loudly  as  to  be  arrested,  the  troops  were  embarked, 
as  if  for  Louisburg.  But  ere  the  ships  sailed,  the  reconnoitring  vessels 
came  with  the  news  that  the  French  at  Cape  Breton  had  one  more  ship 
than  the  English,  and  the  plan  of  campaign  was  changed.  Part  of 
the  soldiers  landed  again  at  Halifax,  and  the  Earl  of  Loudon,  leaving 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATIC. 

his  garden  to  the  weeds,  and  his  place  of  arms  to  briars,  sailed  for 
.New'  York. 

The  Marquis  of  Montcalm  was  a  very  different  man  from  the  Earl  of 
London.  As  a  man  he  was  superior  to  him  in  every  way ;  as  a  com- 
mander he  was  active,  quick,  and  resolute ;  while  London  was  incompe- 
tent, slow,  and  pompous.  Montcalm  had  stationed  himself  at  Ticonderoga 
in  order  to  be  able  to  watch  the  English,  and  he  resolved  to  take  advan- 
tage of  Lord  London's  absence  to  attack  Fort  William  Henry  at  the 
head  of  Lake  George.  On  the  2d  of  August  he  appeared  before  the  fort 
with  a  force  of  about  six  thousand  French  and  Canadians  and  seventeen 
hundred  Indians,  and  laid  siege  to  it.  The  garrison  consisted  of  about 
three  thousand  men,  u:iJcr  Colonel  Monroe,  a  gallant  officer.  Montcalm 
summoned  him  to  surrender  the  fort,  but  Monroe  returned  an  indignant 
refusal  to  this  demand,  and  sent  to  General  Webbe,  at  Fort  Edward, 
fifteen  miles  distant,  to  ask  for  assistance.  Webbe  might  easily  have 
saved  the  fort,  as  he  had  four  thousand  men  under  his  command,  but  he 
made  no  effort  to  do  so.  Colonel  Putnam,  afterwards  famous  in  the 
Revolution,  eagerly  sought  and  at  last  received  permission  to  march  with 
his  regiment  to  Monroe's  assistance,  but  he  had  proceeded  only  a  few 
miles  when  Webbe  commanded  him  to  return  to  Fort  Edward.  In  the 
place  of  assistance,  the  timid  Webbe  then  sent  to  Monroe  a  letter  greatly 
exaggerating  the  force  of  the  French,  and  advising  him  to  surrender. 
This  letter  was  intercepted  by  Montcalm,  who  was  on  the  point  of  raising 
the  siege,  and  he  forwarded  it  to  Monroe,  with  a  renewed  demand  for  his 
surrender.  The  brave  veteran  held  out,  however,  until  nearly  all  his 
guns  were  disabled  and  his  ammunition  nearly  exhausted.  He  then 
hung  out  a  flag  of  truce,  and  Montcalm,  who  was  too  true  a  hero  not  to 
appreciate  valor  in  a  foe,  granted  him  liberal  terms.  The  garrison  were 
allowed  to  march  out  with  the  honors  of  war  upon  giving  their  parole 
not  to  serve  against  France  for  eighteen  months.  They  were  to  retain 
their  private  property,  and  were  to  liberate  all  their  prisoners.  On  the 
9th  of  August  the  fort  was  surrendered  to  the  French. 

Montcalm  had  kept  the  savages  from  liquor  in  order  to  be  able  to 
restrain  them  in  the  hour  of  victory.  They  now  sought  and  obtained 
rum  from  the  English,  and  spent  the  night  in  dancing  and  singing.  The 
next  morning,  as  the  English  marched  out  of  their  camp,  the  Indians  fell 
upon  them  and  began  to  plunder  them.  From  robbery,  the  excited 
savages  soon  passed  to  murder,  and  many  of  the  English  were  killed  and 
others  made  prisoners.  The  French  officers  threw  themselves  into  the 
melee  and  exerted  themselves  gallantly  to  control  the  Indians.  Many  of 
them  were  wounded  in  these  efforts.  Montcalm  in  an  agony  implored 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR.  367 

the  Indians  to  respect  the  treaty.  "  Kill  me,"  he  cried,  as  he  struggled 
to  restrain  the  savages,  "  but  spare  the  English,  who  are  under  my  pro- 
tection." He  called  to  the  English  soldiers  to  defend  themselves.  The 
retreat  to  Fort  Edward  became  a  disorderly  flight.  Only  about  six 
hundred  men  reached  there  in  a  body.  More  than  four  hundred  had 
.' ought  shelter  in  the  French  camp,  and  were  sent  by  Montcalm  to  their 
friends  under  the  protection  of  a  strong  escort.  He  also  sent  one  of  his 
officers  to  ransom  those  who  had  been  taken  prisoners  by  the  Indians. 
The  vast  stores  accumulated  at  Fort  William  Henry  were  carried  away 
by  the  French,  and  the  work  itself  demolished. 

The  loss  of  Fort  William  Henry  greatly  frightened  General  Webbe  at 
Fort  Edward.  In  spite  of  his  force  of  six  thousand  men,  and  the  with- 
drawal of  the  French  to  Lake  Champlain,  he  seriously  contemplated  a 
retreat  to  beyond  Albany.  Lord  London,  who  had  arrived  at  New 
York,  was  equally  impressed  with  the  danger,  and  proposed  to  take 
position  with  his  army  on  Long  island  for  the  defence  of  the  continent. 

The  campaign  was  over,  and  the  French  were  everywhere  triumphant. 
With  the  exception  of  Acadia,  they  held  all  the  country  they  had  occu- 
pied at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  The  English  had  lost  the  forts  ^t 
Oswego  and  William  Henry,  and  immense  quantities  of  supplies.  They 
had  been  entirely  expelled  from  the  valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  the  hostile  parties  of  the  Indians  were  enabled  to  extend 
their  ravages  far  into  the  interior  of  the  colonies. 

America  was  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  incompetency  and  cow- 
ardice of  the  royal  commanders.  The  old  spell  of  British  invincibility 
was  broken,  and  the  colonists  were  rapidly  losing  their  respect  for  the 
troops  sent  over  from  England  to  protect  them.  Men  were  coming  to 
the  conclusion  that  their  connection  with  Great  Britain  was  simply  a 
curse  to  the  colonies.  They  regarded  the  conduct  of  the  war  thus  far  by 
the  royal  officials  as  simply  "  a  mixture  of  ignorance  and  cowardice,"  and 
were  satisfied  that  they  were  amply  able  to  defend  themselves  against  the 
French  and  Indians  without  any  assistance  whatever  from  England. 

The  royal  officials  sought  to  cover  their  failures  by  complaints  against 
the  Americans.  The  hearty  disgust  and  contempt  with  which  the  colo- 
nists regarded  their  pusillanimous  conduct  was  reported  by  them  to  the 
home  government  as  evidence  of  a  mutinous  spirit  on  the  part  of  the 
Americans.  Throughout  the  colonies  they  pursued  one  uniform  system 
of  seeking  to  force  the  provinces  into  submission  to  their  own  illegal  acts, 
and  to  compel  them  to  an  acknowledgment  of  the  arbitrary  power  of  the 
crown.  "  Everywhere,"  says  Bancroft,  "  the  royal  officers  actively 
asserted  the  authority  of  the  king  and  the  British  nation  over  America. 


368  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Did  the  increase  of  population  lead  the  legislatures  to  enlarge  the  repre- 
sentative body?  The  right  to  do  eo  was  denied,  and  representation  was 
held  to  be  a  privilege  conceded  by  the  king  as  a  boon,  and  limited  by  his 
will.  Did  the  British  commander  believe  that  the  French  colonies 
through  the  neutral  islands  derived  provisions  from  the  continent?  By 
his  own  authority  he  proclaimed  an  embargo  in  every  American  port. 
Did  South  Carolina,  by  its  assembly,  institute  an  artillery  company? 
Lyttleton  interposed  his  veto,  for  there  should  be  no  company  formed 
but  by  the  regal  commission.  By  another  act,  the  same  assembly  made 
provision  for  quartering  soldiers,  introducing  into  the  law  the  declaratory 
clause,  that '  no  soldier  should  ever  be  billeted  among  them.'  This  also 
Lyttleton  negatived;  and  but  for  the  conciliatory  good  temper  of 
Bouquet,  who  commanded  at  Charleston,  the  province  would  have  been 
inflamed  by  the  peremptory  order  which  came  from  Loudon  to  grant 
billets  under  the  act  of  Parliament."  * 

In  the  eyes  of  Great  Britain  America  was  merely  an  out-of-the-way 
corner  of  the  world  which  existed  by  the  bounty  of  England,  and  which 
was  entitled  to  no  rights,  no  privileges  save  what  the  king  in  his  goodness 
should  see  fit  to  allow  its  people ;  and  in  theory  and  practice  every  royal 
official,  from  the  viceroy  down  to  the  most  insignificant  government  clerk, 
arrogated  to  himself  the  power  of  oppression  which  he  claimed  for  the 
sovereign. 

*  Bancroft's  Hisloiy  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iv.,  p.  270. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

THE   FRENCH   AND   INDIAN   WAR CONCLUDED. 

A  Change  for  the  Better — William  Pitt  Prime  Minister — Vigorous  Measures  Adopted- 
Recall  of  the  Earl  of  Loudon — Capture  of  Louisburg — Abercrombie  on  Lake  George—- 
Advances against  Ticonderoga — Death  of  Lord  Howe — Failure  of  the  English  attack 
upon  Ticonderoga — Disgraceful  conduct  of  Abercrombie — His  Retreat — Capture  of 
Fort  Frontenac — Advance  of  General  Forbes — Grant's  Defeat — The  Viiginians  again 
save  the  Regulars — Capture  of  Fort  Duquesne — Washington  retires  from  the  Army — 
Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  occupied  by  the  English — Capture  of  Fort  Niagara — 
The  Expedition  against  Quebec — Failure  of  the  first  Operations — Despondency  of 
Wolfe — He  Discovers  a  Landing-place — The  Army  scales  the  Heights  of  Abraham — 
Montcalm's  Surprise — Battle  of  the  Plains  of  Abraham — Death  of  Wolfe — Defeat  of 
the  French — Death  of  Montcalm — Surrender  of  Quebec — Capture  of  Montreal — Treaty 
of  Paris — Canada  ceded  to  England — France  loses  all  her  American  Possessions — The 
Cherokee  War — Hostility  of  the  Indians  to  the  English — Pontiac's  War — Death  of 
Pontiac — Bouquet  relieves  Fort  Duquesne — Eesults  of  the  War. 

HE  gross  mismanagement  of  affairs  in  America  aroused  a  storm 
of  indignation  in  England,  and  the  king  was  obliged  to  yield  to 
the  popular  sentiment,  and  change  his  ministers.  At  the  head 
of  the  new  ministry  he  placed  William  Pitt,  tha  leader  of  the 
popular  party,  who  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  greatest 
of  English  statesmen.  His  great  talents  had  raised  him  from  the  insig- 
nificant position  of  ensign  in  the  guards  to  the  leadership  of  the  govern- 
ment of  Great  Britain, -and  were  now  to  be  the  means  of  retrieving  the 
disasters  of  his  country,  and  regaining  for  her  her  lost  power  and 
prestige. 

A  truly  great  man,  Pitt  knew  how  to  admire  and  sympathize  with 
merit  in  others,  and  was  not  blinded  by  the  glitter  of  rank,  nor  ham- 
pered by  an  aristocratic  faith  in  the  divinity  of  royalty.  He  appreciated 
and  sympathized  with  the  Americans  more  perfectly  than  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors in  office,  and  began  his  career  with  the  wise  determination  to 

*  O 

encourage  and  develop  their  patriotism  by  a  generous  and  systematic 
assistance  of  their  efforts.  He  caused  the  government  of  Great  Britain 
to  assume  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  announced  that  the  sums  ex- 
pended by  the  colonies  for  the  public  defence,  since  the  commencement  of 
hostilities,  would  be  refunded,  and  that  henceforth  the  British  govern- 
24  369- 


370  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ment  would  provide  the  funds  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  The 
colonies  were  each  required  to  furnish  troops,  but  Pitt  "  stipulated  that 
the  colonial  troops  raised  for  this  purpose  should  l>e  supplied  with  arms, 
ammunition,  tents,  and  provisions,  in  the  samo  manner  as  the  regular 
troops,  and  at  the  king's  expense;  so  that  the  only  charge  to  the  colonies 
would  be  that  of  levying,  clothing,  and  paying  the  men.  The  governors 
were  also  authorized  to  issue  commissions  to  provincial  officers,  from 
colonels  downwards,  and  these  officers  were  to  held  rank  in  the  united 
army  according  to  their  commissions.  .  Had  this  liberal  and  just  system 
been  adopted  at  the  outset,  it  would  have  put  a  very  different  face  upon 
the  affairs  of  the  colonies."  *  These  energetic  and  just  measures  were 
promptly  responded  to  by  the  colonies,  which  placed  a  force  of  twenty- 
eight  thousand  men  in  the  field.  To  these  Pitt  added  twenty-two  thou- 
sand British  regulars,  making  a  total  of  fifty  thousand  men,  the  largest 
army  that  had  ever  been  assembled  in  America,  and  exceeding  in  num- 
ber the  entire  male  population  of  Canada. 

The  Earl  of  Loudon  was  recalled,  and  instead  of  a  single  supreme 
command  three  separate  expeditions  were  organized  under  different 
officers.  An  expedition  against  Louisburg  was  placed  under  the  orders 
of  Lord  Jeffrey  Arnherst,  an  able  and  upright  soldier,  assisted  by  Briga- 
dier-General James  Wolfe;  who,  though  only  thirty-one  years  old,  had 
spent  eighteen  years  in  the  army,  and  had  served  at  Dettingen,  Fontenoy, 
and  Laffeldt.  He  was  considered  one  of  the  ablest  commanders  in  the 
English  service,  and  was  universally  beloved.  To  General  Forbes  the 
task  of  conquering  the  Ohio  valley  was  assigned;  and  the  expedition 
against  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  was  intrusted  to  General  Aber- 
crombie.  Pitt  had  little  faith  in  Abercrombie,  who  had  been  Lord 
London's  most  trusted  lieutenant ;  but  retained  him  to  please  Lord  Bute, 
and  associated  with  him,  as  his  second  in  command,  the  young  and  giftod 
Lord  George  Howe,  in  the  hope  that  Howe's  genius  would  redeem  Abcr- 
crombie's  faults,  and  lead  him  to  victory. 

The  expedition  against  Louisburg  consisted  of  a  fleet  of  twenty  ships 
of  the  line  and  eighteen  frigates,  under  Admiral  Boscawen,  and  an  army 
of  fourteen  thousand  men,  under  General  Amherst.  The  fleet  reached 
Cabarus  bay  on  the  2d  of  June,  1758.  The  fortifications  of  Louisburg 
were  somewhat  dilapidated,  but  were  held  by  a  garrison  of  thirty-two 
hundred  men,  commanded  by  Chevalier  Drucour,  an  officer  of  expe- 
rience and  determination.  These  frigates  were  sunk  across  the  mouth  of  - 
the 'harbor  to  close  it  against  the  English,  and  within  the  basin  lay  five 

•*. ^parks'  Writings  of  Washington,  vol.  ii.,  p.  2S9—  Note. 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR. 


ships  of  the  line,  one  fifty-gun  ship,  and  two  frigates,  which  took  part  in 
the  defence  of  the  place. 

The  surf  was  so  heavy  that  Amherst  was  unable  to  land  his  troops 
until  the  8th.  The  first  division  was  led  by  Wolfe,  under  the  cover  of 
the  fire  of  the  fleet.  He  forbade  a  gun  to  be  fired  from  his  command, 
and,  upon  ncaring  the  shore,  leaped  into  the  water,  followed  by  his  men, 
and  in  the  fare  of  a  sharp  resistance,  drove  the  French  from  their  outposts 
into  the  town.  The  place  was  now  regularly  invested,  and,  after  a  bom- 
bardment of  fifty  days,  during  which  the  shipping  in  the  harbor  was 
destroyed,  the  town  and  fortifications  were  surrendered  to  the  English 
on  the  27th  of  July.  With  Louisburg  the  French  gave  up  the  islands 
of  Cape  Breton  and  Prince  Edward.  Five  thousand  prisoners  and  an 
immense  quantity  of  military  supplies  were  secured  by  the  Ivio;!ish. 
Halifax  being  already  the  chief  naval  station  of  the  English  in  these 
waters,  Louisburg 
was  abandoned. 
Amherst,  Wolfe,  and 
Boscawen  were  hon- 
ored by  the  English 
government  for 
their  victory.  The 
season  was  too  far 
advanced  after  the 
capture  of  Loais- 
burg  to  admit  of  the 
commencement  of 
operations  against  Quebec,  and  Amherst  was  suddenly  called  away  from 
the  coast  to  take  charge  of  the  army  on  Lake  George. 

Abercrombie  had  assembled  a  force  of  seven  thousand  English  regulars 
and  nine  thousand  Americans  at  the  head  of  Lake  George.  Among  the 
American  troops  were  Stark  and  Putnam,  afterwards  famous  in  the  war 
for  independence,  the  former  serving  as  a  captain  in  the  New  Hampshire 
regiment,  the  latter  as  a  major  of  Connecticut  troops.  Abercrombie  was 
commander-in-chief,  but  the  troops  had  little  confidence  in  him.  They 
were  devoted  to  Lord  Howe,  who  was  the  real  leader  of  the  expedition. 
On  the  5th  of  July  the  army  broke  up  its  camp,  and  embarking  in  ten 
hundred  and  thirty-five  boats,  with  the  artillery  on  rafts,  descended  the 
lake  to  its  lower  end,  from  which  they  were  to  advance  overland  upon 
Fort  Carillon,  which  the  French  had  erected  on  the  promontory  of 
Ticonderoga.  The  next  morning  Lord  Howe  pushed  forward  with  the 
advanced  gup.rcl,  and  encountered  a  scouting  party  of  thf  French.  A 


WOLFE  S  ATTACK  ON  LOUISBURG. 


372 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


sharp  conflict  ensued.  The  French  were  easily  driven  back,  but  Lord 
Howe  was  killed  almost  at  the  first  fire.  His  death  cast  a  gloom  over 
the  army,  which  promised  ill  for  the  success  of  the  undertaking. 

Abercrombie  continued  to  advance,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  9th 
sent  Clerk,  his  chief  engineer,  to  reconnoitre  the  French  position  at  Ticon- 
Jaroga.  Clerk  reported  that  the  French  works  \vere  feeble,  and  imper- 
fectly armed.  Stark,  of  New  Hampshire,  and  some  of  the  English 
officers  saw  that  they  were  both  strong  and  well  provided  with  artillery. 
They  so  reported  to  Abercrombie,  but  he  accepted  the  statement  of  his 
engineer,  and,  without  waiting  for  his  artillery,  ordered  an  assault  upon 
the  French  lines  that  very  day. 

The  Marquis  of  Montcalm  was  commanding  in  person  at  Ticonderoga, 


ABERCROMBIE'S  EXPEDITION  ON  LAKE  GEORGE. 

and  had  disposed  his  small  force  of  thirty-six  hundred  and  fifty  men  in 
a  line  of  breastworks  thrown  up  about  half  a  mile  beyond  the  fort,  and 
extending  across  the  promontory  on  which  that  work  stood.  The  death 
of  Lord  Howe  had  deprived  the  English  of  their  only  leader  capable  of 
contending  against  this  accomplished  commander,  and  the  incompetency 
of  Aberorombie  was  to  render  easy  what  might  have  been,  under  other 
circumstances,  a  most  difficult  undertaking. 

7  O 

Abercrombie  could  have  brought  up  his  artillery  by  the  next  day,  but 
he  was  unwilling  to  wait  for  it,  as  he  anticipated  an  easy  victory.  He 
stationed  himself  in  a  place  of  safety  about  two  miles  from  the  field,  and 
ordered  his  troops  to  assail  the  French  intrenchmcnts  with  the  bayonet. 


FRESC1I  ASD   INDIAN    WAR. 


373 


The  attack  was  made  in  gallant  style,  and  was  continued  with  energy 
during  the  afternoon.  The  English  performed  prodigies  of  valor,  but 
were  not  able  to  overcome  the  strength  of  the  French  works,  or  the 
activity  with  which  the  defenders  maintained  their  position.  Unlike  the 
English  commander,  Montcalm  was  everywhere  along  his  line,  cheering 
his  men  with  his  presence  and  example,  anJ  distributing  refreshments  tc 
them  with  his  own  hands.  Without  a  commander  who  dared  place  him- 
self under  fire,  with  no  one  on  the  spot  to  direct  their  movements,  the 
valor  of  the  English  was  thrown  away.  A  volley  from  an  advanced 
party  of  their  own  men  completed  their  confusion,  and  they  broke  help- 
lessly, and  fell  back  in  disorder  towards  Lake  George.  Abercrombie 
made  no  effort  to  rally  them  ;  he  was  too  badly  frightened  for  that;  anJ 


ATTACK   ON   TICONDEROGA. 


led  the  army  towards  the  landing-place,  on  Lake  Gecrge,  with  such  haste 
that  but  for  the  energetic  action  of  Colonel  Bradstreet  the  troops  would 
have  rushed  pell-mell  into  the  boats,  without  any  semblance  of  order,  and 
with  a  still  greater  loss  of  life. 

The  English  lost  nearly  two  thousand  men  in  the  attack  upon  the 
French  works ;  but  they  still  had  left  a  force  of  more  than  four  times  the 
strength  of  the  French,  and  their  artillery  had  not  been  engaged.  With 
this  force  they  might  have  taken  Ticonderoga,  but  Abercrombie  was  too 
much  terrified  to  attempt  anything  of  the  kind.  On  the  morning  of  the 
9th  he  embarked  his  troops  and  hastened  to  the  head  of  Lake  George. 
Montcalm  was  astounded  at  his  retreat,  but  as  he  had  too  small  a  force, 
and  his  men  were  exhausted,  he  made  no  effort  at  pursuit.  Arrived  at 
the  head  of  Lake  George,  the  frightened  Abercrombie  sent  the  artillery 


HISTORY   OF  THE   VxiTED  STATES 


and  ammunition  hack  to  Albany  for  safety,  and  occupied  his  army  vith 
the  erection  of  Fort  George,  near  the  ruins  of  Fort  William  Henry. 
The  news  of  this  disaster  caused  General  Amherst  to  hasten  with  four 
regiments  and  a  battalion  from  Louisburg  to  Lake  George.  He  reached 
the  camp  of  Abcrcrombie  on  the  5th  of  October.  In  November  orders 
arrived  from  England  appointing  Amherst  commander-in-chief  of  the 
royal  forces  in  America,  and  recalling  Abercrombie,  who  returned  to 
England  to  attempt  to  excuse  his  cowardice  by  villifying  America  and 
the  Americans.  He  could  not  deceive  Pitt,  however,  whose  indignation 
at  his  pogillunimotts  conduct  was  only  restrained  by  the  influence  of  Lord 
Bute  in  the  royal  councils. 

After  Abcrcrombic's  retreat,  Colonel  Bradstrcct,  of  New  York,  at  his 
earnest  solicitation,  obtained  leave  from  the  council  of  war  to  undertake 
an  expedition  against  Fort  Frontcnac,  which  being  situated  at  the  foot  of 
Lake  Ontario,  commanded  both  the  lake  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  Itc  pos- 
session was  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  French,  as  it  was  their  main 

depot  for  the  supply 
of  the  posts  on  the 
upper  lakes  and  the 
Ohio  with  military 
stores.  Collecting  a 
forqe  of  2700  men, 
all  Americans,  con- 
sisting chiefly  of 
troops  from  New 
York  and  Massachu- 
setts, Brads treet 
hastened  to  Oswego 
before  his  movements  were  known  to  the  enemy.  From  Oswego  he 
crossed  the  lake  in  open  boats,  and  landed  on  the  Canada  side  within  a 
mile  of  Fort  Frontenac.  His  sudden  arrival  struck  terror  to  the  garri- 
son, and  the  greater  part  secured  their  safety  by  an  instantaneous  flight. 
The  next  day  the  fort  surrendered.  The  victors  capturea  with  it  a  vast 
quantity  of  military  stores  destined  for  the  forts  in  the  interior,  and  a 
fleet  of  nine  armed  vessels,  with  which  the  French  controlled  the  lake. 
Two  of  the  vessels  were  laden  with  a  part  of  the  stores  and  sent  to  Os- 
wego, and  the  remainder  of  the  vessels  and  stores,  together  with  the  fort, 
were  destroyed.  The  English  then  recrossed  the  lake  to  Oswego.  The 
capture  of  Fort  Frontenac  was  an  event  of  great  importance,  as  it  led,  as 
wo  shall  see  further  on,  to  the  abandonment  by  the  French  of  their  posts 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio. 


INVESTMENT  OF  FORT  FRONTENAC. 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR.  375 

For  the  reduction  of  Fort  Duquesne  a  force  of  seven  thousand  men 
was  assembled  under  General  Forbes.  Of  these,  five  thousand  were  from 
Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  the  troops  from  the  latter  colony  being  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Washington.  The  Pennsylvania  troops  assem- 
bled at  Raystown,  on  the  Juniata,  and  the  Virginians  at  Fort  Cumber- 
land. Washington  urged  upon  Forbes  the  advantages  of  adopting  the 
old  road  cut  by  Braddock's  army  in  his  advance  to  the  Ohio,  but  Forbes, 
at  the  suggestion  of  some  land-speculators,  decided  to  construct  a  new 
and  a  better  road  farther  to  the  north.  As  regarded  the  future  settlement 
of  the  west  this  was  an  excellent  plan,  but  as  far  as  it  concerned  the 
immediate  object  of  the  campaign  it  was  a  mistake,  as  it  involved  a  large 
expenditure  of  labor  and  a  great  waste  of  time. 

While  this  road  was  being  constructed  General  Bouquet,  with  the  ad- 
vanced guard,  crossed  Laurel  Hill  and  established  a  post  at  Loyal  Hanna. 
The  new  road  progressed  very  slowly,  only  forty-five  miles  being  con- 
structed in  six  weeks.  Bouquet  had  with  him  a  force  of  about  two 
thousand  men,  chiefly  Highlanders  and  Virginians.  Learning  from  his 
scouts  that  Fort  Duquesne  was  held  by  a  garrison  of  only  eight  hundred 
men,  of  whom  three  hundred  were  Indians,  Bouquet,  without  orders 
from  General  Forbes,  resolved  to  attempt  the  capture  of  the  fort  by  a 
sudden  blow.  He  detached  a  force  of  eight  hundred  Highlanders,  and  a 
company  of  Virginians,  under  Major  Grant,  to  reconnoitre  Fort  Duquesne. 
The  French  were  fully  informed  of  all  of  Grant's  movements,  but  they 
allowed  him  to  approach  unmolested,  intending  to  disarm  his  vigilance 
and  then  attack  him.  Grant  affected  the  usual  contempt  for  the  provin- 
cial troops,  and  upon  arriving  before  the  fort,  placed  Major  Lewis  with 
the  Virginians  to  guard  the  baggage,  and  sent  his  regulars  forward  to 
reconnoitre  and  make  a  sketch  of  the  work.  Fie  was  greatly  encouraged 
by  the  fact  that  the  French  allowed  him  to  approach  without  firing  a  gun 
at  him,  and  in  his  self-complacency  marched  right  into  an  ambuscade 
>vhich  the  enemy  had  prepared  for  him.  The  French  commander  had 
posted  the  Indians  along  the  sides  of  the  defile  by  which  Grant  was  ad- 
vancing, and  at  a  given  signal  the  garrison  made  a  sudden  sally  from  the 
fort  against  the  Highlanders,  while  the  Indians  opened  a  heavy  fire  upon 
them  from  their  place  of  concealment.  The  regulars  were  quickly  thrown 
into  confusion,  and  their  officers  were  found  incapable  of  conducting  such 
a  mode  of  warfare.  Attracted  by  the  firing,  Major  Lewis,  with  a  com- 
pany of  Virginians,  hastened  to  the  scene  of  the  encounter,  and  by 
engaging  the  enemy  hand-to-hand  enabled  the  regulars  to  save  themselves 
from  a  general  massacre.  The  detachment  was  routed  with  heavy  loss 
and  both  Grant  and  Lewis  were  taken  prisoners.  The  fugitives  retreated 


37G  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

to  the  point  where  the  baggage  had  been  left.  It  was  guarded  by  Captain 
JJullit,  whom  Lewis  had  left  there  with  one  company  of  Virginians.  By 
the  gallant  and  skilful  resistance  of  this  little  force  the  French  and 
Indians  were  checked,  and  finally  driven  back  in  confusion.  The  English 
then  continued  their  retreat  with  all  speed  to  Loyal  Hanna.  Again  the 
provincials  had  saved  the  regulars  from  total  destruction.  General 
Forbes  had  -the  magnanimity  to  acknowledge  and  compliment  the  Vir- 
ginians for  their  services,  and  Captain  Bullit  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  major. 

General  Forbes  was  greatly  disheartened  by  the  news  of  Grant's  disas- 
ter. A  council  of  war  was  called  to  deliberate  upon  the  future  operations 
of  the  army,  and  decided  that  as  it  was  now  November,  and  they  were 
still  fifty  miles  from  Fort  Duquesne,  with  an  unbroken  forest  between 
them  and  the  fort,  nothing  more  could  be'  accomplished  until  the  spring. 
The  enterprise  was  on  the  point  of  being  abandoned  when  fortunately 
three  prisoners  were  brought  in,  from  whom  Washington  drew  the 
information  that  the  garrison  of  Fort  Duquesne  was  reduced  to  a  very 
small  force,  that  the  Indians  had  all  deserted  the  French,  and  that  the 
expected  reinforcements  and  supplies  from  Canada  had  not  arrived.  It 
was  evident  that  a  well-executed  effort  would  result  in  the  capture  of 
the  fort. 

This  information  decided  General  Forbes  to  continue  the  expedition. 
A  force  of  twenty-five  hundred  picked  troops  was  placed  under  Wash- 
ington's command,  and  he  was  ordered  to  push  forward  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  and  prepare  the  road  for  the  advance  of  the  main  army. 
Washington  was  ably  seconded  in  his  movements  by  the  energetic  Arm- 
strong, and  the  march  was  pressed  with  such  vigor  that  in  ten  days  the 
nrrny  arrived  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort  Duquesne.  The  French  now  saw 
that  the  fall  of  the  fort  was  inevitable.  They  had  but  five  hundred  men, 
and  Bradstreet's  capture  of  Fort  Frontenac  had  cut  them  off  from  the 
reinforcements  and  supplies  they  had  expected  from  Canada.  Unwilling 
to  stand  a  siege,  the  result  of  which  was  certain,  they  abandoned  the 
fort  on  the  night  of  the  24th  of  November,  and  embarking  in  flat  boats, 
floated  down  the  Ohio  to  join  their  countrymen  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi.  On  the  25th  the  English  army  arrived  before  the  fort,  and, 
finding  it  deserted  and  in  ruins,  occupied  it.  At  the  universal  desire  of 
the  army  Forbes  named  the  place  Fort  Pitt,  which  has  since  been  changed 
to  Pittsburgh.  The  splendid  city  which  occupies  the  site  is  the  proudest 
monument  that  has  been  built  to  the  memory  of  the  "Great  Commoner." 

Two  regiments,  composed  of  Pennsylvanians,  Virginians,  and  Mary- 
lauders,  under  Mercer,  were  left  to  garrison  Fort  Pitt,  which  was  restored 


378  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

to  its  former  strength.  General  Forbes  then  returned  east  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  Washington  resigned  his  commission  and  retired  to  private 
life.  The  object  of  the  campaign  was  accomplished,  and  he  could  now 
enjoy  the  rest  to  which  five  years  of  constant  service  had  entitled  him. 

The  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne  was  the  most  important  event  of  the 
war.  It  put  an  end  to  the  French  occupation  of  the  valley  of  the  Ohio, 
and  settled  the  claim  of  Great  Britain  to  that  valuable  region.  The 
Indians,  having  no  longer  the  support  and  encouragement  which  they 
had  derived  from  the  French  at  this  post,  ceased  their  hostile  efforts,  and 
during  the  remainder  of  the  war  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 
vania were  at  peace.  The  capture  of  the  fort  was  followed  by  a  large 
emigration  west  of  the  mountains,  which,  beginning  the  next  spring,  so^i 
placed  a  large  and  energetic  population  of  Englishmen  ajid  their  families 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  The  Indians,  disheartened  by  the  defeat  of 
the  French,  began  to  form  treaties  of  peace  or  neutrality  with  the 
English. 

Washington's  services  in  this  campaign  were  acknowledged  with  pride 
throughout  the  colonies,  but  the  British  government  took  no  notice  of 
them.  Not  even  Pitt,  with  all  his  appreciation  of  America,  thought  it 
worth  while  to  offer  him  any  promotion  or  reward,  as  had  been  done  in 
the  case  of  other  meritorious  provincial  commanders.  Soon  after  his 
withdrawal  frorfi  the  army  he  took  his  seat  in  the  house  of  burgesses,  to 
which  he  had  been  elected.  That  body  ordered  its  speaker  to  publicly 
thank  Colonel  Washington  in  the  name  of  the  house  and  of  the  people  of 
Virginia  for  his  services  to  his  country.  The  speaker  discharged  this 
duty  with  ease  and  dignity,  but  when  Washington  attempted  to  reply  he 
blushed  and  stammered,  and  was  unable  to  speak  a  word.  The  speaker 
relieved  his  confusion  by  coming  to  his  assistance  with  the  kind  remark, 
"Sit  down,  Mr.  Washington  ;  your  modesty  equals  your  valor,  and  that 
surpasses  the  power  of  any  language  I  possess." 

The  English  cause  was  now  more  successful  than  it  had  ever  been,  and 
Canada  was  exhausted  by  the  efforts  she  had  put  forth  for  her  defence. 
This  was  clear  to  Montcalm,  who  had  no  hope  of  holding  Xcw  France 
against  the  attacks  of  Great  Britain,  and  it  was  also  clear  to  the  far-seeing 
mind  of  Pitt.  The  British  minister,  therefore,  resolved  that  the  next 
campaign  should  be  decisive  of  the  war.  He  promptly  reimbursed  the 
colonies  for  the  expenses  incurred  by  them  during  the  past  year,  ana 
found  no  difficulty  in  enlisting  them  heartily  in  his  schemes.  Three 
expeditions  were  ordered  for  the  year  1759.  Amherst  Avas  to  advance 
by  way  of  Lake  Champlain,  and  after  capturing  Ticonderoga  and  Crown 
Point,  was  to  lay  siege  to  Montreal ;  Wolfe  was  to  ascend  the  St.  Law- 


FRESC1I  ASD  INDIAN   WAR. 


379 


rence  and  attack  Quebec,  and  was  to  be  joined  by  Amherst  if  the  latter 
should  be  successful  in  his  efforts  against  Montreal ;  and  General  Pridcanx 
was  to  proceed  by  way  of  Oswego  to  capture  Fort  Niagara,  and  then 
descend  Lake  Ontario  and  join  Amherst  at  Montreal. 

Amherst  moved  promptly  against  Ticonderoga,  which  post  was  aban- 
doned by  the  French  upon  his  approach.  Crown  Point  fell  into  his 
hands  in  the  same  manner,  but  here  the  advance  of  the  English  was 
stayed.  No  boats  had  been  provided  to  transport  the  army  down  Lake 
Champlain,  and  Amherst  was  forced  to  halt  until  these  could  be  procured. 


RUINS  OF  FORT  TICONDEROGA. 

He  was  thus  unable  to  invest  Montreal,  or  to  cooperate  with  Wolfe  in 
the  movement  against  Quebec. 

General  Prideaux  began  his  march  to  Oswego  about  the  same  time, 
and  proceeding  from  Oswego  laid  siege  to  Fort  Niagara.  He  was  killed 
by  the  bursting  of  a  gun  soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  siege,  and 
the  command  devolved  upon  Sir  William  Johnson,  who  pressed  the  attack 
with  vigor.  On  the  23cl  of  July,  1758,  the  fort  capitulated;  but  John- 
son was  obliged  to  abandon  the  attempt  to  descend  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Wolfe's  assistance  from  a  luck  of  boats  and  provisions. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UN II ED  STATES. 

The  expedition  against  Quebec  assembled  in  June,  1758,  at  Louisbr.rg, 
under  the  command  of  General  Wolfe.  It  consisted  of  eight  thousand 
troops  and  a  fleet  of  twenty-two  ships  of  the  line,  besides  frigates  and 
some  smaller  vessels.  On  the  26th  of  June  the  Isle  of  Orleans  was 
reached,  and  the  troops  were  immediately  landed.  A  short  distance  up 
ohe  river  Quebec  rose  defiantly,  its  seemingly  impregnable  citadel  of  St 
Louis  crowning  the  lofcy  cliffs  that  rose  from  the  river's  brink.  For  the 
defence  of  the  place  Montcalm  had  six  greatly  reduced  battalions  of 
regulars  and  a  force  of  Canadian  militia.  A  few  Indians  remained 
faithful  to  him ;  but  the  majority  of  the  tribes,  doubtful  of  the  issue  of 
the  contest,  preferred  to  remain  neutral.  The  French  commander,  seeing 
the  inferiority  of  his  force  to  that  of  the  English,  put  his  trust  chiefly  in 
the  natural  strength  of  his  position,  which  he  believed  would  enable  him 
to  hold  it  even  with  his  small  for*?. 

The  situation  of  Quebec  was  peculiar.  It  lay  on  a  peninsula,  between 
the  river  St.  Charles  on  the  north  and  the  St.  Lawrence  on  the  south  and 
east.  On  these  sides  it  was  perfectly  protected  by  the  river,  leaving  the 
west  side  alone  exposed.  The  lower  town  was  situated  on  the  beach,  while 
the  upper  stood  on  the  cliffs  two  hundred  feet  above  the  water,  and  above 
this  still  rose  the  castle  of  St.  Louis.  Above  the  city  the  high  promon- 
tory on  which  the  upper  town  was  built  stretched  away  for  several  miles 
in  an  elevated  plain,  and  from  the  river  to  this  plain  the  rocks  rose 
almost  perpendicularly.  Every  landing-place  was  carefully  guarded,  and 
the  whole  range  of  cliffs  seemed  bristling  with  cannon.  The  French 
commander  did  not  believe  it  possible  for  an  army  to  scale  these  cliffs. 
Montcalm  located  his  camp  below  the  city,  between  the  St.  Charles  and 
the  Montmorenci  rivers,  and  covered  the  rive*  front  of  his  position  with 
many  floating  batteries  and  ships  of  war. 

The  naval  superiority  of  the  English  at  on«,ie  gave  them  the  command 
of  the  river.  The  French  were  driven  from  Point  Levi,  opposite  the 
city,  and  upon  it  Wolfe  erected  batteries,  from  which  he  bombarded  the 
lower  town  and  soon  laid  it  in  ashes.  The  upper  town  and  the  citadel 
were  beyond  the  range  of  his  guns,  and  could  not  be  injured  by  this  fire. 

Wolfe  now  decided  to  storm  the  French  camp  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  and  in  the  month  of  July  attacked  them  from  the 
iirection  of  the  Montmorenci,  but  owing  to  the  haste  of  the  first  division, 
which  advanced  to  the  assault  before  it  could  be  properly  supported  by 
the  second,  the  attack  was  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  five  hundred  men. 
This  repulse  greatly  disheartened  the  English  commander,  whose  sensitive 
spirit  suffered  keenly  under  the  dread  that  his  enterprise  was  doomed  to 
taiiuro.  He  obtained  news  of  the  capture  of  Fort  Niagara  and  the  occu- 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR. 


381 


pation  of  Tieouderoga  and  Crown  Point,  and  eagerly  watched  for  the 
•approach  of  the  promised  assistance  from  Amherst.  It  never  came,  and 
Wolfe  saw  that  he  must  take  Quebec  by  his  own  efforts  or  not  at  all. 
He  attempted  several  diversions  above  the  city  in  the  hope  of  drawing 
iVIontcalm  from  his  intrcnchments  into  the  open  field,  bat  Ihe  latter 
otierely  sent  De  "Bougairiville  with  fifteen  hundred  men  to  ^atch  the 
shore  abov:  Quebec  and  prevent  a  landing.  Wolfe  fell  into  a  fev3r, 
caused  by  his 
anxiety,  and  his 
despatches  to  his 
government  cre- 
ated the  gravest 
uneasiness  in 
England  for  the 
success  of  his 
enterprise. 

Though  ill, 
Wolfe  examined 
the  river  with 
eagle  eyes  to  de- 
tect some  place 
at  which  a  land- 
ing could  be  at- 
terapted.  His 
energy  was  re- 
warded by  his 
discovery  of  the 
cove  which  now 
bears  his  name. 
From  the  shore 
at  the  head  of 
this  cove  a  steep 
and  difficult 

pathway,  along  which  two  men  could  scarcely  march  abreast,  wound  up  til 
the  summit  of  the  heights,  and  was  guarded  by  a  small  force  of 
Canadians.  Wolfe  at  once  resolved  to  effect  a,  landing  here  and  ascend 
the  heights  by  this  path.  The  greatest  secrecy  was  necessary  to  lie  suc- 
cess of  the  undertaking,  and  in  order  to  deceive  the  French  as  to  his  real 
design,  Captain  Cook,  afterwards  famouo  as  a  great  navigator,  was  sent 
to  take  soundings  and  place  buoys  opposite  Montcalm's  camp,  as  if 
that  were  to  be  the  real  point  of  attack.  The  morning  of  the  13th  of 


GENERAL  JAMES  WOLFE. 


382  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

(September  was  chosen  for  the  movement,  and  the  day  and  night  of  the 
12th  were  spent  in  preparations  for  it. 

At  one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  13;.h,  a  force  of  about  five 
thousand  men  under  Wolfe,  with  Moncktou  and  Murray,  set  off  in  boats 
from  the  fleet,  which  had  ascended  the  river  several  days  before,  anj 
Jropped  down  to  the  point  designated  for  the  landing.  Each  officer  w?& 
thoroughly  informed  of  the  duties  required  of  him,  and  each  shared  tho 
r  'solution  of  the  gallant  young  commander,  to  conquer  or  die.  As  thr 
boats  floated  down  the  stream,  in  the  cliiar,  cool  starlight,  Wolfe  spoke  to 
his  officers  of  the  poet  Gray,  and  of  his  "Elegy  in  a  Country  Church- 
yard." '*  I  would  prefer,"  said  he,  "  being  the  author  of  that  poem  to 
the  glory  of  beating  the  French  to-morrow."  Then  in  a  musing  voice 
he  repeated  the  lines : 

"The  boast  of  heraldry,  the  pomp  of  power, 

And  all  that  beauty,  all  that  wealth  e'er  gave, 
Await  alike  the  inexorable  hour ; 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave." 

In  a  short  while  the  landing-place  was  reached,  and  the  fleet,  follow- 
ing silently,  took  position  to  cover  the  landing  if  necessary.  Wolfe 
and  his  immediate  command  leaped  ashore,  and  secured  the  pathway. 
The  light  infantry,  who  were  carried  by  the  tide  a  little  below  the  path, 
clambered  up  the  side  of  the  heights,  sustaining  themselves  by  clinging 
to  the  roots  and  shrubs  which  lined  the  precipitous  face  of  the  hill. 
They  reached  the  summit  and  drove  off  the  picket-guard  after  a  slight 
skirmish.  The  rest  of  the  troops  ascended  in  safety  by  the  pathway,  and 
a  battery  of  two  guns  was  abandoned  on  the  left  to  Colonel  Howe. 
Having  gained  the  heights,  Wolfe  moved  forward  rapidly  to  clear  the 
forest,  and  by  daybreak  his  army  was  drawn  up  on  the  Heights  of 
Abraham,  in  the  rear  of  the  city. 

Montcalm  was  speedily  informed  «f  the  presence  of  the  English.  *•  It 
can  be  but  a  small  party  oome  to  burii  a  few  housr  and  retire,"  he 
answered  incredulously.  A  brief  examination  satisfied  him  of  his  danger 
and  he  exclaimed  in  amazement :  "  Then  they  have  at  last  got  to  the  weak 
side  of  this  miserable  garrison.  We  must  give  battle  and  crush  them 
before  mid-day."  He  at  once  despatched  a  messenger  for  De  Bougain- 
ville, who  was  fifteen  miles  up  the  river,  and  marched  from  his  camp 
opposite  the  city  to  the  Heights  of  Abraham,  to  drive  the  English  from 
them.  The  opposing  forces  were  about  equal  in  numbers,  though  the 
English  troops  were  superior  to  their  adversaries  in  steadiness  and  deter- 
mination. The  battle  began  about  ten  o'olock,  and  was  stubbornly  con- 
tasted.  It  was  at  length  decided  in  favor  of  the  English.  Wolfe,  though 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN   WAR.  £$?, 

wounded  several  times,  continued  to  direct  his  army  until,  as  he  was 
loading  them  to  the  final  charge,  he  received  a  musket  ball  in  the  breast. 
He  tottered,  and  called  to  an  officer  near  him :  "Support  me;  let  not  my 
brave  fellows  see  me  drop."  He  was  borne  tenderly  to  the  rear,  and 
Water  was  brought  him  to  quench  his  thirst.  At  this  moment  ths  offi^r 
ipon  whom  he  was  leaning  cried  out :  "  They  run !  they  run  ! v  "  Who 
run  ?  "  asked  the  dying  hero,  eagerly.  "  The  French,"  said  the  officer, 
1  give  way  everywhere."  "  What  ?  "  said  Wolfe,  summoning  up  lik 


DEATH  OF  GENEBAL  WOLFE  BEFORE  QUEBEC. 

remaining  strength,  "  do  they  run  already  ?  Go,  one  of  you,  to  Colone. 
Burton  ;  bid  him  march  Webb's  regiment  with  all  speed  to  Charles  river 
to  cut  off  the  fugitives."  Then,  a  smile  of  contentment  overspreading 
his  pale  features,  he  murmured :  "  Now,  God  be  praised,  I  die  happy/' 
and  expired.  He  had  done  his  whole  duty,  and  with  his  life  had  pur- 
chased an  empire  for  his  country. 

Monckton,  the  second  in  rank,  having  been  wounded,  the  command 
devolved  upon  General  Townshend,  a  brave  officer,  but  incapable  of 
following  up  HUxh  a  success  with  vigor.  He  recalled  the  troops  from  the 


384  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

pursuit,  and  contented  himself  with  the  possession  of  the  battle-field. 
At  this  moment  De  Bougainville  arrived  with  his  division,  but  Towu- 
shend  declined  to  renew  the  engagement. 

Montcalm  had  borne  himself  heroically  during  the  battle,  and  had 
done  all  that  a  brave  and  skilful  commander  could  do  to  win  the  victory. 
As  he  was  endeavoring  to  rally  his  troops  at  their  final  repulse,  he  was 
wounded  for  the  second  time,  and  was  carried  into  the  city.  The  surgeon 
informed  him  that  his  wound  was  mortal.  "  So  much  the  better,"  he 
answered  cheerfully ;  "  I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  surrender  of  Quebec." 
De  Ramsay,  thq  commandant  of  the  post,  asked  his  advice  about  the 
defence  of  the  city.  "  To  your  keeping,"  answered  Montcalm,  "  I  com- 
mend the  honor  of  France.  I  will  neither  give  orders  nor  interfere  any 
further.  I  have  business  of  greater  moment  to  attend  to.  My  time  is 
short.  I  shall  pass  the  night  with  God,  and  prepare  myself  for  death." 
He  then  wrote  a  letter  to  the  English  commander,  commending  the 
French  prisoners  to  his  generosity,  and  at  five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
the  14th  his  spirit  passed  away.  Succeeding  generations  have  paid  to 
his  memory  the  honors  it  deserves,  and  on  the  spot  where  the  fate  of 
Quebec  was  decided  the  people  of  Canada  have  erected,  to  commemorate 
the  heroism  of  the  conqueror  and  the  conquered,  a  noble  monument 
inscribed  with  the  names  of  WOLFE  and  MONTCALM. 

The  French  lost  five  hundred  killed  and  one  thousand  prisoners,  while 
the  loss  of  the  English  was  six  hundred  in  killed  and  wounded.  Five 
days  afterward,  on  the  18th  of  September,  the  city  and  garrison  of  Quebec 
surrendered  to  General  Townshend.  The  capture  of  this  great  strong- 
hold was  hailed  with  rejoicings  in  both  America  and  Eng-and.  Con- 
gratulations were  showered  upon  Pitt,  wrho  modestly  put  them  aside  with 
the  reverent  remark  :  "  I  will  aim  to  serve  my  country ;  but  the  more  a 
man  is  versed  in  business,  the  more  he  finds  the  hand  of  Providence 
everywhere." 

In  April,  1760,  De  Levi,  the  French  commander  at  Montreal,  attacked 
Quebec  with  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men,  hoping  to  reduce  it  before  the 
arrival  of  reinforcements  from  England.  Murray,  the  English  com- 
mander, marched  out  with  three  thousand  men  to  attack  him,  and  in  a 
severe  battle  on  the  26th  of  April  was  defeated  and  driven  back  to  the 
city  with  a  loss  of  one  thousand  men.  The  French  then  laid  siege  to 
Quebec,  but  on  the  9th  of  May  an  English  fleet  arrived  to  its  relief,  and 
De  Levi  was  obliged  to  withdraw  to  Montreal.  In  September  Montreal 
itself  was  invested  by  a  powerful  force  under  General  Amherst.  Seeing 
that  there  was  no  hope  of  resistance,  the  French  commander  surrendered 
the  town  on  the  8th  of  September,  1760.  With  this  capture  Canada 


VRESCB  AND  INDIAN    WAR.  385 

passed  entirely  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  Detroit  and  the  other 
posts  on  the  lakes  were  soon  given  up  by  the  French,  and  the  dominion 
of  France  in  America  was  confined  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

*  II 

There  were  no  further  hostilities  between  the  English  and  French,  but, 
is  we  shall  see,  the  war  was  kept  up  by  the  Indians  for  some  years  later. 

The  French  and  Indian  war  was  closed  by  the  treaty  of  Paris,  on  the 
10th  of  February,  1763.  By  this  treaty  Great  Britain  obtained  all  the 
French  territory  east  of  the  Mississippi,  with  the  exception  of  the  island 
of  New  Orleans,  the  northern  boundary  of  which  was  the  rivers  Iberville 
and  Amit£,  and  Lakes  Maurepas  and  Pontchartrain.  Florida  was  ceded 
to  England  by  Spain  in  exchange  for  Havana.  France  ceded  to  Spain 
the  island  of  New  Orleans  and  all  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
Thus  Great  Britain  was  mistress  of  the  whole  of  the  vast  region  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  with  the  exception  of  the  island  of  New  Orleans,  from 
the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  region  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi was  claimed  by  Spain.  In  ill  the  vast  continent  of  America 
France  retained  not  one  foot  of  ground. 

In  the  meantime  the  Indians  of  the  southwest  had  become  involved  in 
war  with  the  whites.  The  Cherokees,  who  had  always  been  friendly  to 
the  English,  had  done  good  service  during  the  early  part  of  the  war  by 
protecting  the  frontiers  of  Virginia,  and  had  served  also  in  Forbes' 
expedition  against  Fort  Duquesne.  They  received  for  their  services  no 
reward  or  pay  from  any  source,  and  as  they  were  setting  out  for  their 
homes  neither  General  Forbes  nor  the  colonial  authorities  supplied  them 
with  either  food  or  money.  To  avoid  starvation  on  their  march  they 
were  compelled  to  plunder  the  barns  of  some  of  the  settlers,  and  this  led 
to  a  conflict  which  rapidly  spread  into  a  border  war.  Lyttleton,  the  gov- 
ernor of  South  Carolina,  exerted  himself  to  prevent  the  restoration  of 
peace,  and  with  success,  as  he  desired  the  credit  of  exterminating  the 
Cherokees.  He  was  opposed  by  the  legislature  and  people  of  the  colony, 
but  in  1759  he  sent  a  force  into  their  country,  which  committed  such 
ravages  that  the  Cherokees,  driven  to  despair,  resolved  upon  a  war  of 
extermination.  They  made  a  league  with  the  Muscogees,  and  sent  to  the 
French  in  Louisiana  for  military  stores.  The  Carolinians  asked  aid 
of  General  Amherst,  who  sent  them  a  force  of  twelve  hundred  men, 
principally  Highlanders,  under  General  Montgomery.  Reinforced  by  a 
body  of  Carolinians,  Montgomery  invaded  the  Cherokee  country  in  1760, 
and  laid  it  waste.  This  tribe  had  made  great  advances  in  civilization, 
and  had  settled  in  villages,  and  engaged  in  the  cultivation  of  their  lauds. 
Their  homes  were  made  desolate,  and  they  were  driven  to  the  mountains. 
Montgomery  then  rejoined  Amherst,  in  the  north,  in  obedience  to  orders ; 
25 


•>86  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

but  the  Indians  for  many  years  maintained  a  desultory  warfare  along  tho 
southwestern  border. 

The  surrender  of  Canada  to  the  English  was  viewed  with  the  greatest 
disfavor  by  the  Indians  of  the  north  and  west,  who  were  attached  to  the 
French,  and  were  unwilling  to  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  English.  Im- 
mediately after  the  surrender  the  English  occupied  all  the  French  posts 
along  the  lakes,  and  in  the  Ohio  valley,  with  small  garrisons.  The  con 
trast  between  these  and  the  French,  who  had  formerly  held  these  forts, 
soon  impressed  itself  forcibly  upon  the  minds  of  the  savages.  The 
French  had  been  friendly  and  kind  to  the  Indians,  and  had  sought  to 
convert  them  to  Christianity ;  the  English  were  haughty  and  domineer- 
ing, and  insulted  their  priests,  and  denounced  their  religion.  The  French 
had  prohibited  the  sale  of  rum  to  the  Indians ;  the  English  introduced 
it,  and  finding  it  profitable  continued  it,  with  a  recklessness  of  conse- 
quences which  did  not  escape  the  keen  observation  of  the  savages.  The 
demoralization  of  the  red  men  was  rapid,  and  drunkenness  and  its  attend- 
ant vices  wrought  sad  changes  in  them.  The  tribes  were  bitterly  hostile 
to  the  men  who  were  ruining  their  people,  and  all  were  alarmed  by  the 
rapidity  with  which  emigration  had  been  pouring  over  the  mountains 
since  the  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne.  They  saw  that  they  were  about  to 
be  driven  from  their  homes,  and  forced  westward,  before  the  advancing 
tide  of  the  whites. 

The  most  determined  opponent  of  the  English  rule  was  Pontiac,  a 
^hief  of  the  Ottawas.  He  was  a  Catawba  by  birth,  had  been  brought 
from  his  native  country  as  a  prisoner,  and  had  been  adopted  into  the 
Ottawa  tribe,  whose  chief  he  had  become  by  his  bravery  and  skill.  He 
was  the  idol  of  his  own  people,  and  his  influence  over  the  neighboring 
tribes  was  boundless.  He  was  styled  "  the  king  and  lord  of  all  the 
country  of  the  northwest,"  and  bitterly  resented  the  English  occupation 
of  his  dominions.  The  first  English  officer  who  came  to  take  possession 
of  the  French  forts  was  received  by  him  with  the  stern  demand,  "  How 
dare  you  come  to  visit  my  country  without  my  leave?"  This  "forest 
hero"  now  resolved  to  unite  all  the  tribes  cf  the  northwest  in  ajast  de- 
termined effort  to  drive  out  the  English,  and  regain  the  independence  of 
the  red  man.  The  plan  of  operations  which  lie  adopted  was  most  ccm- 
prahensive,  and  was  the  most  remarkable  exhibition  of  genuine  leadership 
ever  given  by  an  Indian.  He  began  negotiations  with  the  neighboring 
tribes,  and  induced  the  Delawares,  Shawnees,  the  Senecas,  Miamis,  and 
many  of  the  smaller  tribes,  occupying  the  great  region  of  the  upper 
\akes,  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  a  portion  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  to 
join  his  people  in  their  effort  against  the  English.  He  sent  a  prophet  to 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WAR. 


387 


all  the  tribes  to  declare  to  them  that  the  Great  Spirit  had  revealed  to  him 
"  that  if  the  English  were  permitted  to  dwell  in  their  midst,  then  th'j 
white  man's  diseases  and  poisons  would  utterly  destroy  them."  The  con- 
spiracy was  pressed  forward  with  energy,  and  though  it  was  more  than  a 
year  in  forming,  it  was  kept  a  profound  secret. 

The  principal  post  on  the  upper  lakes  was  Detroit.  It  was  surrounded 
by  a  numerous  French  population  engaged  in  agriculture  and  trading 
it  was  the  centre  of  the  trade  of  this  region,  and  its  possession  was  of 
the  highest  importance  to  the  English.  Pontiac  was  anxious  to  obtain 
possession  of  this  fort,  and 
sent  word  to  Major  Gladwin, 
the  commandant,  that  he  was 
coming  on  a  certain  day,  with 
his  warriors,  to  have  a  talk 
with  him.  The  chief  was 
resolved  to  make  this  visit 
*,he  occasion  of  seizing  the 
fort,  and  massacring  the  gar- 
rison ;  and  he  and  his  warriors 
selected  for  the  attempt  cut 
down  their  rifles  to  a  length 
which  enabled  them  to  con-  j 
ceal  them  under  their  blankets,  f 
in  order  to  enter  the  fort  with  | 
their  arms.  The  plot  was  re-  ^ 
vealed  to  Gladwin  by  an  In- 
dian girl,  whose  affections 
had  been  won  by  one  of  the 
English  officers,  and  when 
Pontiac  and  his  warriors  re- 
paired to  the  fort  for  their 
"talk"  Gladwin  made  him 
aware  that  his  conspiracy  was 
mitted  him  to  leave  the  fort  in 


PONTIAC. 


discovered,  and  very  unwisely   per 
safety.     Pontiac   now   threw  off  the. 
mask  of  friendship  and  boldly  attacked  Detroit.     This  was  the  signal 
for  a  general  war.     In  about  three  weeks'  time  the  savages  surprised  and 
captured  every  fort  west  of  Niagara,  with  the  exception  of  Detroit  and 
Pittsburgh.     The  garrisons  were,  with  a  few  exceptions,  put  to  death. 
Over  one  hundred  traders  were  killed  and  scalped  in  the  woods,  and  more 
than  five  hundred  families  were  driven,  with  the  loss  of  many  of  then- 
numbers,  from  their  settlements  on  the  frontier.     Pontiac  endeavored,. 


333  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

without  success,  to  capture  Detroit,-and  a  large  force  of  the  warriors  of 
several  of  the  tribes  laid  siege  to  Pittsburgh,  the  most  important  post  in 
the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  The  ravages  of  the  Indians  were  extended  over 
che  wide  territory  between  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi,  and  the  settle- 
ments in  that  region  were  for  the  time  completely  broken  up. 

General  Bouquet,  with  a  force  of  five  hundred  men,  consisting  chieflj 
of  Scotch  Highlanders,  was  sent  from  eastern  Pennsylvania  to  the  relief 
of  Fort  Ligonier,  which  was  located  at  the  western  base  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  of  Pittsburgh.  Their  march  lay  through  a  region  which  had 
been  desolated  by  the  Indians,  and  they  were  obliged  to  depend  upon  the 
stores  they  carried  with  them.  Upon  i  caching  Fort  Ligonier  Bouquet 
found  the  communication  with  Pittsburgh  cut  off,  and  could  learn  nothing 
of  the  fate  of  the  fort  or  garrison.  Leaving  his  cattle  and  wagons  at 
Ligonier,  he  pushed  forward  with  his  men  in  light  marching  order,  deter- 
mined to  ascertain  if  Pittsburgh  still  held  out.  He  had  to  fight  his  way 
through  the  Indians,  who  turned  aside  from  the  siege  of  the  fort,  and 
ambushed  the  Highlanders  at  nearly  every  step.  They  were  overwhelm- 
ingly defeated  by  the  gallant  Highlanders,  for  Bouquet  was  now  a  veteran 
Indian  fighter,  and  had  learned  to  fight  the  savages  with  f heir  own  tactics. 
Their  rout  was  complete,  and  Bouquet  reached  Pittsburgh  in  safety,  to  the 
great  joy  of  the  garrison. 

Bouquet's  victory  was  decisive.  The  Indians  were  utterly  disheart- 
ened, and  fled  westward ;  and  from  that  day  the  Ohio  valley  was  freed 
from  their  violence.  The  tide  of  emigration  once  more  began  to  flow 
over  the  mountains,  and  this  time  it  was  to  know  no  cessation.  The 
tribes  concerned  in  Pontiac's  conspiracy  lost  hope,  and  were  overawed  by 
the  preparations  of  the  English  for  their  destruction,  and  began  to  with- 
draw from  the  confederacy,  and  make  peace  with  the  whites.  Pontiac 
soon  found  himself  deserted  by  all  his  followers,  even  by  his  own  people ; 
but  his  proud  spirit  would  not  brook  the  thought  of  submission.  He 
would  make  no  treaty ;  he  was  the  mortal  foe  of  the  English,  and  would 
never  acknowledge  their  rule.  Leaving  his  home  and  his  people,  he  set 
out  for  the  country  of  the  Illinois,  for  the  purpose  of  stirring  up  the 
more  distant  tribes  to  war.  A  proclamation  from  Lord  Amherst  offered 
a  reward  for  his  murder,  and  he  soon  fell,  the  victim  of  the  hired 
\ssassin. 

The  long  war  was  over.  It  had  brought  both  loss  and  gain  to  tlu 
colonies.  It  had  involved  them  in  an  expenditure  of  $16,000,000,  of 
which  sum  but  $5,000,000  had  been  refunded  by  the  English  govern- 
ment. Thus  the  debts  of  the  colonies  were  greatly  increased.  Thirty 
thousand  men  had  been  killed,  or  had  died  from  wounds  or  disease  dur- 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN    WAR  339 

ing  the  war,  and  the  sufferings  of  the  settlers  along  the  extended  and 
exposed  frontiers  had  been  almost  incalculable. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  war  had  greatly  increased  the  business  of  the 
colonies,  especially  in  those  of  the  north.  Large  sums  had  been  spent  in 
America  by  Great  Britain  for  the  support  of  her  armies  and  fleets,  and 
many  fortunes  were  built  up  by  enterprising  men  during  this  period, 
Above  all  the  Americans  had  been  taught  their  own  strength,  and  the 
value  of  united  action.  They  had  often  proved  their  superiority  to  tho 
regular  troops  of  the  English  army,  and  had  learned  valuable  lessons  in 
the  art  of  war.  In  the  long  struggle  Washington,  Gates,  Morgan,  Mont- 
gomery, Stark,  Putnam,  and  others  were  trained  for  the  great  work 
which  was  to  be  required  of  them  in  future  years.  The  colonies  were 
bound  together  by  a  common  grievance,  arising  out  of  the  haughty  con- 
tempt with  which  the  royal  commanders  treated  the  provincial  troops, 
and  sacrificed  their  interests  to  those  of  the  regulars.  The  lesson  that 
the  colonies  could  do  without  tho  assistance  of  England,  and  that  their 
true  interests  demanded  a  separation  from  her,  was  deeply  implanted  in 
the  minds  of  many  of  the  leading  men.  Another  gain  for  the  colonies 
was  a  positive  increase  in  their  liberties,  resulting  from  the  war.  The 
necessity  of  securing  the  cordial  cooperation  of  the  Americans  during  the 
struggle  caused  the  royal  governors  to  cease  their  efforts  to  enforce  arbi- 
trary laws,  during  the  existence  of  hostilities',  as  the  enforcement  of  such 
measures  would  have  alienated  the  colonists,  and  have  prevented  them 
from  raising  the  needed  supplies  of  men  and  money.  The  colonial 
assemblies  were  careful  to  take  advantage  of  this  state  of  affairs.  They 
made  their  grants  of  supplies  with  great  caution,  and  retained  in  their 
own  hands  all  the  disbursements  of  the  public  funds.  They  thus  accus- 
tomed the  people  to  the  practices  of  free  government,  and  taught  them 
their  rights  in  the  matter,  so  that  when  the  war  closed  the  royal  gov- 
ernors found  that  they  were  no  longer  able  to  practise  their 
tyranny. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

>.  CAUSES  OF   THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 

Injustice  of  Great  Britain  towards  her  Colonies — The  Navigation  Acts — Effects  of  these 
Laws  upon  the  Colonies. — Great  Britain  seeks  to  destroy  the  Manufactures  of  America- 
Writs  of  Assistance — They  are  Opposed  —  Home  Manufactures  Encouraged  by  the 
Americans — Ignorance  of  Englishmen  concerning  America — Great  Britain  claims  the 
Bight  to  Tax  America — Resistance  of  the  Colonists — Samuel  Adams— The  Parsons' 
Cause — Patrick  Henry — England  persists  in  her  Determination  to  Tax  America — Pas- 
sage of  the  Stamp  Act — Resistance  of  the  Colonies — Meeting  of  the  First  Colonial  Con- 
gress— Its  Action — William-JPitt— -Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act — Franklin  before  the  House 
of  Commons — New  Taxes  imposed  upon  America — Increased  Resistance  of  the  Colonies 
— Troops  quartered  in  Boston — The  "  Massacre" — The  Non-Importation  Associations — 
Growth  of  Hostility  to  England — Burning  of  the  "  Gaspe  " — The  Tax  on  Tea  retained 
by  the  King— Destruction  of  Tea  at  Boston — Wrath  of  the  British  Government — Boston , 
Harbor  Closed — Troops  Quartered  in  Boston — The  Colonies  come  to  the  Assistance  of 
Boston — Action  of  the  Virginia  Assembly — General  Gage  in  Boston — The  Regulating 
Act — Its  Failure — Gage  seizes  the  Massachusetts  Powder — Uprising  of  the  Colony — 
Meeting  of  the  Continental  Congress — Its  Action — Addresses  to  the  King  and  People  of 
England  —  The  Earl  of  Chatham's  Indorsement  of  Congress  —  The  King  remains 
Stubborn. 

HE  treaty  of  Paris  placed  England  in  control  of  the  North 
American  continent  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  English 
government  was  of  the  opinion  that  this  possession  brought  with 
it  the  right  to  treat  America  as  it  pleased,  without  regard  to  the 
rights  or  liberties  of  her  people.  We  have  already  considered 
some  of  the  many  acts  of  injustice  by  which  Great  Britain  drove  the 
colonies  into  rebellion  against  her.  We  have  now  to  relate  those  bearing 
more  immediately  on  the  separation. 

The  navigation  acts  of  1660  and  1663  were  passed,  as  we  have  seen, 
for  the  purpose  of  crippling  the  commerce  of  the  colonies,  and  confirming 
their  dependence  upon  England.  They  were  severely  felt  throughout  all 
the  colonies,  and  especially  in  New  England,  which  was  largely  de- 
pendent upon  its  commerce.  These  acts  were  the  beginning  of  a  policy 
deliberately  adopted  by  England,  and  persisted  in  by  her  for  more  than 
a  century,  for  the  purpose  of  enriching  her  mercantile  class  by  depriving 
the  colonists  of  the  just  rewards  of  their  labors.  The  Americans  were 
regarded  by  the  mother  country  as  inferiors,  and  as  dependents,  who  had 
390 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  391 

been  planted  by  her  in  "  settlements  established  in  distant  parts  of  the 
world  for  the  benefit  of  trade."  The  natural  right  of  all  men  to  acquire 
property  and  wealth  by  the  exercise  of  their  industry  was  denied  to 
them;  they  were  to  labor  only  that  the  British  merchant  might  grow 
rich  at  their  expense.  Every  species  of  industry  in  America,  save  the 
mere  cultivation  of  the  soil,  was  to  be  heavily  taxed  that  it  might  be 
crushed  out  of  existence.  The  Americans  were  to  be  obliged  to  ship 
(heir  products  to  England  for  sale,  and  to  be  compelled  to  purchase  in 
her  markets  the  supplies  they  needed.  No  foreign  country  might  trade 
directly  with  the  colonies.  Such  articles  of  foreign  production  as  were 
needed  must  be  shipped  to  England,  and  then  transferred  to  British  ves- 
sels for  transportation  to  the  colonies,  in  order  that  they  might  yield  a 
profit  to  the  English  ship-owner.  The  only  direct  trade  which  was 
allowed,  and  was  not  taxed,  was  the  infamous  traffic  in  negro  slaves, 
against  which  every  colony  protested,  and  which  Great  Britain  compelled 
them  to  accept.  Even  the  trees  in  the  "  free  woods,"  suitable  for  masts, 
were  claimed  by  the  king,  and  marked  by  his  "  surveyer-general  of 
woods."  It  was  a  criminal  offence  to  cut  one  of  them  after  being  so 
marked. 

In  spite  of  these  outrages  the  colonies  persisted  in  their  efforts  to 
establish  manufactures  and  a  commerce  of  their  own.  As  early  as  1643 
iron  works  were  established  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  1721  the  New  Eng- 
land colonies  contained  six  furnaces,  and  nineteen  forges.  Pennsylvania 
was  still  more  largely  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  this  metal,  and  ex- 
ported large  quantities  of  it  to  other  colonies.  By  the  year  1756  there 
were  eight  furnaces  and  nine  forges,  for  smelting  copper,  in  operation  in 
Maryland.  In  1721  the  British  ironmasters  endeavored  to  induce  Par- 
liament to  put  a  stop  to  the  production  of  iron  in  America,  but  without 
success.  In  1750  they  were  more  successful.  In  that  year  an  act  of 
Parliament  forbade,  under  heavy  penalties,  the  exportation  of  pig-iron 
from  America  to  England,  and  the  manufacture  by  the  Americans  of  bar- 
iron  or  steel  for  their  own  use.  All  the  iron  works  in  the  colonies  were 
ordered  to  be  closed,  and  any  that  might  afterwards  be  erected  were  to  be 
destroyed  as  "  nuisances." 

Some  of  the  colonies  had  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  woollen 
goods,  and  the  making  of  hats  had  become  a  very  large  and  profitable 
business.  In  1732  Parliament  forbade  the  transportation  of  woollen 
.roods  of  American  manufacture  from  one  colony  to  another,  and  the 
same  restriction  was  placed  upon  the  trade  in  hats.  As  an  excuse  for 
this  outrage  it  was  argued  that  as  the  Americans  had  an  unlimited  sup- 
ply of  beaver  and  other  furs  open  to  them,  they  would  soon  be  able  to 


392  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

supply  all  Euro]>c,  as  well  as  themselves,  with  hats.  England  was  nn- 
willing  that  America  should  manufacture  a  single  article  which  she  could 
supply,  and  in  order  to  cripple  the  industry  of  the  colonies  still  further 
it  was  enacted  by  Parliament  that  no  manufacturer  should  employ  more 
than  two  apprentices.  In  1733  the  famous  "  Molasses  Act"  was  passed, 
imposing  a  duty  on  sugar,  molasses,  or  rum  imported  into  any  of  the 
British  possessions  from  any  foreign  colony.  The  object  of  this  act  was 
to  benefit  the  British  West  India  possessions  by  .compelling  the  North 
American  colonies  to  trade  with  them. 

In  order  to  enforce  the  various  restrictions  upon  the  trade  of  the 
colonies  Great  Britain  established  in  America  a  large  force  of  customs 
officers,  who  were  given  unlawful  powers  for  this  purpose.  Parliament 
enacted  that  any  sheriff  or  officer  of  the  customs,  who  suspected  that  mer- 
chandise imported  into  the  colony  in  which  he  was  stationed  had  not 
paid  the  duty  required  by  law,  might  apply  to  the  colonial  courts  for  a 
search  warrant,  or  "  writ  of  assistance,"  and  enter  a  store  or  private 
dwelling  and  search  for  the  goods  he  suspected  of  being  unlawfully  im- 
ported. These  writs  were  first  used  in  Massachusetts  in  1761,  and 
aroused  a  storm  of  indignation  from  the  people,  who  felt  that  their 
most  sacred  rights  were  being  violated  by  them.  They  were  resisted, 
and  the  case  was  carried  before  the  courts  in  order  to  test  their  validity. 
James  Otis,  the  attorney  for  the  crown,  resigned  his  office  rather  than 
argue  in  behalf  of  them,  and  with  great  eloquence  pleaded  the  cause  of 
the  people.  His  speech  created  a  profound  impression  thoughout  the 
colonies,  and  aroused  a  determination  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-citizens 
to  oppose  the  other  enactments  of  Parliament  which  they  felt  to  be  un- 
just. This  trial  was  fatal  to  the  writs,  which  were  scarcely  ever  used 
afterwards.  "  Then  and  there,"  says  John  Adams,  "  was  the  first  opposi- 
tion to  arbitrary  acts  of  Great  Britain.  Then  and  there  American 
Independence  was  born." 

The  spirit  of  opposition  soon  manifested  itself  in  the  New  England 
colonies.  The  manufactures,  trade,  and  fisheries  of  that  section  were 
almost  ruined,  and  the  people  had  no  choice  but  to  defend  themselves. 
Associations  were  formed  in  all  the  colonies  pledging  themselves  not  tc. 
purchase  of  English  manufacturers  anything  but  the  absolute  necessities 
of  life.  Families  began  to  make  their  own  linen  and  woollen-cloths,  and 
to  preserve  sheep  for  their  wool.  Homespun  garments  became  the  dress 
of  the  patriot  party,  and  foreign  cloths  were  almost  driven  out  of  use. 
It  was  resolved  to  encourage  home  manufactures  in  every  possible  way, 
and  associations  were  formed  for  this  purpose.  These  measures  became 
very  popular,  and  were  adopted  by  the  other  colonies  in  rapid  succession. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  393 

England  was  blind  to  these  signs  of  alienation  and  danger,  and  such 
of  her  public  men  as  saw  them  regarded  them  as  of  no  importance.  It 
was  resolved  to  go  still  further,  and  levy  direct  taxes  upon  the  colonies. 
In  1763  such  a  proposition  was  brought  forward  by  the  ministers.  It 
was  claimed  by  them  that  as  the  debt  of  England  had  been  largely  in- 
creased by  the  French  war,  which  had  been  fought  in  their  defence,  it  was 
but  right  that  they  should  help  to  defray  the  expense  by  paying  a  tax  to 
the  English  government. 

In  the  meantime  the  colonies  had  warmly  discussed  the  intentions  of 
Great  Britain  respecting  them,  and  all  strenuously  denied  the  right  of  the 
mother  country  to  tax  them  without  granting  them  some  form  of  repre- 
sentation in  her  government.  They  claimed  the  right  to  have  a  voice  in 
the  disposal  of  their  property,  and  they  regarded  the  design  of  Parlia- 
ment as  but  a  new  proof  of  the  indisposition  of  the  mother  country  to 
treat  them  with  justice.  The  feeling  of  the  Americans  towards  England 
at  this  period  has  been  aptly  described  as  "distrust  and  suspicion, 
strangely  mixed  up  with  filial  reverence — an  instinctive  sense  of  injury, 
instantly  met  by  the  instinctive  suggestion  that  there  must  be  some  con- 
stitutional reason  for  doing  it,  or  it  would  not  be  done."  In  spite  of  the 
injuries  they  had  received  at  her  hands  the  Americans  were  warmly 
attached  to  England.  They  gloried  in  her  triumphs,  were  proud  to  trace 
their  descent  from  her,  and  claimed  a  share  in  her  great  history  and  grand 
achievements.  Had  England  been  wise  she  might  have  strengthened  this 
attachment  to  such  an  extent  that  the  ties  which  bound  the  two  countries 
could  never  have  been  sundered.  But  England  was  not  only  careless  of 
the  rights  of  Americans,  she  was  grossly  ignorant  of  their  country  and 
of  their  character.  "  Few  Englishmen  had  accurate  ideas  of  the  nature, 
the  extent,  or  even  the  position  of  the  colonies.  And  when  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  hurried  to  the  king  with  the  information  that  Cape  Breton 
was  an  island,  he  did  what  perhaps  half  his  colleagues  in  the  ministry, 
and  more  than  half  his  colleagues  in  Parliament,  would  have  done  in  his 
place.  They  knew  that  the  colonies  were  of  vast  extent ;  that  they  lay 
far  away  beyond  the  sea ;  that  they  produced  many  things  which  Eng- 
lishmen wanted  to  buy,  and  consumed  many  things  which  Englishmen 
wanted  to  sell ;  that  English  soldiers  had  met  England's  hereditary  ene- 
mies, the  French,  in  their  forests;  that  English  sailors  had  beaten  French 
sailors  on  their  coasts.  But  they  did  not  know  that  the  most  flourishing 
of  these  colonies  had  been  planted  by  men  who,  prizing  freedom  above 
all  other  blessings,  had  planted  them  in  order  to  secure  for  themselves 
and  their  children  a  home  in  which  they  could  worship  God  according 
to  their  own  idea  of  worship,  and  put  forth  the  strength  of  their  minds 


394 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


and  of  their  bodies,  according  to  their  own  conception  of  what  was  best 
for  them  here  and  hereafter."  *  The  few  Americans  who  visited  Great 
Britain  found  themselves  looked  upon  as  aliens  and  inferiors ;  their  affec- 
tion for  the  land  of  their  fathers  was  met  with  contempt,  and  they  were 
ridiculed  as  barbarians.  The  English  colonial  officials  made  this  feeling 
apparent  to  those  Americans  who  remained  at  home.  Everywhere  the 
colonists  saw  themselves  treated  with  injustice.  The  hind-earned  glories 
of  their  troops  in  the  colonial  wars  were  denied  them  and  claimed  for 
the  English  regulars,  and  there  was  scarcely  a  provincial  who  had  borne 
arms  but  had  some  petty  insult  or  injury,  at  the  hands  of  the  royal 
authorities,  to  complain  of.  Looking  back  over  their  history  the  Ameri- 
cans could  not  remember 
a  time  when  they  had 
not  been  treated  with  in- 
justice by  Great  Britain. 
They  owed  that  country 
nothing  for  the  planting 
of  the  colonies ;  that  was 
the  work  of  their  ances- 
tors, who  had  been  forced 


to  fly  from  England  to 
escape  wrong  and  injury. 
They  had  been  left  to 
conquer  their  early  diffi- 
culties without  aid,  and 
with  scanty  sympathy 
from  England,  who  had 
taken  no  notice  of  them 
SAMUEL  ADAMS.  until  they  were  suffi- 

ciently prosperous  to  be 

profitable  to  her.  Then  she  had  rarely  laid  her  hand  upon  them  but  to 
wrong  them.  She  had  pursued  such  a  uniformly  unjust  policy  towards 
them  that  their  affection  for  her  was  rapidly  giving  way  to  a  general  de- 
sire to  separate  from  her.  They  owed  her  nothing ;  they  were  resolved 
to  maintain  their  liberties  against  her.  Some  of  the  leading  men  of  the 
colony  had  already  begun  to  dream  of  the  future  greatness  of  America, 
and  had  become  convinced  that  the  true  interests  of  their  country 
required  a  separation  from  England. 

In  spite  of  this  feeling  England  persisted  in  her  course  of  folly.     In 
March,  1764,  the  House  of  Commons  resolved,  "that  Parliament  had  a 

*  Historical  View  of  the  American  Revolution.     By  G.  W.  Greene,  p.  1 5. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICA*  REVOLUTION.  395 

right  to  tax  America."  The  next  month  (April)  witnessed  the  enforce- 
ment of  this  claim  in  the  passage  of  an  act  of  Parliament  levying  duties 
upon  certain  articles  imported  into  America.  By  the  same  act  iron  and 
lumber  were  added  to  the  "  enumerated  articles"  which  could  be  exported 
only  to  England.  The  preamble  to  this  measure  declared  that  its  pur- 
pose was  to  raise  "  a  revenue  for  the  expenses  of  defending,  protecting, 
and  securing  his  majesty's  dominions  in  America." 

The  colonists  protested  against  this  act  as  a  violation  of  their  liberties, 
and  declared  that  they  had  borne  their  full  share  of  the  expense  of  the 
wars  for  their  defence,  that  they  were  now  able  to  protect  themselves 
without  assistance  from  the  king,  and  added  the  significant  warning  that 
"  taxation  without  representation  was  tyranny."  No  one  yet  thought  of 
armed  resistance ;  the  colonists  were  resolved  to  exhaust  every  peaceful 
means  of  redress  before  proceeding  to  extreme  measures.  As  yet  the 
desire  for  separation  was  confined  to  a  few  far-seeing  men. 

Prominent  among  these  was  Samuel  Adams,  of  Boston,  a  man  in 
whom  the  loftiest  virtues  of  the  old  Puritans  were  mingled  with  the 
graces  of  more  modern  times  Modest  and  unassuming  in  manner,  a 
man  of  incorruptible  integrity  and  sincere  piety,  he  was  insensible  to  fear 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duty.  He  was  a  deep  student  of  constitutional 
law,  and  was  gifted  with  an  eloquence  which  could  move  multitudes. 
His  clear  vision  had  already  discerned  the  dangers  which  threatened  his 
country,  and  had  discovered  the  only  path  by  which  she  could  emerge  from 
them  in  safety.  His  plan  was  simple:  resistance,  peaceable  at  first; 
forcible  if  necessary.  Under  his  guidance  the  people  of  Boston  met  and 
protested  against  the  new  plan  of  taxation,  and  instructed  their  repre- 
sentatives in  the  general  court  to  oppose  it.  "  We  claim  British  rights, 
not  by  charter  only,"  said  the  Boston  resolves ;  "  we  are  born  to  them. 
If  we  are  taxed  without  our  consent,  our  property  is  taken  without  our 
consent,  and  then  we  are  no  more  freemen,  but  slaves."  The  general 
court  of  Massachusetts  declared  "  that  the  imposition  of  duties  and  taxes 
by  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  upon  a  people  not  represented  in  the 
House  of  Commons  is  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  their  rights."  A 
committee  was  appointed  to  correspond  with  the  other  colonies,  with  a 
view  to  bringing  about  a  concerted  action  for  the  redress  of  grievances. 
In  Virginia,  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  the  Carolinas  equally  vigorous 
aieasures  were  taken. 

In  Virginia  the  first  indicatioa  of  the  intention  of  the  people  to  resist  the 
arbitrary  measures  of  the  crown  was  given  in  a  matter  insignificant  in  itself, 
but  clearly  involving  the  great  principle  at  issue.  In  that  colony  tobac<x> 
\vas  the  lawful  currency,  and  the  failure  of  a  crop,  or  a  rise  in  the  price  of 


39G 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


tobacco,  made  such  payments  often  very  burdensome.  In  the  winter  of 
1 763  the  legislature  passed  a  law  authorizing  the  people  of  the  colony  to 
pay  their  taxes  and  other  public  dues  in  money,  at  the  rate  of  twopence  a 
pound  for  the  tobacco  due.  The  clergymen  of  the  established  church 
had  each  a  salary  fixed  by  law  at  a  certain  number  of  pounds  of  tobacco, 
and  as  this  measure  involved  them  in  a  loss  they  refused  to  acquiesce  in 
it,  and  induced  Sherlock,  the  bishop  of  London,  to  persuade  the  king 
to  refuse  the  law  his  signature.  "The  rights  of  the  clergy  and  the 
authority  of  the  king  must  stand  or  fall  together"  was  the  sound  argu- 
ment of  the  bishop.  Failing 
of  the  royal  signature  the  law 
was  inoperative. 

The  matter  was  soon 
brought  to  an  issue  in  Vir- 
ginia. The  Rev.  Mr.  Maury, 
one  of  the  clergymen  affected 
by  the  law,  brought  a  suit  to 
recover  damages,  or  the  dif- 
ference between  twopence  per 
pound  and  the  current  market 
price  of  tobacco,  which  was 
much  higher.  This  was  pop- 
ularly known  as  the  "  Par- 
sons' Cause."  It  was  a  clearly 
''HIM  joined  issue  between  the  right 
of  the  people  to  make  their 
own  laws  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  king's  prerogative  on  the 
other.  The  "parsons"  se- 
cured the  best  talent  in  the  colony  for  the  prosecution  of  their  claims ; 
the  cause  of  the  "  people "  was  confided  to  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven, 
whose  youth  was  supplemented  by  the  additional  disadvantages  of  being 
poor  and  unknown.  He  was  Patrick  Henry,  the  son  of  a  plain  farmer, 
and  a  native  of  the  county  of  Hanover.  He  had  received  but  little  edu- 
cation, as  his  father's  straitened  circumstances  had  compelled  him  to  put 
his  son  to  the  task  of  earning  his  bread  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen  years. 
He  entered  a  country  store,  and  the  next  year  went  into  business  with  his 
elder  brother,  William,  who  being  too  indolent  to  attend  to  business  left 
the  store  to  the  management,  or  rather  the  mismanagement  of  Patrick, 
The  young  man  was  brimming  over  with  good  nature,  and  could  never  find 
it  in  his  heart  to  refuse  any  one  credit,  and  was  too  kind-hearted  to  press 


PATRICK   HEXRY. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  397 

unwilling  debtors  to  payment.  He  let  the  store  "  manage  itself,"  and 
amused  himself  by  studying  the  character  of  his  customers,  and  with  his 
flute  and  violin.  He  was  also  a  great  reader,  and  read  every  work  he 
could  buy  or  borrow.  The  store  survived  about  a  year,  and  the  next  two 
or  three  years  were  passed  by  Patrick  in  settling  its  affairs.  At  the  age 
of  eighteen  he  married,  and  began  life  as  a  farmer.  He  soon  grew  tired 
of  this  pursuit,  and  selling  his  farm  once  more  engaged  in  mercantile 
Lie.  It  was  not  suited  to  him,  nor  he  to  it.  He  passed  his  days  in  read- 
ing, this  time  giving  his  attention  to  works  of  history  and  philosophy. 
Livy  was  his  favorite,  and  he  read  it  through  at  least  once  a  year  for 
many  years.  His  second  mercantile  enterprise  ended  in  bankruptcy  in  a 
few  years,  and  in  extreme  want  he  determined  to  try  the  law.  He  obtained 
a  license  to  practice  after  a  six  weeks'  course  of  study,  and  entered  upon 
his  new  career  utterly  ignorant  of  its  duties.  It  is  said  that  he  could  not 
then  draw  up  the  simplest  legal  paper  without  assistance.  He  was  then 
twenty-four  years  old,  but  it  was  not  until  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
twenty-seven  that  he  obtained  a  case  worthy  of  his  powers ;  for  he  had 
genius,  and  it  only  required  the  proper  circumstances  to  draw  it  out.  He 
had  passed  days  in  communion  with  nature  in  his  frequent  hunting  and 
fishing  excursions,  and  had  drunk  deeply  of  the  wisdom  she  imparts  to 
her  votaries.  He  had  studied  men  with  the  eye  of  a  master,  and  he  had 
at  last  fallen  into  the  position  from  which  he  could  rise  to  his  true  place 
among  the  leading  spirits  of  the  age.  In  the  case  with  which  he  was 
now  intrusted,  a  decision  of  the  court  on  a  demurrer,  in  favor  of  the  claims 
of  the  clergy,  had  left  nothing  undetermined  but  the  amount  of  damages 
in  the  cause  which  was  pending. 

"  The  array  before  Mr.  Henry's  eyes,"  says  his  biographer,  William 
Wirt,  "was  now  most  fearful.  On  the  bench  sat  more  than  twenty 
clergymen,  the  most  learned  men  in  the  colony,  and  the  most  capable,  as 
well  as  the  severest  critics  before  whom  it  was  possible  for  him  to  have 
made  his  debut.  The  court-house  was  crowded  with  an  overwhelming 
multitude,  and  surrounded  with  an  immense  and  anxious  throng,  who, 
not  finding  room  to  enter,  were  endeavoring  to  listen  without,  in  the 
deepest  attention.  But  there  was  something  still  more  awfully  disconcert- 
ing than  all  this ;  for  in  the  chair  of  the  presiding  magistrate  sat  no  other 
person  than  his  own  father.  Mr.  Lyons  opened  the  cause  very  briefly :  in 
the  way  of  argument  he  did  nothing  more  than  explain  to  the  jury  that 
the  decision  upon  the  demurrer  had  put  the  act  of  1750  entirely  out  of 
the  way,  and  left  the  law  of  1748  as  the  only  standard  of  their  damages ; 
he  then  concluded  with  a  highly  wrought  eulogium  on  the  benevolence 
of  the  clergy." 


398  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

When  it  came  Patrick  Henry's  turn  to  speak,  he  rose  awkwardly,  amid 
a  profound  silence.  No  one  had  ever  heard  him  speak,  and  all  were 
anxious  to  see  how  he  would  acquit  himself.  He  clutched  nervously  at 
his  papers,  and  faltered  out  his  opening  sentences  with  a  degree  of  con- 
fusion which  threatened  every  moment  to  put  an  end  to  his  effort.  The 
people  watched  their  champion  in  sorrow  and  indignation ;  the  clergy 
exchanged  glances  of  triumph,  and  eyed  the  speaker  with  contempt;  while 
his  father,  overcome  with  shame,  seemed  ready  to  drop  from  his  chair. 
But  suddenly  there  came  a  change  over  the  young  advocate.  Warming 
with  his  subject,  he  threw  off  his  embarrassment  and  awkwardness,  and 
stood  erect  and  confident.  His  look  of  timidity  gave  place  to  one  of 
command ;  his  countenance  glowed  with  the,  fire  of  genius,  and  startled 
the  gazers  by  the  aspect  of  majesty  which  it  assumed  for  the  first  time. 
His  tones  grew  clear  and  bold,  his  action  graceful  and  commanding,  and 
the  astounded  jury  and  audience  were  given  a  display  of  eloquence  such 
as  was  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  colony.  Henry  knew  that 
the  case  was  against  him,  but  he  pleaded  the  natural  right  of  Virginia  to 
make  her  own  laws  independently  of  the  king  and  Parliament.  He 
proved  the  justness  of  the  law ;  he  drew  a  striking  picture  of  the  character 
of  a  good  king,  who  should  be  the  father  of  his  people,  but  who  becomes 
their  tyrant  and  oppressor,  and  forfeits  his  claim  to  obedience  when  he 
annuls  just  and  good  laws.  The  opposing  counsel  cried  out  at  this  bold 
declaration,  "  He  has  spoken  treason,"  but  was  silenced  by  the  excited 
throng. 

"  They  say,"  says  Mr.  Wirt,  "  that  the  people,  whose  countenances  had 
fallen  as  he  arose,  had  heard  but  a  very  few  sentences  before  they  began 
to  look  up ;  then  to  look  at  each  other  in  surprise,  as  if  doubting  the  evi- 
dence of  their  own  senses;  then,  attracted  by  some  gesture,  struck  by 
some  majestic  attitude,  fascinated  by  the  spell  of  his  eye,  the  charm  of  his 
emphasis,  and  the  varied  and  commanding  expression  of  his  countenance, 
they  could  look  away  no  more.  In  less  than  twenty  minutes  they  might 
be  seen  in  every  part  of  the  house,  on  every  bench,  in  every  window, 
stooping  forward  from  their  stands,  in  death-like  silence;  their  features 
fixed  in  amazement  and  awe,  all  their  senses  listening  and  riveted  upon 
the  speaker,  as  if  to  catch  the  last  strain  of  some  heavenly  visitant.  The 
mockery  of  the  clergy  was  soon  turned  into  alarm,  their  triumph  into 
confusion  and  despair,  and  at  one  burst  of  his  rapid  and  overwhelming 
invective,  they  fled  from  the  bench  in  precipitation  and  terror.  As  for 
the  father,  such  was  his  surprise,  such  his  amazement,  such  his  rapture, 
that,  forgetting  where  he  was,  and  the  character  which  he  was  filling, 
tears  of  ecstasy  streamed  down  his  cheeks  without  the  power  or  inclination 
to  repress  them." 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 


399 


The  jury  brought  in  a  verdict  of  one  penny  damages  for  the  "  parsons," 
and  the  court  overruled  the  motion  of  their  counsel  for  a  new  trial. 
Henry  from  that  moment  took  his  place  among  the  leaders  of  the  patriot 
party  in  Virginia.  He  had  struck  a  chord  which  responded  in  every 
American  heart;  he  had  denied  the  right  of  the  king  to  make  IPWS  i'oi 
the  colonies. 

The  remonstrance  of  Massachusetts  was  followed  by  similar  appeals 
from  Connecticut,  New  York,  Rhode  Island,  and  Virginia.  The  peti- 
tion of  New  York  was  couched  in  such  strong  terms  that  no  member  of 
Parliament  could  be  found  bold  enough  to  present  it.  These  remon- 
strances were  unheeded  by  Parliament,  which  pronounced  them  "ab- 
surd "  and  "  insolent."  That  body  persisted  in  its  determination  to  tax 
the  colonies,  and  Grenville,  the  prime  min- 
ister, warned  the  Americans  that  in  a  contest 
with  Great  Britain  they  could  expect  nothing 
but  defeat.  He  announced  the  intention  of 
the  English  government  to  levy  the  taxes, 
and  graciously  added  that  if  the  colonies  pre- 
ferred any  special  form  of  taxation,  their 
wishes  would  be  met  as  far  as  possible.  In 
March,  1765,  the  measure  known  as  the 
"Stamp  Act"  passed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  a  vote  of  five  to  one,  and  was 
adopted  almost  unanimously  by  the  House 
of  Lords.  It  met  with  a  warm  opposition 
in  the  Commons  from  the  friends  of  America, 
prominent  among  whom  was  Colonel  Barre*,  who  had  served  with  Wolfe- 
in  America,  and  had  learned  to  appreciate  the  American  character.  The 
measure  received  the  royal  signature  at  once.  The  poor  king  would  have 
signed  any  thing  he  was  bidden — he  was  insane.  The  act  imposed  a 
duty  on  all  paper,  vellum,  and  parchment  used  in  the  colonies,  and  re- 
quired that  all  writings  of  a  legal  or  business  nature  should  be  made  on 
"  stamped  paper  ; "  otherwise  they  were  declared  null  and  void. 

In  order  to  enforce  the  "Stamp  Act,"  Parliament,  two  months  later, 
passed  "  the  Quartering  Act."  It  authorized  the  ministers  to  send  as 
many  troops  as  they  should  see  fit  to  America,  to  enforce  submission  to 
the  acts  of  Parliament.  Wherever  these  troops  should  be  stationed,  it 
should  be  the  duty  of  the  people,  at  their  own  expense,  to  furnish  them 
with  quarters,  fuel,  bedding,  cider  or  rum,  candles,  soap,  "  and  other 
necessaries." 

The  news  of  the  passage  of  these  acts  produced  the  most  intense  ex- 


GEORGE   THE   THIRD. 


400  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 

citement  in  America.  The  general  assembly  of  Virginia  was  in  session 
when  tho  nc\vs  was  received  in  May.  The  royalist  leaders  were  amazed 
at  the  folly  of  the  ministry,  but  deemed  it  best  to  take  no  action  in  the 
matter.  Patrick  Henry,  now  a  member  of  the  assembly,  rose  in  his 
place  and  offered  a  series  of  resolutions,  declaring  that  the  people  of  Viiv 
ginia  were  bound  to  pay  only  such  taxes  as  should  be  levied  by  their  own 
assembly,  and  that  all  who  maintained  the  contrary  should  be  regarded 
as  enemies  of  the  liberties  of  the  colony.  These  resolutions  provoked  an 
exciting  debate,  in  which  Henry  in  a  magnificent  oration  exposed  the 
tyranny  of  the  British  government,  and  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  bur- 
gesses with  a  determination  to  resist.  "  Csesar  had  his  Brutus,"  ex- 
claimed the  orator  in  one  of  his  loftiest  flights,  "Charles  the  First  his 
Cromwell,  and  George  the  Third — ."  The  assembly  was  in  an  uproar. 
"Treason  !  treason  !  "  shouted  the  speaker.  A  few  joined  in  the  cry,  but 
the  majority  waited  in  breathless  suspense  the  completion  of  the  sentence 
of  Henry  who,  fixing  his  eye  upon  the  speaker,  added  in  a  tone  which 
was  peculiar  to  himself,  "  may  profit  by  their  example.  If  that  be 
treason,  make  the  most  of  it."  The  resolutions  were  adopted  by  a  large 
majority.  The  next  day,  during  Henry's  absence,  the  timid  assembly 
rescinded  some  of  the  resolves,  and  modified  the  others.  The  assembly, 
for  thus  daring  to  exercise  its  right  of  expressing  its  opinion,  was  at  once 
dissolved  by  the  governor;  but  too  late  to  prevent  its  action  from  pro- 
ducing its  effect.  Copies  of  the  resolutions  of  Henry  were  forwarded  to 
Philadelphia,  where  they  were  printed  and  circulated  through  the  colo- 
nies. They  aroused  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  people,  and  it  was  re- 
solved everywhere  that  the  stamps  should  not  be  used  in  America. 

The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  ordered  that  the  courts  should  not 
require  the  use  of  stamps  in  conducting  their  business  ;  and  in  June,  before 
the  Virginia  resolutions  reached  Boston,  issued  a  circular  inviting  all  the 
colonies  to  send  delegates  to  a  Congress  to  be  held  at  New  York  in 
October.  In  the  meantime  associations  were  organized  in  all  the  colonies 
as  far  south  as  Maryland,  called  "  Sons  of  Liberty,"  for  the  purpose  of 
stopping  the  use  of  stamps.  The  people  were  resolved  to  take  the  matter 
in  their  own  hands.  In  Boston  the  mob  attacked  the  house  of  Oliver, 
the  secretary  of  the  colony,  who  had  been  appointed  to  distribute  the 
stamps,  and  compelled  him  to  resign.  They  also  attacked  the  houses  of 
some  of  the  most  prominent  supporters  of  the  ministry,  but  the  patriots 
sincerely  deplored  and  condemned  these  violent  proceedings.  At  Weth- 
ersfield,  Connecticut,  five  hundred  farmers  seized  Jared  Ingersol,  the 
stamp  officer  for  that  colony,  compelled  him  to  resign,  and  then  to  remove 
his  hat  and  give  "  three  cheers  for  liberty,  property,  and  no  stamps." 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  401 

Similar  scenes  were  enacted  in  the  other  colonies,  expressive  of  the  deter- 
mination of  the  people  to  resist  the  measures  of  the  crown. 

On  the  7th  of  October,  1765,  the  First  Colonial  Congress  met  at  New 
York.  It  was  composed  of  delegates  from  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  South  Carolina, 
New  York,  and  New  Jersey.  New  Hampshire,  though  not  representevi 
by  a  delegate,  gave  her  support  to  its  measures,  and  Georgia  formally 
signified  her  acceptance  of  the  work  of  this  body.  Timothy  Ruggles,  pf 
Massachusetts,  was  chosen  president.  The  session  extended  over  three 
weeks,  and  resulted  in  the  adoption  of  a  "  Declaration  of  the  Rights  and 
Grievances  of  the  Colonies ; "  a  petition  to  the  king ;  and  a  memorial  to 
both  Houses  of  Parliament.  In  the  Declaration  of  Rights  the  Congress 
took  the  ground  that  it  was  a  violation  of  their  rights  to  tax  them  without 
granting  them  a  representation  in  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  and 
that  as  such  representation  was  impossible  because  of  the  distance  between 
the  two  countries,  no  taxes  could  be  legally  imposed  upon  the  colonies  but 
by  their  own  assemblies.  The  measures  of  the  Congress  were,  as  soon  as 
possible,  indorsed  by  all  the  colonial  assemblies,  and  thus  the  colonies 
were  drawn  into  that  union  which,  in  their  own  language,  became  "  a 
bundle  of  sticks,  which  could  neither  be  bent  nor  broken." 

At  length  the  1st  of  November  arrived,  the  day  on  which  the  Stamp 
Act  was  to  go  into  operation.  Not  a  man  could  be  found  to  execute  the 
law,  all  the  stamp  officers  having  resigned  through  fear  of  popular  vio- 
lence. Governor  Golden,  of  New  York,  declared  he  was  resolved  to  have 
the  stamps  distributed,  but  the  people  of  the  city  warned  him  that  he 
would  do  so  at  his  peril,  and  burned  him  in  effigy.  Golden  became 
alarmed  at  these  demonstrations,  and  on  the  5th  of  November  delivered 
the  stamps  to  the  mayor  and  council  of  New  York.  In  all  the  colonies 
the  1st  of  November  was  observed  as  a  day  of  mourning.  Bells  were 
tolled,  flags  hung  at  half-mast,  and  business  suspended.  The  merchants 
of  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  united  in  an  agreement  to  im- 
port no  more  goods  from  England,  to  countermand  the  orders  already 
sent  out,  and  to  receive  no  .goods  on  commission  until  the  Stamp  Act 
should  be  repealed.  Their  action  was  promptly  sustained  by  the  people, 
who  pledged  themselves  to  buy  no  articles  of  English  manufacture,  and  to 
2ncourage  home  productions.  Circulars  were  sent  throughout  the  colo- 
nies urging  the  people  to  unite  in  such  action,  and  were  heartily  responded 
to.  Business  went  on  without  the  use  of  stamps,  and  the  courts  ignored 
them  in  their  proceedings. 

The  news  of  these  proceedings  should  have  warned  the  English  minis- 
ters of  their  folly :  it  only  made  them  more  determined  to  persist  in  it. 
26 


402 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


They  resolved  not  to  repeal  the  Stamp  Act.  To  comply  with  the 
request  of  the  colonists  now  that  they  had  resisted  the  law,  would,  they 
declared,  be  simply  a  surrender  to  rebellion.  "Sooner  than  make  our 
colonies  our  allies,"  said  one  of  their  number,  "  I  would  wish  to  see  them 
returned  to  their  primitive  deserts."  The  friends  of  America,  led  by  the 
u«-ed  and  infirm  William  Pitt,  made  a  determined  effort  to  procure  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  they  were  now  supported  by  all  the  influence 
of,  the  English  merchants,  who  found  their  trade  rapidly  falling  off  in 
consequence  of  the  non-intercourse  resolves  adopted  by  the  Americans. 


STAMP  ACT  OFFICIAL  BEATEN  BY  THE  PEOPLE. 

Swathed  in  flannels,  Pitt  proceeded  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  in  a 
speech  of  great  vigor  urged  the  House  to  repeal  the  obnoxious  and  uncon- 
stitutional measure.  In  reply  to  Grenville,  the  prime  minister,  who 
accused  him  of  exciting  sedition  in  America,  he  said,  "  Sir,  I  have  been 
charged  with  giving  birth  to  sedition  in  America.  Sorry  I  am  to  have 
the  liberty  of  speech  in  this  House  imputed  as  a  crime.  But  the  impu- 
tation will  not  deter  me;  it  is  a  liberty  I  mean  to  exercise.  The  gentle- 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  4Q3 

man  tells  us  that  America  is  obstinate ;  that  America  is  almost  in  rebellion. 
I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted."  The  House  started  at  these  words, 
but  Pitt  continued  firmly,  "  If  they  had  submitted,  they  would  have  vol- 
untarily become  slaves.  They  have  been  driven  to  madness  by  injustice. 
My  opinion  -is  that  the  Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed,  absolutely,  totally, 
immediately."  Edmund  Burke,  then  a  rising  young  man,  eloquently 
sustained  the  appeal  of  the  great  commoner. 

The  Commons  had  already  begun  to  waver,  but  before  yielding  en- 
tirely, they  wished  to  ascertain  from  competent  witnesses  the  exact  temper 
and  disposition  of  the  Americans.  For  this  purpose,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
who  was  residing  in  London  at  the  time  as  the  agent  of  several  of  the 
colonies,  was  summoned  before  the  bar  of  the  House  to  give  the  desired 
information.  He  appeared,  in  answer  to  the  summons,  on  the  13th  of 
February,  1766.  He  was  questioned  by  Lord  Grenville  and  Charles 
Townshcnd,  and  by  several  friends  of  the  ministry,  and  delivered  his  an- 
swers with  firmness  and  clearness.  He  told  them  that  the  colonists  could 
not  pay  for  the  stamps,  as  there  was  not  enough  gold  and  silver  in  the 
colonies  for  that  purpose ;  that  they  had  incurred  more  than  their  share 
of  the  expense  of  the  last  war,  for  which  Great  Britain  had  in  no  way 
reimbursed  them  ;  that  they  Avere  still  burdened  with  heavy  debts  con- 
tracted in  consequence  of  this  war ;  that  they  were  well  disposed  towards 
Great  Britain  before  1763,  and  considered  Parliament  as  "the  great  bul- 
wark and  security  of  their  liberties  and  privileges ;  but  that  now  their 
temper  was  much  altered,  and  their  respect  for  it  lessened  ;  and  if  the  act 
is  not  repealed,  the  consequence  would  be  a  total  loss  of  the  respect  and 
aflection  they  bore  to  this  country,  and  of  all  the  commerce  that  depended 
on  that  respect  and  affection."  He  startled  the  House  by  declaring  that 
in  a  few  years  America  would  be  amply  able  to  supply  herself  with  all 
the  necessities  of  life  then  furnished  her  by  Great  Britain.  "  I  do  not 
know,"  said  he,  "  a  single  article  imported  into  the  northern  colonies  but 
what  they  can  either  do  without  or  make  themselves.  The  people  will 
spin  and  work  for  themselves,  in  their  own  houses.  In  three  years  there 
may  be  wool  and  manufactures  enough."  "If  the  legislature,"  he  was 
asked,  "  should  think  fit  to  ascertain  its  right  to  lay  taxes,  by  any  act 
laying  a  small  tax,  contrary  to  their  opinion,  would  they  submit  to  pay 
the  tax?"  "An  internal  tax,"  lie  replied,  "how  small  soever,  laid  by 
the  legislature  here,  on  the  people  there,  will  never  be  submitted  to.  They 
will  oppose  it  to  the  last.  The  people  will  pay  no  internal  tax  by  Parlia- 
ment." "  May  they  not,"  asked  a  friend  of  Grenville,  "  by  the  same  in- 
terpretation of  their  common  rights,  as  Englishmen,  as  declared  byMagna 
Charta  and  the  Petition  of  Right,  object  to  the  Parliament's  right  of  ex- 


404  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

tcrnal  taxation?"*  "They  never  have  hitherto,"  answered  Franklin, 
promptly.  "  Many  arguments  have  been  lately  used  here  to  show  them 
that  there  is  no  difference,  and  that  if  you  have  no  right  to  tax  them  in- 
ternally, you  have  none  to  tax  them  externally,  or  make  any  other  law 
to  bind  them.  At  present  they  do  not  reason  so ;  but  in  time  they  may  bs 
2onvinced  by  these  arguments." 

Franklin's  testimony  was  conclusive.  The  Stamp  Act  was  repealed 
on  the  18th  of  March,  1766,  not  because  it  was  acknowledged  by  Eng- 
land as  a  measure  of  injustice,  but  because  it  could  not  be  enforced  with- 
out a  collision  with  the  colonies,  which  the  ministry  were  not  as  yet 
prepared  for.  The  people  of  London  greeted  the  repeal  with  great  joy. 
Bonfires  were  lighted,  bells  were  rung,  the  city  was  illuminated,  and  the 
shipping  in  the  Thames  was  decorated  with  flags.  The  news  was  sent  by 
special  messengers  to  the  nearest  ports,  in  order  that  it  might  reach 
America  with  as  little  delay  as  possible. 

In  America  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  received 
with  the  greatest  joy.  The  bells  were  rung  in  the  principal  cities,  the 
imprisoned  debtors  were  released  from  captivity,  the  associations  for  non- 
intercourse  with  England  were  dissolved,  and  everywhere  Pitt  was  hailed 
LJ  the  champion  of  the  liberties  of  America.  New  York,  Virginia,  and 
Maryland  each  voted  a  statue  to  him. 

The  rejoicings  of  the  Americans  were  premature :  Parliament  in 
repealing  the  Stamp  Act  solemnly  asserted,  by  a  bill  for  that  purpose,  its 
right  and  power  to  "bind  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever."  England 
was  only  baffled  for  the  moment ;  she  had  not  relinquished  h«r  designs 
upon  the  liberties  of  America. 

The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  brought  with  it  the  fall  of  Grenville's 
ministry.  Another  was  appointed  under  the  leadership  of  the  Marquis  of 
Rockingham ;  but  it  was  short-lived,  and  soon  gave  way.  The  king  then 
summoned  William  Pitt,  who  had  in  the  meantime  been  created  Earl  of 
Chatham,  to  form  an  independent  ministry,  late  in  1766.  This  act  was 
regarded  with  great  hope  in  America,  as  Pitt  was  universally  considered 
the  colonists'  best  friend.  These  hopes  were  doomed  to  disappointment. 
In  January,  1767,  Charles  Townshend,  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer 
in  Pitt's  cabinet,  taking  advantage  of  the  absence  of  the  prime  minister, 
declared  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  it  was  his  intention,  at  all  risks. 
to  derive  a  revenue  from  America  by  laying  taxes  upon  her,  and  that 
he  knew  how  to  raise  this  revenue  from  her.  Having  thus  thrown  down 
the  gauntlet  to  his  official  chief  it  became  evident  that  either  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  must  relinquish  the  premiership,  or  Townshend  must  leave  the 

*  The  levying  of  duties  by  Parliament  on  merchandise  imported  into  the  colonies. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  4Qo 

cabinet.  Chatham  was  anxious  to  dismiss  him  from  the  chancellorship, 
but  as  it  was  known  that  Townsheml  was  acting  in  accordance  with  the 
sympathies  and  wishes  of  the  king,  no  one  was  willing  to  risk  his  pros- 
pects by  accepting  the  chancellorship  in  Townshend's  place ;  and  Chat- 
ham, unable  to  fill  his  place,  was  obliged  to  retain  him.  In  utter 
disgust  Chatham  withdrew  from  active  participation  in  the  affairs  of  the 
cabinet,  and  Townshend  remained  supreme  director  of  the  coloi.iai 
policy  of  England.  In  May  Townshend  revealed  his  plan  for  raising  a 
revenue  in  America.  It  was  to  levy  a  duty,  to  be  collected  in  the 
colonies,  on  certain  articles  of  commerce,  such  as  wine,  oil,  paints,  glass, 
paper,  and  lead  colors,  and  especially  upon  tea,  which  last  commodity  he 
declared  the  Americans  obtained  cheaper  from  the  Dutch  smugglers  than 
the  English  themselves.  He  was  told  that  if  he  would  withdraw  the 
army  from  America  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  taxing  the  colonies. 
He  replied,  "I  will  hear  nothing  on  the  subject;  it  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  keep  an  army  there."  In  June,  1767,  an  act  was  passed  by 
Parliament  levying  upon  the  colonies  the  duties  proposed  by  Townshend  ; 
and  a  board  of  commissioners  of  the  customs  for  America  was  established, 
with  its  head-quarters  at  Boston.  Soon  after  their  appointment  the 
"  Romney  "  frigate  entered  Boston  harbor,  and  the  new  commissioners, 
confident  in  her  protection,  treated  the  people  of*  Boston  with  unbearable 
haughtiness.  Pier  officers  frequently  stopped  the  New  England  vessels 
as  they  entered  the  harbor,  and  impressed  seamen  from  their  decks. 

The  colonies  were  moved  with  the  profoundest  indignation  upon  the 
receipt  of  the  news  of  the  imposition  of  the  new  taxes.  The  colonial 
newspapers,  which  now  numbered  twenty-five,  were  filled  with  appeals  to 
the  people  to  stand  up  for  their  liberties.  The  old  associations  for  non- 
importation of  English  goods  were  revived,  and  on  every  hand  the 
declaration  was  unanimous  that  the  Americans  would  neither  eat,  drink, 
nor  wear  anything  imported  from  England.  The  general  court  of 
Massachusetts  issued  a  circular  letter  to  the  other  colonial  assemblies 
inviting  them  to  unite  with  her  in  measures  for  obtaining  redress. 

The  English  ministers  were  greatly  incensed  at  the  new  resistance  of 
the  colonists,  and  in  June,  1768,  ordered  the  general  court. of  Massachu- 
setts to  rescind  its  circular  letter.  Their  demand  was  refused,  and  the 
general  court,  led  by  James  Otis  and  Samuel  Adams,  expressed  its  con- 
viction that  Parliament  would  better  serve  the  cause  of  peace  by  repeal- 
ing its  obnoxious  laws.  The  circular  had  been  favorably  received  by  the 
other  colonies,  and  Massachusetts  was  constantly  receiving  from  them 
encouragement  to  persist  in  her  resistance  to  the  tyranny  of  the  ministry. 
As  a  punishment  for  the  refusal  of  the  general  court  to  rescind  its  circu- 


406 


HISTORY  OF  THK  UNITED  STATES. 


lar,  that  body  was  dissolved  by  the  royal  governor  of  Massachusetts. 
Sonic  of  the  other  colonial  assemblies  that  had  shown  sympathy  with 
Massachusetts  were  also  dissolved  by  their  respective  governors. 

A  very  bitter  feeling  existed  between  the  people  and  the  royal  officials, 
and,  to  make  matters  worse,  at  this  crisis  the  revenue  officers  at  Boston 
jcized  a  schooner  belonging  to  John  Hancock,  one  of  the  patriot  leaders, 
on  the  pretext  that  her  owner  had  made  a  false  entry  of  her  cargo,  which 
consisted  of  wine.  The  schooner  was  towed  under  the  guns  of  the 
"  Romney  "  frigate,  and  a  crowd  collected  in  Boston  and  attacked  the 


FANEUIL   HALL    IN   1775. 

houses  of  the  commissioners  of  customs,  who  were  forced  to  fly  to  the  fort 
on  Castle  island  for  safety. 

The  report  of  this  outbreak  was  transmitted  to  England  as  proof  that 
Massachusetts  was  almost  in  a  state  of  insurrection,  and  it  was  resolved 
by  the  ministry  to  send  troops  to  overawe  "  the  insolent  town  of  Boston," 
and  to  hold  Massachusetts  as  a  conquered  country.  A  regiment  of  regu- 
lars under  General  Gage  reached  Boston  in  September,  1768,  but  the 
assembly  refused  to  provide  quarters  or  food,  or  the  other  necessaries 
v/hich  were  demanded  by  their  commander  in  accordance  with  the 
"Quartering  Act."  General  Gage  was  obliged  to  encamp  a  part  of  his 
men  on  Boston  Common,  while  he  lodged  the  rest  temporarily  in  Fane  nil 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  407 

Hall.  With  considerable  difficulty  he  hired  several  houses  in  Boston 
and  quartered  his  troops  in  them.  The  assembly  of  New  York  also 
refused  to  provide  food  or  quarters  for  the  royal  troops,  and  was  dissolved 
by  the  governor  of  the  province. 

The  wrath  of  the  English  officials  was  concentrated  upon  Boston,  which 
was  held  as  though  it  were  a  conquered  city.  Sentinels  were  placed  at 
the  street  corners,  and  the  citizens  were  challenged  by  them  as  they  went 
about  their  daily  duties.  The  ill-feeling  between  the  citizens  and  the 
troops  gave  rise  to  several  encounters  between  them.  On  the  evening  of 
the  2d  of  March,  1770,  a  sentinel  was  attacked  by  the  mob.  A  detach- 
ment of  troops  was  sent  to  his  aid,  and  was  stoned  by  the  mob.  At 
length  a  soldier  fired  his  musket  at  the  crowd  and  his  comrades  poured 
in  a  volley,  killing  three  and  wounding  five  citizens.  The  citv  was  thrown 


THE   BOSTON   MASSACRE. 


into  an  uproar,  the  alarm  bells  were  rung,  and  crowds  poured  into  the 
streets.  The  danger  of  a  general  collision  was  very  great,  but  the  people 
were  persuaded  to  disperse  upon  the  promise  of  Hutchinson,  the  gov- 
ernor, that  justice  should  be  done.  This  outbreak  was  known  at  the 
dine  as  "  the  Boston  Massacre."  The  next  morning  a  meeting  of  the 
citizens  was  held  at  Faneuil  Hall.  Resolutions  were  passed,  demanding 
the  removal  of  the  troops  from  the  city  to  the  fort  on  Castle  island,  and 
the  arraignment  before  the  civil  courts  of  Captain  Preston,  the  officer 
.vho  ordered  the  troops  to  fire.  The  soldiers  were  removed  from  the 
town  as  the  only  means  of  preserving  the  peace,  and  Captain  Preston 
and  six  of  his  men  were  arraigned  for  murder.  John  Adams  and  Josiah 
Quincy,  two  leaders  of  the  patriot  party,  undertook  the  defence  of  the 
accused  officer  and  his  men  in  order  to  make  sure  that  they  should  have 
a  fair  trial.  They  were  acquitted  of  murder,  but  two  of  the  soldiers 


408  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

were  convicted  of  manslaughter.  The  calmness  and  deliberation  with 
which  this  trial  was  conducted  had  a  happy  effect  in  England,  and 
exhibited  the  fairness  and  moderation  of  the  colonists  in  the  most  favor- 
able light. 

The  British  merchants  now  began  to  feel  the  effect  of  the  non-impor- 
tation associations  of  the  Americans,  and  their  trade  suffered  even  more 
than  it  had  done  in  the  times  of  the  Stamp  Act,  in  consequence  of  the 
cessation  of  orders  for  goods  from  the  colonies.  They  now  began  to  sus- 
tain the  demand  of  the  colonists  for  the  repeal  of  the  unjust  taxes.  Lord 
North,  who  was  now  prime  minister,  was  willing  to  grant  their  demand, 
and  to  remove  all  the  taxes  except  the  duty  on  tea,  which  he  retained  at 
the  express  command  of  the  king,  who  had  now  recovered  his  reason,  and 
was  the  real  director  of  the  policy  of  his  government.  George  III. 
held  on  with  the  most  stubborn  tenacity  to  the  assertion  of  his  right  to 
tax  the  colonies,  and  insisted  "  that  there  should  be  always  one  tax,  at 
least,  to  keep  up  the  right  of  taxing."  This  concession  was  made  in 
May,  1770,  and  for  nearly  a  year  there  was  a  lull  in  the  excitement. 
The  matter  was  not  settled,  however,  for  the  Americans  had  not  resisted 
the  amount  of  the  tax,  but  the  imposition  of  any  tax  at  all.  They  were 
contending  for  a  principle,  not  for  the  saving  of  a  few  dollars. 

The  bad  feeling  which  was  rapidly  growing  up  between  the  colonists 
and  the  mother  country  was  greatly  increased  by  the  injustice  and  annoy- 
ance heaped  upon  the  colonists  by  the  royal  officials.  Almost  every 
colony  had  to  complain  of  these  outrages,  and  the  king's  officers  seemed 
to  think  they  could  not  do  their  cause  better  service  than  by  exasperating 
the  Americans.  In  New  York  the  people  had  erected  a  liberty  pole  in 
the  fields,  now  the  City  Hall  Park.  One  night  in  January,  1770,  a  party 
of  soldiers  from  the  fort  cut  down  the  pole.  This  act  was  bitterly  resented 
by  the  citizens,  and  frequent  quarrels  occurred  between  them  and  the 
troops,  though  there  was  no  actual  bloodshed. 

Early  in  1772  the  armed  schooner  "  Gaspe* "  was  stationed  in  Xarra- 
gansett  bay  to  enforce  the  revenue  laws.  Her  commander,  Lieutenant 
Dudingston,  undertook  to  execute  his  orders  in  the  most  insulting  and 
arbitrary  manner.  Market  boats  and  other  vessels  passing  the  "  Gaspe* '; 
were  compelled  to  lower  their  colors  to  her,  and  armed  parties  from  the 
schooner  were  sent  ashore  on  the  neighboring  islands,  and  carried  off 
such  provisions  as  they  desired.  Complaint  was  made  by  the  citizens  of 
Providence  to  the  governor  of  Rhode  Island,  who  referred  the  matter  to 
the  chief  justice,  Hopkins,  for  his  opinion.  The  chief  justice  declared 
"that  any  person  who  should  come  into  the  colony  and  exercise  any 
authority  by  force  of  arms,  without  showing  his  commission  to  the  gov- 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  xtc, VOL UTION.  409 

ernor,  and,  if  a  custom-house  officer,  without  being  sworn  into  his  office, 
was  guilty  of  a  trespass,  if  not  piracy."  It  was  clear  from  the  opinion 
of  the  chief  justice  that  Dudingston  was  exceeding  his  authority,  and  the 
governor  sent  a  sheriff  on  board  the  "  Gaspd  "  to  ascertain  by  what  orders 
the  lieutenant  acted.  Dudingston  referred  the  matter  to  the  admiral  at 
Boston,  who  replied :  "  The  lieutenant,  sir,  has  done  his  duty.  I  shall 
give  the  king's  officers  directions  that  they  send  every  man  taken  in 
molesting  them  to  me.  As  sure  as  the  people  of  Newport  attempt  tc 
rescue  any  vessel  and  any  of  them  are  taken  I  will  hang  them  as  pirates." 

The  insolence  of  the  admiral  caused  even  more  indignation  than  the 
outrages  of  Dudingston,  and  the  citizens  of  Rhode  Island  resolved  to 
take  the  matter  into  their  own  hands  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  On  the 
9th  of  June,  1772,  the  Providence  packet,  a  swift  sailer,  was 'passing  up 
the  bay  when  she  was  hailed  by  the  "  Gaspd."  She  paid  no  attention  to 
the  hail,  and  being,  of  light  draught  stood  in  near  the  shore.  The 
"  Gaspe* "  gave  chase,  and,  attempting  to  follow  her,  ran  aground  on 
Namquit,  a  short  distance  below  Pautuxet.  The  tide  falling  soon,  left 
her  fast.  The  news  of  her  disaster  was  conveyed  to  Providence  by  the 
packet,  and  a  plan  was  at  once  matured  for  her  destruction.  On  the 
following  night  a  party  of  men  in  six  or  seven  boats,  led  by  John  Brown, 
a  leading  merchant  of  Providence,  Captain  Abraham  Whipple  of  Provi- 
dence, Simeon  Potter  of  Bristol,  and  others,  left  Providence  and  dropped 
down  towards  the  position  of  the  "  GaspeV'  They  were  discovered  as 
they  approached,  and  were  hailed  by  Dudingston.  One  of  the  party  in 
the  boats  fired  and  Dudingston  fell  wounded.  The  schooner  was  then 
boarded  without  opposition,  her  crew  were  set  ashore,  and  the  "  Gaspe" " 
was  set  on  fire  and  burned  to  the  water's  edge.  A  large  reward  was 
offered  for  the  perpetrators  of  this  bold  act.  All  were  known  in  Provi- 
dence; but  in  spite  of  this,  the  royal  officials  were  not  able  to  secure*  the 
apprehension  of  any  of  them.  The  secret  was  faithfully  kept. 

The  non-importation  associations  had,  upon  the  repeal  of  the  duties  we 
have  mentioned,  limited  their  opposition  to  the  use  of  tea,  and  the  East 
India  Company  in  England  found  itself  burdened  with  an  enormous 
stock  of  tea  which  it  could  not  dispose  of  as  usual  in  consequence  of  the 
cessation  of  sales  in  America.  The  company  therefore  proposed  to  pay 
all  the  duties  on  the  tea  in  England,  and  ship  it  to  America  at  its  own 
risk,  hoping  that  the  fact  of  there  being  no  duty  to  pay  in  America  would 
induce  the  colonists  to  purchase  it.  This  plan  met  the  determined  oppo- 
sition of  the  king,  who  would  not  consent  to  relinquish  the  assertion  of 
his  right  to  tax  the  Americans.  Lord  North  could  not  understand  that 
it  was  not  the  amount  of  the  tax,  but  the  principle  involved  in  it,  that 


4 JO  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STA'lEb. 

was  opposed  by  the  Americans,  and  he  proposed  that  the  East  India 
Company  should  pay  three-fourths  of  the  duty  in  England,  leaving  thb 
other  fourth — about  three  pence  on  a  pound — to  be  collected  in  America. 
His  lordship  was  told  plainly  that  the  Americans  would  not  purchase  the 
tea  on  these  conditions;  but  he  answered:  "It  is  to  no  purpose  the 
making  objections,  for  the  king  will  have  it  so.  The  king  means  tc  try 
the  question  with  the  Americans." 

There  were  men  in  America  who  fully  understood  that  the  king  meant 
"to  try  the  question  with  the  Americans,"  and  were  willing  the  trial 
should  come.  Samuel  Adams  was  satisfied  as  to  what  would  be  the 
result,  and  was  diligently  working  to  prepare  the  people  for  it.  He  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  public  opinion  in  America  daily  assume  a  more 
enlightened  and  determined  condition.  A  convention  of  all  the  colonies 

o 

for  taking  action  for  a  common  resistance  seemed  to  him  a  necessity,  and 
he  sent  forth  circulars  to  the  various  provinces  urging  them  to  assert 
their  riglits  upon  every  possible  occasion,  and  to  combine  for  mutual 
support  and  protection. 

The  news  of  the  agreement  between  the  East  India  Company  and  the 
government  for  the  exportation  of  tea  increased  the  determination  of  the 
colonists  to  resist  the  tax.  It  was  also  resolved  that  the  tea  should 
neither  be  landed  nor  sold.  A  meeting  was  hejd  in  Philadelphia  and 
resolutions  were  passed  requesting  those  to  whom  the  tea  was  consigned 
"to  resign  their  appointments."  It  was  also  resolved  that  whosoever 
should  "aid  or  abet  in  unloading,  receiving,  or  vending  the  tea"  should 
be  regarded  "as  an  enemy  to  his  country."  Meetings  of  a  similar  nature 
were  held  in  New  York  and  Charleston,  and  similar  resolutions  were 
adopted.  A  fast-sailing  vessel  reached  Boston  about  the  1st  of  November. 
1773,  with  the  news  that  several  ships  laden  with  tea  had  sailed  from 
England  for  America.  On  the  3d  of  November  a  meeting  was  held  at 
Faneuil  Hall,  and  on  motion  of  Samuel  Adams,  it  was  unanimously 
resolved  to  send  the  tea  back  upon  its  arrival.  A  man  in  the  crowd 
cried  out :  "  The  only  way  to  get  rid  of  it  is  to  throw  it  overboard." 
The  meeting  invited  the  consignees  of  the  tea  to  resign  their  appointments. 
Two  of  these  men  were  sons  of  Governor  Hutchinson,  who  was  intensely 
hated  by  the  people  of  Massachusetts  because  of  his  double-faced  policy, 
which  had  been  detected  and  exposed  by  Dr.  Franklin.  Until  this  dis- 
covery Hutchinson  had  induced  the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  believe 
that  he  was  their  best  friend,  when  in  reality  he  had  suggested  to  the 
British  government  nearly  all  the  unjust  measures  that  had  been  directed 
against  that  colony. 

The  first  of  the  tea  ships  reached  Boston  on  the  25th  of  Novembe* 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  41 1 

1773.  A  meeting  of  the  citizens  was  held  at  Faneuil  Hall,  and  it  was 
ordered  that  the  vessel  should  be  moored  to  the  wharf,  and  a  guard  of 
twenty-five  citizens  was  placed  over  her  to  see  that  no  tea  was  removed. 
The  owner  of  the  vessel  agreed  to  send  the  cargo  back  if  the  governor 
would  give  his  permit  for  the  vessel  to  leave  Boston.  This  the  governor 
withheld,  and  in  the  meantime  two  other  ships  arrived  with  cargoes  of 
tea  and  were  ordered  to  anchor  beside  the  first.  The  committee  appointed 
by  the  meeting  of  citizens  waited  on  the  consignees,  but  obtained  no 
satisfaction  from  them.  The  law  required  that  the  tea  must  be  landed 
within  twenty  days  after  its  arrival,  or  be  seized  for  non-payment  of 
duties.  The  consignees  and  the  governor  had  determined  to  wait  until 
the  expiration  of  this  time,  when  the  royal  authorities  would  seize  the 
tea  and  remove  it  beyond  the  reach  of  the  citizens.  The  duties  could 
then  be  paid  and  the  tea  landed  and  sold.  Their  intentions  were  fully 
understood  by  the  patriots.  When  the  committee  made  its  report  to  the 
meeting  of  citizens,  it  was  received  in  a  dead  silence,  and  the  meeting 
adjourned  without  taking  any  action  upon  it.  This  ominous  silence 
alarmed  the  consignees.  Hutchinson's  two  sons  fled  to  the  fort  and 
placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  troops,  while  the  governor 
quietly  left  the  city. 

On  the  16th  of  December  another  meeting  was  held.  The  next  day 
the  time  allowed  by  law  would  expire  and  the  tea  would  be  placed 
under  the  protection  of  the  fort  and  the  armed  ships  in  the  harbor.  The 
owner  had  gone  to  see  the  governor,  at  Milton,  to  obtain  a  pass  for  his 
vessels,  without  which  they  could  not  leave  the  harbor.  This  the 
governor  refused  on  the  ground  that  he  had  not  a  proper  clearance.  He 
returned  to  Boston  late  in  the  evening  and  reported  the  result  of  his 
mission  to  the  meeting.  Then  Samuel  Adams  arose  and  gave  the  signal 
for  the  action  that  had  been  determined  upon  by  saying:  "This  meeting 
can  do  nothing  more  to  save  the  country." 

Instantly  a  shout  rang  through  the  room,  and  a  band  of  forty  or  fifty 
men  "  dressed  like  Mohawk  Indians,"  with  their  faces  blackened  to  pre- 
vent recognition,  hastened  from  the  meeting  to  the  wharf  where  the  ships 
were  moored.  A  guard  was  posted  to  prevent  the  intrusion  of  spies,  and 
t\\?  ships  were  at  once  seized.  Three  hundred  and  forty-two  chests  of 
tea  were  broken  open  and  their  contents  poured  into  the  water.  The 
affair  was  witnessed  in  silence  by  a  large  crowd  on  the  shore.  When  the 
destruction  of  the  tea  was  completed,  the  "  Indians  "  and  the  crowd  dis- 
persed to  their  homes.  Paul  Revere  was  despatched  by  the  patriot 
leaders  to  carry  the  news  to  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 

At  New  York  and  Philadelphia  the  people  would  not  allow  the  tea  to 


412 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


be  landed,  and  at  Charleston  it  was  stored  in  damp  cellars,  where  the 
whole  cargo  was  soon  ruined.  At  Annapolis  a  ship  and  its  cargo  \vere 
burned;  the  owner  of  the  vessel  himself  setting  fire  to  the  ship. 

The  British  government  was  greatly  incensed  at  the  refusal  of  the 
colonists  to  allow  the  tea  to  bo  landed,  and  determined  to  compel  the 
Americans  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  Great  Britain.  Boston,  in  par- 
ticular, was  to  be  made  a  terrible  example  to  the  rest  of  the  colonies.  A 
bill  was  introduced  into  Parliament,  and  passed  by  a  majority  of  four  to 
one,  closing  the  port  of  Boston  to  all  commerce,  and  transferring  the  seat 
of  government  to  Salem.  The  British  ministry  boasted  that  with  ten 


DESTRUCTION  OF  TEA   IN  BOSTON  HARBOR. 

thousand  regulars  they  could  "  march  through  the  continent,"  and  they 
were  resolved  to  bring  America  to  her  knees  and  make  her  confess  her 
iault  in  dust  and  humiliation.  In  addition  to  the  Boston  Port  Bill, 
Parliament  passed  other  measures  of  equal  severity.  By  one  of  these  the 
royal  officers  were  ordered  to  quarter  the  troops  sent  out  from  England 
on  all  the  colonies  at  the  people's  expense;  another  provided  that  if  any 
officer,  in  the  execution  of  the  Quartering  Act,  should  commit  an  act  of 
violence,  he  should  be  sent  ta  England  for  trial.  The  deliberate  purpose 
of  this  last  act  was  to  encourage  the  military  and  other  officials  to  acts 
of  violence  and  oppression  by  shielding  them  from  punishment  in 
America.  The  liberties  of  the  American  people  were  thus  placed  at  the 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  413 

rncrcy  of  every  petty  official  bearing  a  royal  commission.  Another  law, 
known  as  the  "  Quebec  Act,"  granted  unusual  concessions  to  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  Canada,  in  order  to  attach  them  to  the  royal  cause  in  the 
event  of  a  collision  betwaen  England  and  the  colonies. 

Boston  was  largely  dependent  .upon  her  commerce,  and  the  closing  of 
her  harbor  entirely  destroyed  her  trade  and  brought  great  loss  and 
suffering  to  her  people.  The  outrage  to  which  she  was  thus  subjected 
was  resented  by  the  whole  country,  and  evidences  of  sympathy  poured  in 
upon  her  from  every  quarter.  Salem  refused  to  allow  the  establishment 
of  the  seat  of  government  within  her  limits,  and  offered  the  use  of  her 
port  to  the  merchants  of  Boston  free  of  charge.  Marblehead  made  a 
similar  offer.  Large  numbers  of  the  people  of  Boston  were  thrown  out 
of  employment  by  the  closing  of  Boston  harbor,  and  their  families,  left 
helpless,  suffered  considerably.  The  various  colonies  came  forward 
promptly  to  their  relief.  The  neighboring  towns  sent  in  provisions  and 
other  necessaries  of  life,  and  money  was  subscribed  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  South  Carolina  sent  to  Boston  two  hundred  barrels  of  rice,  and 
promised  eight  hundred  more  when  they  were  wanted.  North  Carolina 
sent  a  contribution  of  £2000  in  money,  and  money  and  provisions  were 
sent  from  Virginia  and  Maryland.  In  the  former  colony,  the  farmers 
beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  raised  a  contribution  of  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  barrels  of  flour  and  sent  it  to  Boston.  Even  the  city  of  London 
sent  $150,000  to  the  relief  of  Boston.  Cheered  by  these  evidences  of 
sympathy,  Boston  resolved  to  hold  out  to  the  end. 

One  of  the  first  and  most  determined  of  the  colonies  in  expressing  her 
sympathy  for  Massachusetts  was  Virginia.  Upon  the  receipt  of  the  news 
of  the  closing  of  the  port  of  Boston,  the  assembly  of  this  colony  passed 
resolutions  of  sympathy  with  Massachusetts,  and  appointed  the  1st  of 
June,  the  day  designated  for  the  enforcement  of  the  Port  Bill,  as  a  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer.  For  this  bold  action  the  governor  dissolved  the 
assembly.  It  met  the  next  day — May  25th — in  spite  of  Governor  Dun- 
morc's  prohibition,  in  the  coffee  room  of  the  Raleigh  Tavern,  and  declared 
that  an  attack  on  Massachusetts  was  an  attack  on  every  other  colony  and 
ought  to  be  opposed  by  the  united  wisdom  of  all.  The  assembly  urged 
that  a  general  congress  of  all  the  colonies  should  be  held  to  take  united 
action  for  the  redress  of  grievances,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
correspond  with  the  other  colonies  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  this 
congress.  The  1st  of  June  was  rigidly  observed  in  Virginia  as  a  fast 
day.  George  Mason  charged  his  family  to  be  careful  to  attend  church 
on  that  day  clad  in  mourning. 

In  the  meantime  Hutchiuson  had  been  replaced  as  governor  of  Massa- 


414 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


ohusetts  by  General  Gage,  the  cominamler-in-<'hief  of  the  British  army  in 
North  America.  He  landed  in  Boston  on  the  17th  of  May,  1774,  and 
was  well  received  by  the  people.  He  was  a  man  of  mild  character  and 
great  good-nature,  and  utterly  unfit  for  the  task  of  coercing  a  free  people. 
The  determined  attitude  of  the  patriots-  bewildered  him.  He  brought 
with  him  instructions  for  "  the  seizure  and  condign  punishment  of  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Hancock,  Joseph  Warren,  and  other  leading  patriots ;  but 
he  stood  in  such  dread  of  them  that  he  never  so  much  as  attempted  their 
arrest."  He  was  greatly  perplexed  to  know  how  to  manage  the  people 
of  Boston.  It  was  clear  to  him  that  they  intended  to  resist  the  injustice 
of  the  mother  country,  but  they  kept  so  carefully  within  the  law  that  he 
could  not  take  hold  of  their  acts.  They  held  meetings  and  discussed 

their  grievances,  but  violated  no 
law,  and  discountenanced  violence 
of  all  kinds.  He  was  authorized 
by  the  British  government  to 
fire  upon  the  colonists  whenever 
he  should  see  fit ;  but  their  pru- 
dent and  peaceful  course  gave 
him  no  opportunity  for  so  doing. 
The  government  at  length  under- 
took to  put  a  stop  to  the  town 
Americans  by 
to  hold  such 
after  a  certain  day. 
They  evaded  this  law  by  convok- 
ing the  meetings  before  the  desig- 
nated day,  and  "'keeping  them 
alive"  by  adjourning  them  from 
time  to  time.  Faneuil  Hall  and 

the  Old  South  Church  were  the  favorite  places  of  meeting;  but  many  of 
these  assemblies  were  held  under  the  Liberty  Tree. 

In  the  meantime  the  recommendation  of  Virginia  for  a  general  con- 
gress was  accepted  by  the  other  colonies,  and  measures  were  set  on  foot 
to  bring  it  about.  The  need  of  such  an  assembly,  which  should  represent 
the  whole  country,  was  becoming  more  and  more  apparent  every  day. 
In  the  various  colonies  delegates  were  chosen,  and  it  was  agreed,  at  the 
instance  of  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  that  the  congress  should 
in?ct  i:i  Philadelphia  on  the  5th  of  September,  1774.  Martin,  the  roy- 
alist governor  of  Georgia,  prevented  that  colony  from  choosing  delegates 
to  the  congress,  and  General  Gage  attempted  a  similar  interference  with 


meetings  of    the 
them 


forbidding 
meetings 


JOHN  HANCOCK. 


CAL'SRS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  415 

the  general  court  of  Massachusetts.  Samuel  Adams,  as  usual,  had  anti- 
cipated him,  however.  On  the  17th  of  June,  having  privately  ascer- 
tained the  sentiments  of  the  members,  he  locked  the  door  of  the  room  in 
which  the  meeting  of  the  assembly  was  held,  and  so  kept  out  the 
governor's  secretary,  who  came  to  dissolve  the  session,  and  who  knocked 
in  vain  for  admission.  Thus  safe  from  executive  interference,  the 
general  court  proceeded  to  appoint  its  delegates  to  the  congress,  and  to 
make  provision  for  their  support.  This  accomplished,  the  doors  were 
opened  and  the  members  submitted  to  the  dissolution  pronounced  by 
Governor  Gage. 

The  act  of  Parliament  by  which  the  British  government  undertook  to 
prohibit  the  town  meetings  of  Massachusetts  was  known  as  the  "  Regu- 
lating Act."  It  was  introduced  into  Parliament  by  Lord  North  in  April, 
and  received  the  royal  assent  in  May,  1754.  It  was  an  infamous 
measure.  It  annulled  the  charter  of  the  colony,  and  "  without  previous 
notice  to  Massachusetts,  and  without  a  hearing,  it  arbitrarily  took  away 
rights  and  liberties  which  the  people  had  enjoyed  from  the  foundation  of 
the  colony,  except  in  the  evil  days  of  James  II."  All  the  power  of  the 
colony  was  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  royal  governor  by  conferring 
upon  him  the  appointment  of  all  the  courts  of  justice  and  every  official 
connected  with  them.  The  courts  were  all  to  be  remodelled  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  king,  and  Gage  at  once  set  to  work  to  appoint  the  new  judges. 
The  whole  colony  united  in  a  determined  resistance  to  them.  In  many 
of  the  towns  the  citizens  would  not  allow  the  new  courts  to  be  opened, 
and  in  Boston  no  man  could  be  found  to  serve  as  a  juror  in  the  courts 
appointed  for  that  city.  A  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Boston  was  held 
at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  26th  of  August,  1774,  and  was  attended  by  dele- 
gates from  the  counties  of  Worcester,  Middlesex,  and  Essex.  It  adopted 
a  series  of  resolutions  denying  the  authority  of  Parliament  to  change  any 
of  the  laws  of  the  province,  and  declared  that  the  new  government  set  up 
by  Gage  under  the  Regulating  Act  was  unconstitutional,  and  that  the  new 
officers,  should  they  attempt  to  act,  would  become  the  enemies  of  the 
province  although  they  bore  the  commission  of  the  king.  In  order  to 
provide  for  the  safety  of  the  colony  a  provincial  congress  with  large 
executive  powers  was  advised  by  the  convention.  Gage  found  himself 
unable  to  enforce  the  new  laws.  "  The  chief  justice  and  his  colleagues, 
repairing  in  a  body  to  the  governor,  represented  the  impossibility  of 
vcercising  their  office  in  Boston  or  in  any  other  part  of  the  province  ;  the 
rmy  was  too  small  for  their  protection ;  and  besides,  none  would  act  as 
nrors.  Thus  the  authority  of  the  new  government,  as  established  by 
act  of  Parliament,  perished  in  the  presence  of  the  governor,  the  judges, 


41 G  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  the  army."  *  Tluis  defeated  Gage  began  to  increase  the  number  of 
troops  at  Boston. 

On  the  1st  of  September  Gage  sent  a  detachment  to  Quarry  Hill,  near 
Charlestown,  and  seized  the  public  magazine  in  which  the  province  of 
Massachusetts  kept  its  powder  for  its  militia,  and  brought  it  to  Boston. 
The  news  of  this  seizure  roused  the  people  of  the  surrounding  counties  to 
a  high  state  of  indignation.  A  body  of  several  thousand  of  the  best 
citizens  of  Middlesex,  "leaving  their  guns  in  the  rear,"  marched  to  Cam- 
bridge to  protest  against  the  outrage.  They  compelled  Danforth,  a 
county  judge  and  a  member  of  Gage's  council,  Phipps,  the  high  sheriff, 
and  Oliver,  the  lieutenant-governor,  to  resign  their  places.  They 
attempted  no  violence,  and  inasmuch  as  Gage  had  acted  within  the  lettci 
of  the  law  in  removing  the  powder,  dispersed  quietly,  satisfied  for  the 
time  with  their  protest.  Their  demonstration  thoroughly  alarmed  Gage, 
who  kept  the  troops  in  Boston  under  arms  all  night,  posted  cannon  to 
command  the  approaches  to  the  town,  and  doubled  all  the  guards.  At 
the  same  time  he  wrote  to  England  for  reinforcements. 

The  news  of  the  seizure  of  the  Massachusetts  powder  spread  rapidly 
through  the  province  and  into  the  adjoining  colonies.  The  seizure  was 
made  on  Thursday  morning,  and  by  Saturday  morning  twenty  thousand 
men  were  under  arms  and  advancing  upon  Boston.  They  were  stopped 
by  expresses  from  the  patriots  at  Boston,  but  their  prompt  action  showed 
the  spirit  of  the  province.  When  the  news  reached  Israel  Putnam,  in 
his  home  in  Connecticut,  the  old  hero  at  once  called  on  the  militia  to  go 
with  him  to  the  aid  of  Boston,  where  the  report  said  the  people  had  been 
fired  on  by  the  royal  troops  and  shipping.  His  call  was  answered  by 
thousands,  but  later  advices  from  Boston  put  a  stop  to  the  march.  "  But 
for  counter  intelligence,"  wrote  Putnam  to  the  patriots  at  Boston,  "  we 
should  have  had  forty  thousand  men,  well  equipped  and  ready  to  march 
this  morning.  Send  a  written  express  to  the  foreman  of  this  committee 
when  you  have  occasion  of  our  martial  assistance ;  we  shall  attend  your 
summons,  and  shall  glory  in  having  a  share  in  the  honor  of  ridding  our 
country  of  the  yoke  of  tyranny  which  our  forefathers  have  not  borne, 
neither  will  we.  And  we  much  desire  you  to  keep  a  strict  guard  over 
the  remainder  of  your  powder,  for  that  must  be  the  great  means,  under 
God,  of  the  salvation  of  our  country." 

The  excitement  was  not  without  its  good  results,  however.  It  led 
every  man  to  examine  the  condition  of  his  means  of  resistance,  and  to 
supply  his  deficiencies  in  arms  and  equipments.  The  royal  authority 

*  Bancroft. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


417 


was  at  an  end  outside  of  Boston,  and  active  royalists  found  it  best  to 
seek  safety  within  that  city. 

The  general  congress,  or,  as  it  is  better  known,  the  Old  Continental 
Congress,  met  in  Carpenter's  Hall,  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  5th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1774.  It  numbered  fifty-five  members,  consisting  of  delegates 
from  every  colony  save  Georgia,  whose  governor  had  prevented  the  elec- 
tion of  delegates.  Among  the  members  were  many  of  the  most  eminent 
men  in  the  land.  From  Virginia  came  George  Washington,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  Richard  Henry  Lee ;  from  Massachusetts  Samuel  Adams 
and  John  Adams;  from  New  York  Philip  Livingston,  John  Jay,  and 
William  Livingston ;  from  Rhode  Island  the  venerable  Stephen  Hop- 
kins; from  Connecticut  Roger  Sherman;  from  South  Carolina  Edward 


CARPENTER'S  HALL,  PHILADELPHIA. 

and  John  Rutledge  and  Christopher  Gadsden ;  and  from  New  Jersey  the 
Rev.  John  Witherspoon,  the  President  of  Princeton  College.  The  mem- 
bers of  this  illustrious  body  were  not  strangers  to  each  other,  though  the 
majority  of  them  met  now  for  the  first  time.  They  had  corresponded 
with  each  other,  and  had  discussed  their  wrongs  so  thoroughly  that  each 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  sentiments  of  his  colleagues,  and  all  were 
bound  together  by  a  common  sympathy. 

The  congress  was  organized  by  the  election  of  Peyton  Randolph,  of 

Virginia,  as  speaker.     Charles  Thomson,  of  Pennsylvania,  an  Irishman 

by  birth,  and  the  principal  of  the  Quaker  High  School  in  Philadelphia, 

was  then  chosen  secretary.     Tt  was  proposed  to  open  the  sessions  with 

27 


418  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

prayer.  Some  of  the  members  thought  this  might  be  inexpedient,  as  all 
the  delegates  might  not  be  able  to  join  in  the  same  form  of  worship.  Up 
rose  Samuel  Adams,  in  whose  great  soul  there  was  not  a  grain  of  sham. 
He  was  a  strict  Congregationalist.  "  I  am  no  bigot,"  he  said.  "  I  can 
hear  a  prayer  from  a  man  of  piety  and  virtue,  whatever  may  be  his  cloth, 
provided  he  is  at  the  same  time  a  friend  to  his  country."  On  his  motion 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Duchd,  an  Episcopal  clergyman  of  Philadelphia,  was  in- 
vited to  act  as  chaplain.  Mr.  Duche  accepted  the  invitation. 

When  the  congress  assembled  the  next  morning  all  was  anxiety  and 
apprehension,  for  the  rumor  of  the  attack  upon  Boston,  which  had  reached 
Putnam  and  aroused  Connecticut,  had  gotten  as  far  as  Philadelphia. 
The  chaplain  opened  the  session  by  reading  the  thirty-fifth  Psalm,  which 
seemed,  as.  John  Adams  said,  ordained  by  Heaven  to  be  read  that  morn- 
ing, and  then  broke  forth  into  an  extempore  prayer  of  great  fervor  and 
eloquence.  At  the  close  of  the  prayer  a  deep  silence  prevailed  in  the 
hall.  It  was  broken  by  Patrick  Henry,  who  rose  to  open  the  day's  pro- 
ceedings. He  began  slowly  and  hesitatingly  at  first,  "  as  if  borne  down 
by  the  weight  of  his  subject,"  but  as  he  proceeded  he  rose  grandly  to  the 
duty  of  the  occasion,  and  in  a  speech  of  masterly  eloquence  he  recited  the 
wrongs  of  the  American  colonies  at  the  hands  of  Great  Britain,  and  de- 
clared that  all  government  in  America  was  dissolved,  and  urged  upon  the 
congress  the  necessity  of  forming  a  new  government  for  the  colonies. 
Towards  the  close  of  his  speech  he  struck  a  chord  which  answered  in 
every  heart.  "  British  oppression,"  he  exclaimed,  "  has  effaced  the  boun- 
daries of  the  several  colonies;  the  distinctions  between  Virginians,  Penn- 
sylvanians,  New  Yorkers,  and  New  Englanders  are  no  more.  I  am  not 
a  Virginian,  but  an  American."  The  deputies  were  astonished  at  his 
eloquence,  as  well  as  at  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  with  which  they 
were  intrusted. 

The  congress  continued  its  ,  sessions  for  seven  weeks.  It  had  no 
authority  to  bind  the  colonies  to  any  course ;  its  powers  were  merely  ad- 
visory, and  it  did  not  transcend  its  authority.  It  drew  up  a  Declaration 
of  Rights,  in  which  it  defined  the  natural  rights  of  man  to  be  the  enjoy- 
ment of  life,  liberty,  and  property.  It  claimed  for  the  Americans,  as 
British  subjects,  the  right  to  participate  in  the  making  of  their  laws,  and 
the  levying  of  taxes  upon  their  own  people.  The  right  of  trial  by  jury  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  scene  of  the  alleged  offence,  and  the  right 
of  holding  public  meetings  and  petitioning  for  the  redress  of  grievances> 
were  solemnly  asserted.  A  protest  was  entered  against  the  maintaining 
of  standing  armies  in  America  without  the  consent  of  the  colonies,  and 
against  eleven  specified  acts  passed  since  the  opening  of  the  reign  of 


CAUSES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


419 


George  III.,  as  violative  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies.  The  declaration 
concluded  with  the  solemn  warning,  "To  these  grievous  acts  and  measures 
Americans  cannot  submit." 

Congress  then  addressed  itself  to  a  plan  for  obtaining  redress.  It  was 
agreed  to  form  an  "American  Association,"  whose  members  were  to 
pledge  themselves  not  to  trade  with  Great  Britain  or  the  West  Indies,  or 
with  persons  engaged  in  the  slave  trade ;  not  to  use  tea  or  any  British 
goods ;  and  not  to  trade  with  any  colony  which  should  refuse  to  join  the 


-^.i/;^ 

HARBOR  OF  NEW   YORK   IN  1875. 

association.  For  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  objects  of  this  association 
committees  were  to  be  appointed  in  the  various  parts  of  the  country  to  sec 
that  its  provisions  were  carried  into  effect. 

Other  papers  were  adopted  by  the  congress,  setting  forth  its  views 
more  clearly.  A  petition  to  the  king  was  prepared  by  John  Dickinson, 
of  Pennsylvania,  who  also  drafted  an  address  to  the  people  of  Canada. 
A  memorial  to  the  people  of  the  colonies  was  written  by  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  of  Virginia,  and  an  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  by  John 
Jay,  of  New  York.  These  papers  were  forwarded  to  England  to  be  Juki 


420  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

before  the  British  government,  and  on  the  26th  of  October  the  congress 
adjourned  to  meet  on  the  10th  of  May,  1775. 

In  January,  1775,  Lord  North  presented  the  papers  adopted  by  congress 
to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  at  the  same  time  they  were  laid  before 
the  House  of  Lords  by  Lord  Dartmouth.  The  venerable  Earl  of  Chatham 
made  this  the  occasion  of  a  powerful  appeal  to  the  majority  in  Parliament 
to  reverse  their  arbitrary  course  towards  the  Americans  before  it  should 
be  too  late.  Referring  to  the  papers  laid  before  the  House,  he  said : 
"  When  your  lordships  look  at  the  papers  transmitted  us  from  America, 
when  you  consider  their  decency,  firmness  and  wisdom,  you  cannot  but 
respect  their  cause  and  wish  to  make  it  your  own.  For  myself,  I  must 
avow,  that  in  all  my  reading — and  I  have  read  Thucydides,  and  have 
studied  and  admired  the  master  states  of  the  world — for  solidity  of 
reason,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion  under  a  complication 
of  difficult  circumstances,  no  nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  general  congress  at  Philadelphia.  The  histories  of  Greece  and 
Rome  give  us  nothing  equal  to  it,  and  all  attempts  to  impose  servitude 
upon  such  a  mighty  continental  nation  must  be  in  vain.  We  shall  be 
forced  ultimately  to  retract ;  let  us  retract  while  we  can,  not  when  we 
must.  These  violent  acts  must  be  repealed ;  you  will  repeal  them ;  I 
pledge  myself  for  it,  I  stake  my  reputation  on  it,  that  you  will  in  the  end 
repeal  them.  Avoid,  then,  this  humiliating  necessity." 

The  king  was  furious  when  the  words  of  the  greatest  statesman  of  his 
kingdom  were  repeated  to  him.  Neither  the  wisdom  nor  the  eloquence 
of  Chatham  could  turn  the  king  or  the  ministers  from  their  mad  course. 
They  had  but  one  plan  for  America  now.  She  must  submit  humbly  to 
their  will ;  if  she  should  resist,  she  must  be  crushed  into  submission. 
The  king  meant  to  try  the  question  with  the  Americans. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 

Gage  fortifies  Boston  Neck — He  summons  the  General  Court — Recalls  his  Proclamation — 
The  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts — It  takes  Measures  for  Defence — The  Militia 
Organized — The  Minute  Men — Friends  of  America  in  England — Gage  resolves  to  seize 
the  Stores  at  Concord — Midnight  March  of  the  British  Troops — The  Alarm  given — Skir- 
mishes at  Lexington  and  Concord — Retreat  of  the  British — A  terrible  March — Uprising 
of  New  England — Boston  Invested — Dunmore  seizes  the  Virginia  Powder — Is  made  to 
pay  for  it— Uprising  of  the  Middle  and  Southern  Colonies — The  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion of  Independence — Capture  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point — -Meeting  of  the 
Second  Continental  Congress — Congress  resolves  to  sustain  Massachusetts — Renewed 
Efforts  for  Peace — Congress  assumes  the  General  Government  of  the  Colonies — A  Federal 
Union  Organized — Its  Character — A  Continental  Army  formed — George  Washington 
appointed  Commander-in-chief — General  Officers  appointed — Condition  of  the  Army 
before  Boston — Inaction  of  Gage — Battle  of  Bread's  Hill — A  glorious  Defence — The 
Battle  equivalent  to  a  Victory  in  its  effects  upon  the  Country — Arrival  of  Washington 
at  Cambridge — He  takes  Command  of  the  Army — He  reorganizes  the  Army — Difficul- 
ties of  the  undertaking — The  Invasion  of  Canada  resolved  upon — March  of  Montgomery 
and  Arnold — Rapid  Successes  of  Montgomery — He  captures  Montreal — March  of 
Arnold  through  the  Wilderness — Arrival  before  Quebec — Forms  a  Junction  with  Mont- 
gomery— The  Siege  of  Quebec — The  Ice  Forts — Failure  of  the  Attack — Death  of  Mont- 
gomery— Retreat  of  the  Americans  from  Canada — Lord  Dunmore's  War  in  Virginia — 
Destruction  of  Norfolk — The  Thirteen  United  Colonies — Burning  of  Falmouth — Naval 
Matters — Action  of  Great  Britain — The  War  to  be  carried  on — The  Hessians. 

HILE  the  Continental  Congress  was  in  session,  matters  were  in  a 
most  serious  state  in  Massachusetts.  General  Gage,  alarmed  by 
the  threatening  aspect  of  the  Americans,  began  to  fortify  Boston 
Neck,  the  narrow  peninsula  which  united  the  city  with  the  main 
land.  A  regiment  was  stationed  at  these  works  to  prevent  com- 
munication between  the  citizens  and  the  people  in  the  country.  The 
news  of  this  action  spread  rapidly.  At  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  a 
company  of  volunteers  seized  the  fort  and  carried  off  one  hundred  and 
fifty  barrels  of  powder  and  several  cannon.  At  Newport  forty-four 
cannon  were  seized  by  the  people  and  sent  to  Providence  for  safe- 
keeping. 

In  the  midst  of  this  excitement,  Gage,  thinking  such  a  step  might  con- 
ciliate the  people,  summoned  the  general  court  to  meet  at  Salem ;  but 
alarmed  at  the  growing  spirit  of  liberty,  countermanded  the  order.  The 

421 


422 


HISTORY  01'  THK   UNITED  STATES. 


members  of  the  general  court  met,  however,  at  Salem,  on  the  5th  of 
October,  1774,  but  finding  no  one  to  organize  them  adjourned  to  Concord, 
where  they  resolved  themselves  into  a  provincial  congress,  of  which  .John 
Hancoclwwas  elected  president.  This  congress  existed  as  the  government 
of  the  people,  and  was  independent  of  the  authority  of  the  king.  They 
protested  their  loyalty  to  King  George,  and  their  desire  for  peace,  and 
endeavored  to  induce  Gage  to  desist  from  -fortifying  Boston  Neck.  Gage 

refused  to  comply  with  their  de- 
mand, and  warned  them  to  desist 
from  their  unlawful  course.  The 
provincial  congress  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  his  warning,  but  proceeded 
to  call  out  the  militia  to  the  num- 
ber of  twelve  thousand.  They 
were  allowed  to  remain  at  their 
homes,  but  were  required  to  be 
ready  for  service  at  a  minute's 
warning.  Hence  they  were  known 
as  "  Minute  Men."  Two  com- 
mittees of  safety  were  appointed  : 
one  to  call  out  the  minute  men 
when  their  services  were  needed  ; 
the  other  to  supply  them  with 
provisions  and  ammunition.  Two 
general  officers,  Artemas  Ward 
and  Seth  Pomeroy,  were  ap- 
pointed. The  other  New  Eng- 
land colonies  were  invited  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  minute  men 
to  twenty  thousand.  The  sum 
of  £20,000  was  voted  for  the 
military  service,  and  Massachu- 
setts prepared  for  the  worst.  In 
every  colony  military  prepara- 
tions were  set  on  foot,  and  the  whole  of  America  began  to  prepare  for  the 
coming  storm  which  all  thinking  men  now  saw  was  close  at  hand. 

The  papers  drawn  up  by  the  Continental  Congress  had  been  widely 
circulated  in  England,  and  had  aroused  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  for 
America,  and  it  was  hoped  by  many  that  the  new  Parliament,  which  met 
in  January,  1775,  would  see  the  necessity  of  doing  justice  to  the  colonies. 
The  cause  of  America  was  eloquently  pleaded  by  the  Earl  of  Chatham 


THE  MINUTE  MAN. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  423 

and  others,  but  the  king  and  the  ministers  were  resolved  to  compel  the 
submission  of  the  Americans,  and  the  majority  in  Parliament  sustained 
them.  A  measure  known  as  the  "New  England  Restraining  Bill"  was  in- 
troduced by  Lord  North,  which  deprived  the  people  of  New  England  of 
the  privilege  of  fishing  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  In  March  news 
arrived  that  all  the  colonies  had  indorsed  the  action  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  had  pledged  themselves  to  support  it.  To  punish  them  the 
provisions  of  the  Restraining  Bill  were  extended  to  every  colony  save 
New  York,  Delaware,  and  North  Carolina.  These  colonies  were  ex- 
empted in  the  hope  of  inducing  them  to  desert  the  American  cause.  The 
measure  failed  of  its  object;  and  the  three  favored  colonies  remained 
firm  in  their  support  of  the  congress. 

General  Gage  now  resolved  to  take  a  decisive  step.  He  learned  that 
the  patriots  had  established  a  depot  of  provisions  and  military  stores  at 
Concord,  eighteen  miles  from  Boston,  and  resolved  to  seize  these  supplies 
at  once.  The  military  force  under  his  command  at  Boston  numbered 
three  thousand  men,  and  he  felt  himself  strong  enough,  not  only  to  seize 

these  stores,  but  also  to  arrest  John  Hancock  and  Samuel  Adams,  who 

f 

were  lodging  at  Lexington.  Accordingly,  on  the  night  of  the  18th  of 
April,  1775,  he  detached  a  force  of  eight  hundred  men  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Smith,  and  shortly  before  midnight  had  them  conveyed  across 
Charles  river  to  Cambridge,  from  which  place  they  began  their  march  to 
Concord.  Gage  had  conducted  the  whole  movement  with  the  greatest 
secrecy,  but  his  preparations  had  been  detected  by  the  patriot  leaders  in 
Boston,  and  Hancock  and  Adams  had  been  warned  of  their  danger. 
The  British  had  hardly  embarked  in  their  boats  when  two  lanterns  were 
displayed  from  the  tower  of  the  Old  North  Church.  Paul  Revere,  the 
chosen  messenger,  who  had  been  awaiting  this  signal,  at  once  set  off  from 
Charlestown  and  rode  in  haste  to  Lexington  to  warn  the  patriots  of  the 
approach  of  the  British  troops.  At  the  same  time  William  Dawes  left 
Boston  by  the  road  over  the  Neck,  and  rode  at  full  speed  towards  Lex- 
ington, arousing  the  country  as  he  went  along  with  his  stirring  tidings. 
Other  messengers  were  sent  forward  by  these  men,  and  the  alarm  spread 
rapidly  through  the  country. 

From  Cambridge  the  British  pushed  forward  rapidly  towards  Lexing- 
ton. They  had  not  gone  far  when  they  heard  in  advance  of  them  the 
firing  of  alarm  guns,  and  the  tolling  of  bells.  The  British  officers  were 
astonished  at  the  rapidity  with  which  their  movement  had  been  dis- 
covered ;  but  they  could  not  doubt  the  meaning  of  these  signals.  Th* 
country  was  being  aroused,  and  their  situation  was  becoming  serious, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Smith  sent,  a  messenger  to  General  Gage  for  reinforce- 


424 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


425 


ments,  and  ordered  Major  Pitcairn  to  push  forward  with  a  part  of  the 
force  and  seize  the  two  bridges  at  Concord.  Pitcairn  obeyed  his  orders 
promptly,  and  arrested  every  one  whom  he  met  or  overtook  save  a  coun- 
tryman, who  escaped  and  reached  Lexington  in  time  to  give  the  alarm. 

Pitcairn's  division  reached  Lexington  at  daybreak  on  the  19th  of 
April.  They  found  seventy  or  eighty  minute  men,  and  several  other 
persons,  assembled  on  the  common.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  intentions 
of  the  British,  and  supposed  they  merely  wished  to  arrest  Adams  and 
Hancock,  who  had  left  the  village  upon  the  first  alarm.  As  he  saw  the 
group  Pitcairn  ordered  his  men  to  halt  and  load  their  muskets,  and 


BK1TISH   TKOOPS  ON  CONCORD  COMMON. 


called  out  to  the  Americans,  "Disperse,  ye  villains,  ye  rebels,  disperse; 
lay  down  your  arms ;  why  don't  you  lay  down  your  arms  and  disperse?" 
The  Americans  stood  motionless  and  silent,  "  witnesses  against  aggres- 
sion ;  too  few  to  resist ;  too  brave  to  fly."  Pitcairn,  seeing  that  his  order 
was  not  obeyed,  discharged  his  pistol,  and  ordered  his  men  to  fire.  A 
few  straggling-  shots  followed  this  order,  and  then  the  regulars  poured  sf 
close  heavy  volley  into  the  Americans,  killing  seven,  and  wounding  nine 
of  them.  Parker,  the  commander  of  the  minute  men,  seeing  that  the 
affair  was  to  be  a  massacre  instead  of  a  battle,  ordered  his  men  to  disperse. 
The  British  then  gave  three  cheers  for  their  victory.  In  a  little  while 
Colonel  Smith  arrived  with  the  remainder  of  his  command,  and  the 
whole  party  then  pushed  on  towards  Concord. 


426  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  alarm  had  already  reached  Concord,  and  in  a  little  while  news 
was  received  of  the  massacre  at  Lexington.  The  minute  men  promptly 
assembled  on  the  common,  near  the  church,  and  awaited  the  approach  of 
the  enemy.  The  minute  men  from  Lincoln  came  in  at  an  early  hour,  and 
a  few  from  Acton.  About  seven  o'clock  the  British  were  seen  advancing 
in  two  divisions,  and  as  it  was  evident  that  they  were  about  four  times  as 
numerous  as  the  Americans,  the  latter  retreated  to  the  summit  of  a  hill 
3n  the  opposite  side  of  the  Concord  river,  and  there  awaited  the  arrival 
of  reinforcements,  which  were  coming  in  from  the  surrounding  country. 
The  British  occupied  th3  town,  and  posting  a  force  of  one  hundred  men 
to  hold  the  North  bridge,  began  their  search  for  arms  and  stores.  The 
greater  part  of  these  had  been  secreted,  but  the  soldiers  found  a  few  that 
could  not  be  removed,  and  gave  the  rest  of  their  time  to  plundering  the 
houses  of  the  town.  "  This  slight  waste  of  stores,"  says  Bancroft,  "  was 
all  the  advantage  for  which  Gage  precipitated  a  civil  war.'' 

Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  the  American  force  had  increased  by  the 
arrival  of  the  minute  men  from  Acton,  Bedford,  Westford,  Carlisle, 
Littleton,  and  Chelmsford,  to  about  four  hundred  and  fifty.  Below 
them,  in  full  view,  were  the  regulars  plundering  their  homes,  and  from 
the  town  rose  the  smoke  of  the  fires  the  soldiers  had  kindled  for  the 
destruction  of  the  few  stores  they  had  managed  to  secure.  Not  knowing 
whether  they  meant  to  burn  the  town  or  not,  the  officers  of  the  minute 
men  resolved  to  advance  and  enter  Concord.  Barret,  the  command- 
ing officer,  cautioned  the  men  not  to  fire  unless  attacked.  As  their 
approach  was  discovered  the  British  began  to  take  up  the  planks  of  the 
North  bridge,  and  to  prevent  this  the  Americans  quickened  their  pace. 
The  regulars  then  fired  a  volley  which  killed  two  of  the  minute  men. 
The  fire  was  returned,  and  two  of  the  soldiers  were  killed  and  several 
wounded.  These  volleys  were  followed  by  some  desultory  skirmishing, 
and  about  noon  Colonel  Smith  drew  off  his  men  and  began  to  retreat  by 
the  way  he  had  come. 

With  the  retreat  of  the  British  from  Concord  the  real  work  of  the  day 
began.  The  country  was  thoroughly  aroused,  and  men  came  pouring  in 
from  every  direction  eager  to  get  a  shot  at  the  regulars.  The  road  by 
which  the  royal  forces  were  retreating  was  narrow  and  crooked,  and  led 
through  forests  and  thickets,  and  was  bordered  by  the  stone  walls  which 
enclosed  the  farms.  At  every  step  the  militia  and  minute  men  hung  upon 
the  enemy,  and  kept  up  an  irregular  but  fatal  fire  upon  them  from 
behind  trees,  fences,  and  houses.  Flanking  parties  were  thrown  out  to 
clear  the  way,  but  without  success.  The  number  of  the  Americans 
increased  it  every  step.  Each  town  took  up  the  strife  as  the  regulars 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


427 


entered  its  limits.  Far  and  wide  the  alarm  was  spreading  through  the 
country,  and  the  people  were  getting  under  arms.  By  noon  a  messenger 
rode  furiously  into  the  distant  town  of  Worcester  and  shouted  the  alarm. 
Instantly  the  minute  men  of  the  town  got  under  arms,  and  after  joining 
their  minister  in  prayer,  on  the  common,  took  up  the  march  for  Cam- 
bridge. The  whole  province  was  rising,  and  the  enemies  of  the  fugitive 
regulars  were  increasing  every  moment. 

Smith  hurried  his  command  through  Lexington  at  a  rapid  rate,  and  a 
short  distance  beyond  the  town  met  Lord  Percy  advancing  to  his  assist- 
ance with  twelve  hundred  infantry  and  two  pieces  of  artillery.  Percy 


THE   FIGHT  AT  CONCORD   BRIDGE. 


formed  his  men  into  a  square,  enclosing  the  fugitives,  who  dropped  help- 
lessly on  the  ground,  "  their  tongues  hanging  out  of  their  mouths  like 
those  of  dogs  after  a  chase,"  and  with  his  cannon  kept  the  Americans  at 
bay.  He  could  not  think  of  holding  his  position,  however,  and  after  a 
halt  of  half  an  hour  resumed  the  retreat,  first  setting  fire  to  some  houses 
in  Lexington.  The  fighting  now  became  more  energetic  than  ever. 
From  either  side,  from  in  front  and  the  rear,  the  Americans  kept  up  a 
constant  fire  upon  the  British,  who  revenged  themselves  by  murdering 
some  helpless  people  along  the  road,  and  burning  houses.  Below  West 
Cambridge  the  British  broke  into  a  run,  and  at  length,  about  sunset,  suc- 
ceeded in  escaping  across  Charlestown  Neck,  where  they  were  safe  under 
the  fire  of  their  shipping.  Had  the  militia  from  Marblehead  and  Salem, 


428 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


who  wore  on  the  march,  been  more  alert,  the  entire  British  force  would 
have  been  captured,  as  they  were  in  no  condition  to  resist  a  determined 
attack  in  front. 

The  loss  of  the  Americans  during  the  day  was  forty-nine  killed,  thirty- 
four  wounded,  and  five  missing.  The  British  lost  in  killed,  wounded,  and 
missing  two  hundred  arid  seventy-three  men,  or  more  than  fell  in  Wolfe's 

army  in  the  battle  of 
the  Heights  of  Abra- 
ham. Many  of  the 
officers,  including 
Colonel  Smith,  were 
wounded. 

The  news  of  the 
conflicts  at  Lexington 
and  Concord  spread 
rapidly  through  New 
England,  and  was 
S'jnt  by  express  mes- 
sengers to  New  York 
and  the  colonies 
farther  south.  In 
New  England  it  pro- 
duced a  general  up- 
rising of  the  people, 
and  in  ten  days  Bos- 
ton was  blockaded 
by  an  irregular  army 
of  twenty  thousand 
provincial  troops, 
whose  encampments 
extended  from  Rox- 
bury  to  the  Mystic 
river,  above  Charles- 
town,  a  distance  often  miles.  John  Stark,  who  had  served  with  gallantry 
in  the  old  French  war,  was  on  his  way  to  Boston  in  ten  minutes  after  he 
was  informed  of  the  fighting.  Israel  Putnam,  a  veteran  soldier,  and  as 
true  a  hero  as  ever  lived,  was  ploughing  in  his  field  when  the  courier  rode 
by  with  the  tidings  of  the  battle.  He  left  his  plough,  sprang  on  his  horse, 
and  after  rousing  his  neighbors  rode  from  his  home,  in  Connecticut,  to 
Cambridge,  without  even  stopping  to  change  his  clothes.  The  Massa- 
chusetts Congress  took  energetic  measures  for  the  support  of  the  army 


RETREAT   OP  THE   BRITISH   FROM   LEXINGTON. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


429 


before  Boston,  and  in  a  few  clays  this  force  began  to  assume   a  more 
regular  character. 

Matters  had  also  reached  a  crisis  in  Virginia.  On  the  night  of  the 
20th  of  April  Lord  Dunmore  seized  the  powder  in  the  magazine  at  "Wil- 
liamsburg,  and  sent  it,  under  guard  of  a  party  of  marines,  on  board  an 
armed  schooner  in  the  James  river.  The  inhabitants  on  the  morning  of 
the  21st  took  arms  to  compel  the  restoration  of  the  powder,  but  were  per- 
suaded to  refrain  from  violence.  In  a  few  days  the  news  from  Lexington 
and  Concord  was  received,  and  it  was  the  general  belief  that  Dunmore's 
course  was  only  a  part  of  a  general  plan  to  disarm  the  colonies.  On  the 
2d  of  May  Patrick  Henry  summoned  the  independent  companies  "»f 


CAPTTTRE  OF  TICOXDEROGA  BY  ALLEN. 


Hanover  to  meet  him  at  a  certain  place,  and  led  them  towards  Williams 
burg,  determined  to  compel  the  governor  to  restore  the  powder,  or  pay  its 
full  value  in  money.  On  the  march  they  were  met  by  a  messenger  from 
Dunmore,  who  paid  them  the  full  value  of  the  powder  in  money.  This 
money  was  soon  after  forwarded  to  Congress.  The  companies  then  dis- 
banded, and  returned  home.  Dunmore,  thoroughly  frightened,  fled  with 
his  family  on  board  a  man-of-war,  and  declared  "  Patrick  Henry  and  his 
associates  to  be  in  rebellion."  Afraid  to  meet  the  Virginians  in  an  open 
fight,  he  threatened  to  arm  their  slaves  against  them,  and  inaugurate  a 
general  massacre. 

The  middle  and  southern  colonies  were  prompt  to  follow  the  example 


430  111  STORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES- 

of  Ne^v  England.  The  people  of  New  York  seized  the  provisions  in- 
tended for  the  king's  troops  at  Boston,  shut  up  the  custom-house,  and 
forbade  any  vessels  to  leave  the  harbor  for  ports  or  colonies  acknowledg- 
ing the  authority  of  Great  Britain.  The  arms  and  ammunition  belonging 
to  the  city  were  seized  by  the  volunteers,  and  measures  were  set  on  foot 
for  a  general  resistance  to  the  authority  of  the  king.  New  Jersey  was 
equally  determined,  and  in  Pennsylvania  enthusiastic  meetings  of  citizens 
resolved  "to  associate  for  the  purpose  of  defending,  with  arms,  their 
lives,  their  property,  and  liberty."  Military  companies  were  formed,  and 
trained  in  the  exercise  of  arms.  »The  people  of  Maryland  compelled 
their  royalist  governor  to  surrender  to  them  all  the  arms  and  ammunition 
of  the  province.  The  militia  officers  of  South  Carolina  at  once  resigned 
their  commissions  from  the  governor,  and  regiments  of  militia  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  colony  were  raised  and  drilled.  At  Charleston  the  royal 
arsenal  was  seized,  and  its  contents  distributed  among  the  people.  Geor- 
gia also  placed  herself  in  the  ranks  of  her  patriot  sisters,  and  seizing  the 
ammunition  and  arms  within  her  limits  prepared  for  resistance.  North 
Carolina  took  a  more  decisive  stand  than  any  of  the  colonies.  The 
spirit  of  resistance  ran  high  within  her  borders.  A  convention  of  the 
people  of  Mecklenburg  county  was  held  at  Charlotte  on  the  29th  of  May, 
and  adopted  a  series  of  resolutions  declaring  themselves  independent  of 
the  control  of  Great  Britain,  and  renouncing  all  allegiance  to  her.  This 
was  the  famous  "  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence."  The 
whole  country,  from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia,  was  united  in  its  deter« 
mination  to  resist  the  injustice  of  Great  Britain  with  arms.  Massachu- 
setts had  struck  the  first  blow,  but  every  colony  was  now  prepared  and 
determined  to  bear  its  part  in  the  great  struggle  for  freedom. 

The  Massachusetts  Committee  of  Safety  were  anxious  to  secure  the 
important  posts  of  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  on  Lake  Champlain. 
The  possession  of  these  posts  would  not  only  enable  the  Americans  to 
command  the  entrance  to  Canada,  but  would  give  them  the  large  quan- 
tities of  military  supplies  stored  in  these  forts.  The  project  was  entered 
into  with  great  energy  by  Benedict  Arnold,  then  commanding  a  company 
before  Boston,  and  by  Ethan  Allen  of  Vermont.  Allen  was  the  leader 
of  the  Green  Mountain  Boys,  a  military  organization  in  Vermont,  which 
had  been  formed  to  resist  the  authority  of  New  York,  which  claimed 
Vermont  as  a  part  of  its  territory.  The  people  of  Vermont,  however, 
preferred  the  authority  of  New  Hampshire  to  that  of  New  York.  The 
dispute  had  become  quite  animated  when  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution 
drew  the  attention  of  all  parties  to  more  stirring  events.  Arnold,  upon 
hearing  that  Allen  was  preparing  to  seize  the  forts,  set  out  at  once  for 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


421 


Vermont,  and  overtook  the  Green  Mountain  Boys  near  the  head  of  Lake 
Champlain.  Producing  a  colonel's  commission  he  ordered  Allen  to  sur- 
render the  command  to  him,  but  the  latter  refused,  and  was  sustained  by 
his  men,  and  Arnold  at  length  agreed  to  serve  as  a  volunteer.  Securing 
a  few  boats  Allen  crossed  the  lake  with  his  little  force,  about  two  hundred 
and  seventy  in  number,  and  at  daybreak,  on  the  morning  of  May  10th, 
surprised  Fort  Ticonderoga,  and  made  prisoners  of  the  garrison  before 
they  were  fairly  awake.  Not  a  blow  was  struck.  The  astounded  com- 
mander of  the  fort  asked  Allen  by  whose  authority  he  acted.  "  In  the 


INDEPENDENCE  HALL  IN   1776. 

name  of  the  Great  Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress,"  was  the  in- 
stant reply,  delivered  in  stentorian  tones.  The  commandant  instantly 
submitted.  On  the  12th  of  May  Seth  Warner,  Allen's  lieutenant,  sur- 
prised Crown  Point,  and  secured  the  fort.  Arnold  secured  a  number  of 
boats  and,  descending  the  lake,  captured  St.  John's,  in  the  "  Sorel."  Sixty 
prisoners  were  taken  in  this  expedition,  and  besides  two  of  the  most  im- 
portant military  posts  in  America  the  patriots  secured  two  hundred 
cannon,  and  a  large  supply  of  ammunition. 

On  the  10th  of  May,  the   day  of  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga,  the 


432  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

second  Continental  Congress  met  at  Philadelphia.  This  time  they  assem- 
bled in  the  State-house,  a  place  more  suited  to  the  dignity  of  such  a  body; 
and  calculated  to  give  more  publicity  to  their  proceedings.  No  change 
was  at  first  made  in  the  officers  of  the  preceding  session,  but  in  a  few 
days  Peyton  Randolph  resigned  his  position  to  return  home  to  attend 
the  Virginia  legislature,  which  had  been  summoned  by  the  governor. 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  appointed  to  fill  his  place  as  a  delegate.  John 
Hancock  of  Massachusetts,  who  had  been  specially  exempted  by  the  king 
from  all  offers  of  amnesty,  was  chosen  president  of  the  Congress.  Three 
new  members  of  Tiote  now  entered  the  Congress.  They  were  Benjamin 
Franklin,  a  delegate  from  Pennsylvania,  and  George  Clinton  and  Robert 
R.  Livingston,  delegates  from  New  York.  Franklin  had  just  returned 
from  England,  where  he  had  resided  for  several  years  as  the  agent  for 
some  of  the  colonies.  He  had  been  in  constant  official  contact  with  the 
leading  men  of  Great  Britain,  and  was  thoroughly  informed  as  to  the 
policy  of  the  British  government  respecting  America.  He  was,  therefore, 
a  most  valuable  acquisition  to  the  Congress. 

The  circumstances  under  which  this  Congress  assembled  were  very  dif- 
ferent from  those  which  had  attended  the  meeting  of  its  predecessor. 
Th^n  there  was  hope  that  the  remonstrances  of  the  colonies  would  open 
the  eyes  of  the  British  government  to  the  folly  of  its  course ;  but  those 
remonstrances  had  been  received  with  fresh  outrages,  their  petitions  had 
"  been  spurned  with  contempt  from  the  foot  of  the  throne,"  and  the 
British  army  had  begun  the  war  at  Lexington  and  Concord.  Massachu- 
setts, driven  beyond  the  point  of  forbearance,  had  taken  up  arms,  and 
had  besieged  the  royal  troops  in  Boston.  A  state  of  war  actually  existed, 
and  Congress  must  either  sustain  Massachusetts,  and  so  involve  every 
colony  in  the  struggle,  or  leave  her  to  meet  the  power  of  Great  Britain 
unaided.  The  whole  country  was  in  favor  of  standing  by  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  delegates  in  Congress  reflected  this  feeling.  It  was  there- 
fore resolved  by  Congress  to  place  all  the  colonies  in  a  state  of  defence, 
and  to  prepare  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  should  it  be  found 
impossible  to  avert  it.  At  the  same  time,  as  a  last  means  of  preserving 
peace,  a  new  petition  was  addressed  to  the  king  stating  the  grievances  of 
the  colonies,  and  asking  for  justice  at  his  majesty's  hands.  Addresses 
were  also  issued  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  Jamaica. 
To  the  people  of  Great  Britain  they  declared,  after  relating  their  wrongs, 
and  their  failure  to  obtain  redress :  "  We  are  reduced  to  the  alternative 
of  choosing  an  unconditional  submission  to  the  tyranny  of  irritated  min- 
isters, or  resistance  by  force.  The  latter  is  our  choice.  We  have  counted 
the  cost  of  this  contest,  and  we  find  nothing  so  dreadful  as  voluntary 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  433 

slavery."  In  the  petition  to  the  king  Congress  denied  that  it  was  the 
intention  of  the  colonies  to  cast  oft'  their  allegiance;  but  asserted  their 
intention  to  maintain  their  rights.  When  this  petition  was  presented  to 
the  king,  in  September,  he  refused  to  take  any  notice  of  it. 

In  view  of  the  altered  position  of  affairs  Massachusetts  consulted  the 
Congress  as  to  the  propriety  of  establishing  a  regular  system  of  govern- 
ment, and  \vas  advised  to  make  such  regulations  for  that  purpose  as  wen- 
necessary,  and  to  continue  them  as  a  temporary  expedient  until  it  should 
be  known  whether  the  king  would  allow  the  colony  to  resume  the  gov- 
ernment guaranteed  to  it  by  its  charter.  In  order  to  avoid  the  trouble 
which  would  ensue  from  an  interruption  of  the  regular  postal  communi- 
cation between  the  colonies,  Congress  assumed  the  power  of  organizing  a 
general  system  of  mails  for  the  whole  country,  and  appointed  Dr. 
Franklin  postmaster-general. 

From  these  acts  Congress  advanced  to  others  still  more  important.  A 
"Federal  Union"  of  the  colonies  was  organized,  in  which  each  colony 
retained  the  exclusive  control  of  its  internal  affairs,  but  delegated  to  Con- 
gress authority  to  direct  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  general  welfare  of 
the  colonies,  such  as  the  power  to  declare  war,  make  peace,  and  negotiate 
treaties  of  alliance  and  friendship  with  foreign  countries.  In  the  exer- 
cise of  these  powers  Congress  assumed  the  general  government  of  America. 
A  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  to  God,  for  his  assistance  in  the  struggle  for 
freedom,  was  enjoined  upon  all  the  colonies.  All  persons  were  forbidden 
to  furnish  provisions  under  any  circumstances.  Measures  were  adopted 
for  the  organization  and  enlistment  of  an  army,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
erecting  fortifications  at  suitable  points,  and  procuring  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion. In  order  to  raise  the  funds  needed  for  carrying  out  these  objects 
"  Bills  of  Credit,"  to  the  amount  of  two  millions  of  dollars,  were  issued, 
and  for  their  redemption  Congress  pledged  the  faith  of  the  "United 
Colonies."  The  provincial  congress  of  Massachusetts  requested  the  Con- 
gress at  Philadelphia  to  adopt  the  Xew  England  forces  before  Boston  as 
the  "Continental  Army,"  and  this  request  was  at  once  complied  with. 
As  General  A  Yard,  the  commander  of  these  troops,  held  his  commission 
from  Massachusetts,  it  was  necessary  for  Congress  to  appoint  a  com- 
mander-in-chief  commissioned  by  itself. 

"NVith  respect  to  this  appointment  the  members  were  divided.  Some 
thought  that  as  the  troops  were  all  New  England  men,  the  commander 
should  be  chosen  from  the  same  section.  Others  favored  the  appointment 
of  a  commander  who  would  inspire  the  confidence  of,  and  be  acceptable 
to,  the  entire  country.  The  name  of  General  AVard  was  suggested  by 
the  first  party ;  but  a  majority  of  the  delegates  favored  the  appointment 
28 


434 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


of  Colonel  Washington,  who  was  a  member  of  Congress,  and  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  military  affairs,  in  which  capacity  he  had  proposed 
the  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  army,  and  had  suggested  the  most 
important  measures  for  defence.  He  had  profoundly  impressed  the  dele- 
gates with  his  great  and  commanding  character,  his  military  ability,  and 
his  wisdom  as  a  statesman.  Patrick  Henry,  on  his  return  home  from  the 
first  Congress,  had  been  asked  who  was  the  greatest  man  in  that  body. 
His  reply  expressed  the  views  of  his  colleagues  resecting  Washington. 
"  If  you  speak  of  eloquence,"  he  said,  "  Mr.  Rutledgc,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, is,  by  far,  the  greatest  orator;  but  if  you  speak  of  solid  information 
and  sound  judgment  Colonel  Washington  is  unquestionably  the  greatest 

man  on  that  floor."  Dr. 
Warren  wrote  from  Mas- 
sachusetts to  Samuel 
Adams,  in  Congress,  about 
this  time,  that  theappoiut- 
ment  of  Colonel  Wash- 
ington as  commauder-in- 
chief  would  give  great 
satisfaction  to  many  lead- 


WASHINGTON. 


ing  men  in  Massachusetts. 
John  Adams  was  anxious 
for  the  appointment,  and 
having  satisfied  himself 
of  the  wishes  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  dele- 
gates, ventured  openly  to 
allude  to  Washington  as 
the  proj>er  person  for  the 
position, and  spoke  of  him 

as  a  gentleman  whose  "skill  and  experience  as  an  officer,  whose  inde- 
pendent fortune,  great  talents,  and  excellent  universal  character,  would 
command  the  approbation  of  all  America,  and  unite  the  cordial  exertionr 
of  the  colonies  better  than  any  other  person  in  the  Union."  On  the  14th 
of  June  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  formally  nominated  Washington  to  the 
office  of  commander-in-chief,  and  he  was  unanimously  chosen  by  ballot. 
The  next  day  his  election  was  communicated  to  him  by  the  President  of 
Congress.  Washington  rose  in  his  place,  and  thanked  the  House  for  the 
unexpected  honor  conferred  upon  him,  assured  them  of  his  devotion  to 
the  cause,  and  announced  his  acceptance  of  the  great  trust  confided  to 
him.  He  declared  his  intention  to  refuse  the  pay  affixed  to  the  office, 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


which  had  been  placed  at  five  hundred  dollars  a  month,  and  added  :  "  I 
will  keep  an  exact  account  of  my  expenses.  These,  I  doubt  not,  they  will 
discharge,  and  that  is  all  I  desire."  Congress,  on  its  part,  pledged  its 
hearty  support  to  the  new  commander,  and  resolved  "  to  maintain  and 
assist,  and  adhere  to  him  with  their  lives  and  fortunes  in  the  defence  of 
American  liberty/' 

Washington  lost  no  time  in  proceeding  to  assume  the  command  con- 
ferred upon  him.    After  a  few  days  spent  in  preparation,  in  Philadelphia, 
he  left  that  city  on  the  21st  of  June,  for  the  head-quarters  of  the  army, 
accompanied      by 
Generals  Lee  and 
Schuyler. 

A  few  days  after 
the  election  of  the 
c  o  m  m  a  n  d  e  r-i  n- 
chief  Congress  ap- 
pointed four  ma- 
jor-geuerals,  one 
adjutant-general, 
with  the  rank  of 
brigadier,  and 
eight  brigadier- 
generals  for  the 
subordinate  com- 
mands in  the 
American  army. 
The  major-gen- 
erals were  Arte- 
mas  "Ward,Charles 
Lee,  Philip  Schuy- 
ler, and  Israel  Put- 
nam. The  adju- 
tant-general was 

Horatio  Gates.  The  brigadiers  were  Seth  Pomeroy,  Richard  Mont- 
gomery, David  Wooster,  William  Heath,  Joseph  Spencer,  John  Thomas, 
John  Sullivan,  and  Nathaniel  Greene. 

In  the  meantime  the  blockade  of  Boston  had  been  continued  by  the  prov- 
incial army,  under  General  Ward.  These  forces  numbered  about  fifteen 
thousand  men,  and  had  come  from  their  respective  towns  in  independent 
companies,  and  were  without  any  regular  organization.  They  had  no  uni- 
form, but  the  majority  wore  their  ordinary  homespun  working-clothes ;  they 


GENERAL  ISRAEL  PUTNAM. 


436  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

were  deficient  in  arms ;  a  few  had  muskets,  but  the  majority  had  rifles 
and  fo \vling-pieces.  The  artillery  consisted  of  nine  pieces  of  cannon,  and 
was  commanded  by  Colonel  Gridley,  who  had  directed  the  artillery  at  the 
siege  of  Louisburg.  The  Massachusetts  troops  were  commanded  by 
Geneial  Ward;  those  from  New  Hampshire  by  Colonel  Stark;  the  Con 
necticut  troops  by  Putnam ;  and  the  regiment  from  Rhode.  Island  by 
Nathaniel  Greene,  a  young  blacksmith.  Save  for  the  solemnity  of  the 
cause,  and  the  earnestness  and  determination  which  animated  the  whole 
force,  there  was  little  to  save  this  quaint  assemblage  from  the  ridicule 
»irhich  the  royal  officers  heaped  upon  it.  It  did  to  ordinary  view  seem 
tiie  height  of  folly  to  oppose  such  an  ill-provided  and  unorganized  mass 
to  the  splendidly  equipped  veterans  who  served  King  George. 

Yet  this  force,  "with  calico  frocks  and  fowling-pieces,"  hemmed  in 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  Boston,  the  splendid  army  of  ten  thousand 
men,  commanded  by  such  generals  as  Howe,  Burgoyne,  and  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  which  Gage  had  concentrated  in  Boston.  Burgoyne  could  not 
repress  his  astonishment  upon  reaching  Boston.  "  What  I  he  exclaimed, 
"ten  thousand  peasants  keep  five  thousand  king's  troops  shut  u;>!  Vvrcll, 
let  us  get  in,  and  we'll  soon  find  elbow-room."  In  spite  of  his  immense 
superiority,  howev  r,  Gage  did  not  venture  to  attack  the  American  lines. 
He  contented  himself  with  issuing  a  proclamation  declaring  the  province 
under  martial  lav.7,  and  offering  a  free  pardon  to  all  rebels  who  should 
return  to  their  allegiance,  with  the  exception  of  Samuel  Adams  and  John 
Hancock.  These  rebels  w~re  cut  cff  from  all  hope  of  die  king's  mercy, 
and  were  given  to  understaud  that  they  could  expect  nothing  but  the  most 
summary  punishment. 

General  Gage  now  determined  to  extend  his  lines  and  to  occupy 
Dorchester  Heights,  overlooking  South  Boston,  and  Bunker  Hill,  an 
eminence  rising  beyond  Charlestown,  on  the  north  of  Boston.  The  exe- 
cution of  this  design  was  fixed  for  the  18th  of  June,  and  in  the  meantime 
Gage's  intention  became  known  in  the  American  camp.  To  prevent  it, 
it  was  resolved,  at  the  instance  of  tho  Massachusetts  Committee  of 
Safety,  to  seize  and  fortify  these  eminences,  beginning  with  Bunker  HilL 
The  more  prudent  opposed  this  undertaking  as  too  rash ;  it  was  certain  tc 
bring  on  a  general  engagement  of  the  opposing  forces,  and  the  Americans 
were  too  poorly  provided  with  arms  and  ammunition  to  hope  for  success,, 
Others  insisted  that  no  time  should  be  lost  in  securing  the  heights. 
Putnam  was  confident  they  could  be  held  with  proper  intrench  men  ts,  and 
that  thus  protected  the  troops  could  be  relied  upon  to  hold  their  position. 
The  great  scarcity  of  ammunition  rendered  the  undertaking  one  of  pecu- 
liar daring,  and  it  was  necessary  to  select  for  the  command  an  officer 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


437 


whose  firmness  and  discretion  could  be  depended  upon.  The  choice  fell 
upon  Colonel  William  Prescott  of  Massachusetts,  and  a  brigade  was 
placed  under  his  orders. 

Soon  after  sunset  on  the  IGth  of  June  a  force  of  about  eleven  hundred 
men,  armed  principally  with  fowling-pieces,  and  carrying  their  scanty 
stock  of  powder  and  ball  in  their  old-fashioned  powder  horns  and 
oouches,  assembled  on  Cambridge  Common.  Langdon,  the  President  of 
Harvard  College,  one  of  the  chaplains  of  the  army,  offered  up  an  impres- 
sive prayer,  and  then  the  order  was  given  to  march  and  the  columu 


BUNKER  HILL,  MONUMENT. 


moved  off  in  the  darkness.  No  one  knew  the  object  of  the  expedition, 
but  the  presence  of  several  wagons  loaded  with  intrenching  tools  made  it 
svidcnt  that  the  movement  was  one  of  importance.  Charlcstown  Neck 
was  strongly  guarded,  but  the  detachment  passed  it  in  safety  and  reached 
the  summit  of  Bunker  Hill  without  being  observed.  The  Committee  of 
Safety  had  sur^ested  that  Bunker  Hill  should  be  secured,  but  Prescott's 

J  C5O 

orders  from  General  Ward  were  to  fortify  Breed's  Hill,  a  lower  eminence 
but  nearer  to  Boston,  and  commanding  the  harbor  more  perfectly.  It 
was  a  more  exposed  position  than  the  other,  but  Prescott  decided  to  obey 
his  orders.  Colonel  Gridley,  who  was  an  experienced  engineer,  marked 


438  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

out  a  redoubt  about  eight  rods  square,  and  in  the  clear  June  starlight 
the  men  set  to  work  with  a  will  to  construct  the  fortification  before  the 
morning  should  reveal  them  to  the  British.  It  was  midnight  when  the 
men  began  their  labors.  A  strong  guard  was  thrown  out  along  the  shore 
of  the  harbor  to  prevent  a  surprise,  and  the  men  could  distinctly  hear  the 
call  of  the  sentinels  on  the  men-of-war  in  the  harbor.  During  the  night 
Putnam  came  over  to  the  hill  to  encourage  the  Connecticut  troops  by  his 
presence,  but  assumed  no  command. 

The  early  morning  light  revealed  to  the  astonished  royalists  the  hall- 
finished  redoubt  on  Breed's  Hill  and  the  Americans  still  busily  at  work 
upon  it.  The  sloop-of-war  "  Lively,"  lying  off  the  present  navy  yard, 
without  waiting  for  orders,  opened  a  steady  fire  upon  the  redoubt,  and 
her  example  was  soon  followed  by  the  other  war  vessels  and  the  floating 
batteries  in  the  harbor.  A  battery  of  heavy  guns  was  posted  on  Copp's 
Hill  in  Boston,  about  twelve  hundred  yards  distant,  and  opened  on  the 
redoubt.  This  fire  was  well  calculated  to  demoralize  a  raw  force  such  as 
that  within  the  redoubt,  but  it  produced  no  effect  upon  the  Americans, 
who  went  on  with  their  task  quietly  and  with  energy.  Gridley  soon 
withdrew  from  the  hill,  and  Prescott,  thus  deserted,  and  without  an 
engineer,  prepared  to  extend  his  line  to  the  best  of  his  ability.  He  pro- 
longed it  from  the  east  side  of  the  redoubt  northward  for  about  twenty 
rods  towards  the  bottom  of  the  hill ;  but  the  men  were  prevented  from 
completing  it  by  the  heavy  fire  of  the  British  artillery.  One  man  ven- 
tured beyond  the  redoubt  early  in  the  day,  and  was  killed  by  a  shell. 
Preseott  ordered  him  to  be  instantly  buried,  lest  the  sight  of  his  body 
might  dishearten  the  men.  To  inspire  the  troops  with  confidence,  Pres- 
cott sprang  upon  the  parapet  and  walked  slowly  up  and  down  the  work 
examining  it  and  issuing  his  orders. 

In  the  meantime  the  firing  had  aroused  the  people  of  Boston,  who 
crowded  the  house-tops  and  every  available  point  from  which  a  view  of 
the  action  could  be  obtained.  General  Gage  reconnoitred  the  American 
position  from  Boston,  through  his  glass,  and  observed  Prescott,  who  was 
standing  on  the  redoubt  inspecting  the  work.  "  Who  is  that  officer  in 
command?"  he  asked  of  Councillor  Willard,  who  was  by  his  side. 
"Will  he  fight?"  Willard  had  recognized  Prescott,  who  was  his 
Jbrother-in-law,  and  replied :  "  He  is  an  old  soldier,  and  will  fight  to  the 
last  drop  of  his  blood."  Gage  thereupon  determined  to  dislodge  the 
Americans  from  their  position  without  loss  of  time,  and  summoned  a 
council  of  .his  officers  at  his  head-quarters,  in.  which  it  was  decided  to 
«ross  Charles  river,  effect  a  landing  at  Moulton's  Point,  and  attack  the 
works  in  front.  Generals  Clinton  and  Orant  adv'^cated  an  attack  from 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  439 

the  direction  of  Charlestown  Neck,  which  would  have  resulted  in  the 
capture  of  the  whole  American  force ;  but  Gage  refused  to  place  his 
attacking  column  between  the  American  army  at  Cambridge  and  the 
detachment  on  the  hill. 

The  bustle  in  Boston  as  the  British  prepared  for  the  attack  could  lie 
•..stlnctly  seen  by  the  Americans,  and  urgent  messages  were  scut  u 
General  Ward  for  reinforcements  and  provisions.  Putnam  hurried  tc 
Ward's  head-quarters  to  urge  this  demand ;  but  Ward,  who  was  greatly 
oppressed  by  the  scarcity  of  powder  in  the  camp,  hesitated  to  weaken  the 
main  body,  and  it  was  not  until  eleven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
17th  of  June  that  he  gave  orders  for  the  regiments  of  Stark  and  Reed 
to  advance  to  Prescott's  assistance.  The  arrival  of  these  troops  greatly 
cheered  the  little  band  under  Prescott,  who  had  been  working  all  night, 
and  were  greatly  in  need  of  food.  In  the  meantime  Prescott  had  posted 
the  Connecticut  troops  behind  a  rustic  breastwork  which  he  had  con- 
structed on  the  north  of  the  redoubt.  A  stone  fence  ran  down  the  side 
of  the  hill  towards  a  swamp  in  this  direction.  Behind  this  the  Ameri- 
cans placed  a  post  and  rail  fence  which  they  had  torn  up,  and  filled  the 
interval  between  them  with  new-mown  hay,  thus  forming  a  rude  shelter. 
A  part  of  the  reinforcements  joined  Knowlton  at  this  breastwork,  and  the 
remainder  halted  on  Bunker  Hill  to  enable  Putnam  to  hold  that  point, 
the  possession  of  which  he  considered  essential  to  the  safety  of  the  force 
on  Breed's  Hill.  About  two  o'clock  General  Warren  arrived.  He  held 
the  commission  of  a  major-general,  and  both  Prescott  and  Putnam  offered 
to  relinquish  the  command  to  him,  but  he  refused  it,  saying  he  had 
come  to  serve  as  a  volunteer,  and  took  his  place  in  the  ranks  at  the 
redoubt. 

At  noon  twenty-eight  barges  filled  with  regulars,  under  the  command 
of  Generafs  Howe  and  Pigott,  left  Boston,  and  crossing  the  harbor, 
landed  at  Moulton's  Point,  under  the  cover  of  a  heavy  fire  from  the 
shipping.  General  Howe  now  discovered  that  the  American  position 
was  stronger  than  he  had  supposed,  and  sent  over  to  General  Gage  for 
reinforcements.  While  awaiting  their  arrival  he  refreshed  his  men  with 
provisions  and  grog.  His  reinforcements  having  arrived,  General  Howe 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  over  two  thousand  veteran  troops,  splendidly 
squippcd  in  every  respect.  Opposed  to  him  were  about  fifteen  hundred 
imperfectly  armed  Americans.  Gage  had  threatened  that  if  Charlestown 
Heights  were  occupied  by  the  provincials  he  would  burn  the  town  of 
Chnrleshnvn.  He  now  proceeded  to  execute  his  barbarous  threat,  and 
fired  the  town  by  means  of  shells  from  the  battery  on  Copp's  Hill, 
hoping  that  the  flames  and  smoke  would  screen,  the  approach  of  his 


440  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

attacking  party  under  General  Howe.  A  change  of  wind  prevented  this, 
however,  and  carried  the  smoke  in  the  opposite  direction. 

About  half-past  two  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  17th  of  June 
General  Howe  gave  the  order  to  advance.  One  division,  under  General 
Pigott,  was  ordered  to  storm  the  redoubt,  while  the  other  was  led  by 
General  Howe  in  person  against  the  rail  fence,  for  the  purpose  of  turning 
the  American  left  flank  and  cutting  off  the  retreat  of  the  force  in  the 
redoubt.  Prescott  passed  along  his  line  as  he  saw  the  advance  of  the 
enemy,  and  encouraged  his  men  with  his  cheering  words.  "  The  red 
coats,"  he  said,  "  will  never  reach  the  redoubt  if  you  will  but  withhold 
your  fire  till  I  give  the  order,  and  be  careful  not  to  shoot  over  their 
heads."  Putnam  had  come  down  to  the  rail  fence  to  encourage  the  men 
posted  there,  and  as  he  saw  the  advance  of  the  enemy  called  out  to  the 
troops:  "  Wait  till  you  see  the  whites  of  their  eyes;  aim  at  their  waist- 
bands ;  pick  off  the  handsome  coats." 

The  British  advanced  in  splendid  style  up  the  side  of  the  hill,  firing 
rapidly  as  they  moved  on.  The  Americans  awaited  their  advance  in  a 
deep  silence.  As  Pigott's  division  came  within  forty  yards  of  the  redoub^, 
the  defenders  levelled  their  guns  and  took  a  steady  aim.  A  minute  or 
two  later  Prescott  gave  the  command,  "  Fire  !  "  A  sheet  of  flame  broke 
from  the  rampart  and  tore  great  gaps  in  the  English  line,  Avhich  reeled 
and  staggered  back  down  the  hill.  The  officers  exerted  themselves  gal- 
lantly to  rally  the  men,  and  once  more  the  line  advanced.  This  time  the 
Americans  suffered  them  to  come  nearer,  and  again  drove  them  back  with 
a  fatal  fire  before  which  whole  ranks  went  down.  They  broke  in  such 
confusion,  that  Pigott  himself  ordered  a  retreat.  The  division  under 
General  Howe  was  equally  unfortunate.  It  was  suffered  to  advanco 
within  thirty  yards  of  the  rail  fence,  and  was  then  driven  back  by  a  fire 
which  broke  it  in  confusion.  The  British  retired  to  the  shore  from 
which  they  had  started.  Greatly  astonished,  but  not  disheartened  by  his 
repulse,  General  Howe  reformed  his  line,  and  after  an  interval  of  fifteen 
minutes  moved  off  again  against  the  works,  his  plan  being  the  same  as 
that  of  the  first  assault.  This  time  the  Americans  reserved  their  fire  as 
before,  and  once  more  sent  the  whole  British  line  reeling  and  broken 
down  the  hill.  Officers  of  experience  on  the  English  side  subsequently 
declared  that  they  had  never  seen  such  firing  in  any  battle  in  which  they 
had  been  engaged.  A  deafening  cheer  from  the  patriot  line  greeted  the 
repulse  of  the  enemy.  "  If  we  can  drive  them  back  once  more,"  cried 
Prescott,  "  they  cannot  rally  again."  A  shout  from  the  redoubt  an- 
gwered  him.  "  We  are  ready  for  the  red  coats  again  !  " 

General  Clinton  had  witnessed  the  repulse  of  the  regulars  from  his 


441 


442  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

position  on  Copp's  Hill,  and  was  filled  with  astonishment  and  indigna- 
tion at  the  sight.  Without  waiting  for  orders,  he  crossed  over  to  Charles- 
town  with  reinforcements,  and  offered  his  services  to  General  Howe  as  a 
volunteer.  Many  of  the  English  officers  were  opposed  to  another  attack  ; 
but  as  it  was  learned  that  the  ammunition  of  the  Americans  was  very 
low,  Howe  resolved  to  storm  the  works  with  the  bayonet,  and  this  time 
to  break  through  the  open  space  between  the  redoubt  and  the  rail  fence 
breastwork.  His  men  were  ordered  to  lay  aside  their  knapsacks,  and 
many  of  them  threw  off  their  coats  also.  A  raking  fire  of  artillery  drove 
the  Americans  from  the  breastwork  extending  from  the  redoubt  into  that 
work  for  shelter,  and  the  order  was  given  to  the  regulars  to  advance 
with  fixed  bayonets.  The  Americans' were  nearly  oat  of  ammunition, 
and  in  the  whole  command  there  were  not  fifty  men  with  bayonets  to 
their  guns.  They  met  the  advance  of  the  enemy  with  a  sharp  fire,  but 
their  powder  having  given  out,  were  not  able  to  check  them.  Pressing 
on  the  British  assailed  the  redoubt  on  three  sides  with  the  bayonet.  A 
desperate  hand-to-hand  struggle  followed ;  the  Americans  fighting  with 
clubbed  guns  and  with  stones.  It  was  impossible  to  hold  the  work, 
however,  and  Prescott  gave  the  order  to  retreat.  The  men  fell  back  in 
good  order.  The  aged  General  Pomeroy,  who  was  serving  as  a  volun- 
teer in  the  ranks,  clubbed  his  gun  and  retreated  with  his  face  to  the 
regulars,  keeping  them  at  bay  by  his  determined  action.  The  detachment 
at  the  rail  fence,  tinder  Knowlton,  Stark,  and  Reed,  held  their  position 
until  their  comrades  had  withdrawn  from  the  redoubt,  and  then  retreated 
in  good  order  down  the  hill,  thus  preventing  the  enemy  from  cutting  off 
the  retreat  of  Prescott's  party.  One  of  the  last  to  leave  the  redoubt  was 
General  "Warren,  who  had  borne  himself  with  great  gallantry  in  the 
engagement.  He  had  scarcely  left  the  trenches  when  he  fell  shot  through 
the  head,  thus  consecrating  the  spot  with  his  blood,  and  leaving  to  his 
country  a  noble  memory  which  she  has  ever  held  in  grateful  honor. 

Putnam  had  gone  to  the  rear  before  the  final  attack  of  the  enemy  to 
collect  men  for  a  reinforcement.  On  his  return  he  met  the  retreating 
provincials  passing  over  Bunker  Hill.  Without  orders  from  any  one, 
he  rallied  such  as  would  obey  him,  and  for  the  first  time  during  the  day 
assumed  the  command.  With  these  forces,  and  a  detachment  which 
arrived  too  late  to  take  part  in  the  battle,  he  withdrew  to  Prospect  Hill, 
where  he  began  to  fortify  his  position.  The  British  made  no  effort  to 
pursue  him,  but  contented  themselves  with  occupying  Breed's  and 
Bunker  Hills. 

In  this  battle  the  Americans  lost  four  hundred  and  fifty  men,  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners.  The  British,  out  of  a  force  of  less  than  three 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  443 

thousand,  lost  one  thousand  and  fifty-four,  including  eighty-three  officers, 
thirteen  of  whom  were  killed.  Among  the  killed  was  Major  Pitcairn, 
who  had  ordered  his  men  to  fire  on  the  patriots  at  Lexington.  The 
victory  was  dearly  bought  by  the  British. 

In  its  moral  effects  the  battle  was  worth  as  much  to  the  Americans  as 
a  success.  It  taught  them  that  undisciplined  provincials  could  hold  thtir 
ground  against  the  king's  regulars,  and  inspired  them  with  a  confidence 
in  their  own  ability  to  maintain  the  struggle.  They  had  held  their 
ground  against  twice  their  number,  and  were  driven  from  it  only  when 
their  ammunition  failed.  General  Gage  was  deeply  impressed  with  this 
lesson,  and  made  no  attempt  to  assume  the  offensive.  When  the  news  of 
the  battle  reached  England  the  ministers  were  greatly  dissatisfied  with 
their  victory.  Gage  was  recalled,  and  General  Howe  was  appointed  his 
successor. 

Washington,  who  had  started  on  his  journey  to  New  England  before 
the  arrival  of  the  news  of  the  battle,  was  met  on  the  way  by  the  courier 
who  bore  the  tidings  to  Congress.  He  hastened  his  journey  and  reached 
Cambridge  on  the  2d  of  July.  The  next  day  he  formally  assumed  the 
command  of  the  army.  He  was  received  with  an  enthusiasm  which  was 
most  gratifying  to  him,  and  at  once  set  to  work  to  place  the  army  in  a 
proper  condition  for  the  service  required  of  it.  He  was  fully  aware  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  he  had  undertaken,  and  his  letters  written  at 
the  time  indicate  a  deep  reliance  upon  God  for  assistance  in  discharging 
it.  The  army  numbered  about  fourteen  thousand  men,  and  was  without 
organization,  without  uniforms,  poorly  armed,  and  imperfectly  clothed. 
It  must  be  disciplined,  supplied  with  arms  and  c~_.  '  ig,  and  with 
ammunition.  At  the  same  time  the  enemy  in  Boston  must  be  watched 
and  kept  in  check.  To  make  the  army  effective  its  force  must  be  raised 
to  twenty  or  twenty-five  thousand  men,  and  the  petty  jealousies  which 
divided  it  must  be  removed. 

It  was  resolved  to  maintain  the  present  position  of  the  army  before 
Boston,  and  to  capture  or  drive  out  the  British  force  in  that  city. 
Washington  established  his  head-quarters  at  Cambridge,  which  was  his 
3e ntre,  and  was  under  the  immediate  command  of  General  Putnam. 
The  right  wing,  under  General  Ward,  held  Roxbury,  and  the  left,  under 
General  Charles  Lee,  was  at  Prospect  Hill.  About  this  time  the  army 
was  joined  by  a  force  of  riflemen  from  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Penn- 
sylvania, under  Daniel  Morgan,  who  was  destined  to  achieve  distinction 
during  the  war.  He  was  rough  and  uneducated,  but  was  one  of  ths 
truest  sons  of  America.  He  was  never  found  wanting  in  any  position  :u 
which  he  was  placed,  and  was  a  man  upon  whose  devotion  and  integrity 
absolute  reliance  could  be  placed  by  his  commanders. 


44-i  HISTORY  OF  THE   UXITLD  STATES. 

The  winter  was  passed  in  the  organization  of  the  army.  The  want  of 
ammunition  prevented  Washington  from  assuming  the  offensive,  though 
he  greatly  desired  to  do  so.  It  was  necessary  to  observe  the  greatest  care 
to  prevent  this  state  of  affairs  from  becoming  known  to  the  British,  and 
it  the  same  time  every  effort  was  made  to  supply  the  deficiency.  These? 
efforts  were  partially  successful. 

It  was  proposed  to  attack  Canada  soon  after  the  capture  of  the  forts  at 
i'iconderoga  and  Crown  Point.  This  proposal  met  with  little  favor  in 
Congress  until  it  was  known  that  the  British  were  assembling  a  force  of 
regulars,  and  enlisting  the  Indians  in  Canada,  for  the  invasion  of  New 
York.  Then,  as  a  measure  of  self-defence,  the  proposed  invasion  of  that 
country  was  sanctioned,  and  preparations  for  it  were  actively  begun. 
Two  expeditions  were  determined  upon  ;  one  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain, 
the  other  across  the  wilderness,  by  way  of  the  Kennebec  and  Chaudiere 
rivers.  The  first  was  intrusted  to  General  Philip  Schuyler,  who  had 
been  appointed  by  Washington  to  the  command  in  New  York ;  and  the 
latter  to  Colonel  Arnold,  who  was  in  the  camp  at  Cambridge,  eager  for 
some  opportunity  to  distinguish  himself. 

A  force  of  New  York  and  New  England  troops  was  assembled  on 
Lake  Champlain  under  Schuyler,  who  was  ably  seconded  by  Brigadier- 
General  Richard  Montgomery,  who  had  served  under  Wolfe  in  the  old 
French  war.  Schuyler  moved  down  the  lake  to  the  Isle  aux  Noix  in 
the  Sorcl  river,  and  occupied  that  island.  In  September  he  made  an 
attempt  to  capture  St.  John's,  but  finding  it  much  stronger  than  he  had 
supposed,  resumed  his  former  position.  Falling  seriously  ill  soon  after, 
he  was  oblige  ^  withdraw  to  Albany,  and  relinquished  the  command  to 
Montgomery.  Reaching  Albany  he  succeeded  in  securing  supplies, 
ammunition,  and  reinforcements,  and  sent  them  to  Montgomery.  That 
energetic  officer  at  once  assumed  the  offensive,  and  captured  St.  John's,  on 
the  Sorcl  river,  on  the  3d  of  November,  after  a  spirited  resistance,  and 
in  spite  of  the  cfTorts  of  Sir  Guy  Carleton  to  relieve  it.  On  the  13th  of 
November  Montgomery  arrived  before  Montreal,  which  surrendered 
upon  his  first  summons.  This  capture  enabled  the  American  commander 
io  supply  his  men  with  woollen  clothes,  of  which  they  were  very  much 
in  need.  Although  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  winter,  and  his  force  was 
reduced  to  three  hundred  men,  poorly  clad,  and  lacking  almost  every 
kind  of  supplies,  Montgomery  set  out  without  delay  to  join  Arnold 
before  Quebec. 

Arnold  had  left  the  camp  at  Cambridge  in  September  with  a  force  of 
eleven  hundred  men,  including  three  companies  of  riflemen  under 
Morgan.  He  was  to  ascend  the  Kennebec,  and  march  across  the  wilder- 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


445 


ness  to  Quebec,  where  lie  was  to  unite  his  force  with  the  army  from  New 
York.  The  march  across  the  unbroken  wilderness  of  Maine  and  Canada 
is  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  history.  It  consumed  two  months  of 
time,  and  was  marked  by  intense  suffering  and  unceasing  and  severe 
labor.  The  troops  had  to  cut  their  way  through  an  unbroken  wildernes*, 
ford  icy  streams,  climb  mountains,  and  brave  the  rigors  of  the  Canadian 
winter.  Their  provisions 
gave  out,  and  they  were 
reduced  to  the  necessity 
of  eating  their  dogs  and 
chewing  their  moccasins. 
At  length,  on  the  9th  of 
November,  Arnold  with 
about  six  hundred  and 
fifty  effective  men  reached 
the  St.  Lawrence,  at  Point 
Levi.  Could  he  have 
crossed  over  to  Quebec  at 
once,  that  city  must  have 
fallen  into  his  hands;  but 
he  was  unable  to  do  so, 
as  he  had  no  boats ;  and 
in  a  few  days  Sir  Guy 
Carleton  arrived  from 
Montreal,  which  he  had 
abandoned  to  Montgom- 
ery, and  put  the  city  in 
a  state  of  defence.  Elud- 
ing the  two  armed  vessels 
which  held  the  river, 
Arnold  crossed  his  com- 
•mand  to  the  opposite  side 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 

climbing  the  cliffs  by  the  path  which  Wolfe  had  ascended,  occupied  the 
Heights  of  Abraham,  and  endeavored  to  draw  the  garrison  out  of  theii 
works  to  meet  him.  They  declined  his  challenge,  and  finding  it  impossi- 
ble to  besiege  the  city  without  artillery,  he  moved  to  a  point  twenty  miles 
up  the  river,  where  he  met  Montgomery,  from  whom  he  obtained  cloth- 
ing for  his  men,  who  had  lost  nearly  all  their  clothes  in  their  march 
through  the  wilderness. 

Montgomery  now  assumed  the  command  of  the  united  forces,  which 


ARNOLD  S  MARCH  TO  QUEBEC. 


446 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


numbered  less  than  a  thousand  men,  and  on  the  5th  of  December  laid 
siege  to  Quebec.  Having  no  materials  for  the  proper  construction  of  a 
battery,  a  novel  expedient  was  adopted.  Gabions  were  filled  with  ice 
and  snow,  over  which  water  was  poured.  The  cold  soon  froze  this  to  a 
solid  mass ;  but,  as  the  ice  was  brittle,  it  afforded  no  protection  against 
the  fire  of  the  enemy's  guns.  The  Americans  soon  found  their  artillery 
too  light  to  make  any  impression  upon  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  as  a  last 
resort  it  was  determined  to  attempt  the  capture  of  the  place  by  an  assault, 
which  was  ordered  for  the  31st  of  December.  The  attack  was  made  with 


GENERAL  RICHARD  MONTGOMERY. 


spirit,  but  was  unsuccessful.  Montgomery  was  shot  down  while  leading 
the  attack  on  the  lower  town,  and  his  column  was  driven  back.  Arnold 
was  severely  wounded  in  the  assault  upon  the  upper  town,  and  the  com- 
mand passed  to  Morgan,  the  next  in  rank.  Morgan  succeeded  in 
carrying  the  two  batteries  which  defended  the  entrance  to  Quebec,  and  in 
forcing  his  way  into  the  town  ;  but  being  overpowered  by  numbers  was 
compelled  to  surrender.  He  and  his  men  were  treated  with  especial 
kindness  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton  in  recognition  of  their  bravery.  The 
attack  having  proved  a  failure,  Arnold,  whose  force  had  been  reduced  to 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  447 

five  hundred  men,  fell  back  to  a  position  about  three  miles  above  Quebec, 
and  held  it  all  winter,  hoping  to  receive  such  reinforcements  as  would 
enable  him  to  take  Quebec. 

In  April,  1776,  General  "YVooster  joined  Arnold  with  reinforcements, 
and  assuming  the  command,  made  another  unsuccessful  effort  to  capture 
Quebec.  Wooster  was  soon  recalled,  and  was  succeeded  by  General 
Thomas.  Sir  Guy  Car-leton,  governor  of  Canada,  was  heavily  reinforced, 
and  Thomas  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  attempt  on  Quebec  and  retreat. 
His  movement  was  so  hasty  that  he  left  his  baggage,  artillery,  and  sick 
in  Carletou's  hands.  The  British  commander,  with  a  humanity  rare 
among  his  countrymen  during  this  struggle,  treated  the  sick  prisoners 
with  great  kindness.  Thomas  fell  back  as  far  as  the  Sorel,  where  he 
lied  of  the  small-pox,  which  was  making  great  ravages  among  the 
troops.  Sir  Guy  Carleton  continued  to  advance,  and  defeated  a  portion 
of  the  army  under  General  Thompson  at  Three  Rivers.  Thompson  and 
a  number  of  his  officers  and  men  were  made  prisoners.  The  remainder 
secured  their  retreat  and  joined  General  Sullivan  on  the  Sorel.  The 
wreck  of  the  army  now  fell  back  from  Canada  to  Crown  Point  in  a  most 
miserable  and  disheartened  condition.  Thus  ended  the  invasion  of 
Canada,  the  most  disastrous  expedition  attempted  by  the  Americans 
during  the  war;  yet  still  one  the  failures  of  which  were  greatiy  offset  by 
the  heroic  daring  of  the  troops  engaged.  Carleton  was  able  to  occupy 
the  entrances  to  Canada  with  a  strong  force,  and  to  make  any  future 
attempt  at  invasion  'mpossible. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring  in  Canada,  Virginia  was  also  the 
scene  of  war.  Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1775  Lord  Dunmorc,  the 
royalist  governor  of  Virginia,  who  had  taken  refuge  on  board  a  man-of- 
war,  issued  a  proclamation  offering  freedom  to  the  negro  slaves  and 
indentured  white  servants  of  the  patriots  who  would  join  him  in  the 
servile  war  he  meant  to  inaugurate.  "With  a  force  collected  in  thi? 
manner,  he  landed  at  Norfolk  and  took  possession  of  the  town.  Fugitive 
slaves  joined  him  in  considerable  numbers,  and  it  seemed  likely  that  he 
would  be  able  to  carry  out  his  threat  and  scourge  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  with  a  warfare  of  massacre  and  servile  violence.  Several  regi- 
ments were  raised  in  Virginia  to  drive  him  out  of  the  province.  The 
second  of  these,  under  Colonel  Woodford,  seized  the  narrow  peninsula 
which  connects  Norfolk  with  the  mainland,  and  on  the  9th  of  December 
was  attacked  by  Dunmore's  forces,  which  were  summarily  defeated.  ID 
revenge,  Dunmore  returned  in  January,  1776,  and  bombarded  and 
burned  Norfolk,  then  the  largest  and  richest  town  and  the  principal 
shipping  port  of  Virginia. 


448  IIIS'IORY  OF  2 HE   UNITED  STATES. 

On  the  5th  of  September,  1775,  the  Continental  Congress  resumed  its 
sessions.  Delegates  from  Georgia  appeared  and  were  admitted  to  seats  in 
the  Congress,  and  the  colonies  assumed  the  style  of  the  Thirteen  United 
Colonies.  Matters  were  not  very  encouraging  when  Congress  met.  The 
army  was  in  need  of  everything  that  could  contribute  to  its  efficiency; 
and  the  New  England  coast  was  harassed  with  the  armed  vessels  of 
Great  Britain,  which  laid  its  towns  under  exaction,  or  subjected  them  to 
bombardment,  and  committed  other  gross  outrages  upon  the  inhabitants. 
On  the  18th  of  October  the  town  of  Falmouth,  now  Portland,  in  Maine, 
was  burned  by  Lieutenant  Mowatt  of  the  British  navy.  The  other 
towns,  warned  by  the  fate  of  Falmouth,  proceeded  to  fortify  themselves, 
and  escaped  with  nothing  worse  than  an  occasional  engagement  with  some 
royal  cruiser. 

Naval  matters  very  largely  occupied  the  attention  of  the  whole  country 
at  this  period.  The  only  way  in  which  the  needed  supplies  could  be 
obtained  was  by  purchase  abroad  or  the  capture  of  the  enemy's  ships. 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina  promptly  established  naval 
boards  for  the  purpose  of  fitting  out  cruisers  for  this  service;  and  among 
the  first  acts  of  Washington,  after  assuming  the  command  of  the  army, 
was  to  send  out  armed  vessels  to  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  New  England 

O 

waters  to  seize  the  supply  ships  of  the  English  on  their  way  to  Canada 
and  Boston.  A  number  of  vessels  were  captured  by  these  cruisers,  and  a 
considerable  quantity  of  arms,  ammunition,  and  other  stores  thus  accumu- 
lated. Congress  appointed  a  secret  committee  to  import  powder  from  the 
West  Indies,  and  to  erect  mills  in  the  interior  for  its  manufacture,  and 
foundries  for  casting  cannon.  Licenses  were  issued  to  privateers,  and  a 
naval  committee  was  appointed  to  superintend  the  formation  of  a  marine 
force  for  the  defence  of  the  harbors,  and  was  charged  with  the  building 
of  thirteen  frigates.  In  December  a  secret  committee  was  appointed  to 
open  and  conduct  a  correspondence  with  foreign  nations,  or  with  friends 
of  the  cause  in  Europe. 

Parliament,  in  the  meantime,  had  not  been  idle,  but  had  enacted 
stringent  measures  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  and  the  punishment  of 
the  colonists.  The  measures  adopted  by  the  British  government  were 
cruel  and  barbarous.  The  Americans  were  to  be  treated  as  criminals  and 
as  deserving  of  death.  They  were  made  subject  to  the  pains  and  penal- 
ties of  treason  if  captured,  and  could  in  no  case  expect  the  treatment  of 
prisoners  of  war.  The  crews  of  all  vessels  captured  in  trading  to  the 
colonies  were  condemned  beforehand  to  serve  in  the  marine  corps  of  the 
royal  navy.  It  was  decided  to  increase  the  British  army  in  America  to 
forty  tl'ousand  men.  Twenty-five  thousand  of  these  troops  were  to  be 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  449 

raised,  and  the  effort  to  enlist  men  was  begun  in  England,  but  without 
success.  Recruits  could  not  be  found  in  sufficient  numbers  to  repay  the 
effort.  The  ministry  could  not  hope  for  better  success  in  Ireland,  as 
they  had  been  warned  by  General  Howe  that  the  Irish  were  strong  sym- 
pathizers with  the  Americans  and  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  fight 
against  them.  In  this  emergency  the  government  resolved  to  employ 
German  troops  for  the  subjugation  of  America,  and  negotiations  were 
opened  with  Brunswick  and  Hesse  Cassel,  two  petty  German  States.  The 
result  was  that  Great  Britain  hired  seventeen  thousand  troops  from  these 
states  for  the  conquest  of  the  English-speaking  people  of  America.  These 
mercenaries  were  generally  known  as  Hessians,  and  became  the  objects 
of  the  bitter  hatred  of  the  Americans — a  hatred  which  they  fully  earned 
by  their  subsequent  cruelties  towards  the  colonists. 

These  measures  were  not  adopted  by  the  British  government  without 
opposition.  There  was  a  determined  minority  in  England,  consisting  of 
such  men  as  Burke,  Barr6,  and  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  who  manfully 
sought  to  obtain  justice  for  the  colonies  up  to  the  last  moment  at  which  a 
settlement  was  possible.  The  corporation  of  London  and  the  mercantile 
interests  of  the  country  generally  were  opposed  to  the  measures  of  the 
government,  and  sought  to  procure  a  just  and  peaceful  settlement;  but  all 
efforts  were  in  vain.  The  king  and  the  ministry  were  resolved  upon  the 
subjugation  of  America  j  nothing  else  would  satisfy  them. 
29 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

THE   DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE. 

The  Sieg^e  of  Boston — Difficulties  of  the  American  Array — Activity  of  the  Privateers — 
Clinton's  Expedition — Colonel  Knox  arrives  from  Ticonderoga  with  Cannon — Seizure 
of  Dorchester  Heights  by  Washington — The  British  Evacuate  Boston — Royalist  Plots 
in  New  York — Paper  Money  Issued  by  Congress — Gates  sent  to  the  North — The  British 
Attack  Charleston — Battle  of  Fort  Moultrie — The  Howes  in  New  York  Bay — Change 
in  the  Character  of  the  War — Growing  Sentiment  in  Favor  of  Independence — Virginia 
Proposes  that  the  Colonies  Assert  their  Independence — Action  of  Congress — The  Decla- 
ration of  Independence — Articles  of  Confederation  Adopted  by  Congress — Lord  Howe'8 
Efforts  at  Conciliation — Addresses  a  Letter  to  Washington — Battle  of  Long  Island — 
Defeat  of  the  Americans — Retreat  from  Long  Island — Evacuation  of  New  York  by  the 
Americans — Loss  of  Fort  Washington — Washington  Retreats  through  New  Jersey — He 
Crosses  the  Delaware — Darkest  Period  of  the  War — Washington's  Determination  to 
Continue  the  War — Lord  Howe's  Proclamation — Its  Effect — Congress  at  Baltimore — 
Carleton  Invades  New  York — Defeats  Arnold  on  Lake  Champlain — Carleton  Retires 
into  Canada — Battle  of  Trenton — Happy  Effects  of  the  Victory — Congress  confers  Dic- 
tatorial Powers  upon  Washington — Commissioners  sent  to  France. 

HE  winter  of  1775-76  was  passed  by  the  army  before  Boston  in 
inaction.  There  was  not  ammunition  enough  in  the  camp  to 
enable  Washington  to  attack  Boston,  and  the  British  were  well 
content  to  remain  within  their  lines  without  seeking  to  raise  the 
siege.  Washington  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  obtain 
artillery  and  powder.  Henry  Knox,  a  bookseller  of  Boston,  who  had 
entered  the  military  service  of  the  colonies,  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  commander-in-chief  by  his  skill  in  the  use  of  artillery,  and  in  plan- 
ning the  works  erected  for  the  defence  of  the  camp.  Knox  now  proposed 
to  go  to  Ticonderoga  and  bring  away  from  that  place  and  from  Crown 
Point  all  the  artillery  and  powder  that  could  be  spared,  and  his  plan  was 
at  once  approved  by  Washington,  who  urged  Congress  to  commission  him 
a  colonel  of  artillery.  At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  Schnyler,  the  com- 
mander in  New  York,  to  give  Knox  every  assistance  in  his  power  in  his 
effort  to  bring  the  artillery  from  Lake  Champlain  to  Boston.  Great  dif- 
ficulties were  experienced  during  the  winter  in  inducing  the  troops  to 
renew  their  enlistments.  It  required  all  the  ingenuity  and  tact  of  which 
Washington  was  master  to  remove  the  prejudices  and  jealousies  which 
had  grown  up  in  the  camp  since  the  commencement  of  the  blockade  of 
450 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


451 


Boston,  and  which  threatened  to  disband  the  army.  He  succeeded  in  a 
greater  degree  than  he  had  expected.  At  the  opening  of  the  year  1776 
he  had  about  ten  thousand  men  in  camp,  many  of  whom  were  raw  troops 
newly  enlisted,  and  without  arms.  Still  they  were  a  more  harmonious 
and  contented  force  than  the  first  army.  Towards  the  close  of  1775  the 
privateers  made  extensive  captures  from  the  British.  Captain  Manly,* 
of  the  schooner  "Lee,"  captured  a  British  brig,  oiF  Cape  Ann,  laden 
witl:  arms,  artillery,  and  military  stores  for  the  British  army  at  Boston. 
These  were  sent  at  once  to  Washington,  and  proved  of  the  greatest  ser- 
vice. Among  the  captures  was  an  immense  mortar,  which  Putnam 
named  the  "  Congress,"  and 
placed  in  position  at  Lech- 
mere  Point,  on  the  north  of 
Boston. 

Matters  were  gloomy  in- 
deed. The  people  were  anx- 
ious that  Boston  should  be 
attacked,  but  such  a  course 
was  impossible.  As  late  as 
the  10th  of  February,  1776, 
Washington  wrote :  "  With- 
out men,  without  arms,  with- 
out ammunition,  little  is  to  be 
done."  To  increase  the  dis- 
couragement of  the  patriots 
news  came  of  the  defeat  of 
the  attempt  to  conquer  Can- 
ada. The  British  were  col- 
lecting a  fleet  for  a  demon- 
stration against  some  point  on 
the  Atlantic  coast,  and  as  it  was  not  certain  where  the  blow  would  fall,  a 
feeling  of  general  uneasiness  prevailed  along  the  entire  seaboard. 

This  expedition  sailed  from  Boston,  under  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  about 
the  1st  of  February.  Washington,  who  had  for  some  time  suspected 
that  it  was  designed  to  capture  New  York,  had  already  sent  General 
Charles  Lee  to  raise  troops  to  occupy  that  important  city,  and  hold  it 
against  the  British.  Lee  executed  his  task  with  energy,  and  on  the  4th 
ot  February  entered  New  York,  and  encamped  in  the  suburbs,  in  what 
is  now  the  City  Hall  Park.  Governor  Tryon,  who  had  taken  refuge  on 
board  a  man-of-war,  threatened  to  bombard  the  city  if  the  American 
forces  should  enter  it;  but  Lee  informed  him  that  the  first  shot  fired  at 


GENERAL  HENRY  KNOX. 


452 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


New  York  would  be  the  signal  for  the  execution  of  the  leading  friends 
of  the  royal  cause  in  that  city.  This  decisive  answer  induced  Tryon  to 
delay  his  barbarous  purpose.  That  afternoon  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  Avith 
his  fleet,  entered  the  harbor.  Finding  that  he  had  come  too  late  to  secure 
the  city,  Clinton  declared  that  he  had  merely  called  at  the  harbor  to  pay 
a  visit  to  his  friend  Tryon,  and  in  a  few  days  he  sailed  away  for  North 
Carolina,  where  the  royalist  Governor  Martin,  who,  like  Tryon,  had 
taken  refnge  on  board  a  man-of-war,  had  been  endeavoring  to  stir  up  an 
insurrection  of  the  Tories,  as  the  royalists  were  called.  The  command 
of  this  movement  was  to  be  assumed  by  Clinton.  Martin  also  expected 


SIEGE  OF  BOSTON. 


to  be  reinforced  by  seven  regiments  and  a  fleet  under  Sir  Peter  Parker, 
which  were  on  their  Avay  from  Ireland.  To  gain  time,  and  stir  up  the 
Tories  to  prompt  action,  he  commissioned  two  retired  officers  of  the 
British  army,  Scotchmen,  named  McDonald  and  McLeod,  who  had 
recently  settled  in  North  Carolina,  to  raise  troops  among  the  friends  of 
the  king  in  the  interior.  They  succeeded  in  raising  about  fifteen  hundred, 
men,  and  set  off  for  the  coast  to  join  Martin.  The  patriots  at  once  ral- 
lied in  considerable  force  to  oppose  their  march,  and  intercepted  them  at 
Moore's  Creek  Bridge,  near  Wilmington.  On  the  25th  of  February,  a 
sharp  engagement  was  fought  here,  which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the 
Tories,  McLeod  was  killed,  and  McDonald  was  taken  prisoner.  Eighteen 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


453 


hundred  stand  of  arms,  one  hundred  and  fifty  swords,  two  medicine- 
chests,  and  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  pounds  sterling,  in  gol'1,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  victors,  and  went  far  toward  supplying  their  deficien- 
cies. The  contemplated  rising  of  the  Tories  was  put  down  in  the  interior 
counties,  and  Martin,  finding  his  hopes  of  raising  troops  in  North  Caro- 
lina destroyed,  withdrew  with  Clinton  to  the  Cape  Fear  to  await  the 
arrival  of  the  fleet  of  Sir  Peter  Parker. 

In  the  meantime  a  Union  flag  had  been  provided  for  the  army  l>efore 
Boston,  and  was  formally  displayed  for  the  first  time  in  the  American 
camp  on  the  1st  of  January,  1776.  It  retained  the  English  cross  in  the 
upper  left  hand  corner,  in  token  of  the  relations  still  existing  between 
the  colonies  and  England ;  and  bore  on  its  broad  field  thirteen  stripes  of 
alternate  red  and  white,  representing  the  thirteen  colonies  united  for  the 
defence  of  their  liberties.  Towards  the  close  of  February  the  stock  of 
powder  was  con- 
siderably increased, 
and  a  little  later 
Colonel  Knox  ar- 
rived from  Ticon- 
deroga  with  the  can- 
non and  ammuni- 
tion from  that  post. 
He  hind  transported 
them  on  sledges 
across  the  long 
stretch  of  country 
between  Lake  Champlain  and  Boston,  and  had  overcome  difficulties  in 
the  accomplishment  of  this  task  which  seemed  at  first  insurmountable, 
The  arrival  of  these  guns  gave  Washington  a  fair  simply  of  heavy 
ordnance,  and  put  an  end  to  the  long  delay  which  had  prevailed  in  the 
American  camp.  The  regular  army  had  been  increased  to  fourteen 
thousand  men,  and  had  been  reinforced  by  six  thousand  militia  from 
Massachusetts. 

All  now  was  bustle  and  activity.  The  newly  arrived  cannon  were 
mounted  to  command  the  city,  and  Washington  was  at  length  able  to 
attempt  the  long-desired  demonstration  against  the  enemy  in  Bostrn.  As 
early  as  December,  1775,  Congress  had  urged  him  to  undertake  the  cap- 
ture of  Boston,  and  had  authorized  him  to  destroy  the  city  if  he  could 
expel  the  British  in  no  other  way,  and  John  Hancock,  who  was  a  lar^e 
property-owner,  regardless  of  the  fate  of  his  possessions,  had  written  to 
him:  "Do  it,  and  may  God  crown  your  attempt  with  success."  All 


WASHINGTON  WATCHING  THE  BRITISH   EVACUATE  BOSTON. 


454  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

through  the  winter  Washington  had  been  held  back  from  such  an  attempt 
by  the  advice  of  his  council  of  war,  which  hesitated  to  assume  the  offen- 
sive with  an  insufficient  supply  of  ammunition  and  artillery.  Putnam 
had  succeeded  in  fortifying  the  neighboring  heights  on  the  mainland,  but 
had  been  obliged  to  do  much  of  this  work  at  night  to  avoid  the  fire  of 
the  enemy's  shipping.  The  last  obstacle  to  decisive  action  was  now- 
removed.  Washington  resolved  to  seize  the  eminence  on  the  south  of 
Boston,  known  as  Dorchester  Heights.  It  commanded  the  town  from 
that  quarter,  and  also  the  shipping  in  the  harbor.  Its  possession  by  tht 
Americans  would  force  Sir  William  Howe  either  to  evacuate  the  city  or 
risk  a  general  engagement  for  its  recovery. 

On  the  evening  of  the  2d  of  March  a  heavy  fire  was  opened  upon  th& 
British  lines  by  the  American  batteries,  and  also  upon  Boston.  A  num- 
ber of  houses  were  set  on  fire,  and  the  attention  of  the  British  was  fully 
occupied  in  extinguishing  the  flames.  The  bombardment  was  renewed 
the  next  night.  At  dark,  on  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  March,  the 
Americans  renewed  their  fire  with  redoubled  vigor,  and  were  replied  to 
with  spirit  by  the  British,  and  during  the  whole  night  the  roar  of  cannon 
went  on,  covering  the  movements  of  the  Americans  from  observation  by 
the  enemy.  The  force  assigned  for  the  seizure  of  Dorchester  Heights 
was  placed  under  the  command  of  General  Thomas,  and  in  case  the  move- 
ment should  be  discovered,  and  the  eremy  should  seek  to  dislodge  this 
detachment  from  the  heights,  General  Fuinam  was  ordered  to  cross 
Charles  river,  with  a  column  of  four  thousand  picked  troops,  and  attack 
the  city  from  that  quarter.  Under  the  cover  of  the  heavy  cannonade 
the  column  of  General  Thomas  passed  the  narrow  isthmus  in  safety,  and 
reached  the  heights  by  eight  o'clock,  undiscovered  by  the  enemy.  They 
at  once  set  to  work,  though  the  ground  was  frozen  to  a  depth  of  more 
than  eighteen  inches,  and  by  morning  had  thrown  up  a  scries  of  earth- 
works which  entirely  commanded  both  the  city  and  the  harbor.  General 
Howe  was  greatly  astonished  as  he  examined  these  works  through  his 
glass  when  the  mists  of  the  morning  cleared  away.  "The  rebels,"  he 
said,  "  have  done  more  work  in  a  night  than  my  whole  army  would  have 
done  in  a  month."  The  British  admiral  declared  that  his  ships  could  not 
remain  in  the  harbor,  as  the  possession  of  the  heights  by  the  Americans 
placed  the  fleet  entirely  at  their  mercy.  It  was  evident  to  all  the  British 
commanders  that  the  heights  must  be  recovered,  or  the  city  abandoned ; 
and  General  Howe  determined  to  storm  the  American  works  that  night, 
and  made  preparations  for  an  attack.  This  movement  was  prevented  by 
a  severe  storm,  which  put  a  stop  to  the  cooperation  of  the  fleet,  and  when 
the  storm  had  died  away  the  works  had  been  so  greatly  strengthened  as 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


455 


to  render  an  assault  hopeless.  A  council  of  war  was  held,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  abandon  the  town.  As  such  a  step  required  some  time,  Howe 
secured  the  safety  of  his  army  by  declaring  that  he  would  burn  the  town 
if  his  troops  were  fired  on  during  their  embarkation.  A  deputation  of 
the  citizens  proceeded  to  the  American  camp  and  informed  General 
Washington  of  Howe's  determination,  and  in  order  to  save  the  city  from 
further  suffering  the  British  were  allowed  to  depart  in  peace.  They  con- 
sumed eleven  days  in  their  embarkation.  They  embarked  about  fifteen 
hundred  Tories  with  them,  and  after  plundering  a  number  of  stores  and 
private  houses,  and  robbing  the  inhabitants  of  a  considerable  supply  of 
provisions,  they  embarked  on  the  17th  of  March,  and  dropping  down  the 


MEDAI,  STRUCK  BY  CONGRESS  IN  HONOR  OF  THE  RECAPTURE  OF  BOSTON. 

bay  anchored  in  Nantasket  roads.  They  had  scarcely  left  the  city  when 
the  American  army,  under  Washington,  marched  in  and  occupied  the 
place.  The  long  siege  of  ten  months  was  at  an  end,  and  Boston  was 
again  free.  The  patriot  army  was  received  with  enthusiasm,  and  matters 
soon  began  to  resume  their  accustomed  condition. 

By  the  capture  of  Boston  the  Americans  obtained  possession  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  artillery,  four  mortars,  and  a  considerable 
quantity  of  ammunition,  provisions,  and  clothing,  which  the  British  could 
not  carry  away.  After  the  departure  of  the  British  fleet  from  Nantasket 
roads  several  transports  with  troops,  not  aware  of  the  evacuation,  entered 
the  harbor,  and  were  captured.  Several  storeships,  laden  with  military 
supplies  of  all  kinds,  also  arrived  from  England,  and  were  captured  in 


456  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  same  way.  These  captures  were  of  the  highest  importance  to  the 
patriots.  Their  supply  of  ammunition  was  in  this  way  increased  more 
than  sevenfold. 

The  capture  of  Boston  was  justly  esteemed  the  most  important  success 
of  the  war.  It  freed  New  England  from  the  presence  of  the  English, 
and  enabled  her  to  contribute  men  and  money  to  the  defence  of  the  middle 
colonies.  On  motion  of  John  Adams,  Congress  adopted  a  unanimous  vote 
of  thanks  to  Washington  and  the  army,  and  ordered  a  gold  medal  to  be 
struck  in  commemoration  of  the  deliverance  of  Boston. 

The  British  fleet  remained  in  Nantasket  roads  for  several  days  after 
the  evacuation  of  Boston,  and  then  bore  away  for  Halifax.  Washington 
was  fearful  that  its  destination  was  New  York,  and  leaving  General  Ward 
with  five  regiments  to  hold  Boston,  hastened  southward  with  the  main 
body  of  the  army.  He  reached  New  York  on  the  13th  of  April,  and  set 
to  work  with  vigor  to  put  the  city  and  its  approaches  in  a  state  of  de- 
fence. He  soon  discovered  that  the  Tories  in  the  city  were  in  constant 
communication  with  Governor  Tryon  and  the  British  ships  in  the  harbor. 
Severe  measures  were  at  once  adopted  to  stop  this  intercourse.  A  con- 
spiracy for  the  recovery  of  the  city  by  Tryon  was  discovered,  and  his 
agents  were  found  tampering  with  the  American  soldiers.  One  Thomas 
Hickey,  a  deserter  from  the  British  army,  was  hanged  "for  mutiny, 
sedition,  and  treachery,"  and  this  vigorous  measure  at  once  put  a  stop  to 
the  plots  of  the  Tories. 

Congress,  in  February,  1776,  found  itself  obliged  to  issue  four  millions 
of  dollars  of  additional  paper  money  in  order  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the 
war,  which  were  heavier  than  had  been  supposed.  For  the  proper  man- 
agement of  the  finances,  an  auditor-general  and  assistants  were  appointed 
to  act  under  the  financial  committee  of  Congress,  and  it  was  not  long  be- 
fore this  branch  of  the  public  service  assumed  the  form  of  a  treasury 
department.  In  April  a  war  office  was  established  by  Congress  under 
the  supervision  of  a  committee  of  its  members.  John  Adams  was  made 
chairman  of  this  committee,  and  resigned  his  post  of  chief-justice  of 
Massachusetts  to  accept  it. 

The  retreat  of  Sullivan  from  Canada  now  became  known,  and  the  con- 
duct of  that  officer  was  approved  by  Congress,  which  passed  a  vote  of 
thanks  to  him.  At  the  same  time  it  appointed  Major- General  Horatio 
Grates  to  the  command  of  the  army  in  his  place.  Gates  was  an  English- 
man by  birth,  and  had  joined  the  colonial  movement  in  the  hope  of 
winning  honors  and  fame  by  his  services.  He  had  served  in  the  British 
army  during  the  colonial  period,  but  had  failed  to  receive  the  rewards  he 
deemed  himself  entitled  to,  and  had  resigned  his  commission  in  disgust, 


THE  DECLARATION  0&  INDEPENDENCE. 


457 


and  had  come  to  America  to  reside  a  few  years  before  the  rupture  with 
England.  His  experience  and  skill  made  him  a  valuable  acquisition  to 
the  American  army,  but  his  ambition  and  jealousy  were  destined  to 
cause  it  considerable  trouble.  Gates  at  once  claimed  that  his  command 
embraced  not  only  the  troops  on  Lake  Champlain,  but  also  the  whole 
northern  army  under  Schuyler.  The  matter  was  referred  to  Congress, 
and  it  was  decided  that  Gates  was  independent  of  the  control  of  Schuyler 
only  while  in  Canada.  Elsewhere  he  was  subject  to  Schuyler's  command. 

In  the  meantime  Congress  had  sent  General  Charles  Lee  to  the  south 
to  take  command  of  the  troops  assembling  to  oppose  Sir  Henry  Clinton, 
who  was  waiting  off  the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  river  lor  the  arrival  of 
the  fleet  of  Sir  Peter  Parker  from  Ireland.  This  fleet  joined  Clinton  in 
May,  and  a  little  later  Congress  learned  by  means  of  intercepted  letters 
that  Charleston,  in  South  Carolina,  was  the  object  of  attack.  The  com- 
mand of  the  strong 
military  force  which 
the  fleet  brought  was 
to  be  held  by  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  to 
whom  the  general 
direction  of  the  ex- 
pedition was  intrust- 
ed. Lee  hastened  at 
once  to  Charleston. 
He  found  there  a 
force  of  about  six 

thousand  men,  from  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia ;  but  the  city  was  not 
defended  by  a'  single  fortification.  Had  Clinton  assailed  it  at  once,  it  must 
have  fallen  into  his  hands,  as  he  arrived  in  the  harbor  on  the  4th  of  June, 
the  very  day  that  Lee  reached  the  city ;  but  he  delayed  his  attack  until 
he  could  fortify  his  own  position,  and  so  gave  Lee  time  to  erect  works 
for  the  defence  of  the  city. 

The  key  to  the  American  position  was  Fort  Moultric,  a  small 
work  built  of  palmetto  logs,  and  situated  on  the  southwest  point  of  Sul- 
livan's island.  It  was  commanded  by  Colonel  William  Moultric,  whose 
name  it  bore.  In  front  of  it  lay  the  British  fleet  under  Sir  Peter  Parker.. 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  taken  position  with  two  thousand  men  on  Long 
island,  which  was  separated  from  Sullivan's  island  by  only  a  narrow 
creek,  and  was  building  batteries  to  cover  his  passage  of  the  creek.  His 
plan  was  to  allow  the  fleet  to  breach  the  walls  of  Fort  Moultrie,  and  then 
to  cross  his  troops  to  Sullivan's  island  under  the  cover  of  his  batteries, 


ATTACK  ON  FORT  MOULTRIE. 


458  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  carry  the  fort  by  storm.  Lee,  who  was  ignorant  of  the  capacity  of 
the  soft,  spongy  palmetto  wood  for  resisting  the  force  of  cannon  shot,  re- 
garded the  effort  to  hold  Fort  Moultrie  as  madness.  He  stationed  a  force 
under  Colonel  Thompson  on  Sullivan's  island  opposite  Clinton  to  dispute 
his  passage  of  the  creek,  and  took  position  on  the  mainland  with  the  rest 
of  his  force  where  he  could  support  either  Moultrie  or  Thompson,  as 
might  be  necessary. 

On  the  28th  of  June,  the  enemy's  fleet  opened  fire  on  Fort  Moultrie, 
which  replied  with  spirit,  and  for  ten  hours  the  cannonade  was  main- 
tained with  great  vigor  by  both  sides.  The  enemy's  balls  buried  them- 
selves in  the  soft,  spongy  wood  of  the  palmetto  logs,  and  thus  did  little 


SERGEANT  JASPER  AT  FORT  MOULTRIE. 


injury  to  the  fort;  but  the  well-directed  fire  of  the  American  guns  inflicted 
great  damage  upon  the  fleet.  The  British  were  finally  compelled  to 
withdraw  with  heavy  loss,  and  abandoned  and  set  fire  to  one  of  their 
ships.  During  the  engagement  the  flag  of  the  fort  was  shot  away,  and 
fell  outside  of  the  walls.  Sergeant  Jasper,  of  the  South  Carolina  forces, 
at  once  sprang  over  the  wall,  and  amidst  a  heavy  fire  secured  the  flag 
tied  it  to  a  pole,  and  set  it  up  again  on  the  ramparts.  This  done,  he  re- 
joined his  comrades  at  the  guns.  A  few  days  later,  Governor  Rutledge 
presented  Jasper  with  his  own  sword,  and  offered  him  a  lieutenant's  com- 
mission. Jasper  accepted  the  sword,  but  declined  the  commission  on  the 
ground  that  he  could  neither  read  nor  write. 

Clinton  made  repeated  efforts  to  cross  the  creek  and  storm  the  fort 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  459 

during  the  battle,  but  was  as  often  driven  back  by  the  batteries  under 
Thompson.  At  length,  the  fleet  having  withdrawn,  he  embarked  his 
men,  and  soon  after  sailed  for  New  York  to  join  the  troops  ass*mbling 
ne:ir  that  city. 

Washington  was  correct  in  supposing  that  New  York  was  the  tru3  des- 
t.  :->;i  of  Sir  William  Howe  after  leaving  Nantasket  roads.  That  com- 
iii  i .:  ier  s.iiled  first  to  Halifax,  where  he  landed  the  civilians  and  other 
useless  incumbrances  he  had  been  obliged  to  carry  away  from  Boston. 
Then,  refitting  his  command,  he,  awaited  the  arrival  of  his  brother,  Ad- 
miral Lord  Howe,  who  was  on  his  way  from  England  with  reinforce- 
ments. In  the  latter  part  of  June  he  sailed  from  Halifax  for  New  York, 
and  arrived  within  Sandy  Hook  on  the  28th  of  June,  the  very  day  of  th«» 
attack  on  Fort  Moultrie.  He  landed  his  forces  on  Staten  island,  where 
he  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  Tories.  A  little  later  he  was 
joined  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  from  Charleston,  and  about'  the  middle  of 
July  Lord  Howe  arrived  with  reinforcements,  a  large  part  of  whom  were 
Hessians,  hired  as  we  have  stated  by  the  king  of  England  from  the  duke 
of  Hesse  Cassel,  in  Germany.  Their  arrival  raised  the  strength  of  the 
British  army  in  New  York  bay  to  30,000  men.  Their  attack  upon  the 
city  was  merely  a  question  of  time,  and  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances it  was  scarcely  to  be  hoped  that  Washington  would  succeed  in 
maintaining  his  hold  upon  New  York.  In  the  meantime  an  event  of  the 
highest  importance  had  changed  the  whole  character  of  the  war  as  re- 
garded the  Americans. 

The  colonists  had  taken  up  arms  to  resist  the  aggressions  of  the  king 
and  government  of  Great  Britain  upon  their  liberties,  and  to  compel  the 
mother  country  to  respect  the  rights  guaranteed  to  them  by  their  charters 
and  by  the  British  constitution.  Thus  far  the  war  had  been  waged  for 
these  ends.  At  the  outset  of  the  struggle  a  few  far-seeing  persons,  such 
as  Samuel  Adams  and  Patrick  Henry,  had  been  convinced  that  an  appeal 
to  arms  would  render' the  final  separation  of  the  colonies  from  England 
inevitable,  and  that  such  an  issue  was  but  the  fulfilment  of  the  destiny  of 
their  country,  and  as  such  to  be  desired.  The  great  majority  of  the 
people,  however,  neither  thought  of  nor  Avished  for  independence.  They 
Avould  have  been  satisfied  to  secure  their  liberties  and  privileges  as  Eng- 
lish subjects,  and  would  gladly  have  continued  loyal  to  the  king.  The 
events  of  the  war  had  made  it  plain  to  the  most  skeptical  that  England 
did  not  intend  to  do  justice  to  her  colonies.  Neither  the  king,  the  minis- 
try, nor  Parliament  were  disposed  to  swerve  from  their  purpose  of  re- 
ducing America  to  absolute  submission  to  their  will.  They  were  deter* 
mined  that  the  colonists  should  bear  every  burden  of  British  citizenship, 


460 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


and  enjoy  none  of  its  privileges  save  what  they  should  sec  fit  to  allow 
them.  Americans  were  not  to  enjoy  either  liberty  or  property  as  lawful 
rights,  but  both  these  possessions  were  to  be  held  by  them  at  the  pleasure 


INDEPENDENCE   HALL,    PHILADELPHIA,    IN    1877. 

of  Great  Britain.  This  determination  was  so  clear  that  none  could  mis- 
take it.  Since  the  commencement  of  the  struggle  public  opinion  in 
America  had  undergone  a  great  change,  and  the  party  in  favor  of  a  tota* 
and  final  separation  from  the  mother  country  had  increased  so  rapidly 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


461 


that  it  now  embraced  the  great  majority  of  the  American  people.  Now 
that  they  had  become  convinced  that  they  could  maintain  their  liberties 
only  by  a  total  and  unqualified  separation  frOm  Great  Britain,  they  did 
*aot  hesitate  to  choose  that  course.  Their  choice  was  made  without  re- 
gret. At  the  commencement  of  the  war  a  very  genuine  attachment  bound 
the  people  of  the  colonies  to  England  ;  but  the  course  of  the  royal  govern- 
ment and  the  severities  of  the  British  commanders  in  the  northern  colo- 
nies, and  the  outrages  of  the  royal  governors  in  the  south,  had  entirely 
alienated  the  people  from  their  love  for  England. 

Still  there  were  many  Tories,  or  friends  of  the  king,  in  America,  and 
they  were  active  and  bitter  in  their  opposition  to  the  patriots.     From  the 


INTERIOR  OF  IKDEPiJTDENCE  HALI* 

first  the  Americans  regarded  the  Tories  with  a  feeling  of  hatred  which 
increased  as  the  struggle  went  on,  and  this  feeling  was  soon  extended  to 
all  who  fought  under  the  royal  flag  or  sought  to  uphold  its  causf. 

Not  only  had  the  people  been  gradually  coming  to  view  independence 
as  desirable  and  indispensable;  the  exercise  by  Congress  of  the  functions 
of  a  supreme  government  had  accustomed  them  to  it,  and  had  shown  them 
their  capacity  for  conducting  a  general  government  for  the  whole  country. 
Early  in  March,  1776,  Congress  granted  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal 
against  British  commerce,  and  somewhat  later  sent  Silas  Deane  as  its 
commissioner  to  France  to  seek  assistance  from  that  country.  In  May  it 
had  formally  recommended  the  colonies  to  disregard  the  royal  govern- 
ments and  adopt  systems  suited  to  their  needs,  and  in  harmony  with  the 


462  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

changed  state  of  affairs.  To  all  men  it  was  evident  that  a  formal  renun- 
ciation of  allegiance  to  Great  Britain  and  the  assertion  of  their  independ- 
ence by  the  colonies  was  merely  a  question  of  time. 

It  was,  therefore,  a  surprise  to  no  one  when  the  first  definite  action 
looking  towards  independence  was  taken.  On  the  15th  of  May,  1776, 
the  general  assembly  of  Virginia  instructed  the  delegates  of  that  colony 
in  Congress  to  offer  a  resolution  in  favor  of  the  separation  of  the  colonies 
from  England,  and  the  formal  declaration  of  their  independence.  On  the 
30th  of  May  Massachusetts  instructed  her  delegates  to  support  this  reso- 
lution. On  the  7th  of  June  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  o.Tered  a 
resolution  in  Congress,  "that  the  united  colonies  are,  and  ought  to  be, 
free  and  independent  states,  and  that  their  political  connection  with  Great 
Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  dissolved."  The  resolution  was  seconded  by 
John  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  debated  with  great  earnestness. 
It  was  adopted  by  a  bare  majority  of  one — seven  colonies  voting  for  it, 
and  six  against  it.  In  accordance  with  the  resolution,  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  draw  up  a  declaration  of  independence,  and,  in  order  that 
the  delegates  might  have  an  opportunity  to  ascertain  the  wishes  of  their 
constituents,  the  consideration  of  the  subject  was  postponed  until  the  1st 
of  July.  Two  other  committees  were  also  appointed.  One  of  these  was 
charged  with  the  preparation  of  a  plan  for  uniting  the  colonies  in  a  single 
government;  the  other  was  to  report  a  plan  for  securing  alliances  with 
foreign  nations.  The  committee  charged  wiJi  the  preparation  of  a  decla- 
ration of  independence  consisted  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  John  A.iams, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Roger  Sherman,  and  Robert  R.  Livingston. 

On  the  28th  of  June  the  committee  reported  the  declaration  to  Con- 
gress. It  was  written  by  Thomas  JefTorson,  and  with  a  few  verbal  altera- 
tions was  adopted  by  the  committee  as  it  came  from  his  hand.  It 
reviewed  in  a  clear  and  comprehensive  manner  the  causes  which  had 
impelled  the  colonies  to  take  up  arms  for  the  defence  of  their  liberties, 
and  which  now  induced  them  to  sever  the  tics  that  bound  them  to  Great 
Britain.  The  declaration  concluded  in  these  memorable  words :  "  Y.'e, 
therefore,  the  representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  general 
Congress  assembled,  appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  all  the  world  for 
the  rectitude  of  our  intentions,  do,  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of 
rthe  good  people  of  these  colonies,  solemnly  publish  and  declare  that  these 
united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent 
states ;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown, 
and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  state  of  Groat 
Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  dissolved ;  and  that,  as  free  and  independent 
states,  they  have  full  power  to  levy  war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alii- 


MABTHA    WASHINGTON. 


464 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


ances,  establish  commerce,  and  to  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which 
independent  states  may  of  right  do.  And  for  the  support  of  this  declara- 
tion, with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  protection  of  a  Divine  Providence,  we 
mutually  pledge  to  each  other  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred 
honor." 

,  The  declaration  was  debated  in  Congress,  and  a  few  passages,  which  it 
was  feared  might  offend  the  friends  of  the  colonies  in  Great  Britain,  were 
stricken  out.  The  vote  was  then  taken  by  colonies,  and  though  some  of 
the  delegates  voted  against  it,  the  declaration  received  the  votes  of  all  the 
colonies  with  the  exception  of  New  York,  which  accepted  it  a  few  days 
later.  On  the  4th  day  of  July  1776,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 

formally  adopted  by  Congress,  and 
was  ordered  to  be  published  to  the 
world,  and  to  ba  read  at  the  head  of 
the  regiments  of  the  army. 

Congress  was  in  session  in  the  hall 
of  the  state  house  in  Philadelphia. 
In  the  spire  of  this  venerable  build- 
ing hung  a  bell,  inscribed  with  the 
words  of  Scripture :  "  Proclaim 
liberty  throughout  all  the  land  unto 
all  the  inhabitants  thereof."  On  the 
morning  of  the  4th  of  July  vast 
crowds  assembled  around  the  build- 
ing, as  it  was  known  that  Congress 
would  on  that  day  take  definite  ac- 
tion upon  the  declaration.  The 
bell-ringer  stationed  himself  in  the 
tower  ready  to  proclaim  the  good 
OLD  BELL  OF  INDEPENDENCE  HALL.  news  the  moment  it  should  be  an- 

nounced  to  him,  and  had  posted  his 

little  son  at  the  door  of  the  hall  to  await  the  signal  of  the  door-keeper. 
When  the  announcement  of  tne  vote  was  made,  the  door-keeper  gave  the 
signal  and  the  boy  ran  quickly  to  the  tower.  The  old  man  heard  him 
coming,  and  clutched  the  bell-rope  with  a  firm  grasp.  The  next  instant 
the  glad  cry  of  the  boy's  voice  was  heard.  "  Ring !  ring ! "  he  cried  ;  and 
then  the  deep,  sonorous  tones  of  the  bell  went  rolling  out  of  the  to\\  tr, 
and  were  answered  with  a  mighty  shout  from  the  assembled  throng  with- 
out. The  declaration  was  received  by  all  the  states  and  by  the  army  with 
enthusiasm.  Thus  the  thirteen  united  colonies  became  the  thirteen  United 
States.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  declaration  did  not  make  the 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


465 


colonies  independent  states,  or  states  in  any  sense.  It  was  simply  their 
announcement  to  the  world  that  they  had,  each  for  itself,  by  the  exercise 
of  its  own  sovereign  power,  assumed  the  independence  which  rightfully 
belonged  to  it. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  put  an  end  to  all  the  hopes  that  had 
been  cherished  of  an  accommodation  with  Great  Britain,  and  caused  those 
who  were  still  wavering  to  embrace  the  cause  of  their  country.  It  re- 
lieved Congress  of  the  disadvantage  under  which  it  had  hitherto  acted, 
and  enabled  it  to  pursue  a  more  vigorous  and  decisive  policy  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  There  was  no  retreat  now  ;  nothing  remained 
but  to  continue  the  struggle  until  Great  Britain  should  be  compelled 
to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  states,  or  they  should  be 
reduced  to  the  condition  of  conquered  provinces. 

On  the  12th  of 
July  the  committee 
appointed  to  prepare 
a  plan  for  the  union . 
of  the  States  re- 
ported one,  which 
is  thus  summed  up : 

"1st.  The  style 
of  the  confederacy 
was  to  be  '  The 
United  States  of 
America.' 

"2d.  Each  State 

retained  its  sovereignty,  freedom,  and  independence  and  every  power 
and  right  which  is  not  expressly  delegated  to  the  United  States. 

"  3d.  The  object  of  the  confederation  was  for  their  mutual  defence, 
the  security  of  their  liberties,  and  their  mutual  and  general  welfare,  bind- 
ing themselves  to  assist  each  other  against  all  force  offered  to  or  attacks 
made  upon  them,  or  any  of  them,  on  account  of  religion,  sovereignty, 
trade,  or  any  other  pretence  whatever. 

"  4th.  In  determining  all  questions  in  Congress  each  State  was  to  have 
one  vote. 

"  5th.  Each  State  was  to  maintain  its  own  delegates. 

"6th.  The  free  inhabitants  of  each  State,  paupers,  vagabonds,  an& 
fugitives  from  justice  excepted,  were  to  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and 
immunities  of  free  citizens  in  the  several  States. 

"  7th.  All  fugitives  from  justice  from  one  State  into  another  were  to 
be  delivered  up  on  demand. 
30 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  PROCLAIMED 
IN   PHILADELPHIA. 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

"  Sth.  Full  faith  and  credit  were  to  be  given  to  the  records  of  each 
State  in  all  the  others. 

"  9th.  Congress  was  to  grant  no  title  of  nobility. 

"  10th.  No  person  holding  any  office  was  to  receive  a  present  from  a 
foreign  power. 

"  llth.  No  State  was  to  form  any  agreement  or  alliance  with  a  foreign 
power  without  the  consent  of  the  States  in  Congress  assembled. 

"12th.  No  two  or  more  States  were  to  form  any  alliance  between 
themselves  without  the  like  consent  of  the  States  in  Congress  assembled. 

"  13th.  No  State,  without  the  like  consent  of  Congress,  was  to  keep 
war  ships  or  an  army  in  time  of  peace ;  but  each  was  to  keep  a  well- 
organized  frnd  disciplined  militia,  with  munitions  of  war. 

"  14th.  No  State  was  to  lay  any  duty  upon  foreign  imports  which 
would  interfere  with  any  treaty  made  by  Congress. 

"  15th.  No  State  was  to  issue  letters  of  marque,  or  to  engage  in  war, 
without  the  consent  of  the  Congress,  unless  actually  invaded  or  menaced 
with  invasion. 

"  16th.  When  Federal  land  forces  were  raised,  each  State  was  to  raise 
the  quota  required  by  Congress,  arm  and  equip  them  at  the  expense  of 
all  the  States,  and  to  appoint  all  officers  of  and  under  the  rank  of 
colonel. 

"  17th.  Each  State  was  to  levy  and  raise  the  quota  of  tax  required  by 
Congress  for  Federal  purposes. 

"  18th.  The  faith  of  all  the  States  was  pledged  to  pay  all  the  bills  of 
credit  emitted,  or  money  borrowed  on  their  joint  account,  by  the 
Congress. 

"  19th.  It  was  agreed  and  covenanted  that  Canada  might  accede  to  the 
union  so  formed  if  she  chose  to  do  so. 

"  20th  (and  lastly).  Each  State  was  to  abide  by  the  determination  of 
all  the  States  in  Congress  assembled,  on  all  questions  which,  by  the 
confederation,  were  submitted  to  them.  The  Articles  of  Confederation 
were  to  be  inviolably  observed  by  every  State,  and  the  Union  was  to  be 
perpetual.  No  article  of  the  confederation  was  to  be  altered  without  the 
consent  of  every  State. 

"  The  delegations  of  power  by  each  of  the  States  to  all  the  States;  in 
general  Congress  assembled,  upon  a  like  analysis,  may  be  stated  as 
follows : 

"  1st.  The  sole  and  exclusive  power  to  determine  on  war  and  peace, 
escept  in  case  a  State  should  be  invaded  or  menaced  with  invasion. 

"  2d.  To  send  and  receive  ambassadors. 

"  3d.  To  make  treaties,  with  a  proviso,  etc.    . 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  467 

"  4th.  To  establish  rules  for  captures. 

"  5th.  To  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal. 

"  6th.  To  appoint  courts  for  trial  of  piracies  and  other  crimes 
specified. 

"  7th.  To  decide  questions  of  dispute  between  two  or  more  States,  in  a 
prescribed  manner. 

"  8th.  The  sole  and  exclusive  power  to  coin  money  and  regulate  the 
value. 

"  9th.  To  fix  a  standard  of  weights  and  measures. 

"  10th.  To  regulate  trade  with  the  Indian  tribes. 

"  llth.  To  establish  post-offices. 

"  12th.  To  appoint  all  officers  of  the  militia  land  forces,  when  called 
out  by  Congress,  except  regimental. 

"  13th.  To  appoint  all  officers  of  the  Federal  naval  forces, 

"  14th.  To  make  rules  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  land  and 
naval  forces. 

"  15th.  To  appropriate  and  apply  public  money  for  public  expenses, 
the  common  defence,  and  general  welfare. 

"  16th.  To  borrow  money  and  emit  bills  of  credit. 

"  17th.  To  build  and  equip  a  navy. 

"  18th.  To  agree  upon  the  number  of  land  forces,  and  make  requisi-. 
tions  upon  the  States  for  their  quotas,  in  proportion  to  the  value  of  all 
land  within  each  State. 

"  The  foregoing  powers  were  delegated  with  this  limitation :  The  war 
power,  the  treaty  power,  the  power  to  coin  money,  the  power  to  regulate 
the  value  thereof,  the  power  of  fixing  the  quotas  of  money  to  be  raised  by 
the  States,  the  power  to  emit  bills  of  credit,  the  power  to  borrow  money, 
the  power  to  appropriate  money,  the  power  to  regulate  the  number  of 
land  and  naval  forces,  and  the  power  to  appoint  a  commander-in-chief  of 
the  army  as  well  as  the  navy,  were  never  to  be  exercised  unless  nine  of 
the  States  were  assenting  to  the  same. 

"  These  articles  form  the  original  basis  and  first  Constitution  of  the 
existing  Federal  Union  of  the  United  States  of  America."  * 

These  Articles  of  Confederation  were  adopted,  after  discussion,  by  Con- 
gress, voting  by  States,  and  were  then  submitted  to  the  several  States  for 
ratification  by  them.  In  the  meantime  Congress  continued  to  exercise 
the  powers  conferred  by  them.  By  the  early  part  of  1777  all  the  States 
save  Maryland  had  ratified  and  adopted  the  articles.  That  State  did  not 
give  her  full  assent  to  them  until  1781. 

*  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens. 


458  HISTORY  OF  THti   UNITED  STATES, 

Lord  Howe  arrived  in  New  York  bay  about  the  middle  of  July,  as  has 
been  stated.  He  was  vested  with  full  powers  by  the  king  to  settle  the 
quarrel  between  America  and  England  if  the  Americans  would  agree  to 
submit  unconditionally  to  the  king.  Failing  to  accomplish  a  settlement) 
he  and  his  brother,  Sir  William  Howe,  were  charged  with  the  supreme 
conduct  of  the  war.  Lord  Howe  was  a  man  of  amiable  disposition,  and 
really  desired  peace;  but  as  he  was  fully  convinced  of  the  justice  of  the 
royal  pretensions,  he  could  not  understand  or  appreciate  the  claims  or 
grievances  of  the  Americans.  Moreover,  he  had  come  too  late.  The 
American  people  meant  that  their  separation  from  Great  Britain  should 
be  final.  Lord  Howe  was  greatly  deceived  upon  his  arrival  as  to 
the  actual  state  of  feeling  in  America.  He  was  received  with  loyal  ad- 
dresses by  the  Tories  of  Long  and  Staten  islands  and  the  New  Jersey 
shore,  and  was  assured  by  Governor  Tryon  that  the  country  was  full 
of  friends  of  the  king  who  might  be  induced  to  join  him  if  properly 
supported. 

Lord  Howe,  therefore,  resolved  to  attempt  a  peaceful  settlement  before 
proceeding  to  hostilities ;  and  issued  a  circular  addressed  to  the  people 
of  America,  offering  them  the  royal  pardon  if  they  would  cease  their 
rebellion,  lay  down  their  arms,  and  trust  to  the  clemency  of  the  king. 
Congress  gave  to  this  circular  the  widest  publicity,  by  causing  it  to  be 
published  in  every  newspaper  in  the  Union,  in  order  that  the  people 
might  see  that  the  only  settlement  that  would  be  accepted  by  England 
was  their  voluntary  and  absolute  submission  to  her  arbitrary  will. 
"  They  must  fight  or  be  slaves." 

About  the  same  time  Lord  Howe  addressed  a  letter  to  the  American 
commander-in-chief,  styling  him  George  Washington,  Esquire.  No  notice 
of  this  communication  was  taken  by  Washington,  and  Howe  sent  him 
another  letter  addressed  to  George  Washington,  etc.,  etc.  Washington, 
rightly  considering  that  the  omission  of  his  official  title  was  an  insult  to 
his  country,  refused  to  receive  the  letter.  Adjutant-General  Patterson, 
of  Lord  Howe's  staff,  who  bore  the  communication,  expressed  his  regret 
that  the  letter  could  not  be  opened.  Lord  Howe,  he  said,  came  vested 
with  great  powers,  and  was  sincerely  anxious  for  peace.  Washington, 
who  had  received  him  with  kindly  courtesy,  replied  that  he  was  aware 
that  Lord  Howe  was  intrusted  with  the  power  to  grant  pardons,  but  that 
as  the  Americans  were  engaged  in  the  defence  of  their  rights,  and  hud 
tommitted  no  crime,  they  had  no  need  of  pardon,  and  his  lordship's  good 
intentions  could  not  be  of  service  to  them. 

It  was  now  plain  to  Lord  Howe  that  he  had  been  deceived  by  Tryon 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  46? 

and  his  friends,  and  that  nothing  could  be  accomplished  save  by  force  of 
arms.  His  circular  had  produced  no  effect,  and  he  could  detect  no  sign 
of  wavering  on  the  part  of  the  Americans. 

It  had  been  evident  for  some  time  that  the  next  effort  of  the  British 
would  be  to  get  possession  of  the  city  of  New  York.  Their  fleet  already 
held  the  harbor,  and  should  they  succeed  in  securing  the  Hudson  they 
would  be  able  to  establish  a  direct  communication  with  Canada,  and  to 
isolate  New  England  and  New  York  from  the  Middle  States  and  the 
South.  Reinforcements  were  sent  to  Washington  from  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Delaware.  These  gave  the  American  com- 
mander a  force  of  about  twenty-five  thousand  men ;  but  scarcely  seven- 
teen thousand  were  fit  for  duty ;  the  remainder  being  disabled  by  sick- 
ness. Washington  erected  two  forts  on  Manhattan  island,  one  just  above 
Kingsbridge,  named  Fort  Washington,  and  the  other  just  below  it,  named 
Fort  Independence.  Kingsbridge  furnished  the  only  communication 
between  the  island  of  Manhattan  and  the  mainland,  and  these  forts  were 
erected  for  its  defence,  as  well  as  to  hold  the  enemy's  vessels  in  check 
should  they  attempt  to  ascend  the  Hudson.  On  the  New  Jersey  side  of 
the  river,  opposite  Fort  Washington,  a  third  work  was  erected,  and 
named  Fort  Lee.  Other  forts  were  built  higher  up  the  Hudson  to  hold 
the  river  against  the  enemy  and  maintain  the  communication  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  States.  One  of  these,  called  Fort  Montgomery, 
•was  located  at  the  entrance  to  the  Highlands,  opposite  the  promontory  oi 
Anthony's  Nose ;  another  was  built  six  miles  higher  up  the  river,  and 
was  known,  as  Fort  Constitution. 

For  the  defence  of  the  heights  of  Brooklyn,  which  commanded  the 
city  of  New  York,  Washington  caused  a  line  of  works  to  be  erected  on 
a  range  of  hills  a  short  distance  south  of  Brooklyn,  and  established  there 
an  intrenched  camp.  General  Nathaniel  Greene  was  placed  in  command 
of  this  position,  and  exerted  himself  with  vigor  to  strengthen  it.  When 
he  had  matured  his  plans  he  was  suddenly  taken  ill,  and  was  obliged  to 
relinquish  the  command  to  General  Sullivai.. 

The  British  fleet  lay  in  Gravcsend  bay,  just  without  the  Narrows,  and 
Washington  was  for  a  while  uncertain  whether  they  would  make  their 
first  attempt  against  the  force  on  Long  island,  or  attack  the  city  of  New 
York.  It  soon  became  evident  that  the  capture  of  the  lines  on  Long 
island  would  be  their  first  care,  and  Sullivan  was  reinforced  with  six 
battalions,  all  that  could  be  spared  from  New  York,  and  on  the  24th  of 
August  General  Putnam  was  placed  in  command  of  the  forces  on  Long 
island. 

On  the  night  of  the  26th  of  August  the  British  crossed  over  from 


470 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Staten  island  to  Long  island,  and  prepared  to  give  battle.  Their  plan 
was  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  Americans  by  a  direct  attack  with  two 
divisions,  while  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  with  a  third  division,  was  to  turn  the 
left  flank  of  the  Americans  and  gain  their  rear.  They  hoped,  if  these 
movements  were  successful,  to  surround  and  capture  the  entire  force  under 
Putnam.  Clinton  began  his  march  about  nine  o'clock  on  the  night  of 
the  26th,  guided  by  a  Long  island  Tory.  About  daylight,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  27th  of  August,  the  enemy  made  their  attack  upon  the  front  of 

the  American  posi- 
tion, and  engaged 
their  attention  in 
this  direction,  while 
Clinton,  by  a  rapid 
march,  gained  their 
rear.  For  a  while 
the  Americans 
fought  well,  but  find- 
ing themselves  al- 
most surrounded, 
and  in  danger  of 
being  captured,  they 
abandoned  the  field 


and  retreated  within 
the  intrenchmeuts  at 
Brooklyn.  The 
Hessian  troops  be- 
haved with  great 
barbarity  during  the 
engagement,  and 
a  number  of  the 
Americans  were 
cruelly  and  wan- 
tonly bayoneted  by  them.  A  part  of  the  engagement  was  fought  in  the 
beautiful  region  now  occupied  by  Greenwood  cemetery. 

Washington  hastened  to  Brooklyn  as  soon  as  informed  of  the  battle, 
and  arrived  just  in  time  to  witness  the  defeat  of  his  troops.  He  was 
powerless  to  repair  the  disaster,  and  could  only  look  on  in  helpless  agony. 
"  My  God  ! "  he  exclaimed,  with  tears :  "  What  brave  fellows  I  must  lose 
this  day!" 

The  American  loss  was  very  severe  in  this  battle.  Out  of  a  force  of 
five  thousand  men  engaged  they  lost  two  thousand  men,  a  large  num- 


GEXERAL  JOHN  SULLIVAN. 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


471 


ber  of  whom  were  prisoners.  The  British  had  sixteen  thousand  men 
engaged,  and  lost  four  hundred.  Had  they  followed  up  their  victory 
by  an  immediate  assault  upon  the  American  intrenehments  they  must 
have  carried  them  ;  but  General  Howe  believed  that  Washington  had  a 
much  stronger  force  for  their  defence  than  was  the  case,  and  encamped 
in  front  of  the  intrenehments,  intending  to  begin  operations  against  them 
the  next  day.  The  28th,  however,  was  a  day  of  drenching  rain,  and  the 
enemy  were  unable  to  do  more  than  break  ground. for  a  battery.  On 
the  29th  a  dense  fog  hung  over  the  island ;  but  it  lifted  for  a  moment, 
aud  enabled  the  Americans  to  detect  an  unusual  commotion  among  the 


THE  RETREAT  FROM  LONG  ISLAND. 

British  shipping.  It  seemed  plain  that  the  enemy  were  preparing  to 
enter  the  East  river  with  their  fleet,  and  so  separate  the  force  on  Long 
island  from  that  in  New  York.  Washington  at  once  summoned-  a 
council  of  war,  and  it  was  decided  to  retreat  from  Long  island  without 
delay.  It  was  a  hazardous  attempt,  for  the  army  under  General  Howe 
was  so  close  to  the  American  lines  that  the  conversations  of  the  men 
could  be  heard,  and  the  British  fleet  might  at  any  moment  seize  the  East 
river.  To  withdraw  a  force  of  nine  thousand  men  across  a  wide;  deep 
river,  in  the  face  of  such  an  army  and  fleet,  was  a  task  which  required 
the  greatest  skill.  It  was  successfully  accomplished,  however.  Every 


472  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

boat  in  and  around  New  York  and  Brooklyn  was  impressed,  and  though 
the  orders  for  the  retreat  were  not  issued  until  noon  on  the  29th,  every* 
thing  was  in  readiness  for  the  retreat  by  eight  o'clock  that  evening.  At 
midnight  the  troops  took  up  their  silent  march  from  the  intrenched  line 
xx>  the  ferry,  where  the  boats,  manned  by  Glover's  regiment,  which  was 
oom  posed  of  fishermen  from  Marblehead,  awaited  them.  By  eight 
o'clock  the  next  morning  the  entire  army,  with  all  its  cattle,  horses,  and 
wagons,  was  safe  upon  the  New  York  side  of  the  river. 

Howe  was  greatly  mortified  at  the  escape  of  the  American  army,  for 
he  had  regarded  it  as  a  sure  prize,  and  prepared,  with  the  aid  of  his 
ships,  to  seize  the  upper  part  of  Manhattan  island,  and  confine  the  Ameri- 
cans to  the  city  of  New  York,  where  their  surrender  would  be  inevitable. 
Before  proceeding  to  the  execution  of  this  plan  he  resolved  to  make 
another  effort  to  induce  the  Americans  to  abandon  their  cause,  as  he 
rightly  believed  their  defeat  on  Long  island  would  be  followed  by  a  season 
of  great  depression.  A  few  days  after  the  retreat  he  released  General  Sul- 
livan, who  had  been  taken  prisoner  in  the  battle,  on  parole,  and  sent  a 
letter  by  him  to  Congress,  asking  that  body  to  send  an  informal  com- 
mittee, whom  he  would  receive  as  private  gentlemen,  to  confer  with  him 
on  so/tie  measure  of  reconciliation.  Congress,  willing  to  hear  what  he 
had  to  propose,  sent  Dr.  Franklin,  John  Adams,  and  Edward  Rutledge 
to  confer  with  him.  They  met  Lord  Howe  at  a  house  on  Staten  island, 
opposite  Amboy.  The  only  terms  his  lordship  had  to  propose  were  the 
unconditional  submission  of  the  Americans  to  the  royal  mercy.  He  was 
informed  that  the  Americans  would  consent  to  treat  with  Great  Britain 
only  as  "a  free  and  independent  nation,"  and  that  it  was  useless  to  pro- 
pose any  other  basis  for  a  settlement.  Lord  Howe  thereupon  expressed 
his  regret  that  he  should  be  obliged  to  distress  the  Americans.  Dr. 
Franklin  thanked  him  for  his  good  feeling,  and  remarked  :  "  The  Ameri- 
cans will  endeavor  to  lessen  the  pain  you  may  feel  by  taking  good  care 
of  themselves."  The  report  of  the  interview  was  made  public  by  Con- 
gress, and  had  a  happy  effect.  It  convinced  all  classes  that  England  had 
no  terms  to  offer  them  but  such  as  embraced  a  shameful  surrender  cf 
their  liberties. 

Fearful  that  Howe  would  seek  to  shut  him  up  in  New  York,  Wash- 
ington left  a  force  within  the  city  to  hold  it,  and  encamped  with  the  main 
body  of  his  army  on  Harlem  Heights,  at  the  northern  er.d  of  the 
island,  from  which  he  could  secure  his  retreat  into  Westchestcr  county. 
The  army  was  reduced  to  less  than  twenty  thousand  men,  and  was  dis- 
heartened by  the  defeat  on  Long  island.  It  was  seriously  debated 
whether  New  York  should  be  defended  or  not ;  and  it  was  proposed  to 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  473 

burn  the  city  to  the  ground,  in  order  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  securing 
comfortable  winter-quarters  in  it.  Congress  ordered  that  the  city  should 
not  be  destroyed,  but  it  was  evident  that  it  could  not  be  held. 

Washington  was  anxious  to  learn  the  intentions  of  the  enemy,  who 
still  remained  on  Long  island,  and  Captain  Nathan  Hale,  a  talented 
young  officer  of  the  Connecticut  line,  volunteered  to  enter  their  lines 
and  procure  the  desired  information.  He  proceeded  to  the  British  camp, 
obtained  the  information  wanted,  and  was  returning  in  safety  when  he 
was  arrested  by  a  party  of  the  enemy,  among  whom  was  a  Tory  relative, 
who  recognized  him.  He  was  taken  to  Howe's  head-quarters,  and  the 
next  morning,  September  22d,  without  any  form  of  trial,  was  hanged  as 
a  spy.  He  met  his  death  with  firmness,  saying :  "  I  only  regret  that  I 
have  but  one  life  to  lose  for  my  country." 

In  the  meantime  the  British  had  seized  the  islands  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Harlem  river,  and  had  erected  a  battery  on  one  of  them.  On  the  15th 
of  September  they  crossed  in  force  to  Manhattan  island,  at  Kipp's  bay, 
about  three  miles  above  the  city.  They  easily  drove  back  the  force 
stationed  there  to  resist  their  landing,  and  secured  their  position.  AVash- 
ington  at  once  sent  General  Heath  to  hold  the  enemy  in  check,  and 
ordered  Putnam  to  evacuate  the  city  of  New  York,  and  retire  to  Harlem 
Heights,  without  the  loss  of  a  moment.  Putnam  obeyed  his  orders 
promptly,  and  retreated  from  the  city  along  the  line  of  the  Bloomingdale 
road,  now  the  upper  part  of  Broadway.  His  march  was  retarded  by  a 
crowd  of  women  and  children  fleeing  from  the  city,  and  was  exposed  to 
the  fire  of  the  enemy's  ships  in  the  Hudson.  By  great  exertions  he  man- 
aged to  save  his  command,  but  was  obliged  to  leave  his  heavy  artillery 
and  three  hundred  men  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  British  at  once 
took  possession  of  New  York,  and  threw  up  a  line  of  intrenchments 
above  the  city,  from  the  Hudson,  at  Bloomingdale,  to  the  East  river,  at 
Kipp's  bay.  The  Americans  now  held  the  upper  part  of  the  island,  and 
erected  a  double  line  of  earthworks  from  river  to  river,  about  four  miles 
below  Kingsbridge. 

'  On  the  16th  of  September  the  enemy  made  an  attack  upon  the  Ameri- 
can advanced  posts,  but  were  handsomely  repulsed  by  the  Virginia  and 
Connecticut  troops.  Major  Leitch,  the  commander  of  the  Virginians, 
and  Colonel  Knowlton,  the  commander  of  the  Connecticut  regiment,  and 
one  of  the  captains  at  Bunker  Hill,  were  killed.  In  spite  of  these  losses 
the  spirits  of  the  troops,  which  had  been  much  depressed  by  the  recent 
disasters,  were  greatly  cheered. 

A  lull  of  several  weeks  followed,  during  which  the  Americans  suffered 
greatly  from  sickness.  They  were  without  proper  hospital  accommoda- 


474  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tions,  "  and  they  lay  about  in  almost  every  barn,  stable,  shed,  and  even 
under  the  fences  and  bushes." 

Howe  now  began  to  move  his  army  towards  Long  island  sound,  for 
the  purpose  of  marching  across  the  mainland  to  the  Hudson,  and  cutting 
off  the  retreat  of  Washington  from  Manhattan  island ;  and  at  the  same 
time  sent  his  fleet  up  the  Hudson.  His  intention  was  understood  by 
Washington,  who  left  three  thousand  men  to  defend  Fort  Washington, 
and  with  the  main  body  of  his  army  fell  back  to  the  line  of  the  Bronx, 
near  the  village  of  White  Plains.  Here  he  was  attacked,  on  the  28th  of 
October,  by  General  Howe,  who  was  advancing  from  the  direction  of 
New  Rochelle,  and  who  was  still  hopefu)  of  gaining  the  American  rear. 
A  spirited  encounter  ensued,  in  which  each  party  lost  about  four  hundred 
men ;  and  the  British  intrenched  themselves  in  front  of  the  American 
position. 

Apprehensive  of  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  to  storm  his  line, 
Washington  caused  the  troops  to  spend  the  night  in  strengthening  the 
rude  works  which  covered  it.  They  labored  with  such  diligence  that  the 
next  morning  the  British  commander  decided  that  the  line  was  too  strong 
to  be  attacked,  and  determined  to  wait  for  reinforcements.  That  night 
Washington  silently  abandoned  his  lines  at  White  Plains,  and  withdrew 
to  the  heights  of  North  Castle,  five  miles  distant.  Howe,  unwilling  to 
follow  him  further,  marched  to  Dobb's  ferry,  on  the  Hudson,  and 
encamped.. 

This  movement  of  the  British  commander  caused  Washington  to  fear 
that  he  meant  to  cross  over  into  New  Jersey.  He  accordingly  made  a 
new  disposition  of  his  forces  to  meet  any  emergency.  General  Charles 
Lee,  who  had  recently  returned  from  the  South,  was  left  at  North  Castle 
with  a  portion  of  the  army  to  watch  Howe ;  Heath,  with  another  portion, 
was  ordered  to  occupy  Peekskill  to  defend  the  passes  of  the  Highlands; 
and  Putnam  was  stationed,  with  a  third  detachment,  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Hudson  to  hold  that  region.  With  the  remainder  of  his  troops 
Washington  crossed  the  Hudson  and  joined  General  Greene  at  Fort  Lee, 
arriving  there  on  the  13th  of  November.  A  force  of  three  thousand 
Pennsylvania  troops  had  been  left  to  hold  Fort  Washington,  on  Manhat- 
tan island.  Washington  was  in  favor  of  withdrawing  them  at  once,  but 
left  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  General  Greene  and  Colonel  Magaw,  the 
commander  of  the  fort,  who  determined  to  hold  it.  The  result  proved 
their  error.  Fort  Washington  was  attacked  on  the  16th  of  November 
by  a  force  of  five  thousand  Hessians  and  some  English  troops,  under 
General  Knyphausen,  and  was  taken  by  storm.  The  enemy  lost  nearly 
one  thousand  men,  and  took  over  two  thousand  prisoners.  Washington 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  475 

witnessed  the  capture  from  Fort  Lee  without  the  ability  to  aid  the 
garrison. 

Fort  Washington  having  fallen,  Fort  Lee  was  no  longer  of  service, 
and  the  commander-in-chief  resolved  to  abandon  it  before  it  was  too  late. 
The  removal  of  the  stores  was  at  once  begun,  but  before  it  could  be  com- 
pleted Lord  Cornwallis,  with  a  force  of  six  thousand  men,  crossed  the 
Hudson  below  Dobb's  ferry,  and  by  a  rapid  march  across  the  country 
endeavored  to  confine  the  Americans  to  the  strip  of  land  between  the 
Hudson  and  the  Hackcnsack.  An  immediate  retreat  from  Fort  Lee 
became  necessary,  in  order  to  secure  the  bridge  over  the  Hackensack. 
All  the  heavy  cannon  at  Fort  Lee,  a  considerable  quantity  of  provisions 
and  military  stores,  and  three  hundred  tents  were  abandoned,  and  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  British.  The  passage  of  the  Hackensack  was 
secured,  and  the  army 
began  its  memorable 
retreat  across.  New  Jer- 
sey, closely  followed 
by  the  enemy,  under 
Cornwallis. 

From  the  Hacken- 
sack Washington  fell 
back  behind  the  Pas- 
saic,  at  Newark.  As 
his  rear-guard  passed 
out  of  the  town  the 
advance  of  Cornwallis 
entered  Newark.  Ine  RETREAT  OF  WASHINGTON  ACROSS  NEW  JERSEY. 
Raritan  was  crossed  at 

New  Brunswick,  and  Washington  left  a  force  of  twelve  hundred  men  at 
Princeton,  under  Lord  Stirling,  and  pushed  on  to  Trenton  to  secure  the 
passage  of  the  Delaware.  The  British  hung  closely  upon  him  during  the 
whole  retreat,  the  opposing  forces  being  often  within  cannon-shot  of  each 
other.  On  the  8th  of  December,  with  scarcely  three  thousand  men, 
Washington  crossed  the  De' iware  at  Trenton,  and  went  into  cp.mp  in 
Pennsylvania.  The  enemy  reached  the  river  soon  after,  but,  as,  all  the 
boats  had  been  secured  by  the  Americans,  were  unable  to  cross  o-ver. 
Lord  Cornwallis  was  very  anxious  to  procure  boats,  cross  the  river,  and 
push  on  to  Philadelphia,  but  Howe  decided  to  wait  until  the  river  should 
be  frozen,  and  to  pass  it  on  the  ice.  In  the  meantime,  the  Hessians  were 
stationed  in  Trenton,  and  guarded  the  river  for  some  distance  above  and 
below  the  town. 


476 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


The  American  war  had  now  entered  its  darkest  period  for  the  Ameri- 
cans. New  York  was  lost  to  them,  they  had  been  driven  from  New 
Jersey,  and  their  army  seemed  melting  away.  During  the  painful  retreat 
across  New  Jersey,  Washington  had  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  call 
in  the  other  detachments  of  his  army.  General  Schtiyler  was  directed  to 
send  him  the  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  troops  in  his  command;  but 
the  enlistments  of  these  troops  were  rapidly  expiring,  and  they  could 
not  be  induced  to  renew  them.  General  Charles  Lee  was  ordered  to  cross 
the  Hudson  and  join  the  commander-in-chief  with  all  speed,  but  he 

moved  with  a 
slowness  and  care- 
lessness that  were 
criminal.  Pic  re- 
mained about  a 
fortnight  on  the 
east  side  of  the 
Hudson,  and  then 
began  his  march 
with  such  slow- 
ness that  he  did 
Jppnot  reach  Morris- 
town  until  the  8th 
of  December.  On 
the  13th,  while 
lying  carelessly 
apart  from  his 
troops,  at  a  small 
inn  at  Bask  ing- 
ridge,  he  was  cap- 
tured by  a  troop 
of  British  cavalry. 
The  command 

passed  to  General  Sullivan,  and  in  a  few  days  he  had  united  his  forces 
with  those  of  the  commander-in-chief.  General  Lee  had  an  abiding 
confidence  in  his  own  ability,  and  was  reluctant  to  lose  his  independent 
'command  by  joining  Washington.  His  natural  self-conceit  had  been 
'  greatly  increased  by  his  success  at  the  South,  and  he  was  firmly  convinced 
that  he  alone  was  capable  of  guiding  the  American  cause  through  the 
difficulties  which  encompassed  it.  Influenced  by  this  feeling  he  disre- 
garded the  authority  of  the  commander-in-chief,  and  subjected  him  to 
great  inconvenience.  He  was  not  untrue  to  the  cause  he  had  embraced, 


GENERAL  CHARLES  LEE. 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  477 

but  liis  patriotism  was  of  a  different  type  from  that  which  animated 
Washington. 

The  enlistments  of  a  large  part  of  the  troops  expired  on  the  1st  of 
December,  and  nothing  could  induce  them  to  remain  in  the  army. 
Whole  regiments  abandoned  the  service,  and  the  handful  of  reinforce- 
ments which  was  obtained  from  Philadelphia  fell  far  short  of  supplying 
their  place.  The  people  were  disheartened,  and  it  seemed  that  the  cause 
was  hopeless.  A  force  of  six  thousand  militia  was  raised  in  Massachu- 
setts and  Connecticut,  and  was  on  the  point  of  marching  to  Washington's 
assistance,  when  the  fleet  of  Sir  Peter  Parker  entered  Newport  harbor, 
and  landed  a  force  on  the  island  of  Rhode  Island,  which  took  possession 
of  Newport.  In  view  of  this  invasion  it  was  deemed  best  to  retain  the 
New  England  militia  at  home. 

Washington  was  fully  alive  to  the  danger  which  threatened  the  cause; 
but  he  was  calm  and  cheerful.  During  the  retreat  through  New  Jersey 
he  said  to  Colonel  Reed :  "  Should  we  retreat  to  the  back  parts  of  Penn- 
sylvania, will  the  Pennsylvanians  support  us?"  "If  the  lower  counties 
are  subdued,  and  give  up,"  said  the  colonel,  "the  back  counties  will  do 
the  same."  Washington  passed  his  hand  over  his  throat,  and  said,  with 
a  smile :  "  My  neck  does  not  feel  as  though  it  was  made  for  a  halter. 
We  must  retire  to  Augusta  county,  in  Virginia.  Numbers  will  be 
obliged  to  repair  to  us  for  safety;  and  we  must  try  what  we  can  do  in 
carrying  on  a  predatory  war ;  and  if  overpowered  we  must  cross  the 
Allegheny  mountains." 

At  this  juncture  of  affairs  Lord  and  General  Howe  issued  a  proclama- 
tion, by  virtue  of  their  authority  as  commissioners  appointed  by  the 
crown  for  the  settlement  of  the  war,  in  which  all  persons  in  America  in 
arms  against  his  majesty's  government  were  ordered  to  disperse  and 
return  to  their  homes,  and  all  civil  officers  were  commanded  to  discon- 
tinue their  treasonable  practices,  and  relinquish  their  usurped  authority. 
A  full  and  free  pardon  was  offered  to  every  one  who  would,  within  sixty 
days,  appear  before  certain  designated  officials,  claim  the  pardon  offered, 
and  take  an  oath  pledging  him  to  obey  the  laws,  and  submit  to  the 
authority  of  the  king.  Large  numbers  of  persons,  most  of  whom  were 
possessed  of  property  which  they  desired  to  save,  at  once  came  forward, 
made  their  submission,  and  took  the  required  oath.  Some  of  these  were 
men  who  had  borne  a  prominent  part  in  the  patriot  movement ;  among 
them  were  two  delegates  from  Pennsylvania  to  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  the  president  of  the  New  Jersey  convention,  which  had  ratified  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Withirf  ten  days  after  the  proclamation 
was  issued  between  two  and  three  thousand  persons  submitted,  and  swore 


478  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

allegiance  to  the  king.  In  Philadelphia  great  excitement  prevailed,  and 
General  Putnam,  who  was  in  command  there,  feeling  that  there  was 
danger  that  the  royalists  in  the  city  might  succeed  in  obtaining  control  of 
it,  advised  that,  until  matters  were  placed  on  a  more  certain  footing,  Con- 
gress should  hold  its  sessions  at  some  safer  place.  Accordingly  it 
•adjourned  on  the  12th  of  December  to  meet  in  Baltimore. 

The  only  quarter  in  which  the  Americans  had  been  able  to  oppose  any- 
thing of  a  successful  resistance  to  the  British  was  the  region  of  Lake 
Champlain.  AVe  have  related  the  retreat  of  Sullivan  and  Arnold  from 
Canada,  and  the  appointment  of  Gates  to  the  command  of  their  forces. 
The  army  halted  at  Forts  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point,  which  it 
strengthened,  and  awaited  the  development  of  the  plans  of  Sir  Guy 
Carleton,  the  British  commander  in  Canada. 

That  officer  had  determined  to  secure  the  control  of  Lakes  Champlam 
and  George,  and  then  to  push  on  to  the  Hudson,  open  communication 
with  the  Howes  at  New  York,  and  spend  the  winter  at  Albany.  He 
would  thus  entirely  sever  the  communication  between  New  England  and 
New  York,  and  the  Middle  and  Southern  States.  Sullivan  had  wisely 
destroyed  all  the  boats  on  Lake  Champlain  which  he  did  not  need  for  his 
own  purposes,  and  as  there  was  no  road  along  the  shore  by  which  he 
could  advance,  Carleton  was  obliged  to  construct  a  fleet  before  he  could 
attempt  to  ascend  the  lake.  He  exerted  himself  with  such  energy  that 
in  three  months  he  had  a  fleet  of  five  large  and  twenty  small  vessels,  and 
a  number  of  armed  boats  assembled  at  the  foot  of  the  lake. 

Gates  was  informed  of  Carleton's  design,  and  ordered  Arnold,  who  was 
possessed  of  some  nautical  knowledge,  to  construct  a  flotilla  and  take 
command  of  it  for  the  purpose  of  contesting  Carleton's  effort  to  ascend  the 
lake.  Arnold  set  to  work  with  enthusiasm,  and  soon  had  a  force  of  ves- 
sels afloat  about  half  as  strong  as  that  of  the  enemy.  He  chose  a  favor- 
able position,  and  awaited  Carleton's  approach.  A  sharp  encounter 
occurred  between  the  opposing  forces  early  in  October  near  Valcour 
island,  but  was  indecisive,  and  at  nightfall  Carleton  took  position  to  cut 
oif  Arnold's  retreat.  The  night  was  dark  and  cloudy,  and  taking  advan- 
tage of  it,  Arnold  passed  the  enemy,  and  sailed  for  Crown  Point.  His 
vessels  were  in  bad  condition,  however,  and  two  were  sunk  on  the  voyage. 
Only  six  succeeded  in  coming  within  sight  of  Crown  Point,  near  which 
they  were  overtaken  by  Carleton  on  the  6th  of  October.  Arnold  made 
a  gallant  fight  with  his  remaining  vessels.  One  was  taken  with  her 
crew,  and  Arnold's  flag-ship,  the  "  Congress,"  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  half 
of  her  crew  were  slain.  Resolved  not  to  surrender,  Arnold  ordered  the 
vessels  to  be  run  aground,  and  set  them  on  fire.  He  and  his  men  then 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  479 

waded  ashore,  and  by  a  sharp  fire  from  their  rifles  kept  the  enemy  from 
the  burning  galleys  until  they  were  entirely  consumed.  The  Americans 
then  hastened  to  Crown  Point,  where  they  set  fire  to  the  fort  and  the 
stores,  and  continued  their  retreat  to  Ticonderoga.  Grates  great Iv 
strengthened  the  defences  of  this  post,  and  when  Carleton  arrived  before 
it,  he  found  it  too  strong  to  be  attacked.  He  therefore  abandoned  his 
attempt  to  reach  the  Hudson,  and  returned  to  Canada. 

A  few  weeks  later,  feeling  that  the  lake  country  was  safe  for  the  winter, 
Gates,  in  obedience  to  orders  from  Washington,  sent  him  part  of  his  force, 
and  shortly  afterwards  marched  with  the  remainder  cf  his  troops  to  the 
assistance  of  the  commander-in-chief. 

Including  these  troops,  Washington's  force  now  numbered  about  six 
thousand  men  fit  for  duty.  The  enlistments  of  many  of  them  would  expire 
on  the  last  day  of  December,  and  it  was  of  the  highest  importance  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  to  revive  the  confidence  of  the  country  before  these 
men  should  be  lost  to  the  army.  The  circumstances  in  which  Washington 
was  placed  required  a  blow  to  be  struck  in  some  quarter.  A  victory 
would  be  productive  of  the  most  important  moral  results  ;  a  defeat  could 
do  no  more  than  ruin  the  cause,  and  a  policy  of  inaction  was  sure  to 
accomplish  that. 

An  opportunity  at  once  presented  itself.  The  British  had  ceased  then 
pursuit,  and  though  they  held  New  Jersey  in  strong  force,  had  scattered 
their  detachments  through  the  State.  General  Howe  was  in  New  York, 
and  Lord  Cornwallis  was  at  the  same  place,  and  was  about  to  sail  for 
England.  Both  commanders  believed  the  American  army  to  be  too 
seriously  crippled  to  assume  the  offensive  during  the  winter.  The  Hes- 
sians, who  constituted  the  advance-guard  of  the  royal  forces,  were  sta- 
tioned along  the  Delaware.  Colonel  Donop  had  his  head-quarters  at 
Burlington,  and  Colonel  Rahl  was  at  Trenton  with  a  force  of  fifteen 
hundred  men.  Rahl  was  a  brave  and  competent  officer,  but  he  enter- 
tained such  a  thorough  contempt  for  the  Americans  that  he  neglected  to 
protect  his  position  by  earthworks  or  other  defences.  The  Hessians  kept 
the  country  in  terror;  they  were  inveterate  thieves,  and  plundered  both 
patriot  and  royalist  without  mercy.  They  had  earned  the  deep  and 
abiding  hatred  of  the  American  soldiers  by  bayoneting  the  wounded  in 
the  battles  in  which  they  had  been  engaged. 

Washington  now  determined  to  recross  the  Delaware  and  attack  the  Hes- 
sians at  different  points.  A  force  of  twenty-four  hundred  picked  troops 
under  his  own  command  was  to  cross  the  river  a  few  miles  above  Trenton 
and  attack  the  enemy  at  that  place ;  and  at  the  same  time  another  detachment 
under  Heed  and  Cad'.vallader  were  to  cross  over  from  Bristol  and  drive 


480 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


the  Hessians  under  Colonel  Donop  out  of  Burlington.  These  attacks 
were  to  be  simultaneous,  and  were  ordered  to  be  made  at  five  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  26th  of  December. 

The  division  of  Washington  was  accompanied  by  a  train  of  twenty- 
four  field-pieces  under  Colonel  Knox.  The  river  was  high  and  full  of 
floating  ice,  and  the  weather  was  cold  and  stormy.  A  detachment  of 
boats  had  been  collected  for  the  service,  and  was  manned  by  Colonel 
Glover's  regiment  of  Marblehead  fishermen,  who  had  ferried  the  army 
over  the  East  river  in  the  retreat  from  Long  island.  The  march  was 
begun  just  after  dark  on  Christmas  night,  and  Washington  hoped  to 
reach  the  New  Jersey  shore  by  midnight ;  but  the  passage  of  the  river 


was  difficult  and  tedious  by  reason  of  the  floating  ice  and  the  high  wind 
which  repeatedly  swept  the  boats  out  of  their  course ;  and  it  was  four 
o'clock  before  the  artillery  was  landed.  The  march  was  at  once  re- 
sumed. Washington,  with  the  main  body,  moved  by  a  wide  circuit  to 
gain  the  north  of  the  town,  while  a  detachment  under  Sullivan  was 
ordered  to  advance  by  the  river  road  and  attack  the  enemy  from  the  wrest 
and  south  sides. 

A  blinding  storm  of  hail  and  snow  delayed  the  advance  of  the  troops, 
but  also  concealed  their  movements  from  the  enemy ;  and  it  was  eight 
o'clock  before  Trenton  was  reached.  The  attack  was  at  once  begun,  and 
Was  pressed  with  vigor.  The  Hessians  were  completely  taken  by  sur- 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


481 


prise;  they  flew  to  arms  promptly,  but  by  this  time  the  Americans  had 
gained  the  main  street,  and  were  sweeping  it  with  a  battery  of  six  pieces. 
Colonel  Rahl  was  mortally  wounded  while  leading  his  grenadiers  to  the 
charge,  and  his  men,  seized  with  a  panic,  endeavored  to  retreat.  Finding 
that  they  were  surrounded,  about  one  thousand  of  them  threw  down 
their  arms  and  surrendered.  The  remainder  succeeded  in  escaping  and 
joining  Colonel  Donop  at  Burlington. 

The  Americans  lost  two  men  killed,  and  two  were  frozen  to  death  on 
the  march.  Several  were  wounded.  They  took  one  thousand  prisoners 
•with  their  arms.  Thirty-two  of  the  captives  were  officers. 

Washington  now  learned  that  the  ice  was  so  thick  in  front  of  Bristol 
that  Reed  and  Cadwallader  had  not  been  able  to  get  their  cannon  over 
the  river,  and  had  not  attacked  the  enemy  at  Burlington.  He  therefore 
deemed  it  best  to  withdraw  into  Pennsylvania,  as  Donop's  force  was  still 
intact  at  Burlington, 
and 'the  encrny  had 
another  column  at 
Princeton,  a  few 
miles  distant.  On 
the  evening  of  the 
26th  he  returned  to 
his  camp  beyond  the 
Delaware.  The  next 
day  he  learned  from 
Reed  and  Cad '.valla- 
der,  who  had  crossed 
the  Delaware  on  the  27th,  that  Donop  had  called  in  all  his  detachments 
along  the  river,  and  had  retreated  in  haste  to  New  Brunswick  and 
Princeton.* 

The  news  of  the  victory  at  Trenton  was  received  with  delight  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  and  men  began  to  take  hope.  Several  regiments, 
•whose  terms  of  enlistment  expired  on  the  last  day  of  December,  were  in- 
duced to  remain  six  weeks  longer.  Washington  resolved  to  make  an 
effort  to  recover  New  Jersey,  and  men  of  influence  were  sent  to  rouse  the 
militia  of  that  State  to  take  up  arms  for  the  defence  of  their  homes. 
Altogether  matters  assumed  a  more  promising  aspect  than  they  had  worn 
at  any  period  of  the  war.  On  the  30th  of  December  Washington  re- 
crossed  the  Delaware  and  took  position  at  Trenton. 

About  the  same  time  Congress  bestowed  upon  Washington  the  highest 
proof  of  their  confidence  in  his  wisdom  and  integrity  that  a  free  people 
can  ever  confer  upon  a  leader.     On  the  27th  of  December  Congress  con- 
Si 


BATTLE  OF  TRENTON. 


482  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ferred  upon  General  Washington,  by  a  formal  resolution,  unlimited  mili- 
tary power  for  six  months.  The  committee,  in  their  letter  informing  him 
of  this  act,  wrote :  "  Happy  is  it  for  this  country  that  the  general  of  their 
forces  can  safely  be  intrusted  with  the  most  unlimited  power,  and  neither 
personal  security,  liberty,  nor  property  be  in  the  least  endangered  there- 
oy."  The  confidence  of  the  country  was  not  misplaced.  Never  was 
dictatorial  po-^er  used  more  wisely  or  unselfishly,  and  never  did  its 
exercise  produce  more  beneficial  results. 

It  was  rf solved  by  Congress  to  secure  assistance  from  abroad,  and  on 
the  30th  of  December  Benjamin  Franklin,  Silas  Deane,  and  Arthur  Lee — 
the  last  of  -vhom  was  appointed  in  place  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  could  not 
go— were  «^nt  as  commissioners  to  France  to  secure  the  assistance  of  the 
government  of  that  country.  France  was  not  yet  prepared  to  go  to  war 
with  England,  and  the  commissioners  could  do  no  more  than  secure  aid 
in  moo^y,  which  was  expended  in  the  purchase  of  supplies  and  military 
stores,  «vhich  were  shipped  to  the  United  States.  It  was  arranged  that 
this  n>oney  should  be  repaid  by  Congress  in  the  produce  of  the  country, 
especially  in  tobacco,  which  was  to  be  shipped  to  France  through  a  mer- 
caul,  le  house.  The  assistance  thus  obtained  was  of  the  greatest  service  to 
*•<*  Americans. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

THE  YEAR   1777. 

flowe  attempts  to  Crash  Washington — Battle  of  Princeton — The  British  Confined  to  tne 
Seaboard — Recovery  of  New  Teraey — The  American  Army  in  Winter  Quarters  at 
Morristown — Effects  of  the  American  Successes — Difficulty  of  Procuring  Troops — 
Washington  Refuses  to  Exchange  Prisoners — His  Course  Approved  by  Congress — 
Measures  of  Congress — Naval  Affairs — Tryon  Burns  Danbury— Gallantry  of  Arnold — 
Troubles  in  the  Northern  Department — Congress  Adopts  a  National  Flag — "  The  Stars 
and  Stripes" — Course  of  France  towards  the  United  States — France  decides  to  Assist  the 
Americans — Lafayette — His  arrival  in  America — Capture  of  the  British  General 
Prescott — Howe  threatens  Philadelphia — Washington  moves  Southward — Battle  of  the 
Brandywine — Washington  Retreats  to  the  Schuylkill — Wayne's  Defeat  at  Paoli — Phila- 
delphia Evacuated  by  the  Americans — It  is  Occupied  by  the  British — Battle  of  German- 
town — The  British  Attack  the  Forts  on  the  Delaware — They  are  Abandoned  by  the 
Americans — Burgoyne's  Army  in  Canada — Advance  of  Burgoyne  into  New  York — 
Investment  of  Ticonderoga — It  is  Abandoned  by  the  Americans — The  Retreat  to 
Fort  Edward — Burgoyne  reaches  the  Hudson — Murder  of  Miss  McCrea — Siege  of  Fort 
Schuyler — Battle  of  Bennington — Critical  Situation  of  Burgoyne — Gates  in  Command 
of  the  American  Army — Battles  of  Behmus'  Heights  and  Stillwater — Surrender  of 
Burgoyne's  Army — Clinton  in  the  Highlands. 


was  the  astonishment  of  General  Howe  when  he  learned  of 
the  battle  at  Trenton.     He  could  scarcely  believe  that  a  handful 
of  militia  had  captured  a  strong  force  of  veteran  troops  led  by 
such  a  commander  as  Colonel  Rahl.     He  at  once  took  prompt 
measures  to  repair  the  disaster.     Lord  Cornwallis,  who  was  on 
the  eve  of  sailing  for  England,  was  ordered  to  resume  his  command  in 
New  Jersey,  and  a  force  of  seven  thousand  men  was  rapidly  collected  and 
placed  under  his  orders.     These  troops  rendezvoused  at  Princeton. 

Washington  was  informed  of  these  movements,  and  ordered  Generals 
Mifflin  and  Cadwallader  to  join  him  without  delay.  They  reached  Tren- 
ton the  1st  of  January,  with  thirty-five  hundred  men.  This  increased 
the  American  force  to  about  five  thousand  men  fit  for  duty.  Upon  the 
approach  of  Cornwallis'  army,  Washington  took  position  behind  the 
Assunpink,  and  prepared  to  dispute  the  passage  of  that  stream.  The 
fords  and  bridge  over  the  creek  were  carefully  guarded,  and  were  swept 
by  the  fire  of  the  artillery  placed  to  command  them.  A  force  under 
General  Greene  and  Colonel  Hand  was  thrown  -forward  to  hold  the  enemy 

483 


4S4 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


in  check,  am!  so  retarded  their  movements  that  the  British  army  did  not 
arrive  before  Trenton  until  four  o'clock  in 'the  afternoon  of  January  2d, 
1777.  Cornwallis  made  several  determined  efforts  to  force  a  passage  of 
the  creek,  but  was  each  time  driven  back  by  the  well-directed  fire  of  the 
provincials.  Thinking  that  he  could  accomplish  more  the  next  day,  the 
British  commander  drew  off  his  men,  resolving  to  renew  the  attack  in 
the  morning,  when,  he  boasted,  he  would  "  bag  the  fox."  Both  armies 
encamped  for  the  night  in  sight  of  each  other,  reddening  the  sky  with  the 
glow  of  their  camp-fires. 

The  situation  of  the  American  army  was  now  critical  in  the  extreme. 
A  retreat  into  Pennsylvania  was  impossible,  as  the  Delaware  was  full  of 


COLLEGE  OF  JTEW  JERSEY,   AT  PRINCETON. 

floating  ice,  and  could  not  be  passed  in  the  face  of  such  an  army  as  that 
of  Cornwallis.  The  issue  of  the  next  day's  conflict  was,  to  say  the  least, 
doubtful,  for  the  army  of  Cornwallis  was  composed  mainly  of  veteran 
troops,  and  he  was  himself  a  leader  of  genuine  ability.  In  this  emergency 
Washington  determined  upon  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  well-conceived 
operations  of  the  war.  It  was  known  to  him  that  the  British  had  their 
main  depot  of  supplies  at  New  Brunswick,  and  he  supposed  from  the 
presence  of  so  many  troops  with  Cornwallis  that  this  depot  had  been  left 
unguarded.  He  therefore  resolved  to  break  up  his  camp,  and  march  by 
an  unfrequented  road  around  the  left  flank  of  the  enemy  to  Princeton, 


THE  YEAR  1777. 


485 


capture  the  force  stationed  there,  and  then  hasten  to  New  Brunswick  and 
secure  the  stores  at  that  place.  Sending  his  heavy  baggage  and  stores 
down  the  river  to  Burlington,  Washington  silently  withdrew  his  army 
from  its  position  at  midnight,  leaving  the  camp-fires  burning  to  deceive 
the  enemy,  and  a  small  force  to  watch  the  British  and  destroy  the  bridges 
after  the  army  had  passed  on. 

A  forced  march  brought  the  Americans  within  three  miles  of  Princeton 
by  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  January.  The  army  was 
divided  into  two  divisions,  one  under  Washington,  and  the  other  under 
General  Mercer,  which  approached  the  town  by  different  routes.  Three 
British  regiments  on  their  way  to  Trenton,  had  passed  the  previous  night 


BATTLE  OF  PRINCETON. 

at  Princeton,  and  had  resumed  their  march  at  dawn.  The  first  of  these, 
under  Colonel  Mawhood,  was  encountered  by  the  division  of  General 
Mercer,  about  two  miles  from  Princeton.  As  Mawhood  supposed  Mercer's 
force  to  be  a  party  retreating  from  Trenton,  he  at  once  resolved  to  attack 
it.  His  attack  was  successful.  The  Americans  were  driven  back,  and 
General  Mercer  was  wounded,  bayoneted,  and  left  on  the  field  appar- 
ently dead.  Mercer's  troops  fell  back  in  confusion,  and  a  body  of  Pennsyl- 
vania militia,  which  had  been  sent  by  Washington  to  their  assistance,  was 
held  in  check  by  the  fire  of  the  British  artillery. 

At  this  moment,  Washington,  who  had  been  rendered  anxious  by  tho 


486  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

obstinate  and  continued  firing,  arrived  on  the  field.  A  glance  showed 
hitn.  the  broken  and  shattered  regiments  of  Mercer  falling  back  in  confu- 
sion, and  the  Pennsylvania  militia  wavering  under  the  heavy  cannonade 
directed  against  them.  Not  a  moment  was  to  be  lost,  and  putting  spurs 
to  his  horse,  he  dashed  forward  in  the  face  of  the  fire  of  Mawhood's 
artillery,  and  waving  his  hat,  called  upon  the  troops  to  rally  and  follow 
him.  The  effect  was  electrical ;  the  fugitives  rallied  with  a  loud  cheer 
and  reformed  their  line,  and  at  the  same  moment  a  Virginia  regiment, 
which  had  just  arrived,,  dashed  out  of  a  neighboring  wood  and  opened 
a  heavy  fire  upon  the  enemy.  A  little  later  the  American  artillery  came 
up,  and  opened  a  shower  of  grape  upon  the  British..  Mawhood  was  driven 
back,  and  with  great  difficulty  succeeded  in  regaining  the  main  road, 
along  which  he  retreated  with  all  speed  to  Trenton. 

The  second  British  regiment,  advancing  from  Princeton  to  Mawhood's 
assistance,  was  attacked  by  St.  Glair's  brigade,  and  was  speedily  driven 
across  the  country  towards  New  Brunswick.  The  third  regiment,  seeing 
the  fate  of  their  comrades,  became  panic-stricken.  A  portion  fled 
towards  New  Brunswick,  and  the  remainder  took  refuge  in  the -college 
building  at  Princeton.  They  surrendered  after  a  few  shots  from  the 
American  artillery. 

The  Americans  lost  but  a  few  men  in  this  battle ;  but  General  Mercer, 
a  brave  and  efficient  commander,  was  mortally  wounded,  and  died  a  few 
days  after  the  engagement.  The  British  lost  about  one  hundred  killed 
and  three  hundred  prisoners. 

Eager  to  secure  the  stores  at  New  Brunswick,  Washington  pushed  on 
with  speed  in  that  direction,  but  after  passing  a  few  miles  beyond  Prince- 
ton decided  to  abandon  the  attempt.  He  was  sure  that  Cornwallis  would 
pursue  him  as  soon  as  his  retreat  from  Trenton  was  discovered,  and  his 
men  were  too  much  exhausted  to  reach  New  Brunswick  before  the  arrival 
of  the  enemy.  They  had  been  without  rest  for  a  night  and  a  day,  and 
some  of  them  were  barefooted.  His  generals  sustained  him  in  the 
opinion  that  it  was  injudicious  to  continue  the  movement  against  New 
Brunswick,  and  he  reluctantly  abandoned  it,  and  withdrew  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Morristown. 

When  Cornwallis  discovered  the  withdrawal  of  the  Americans  on  tho 
morning  of  the  3d  of  January,  he  was  greatly  perplexed  to  know  in 
what  direction  they  had  gone.  In  a  little  while  the  sound  of  the  can- 
nonade at  Princeton  revealed  to  him  the  route  taken  by  them,  and  he  at 
once  understood  the  design  of  Washington.  He  must  save  his  stores  at 
any  risk,  and  he  broke  up  his  camp  and  set  out  for  Princeton  and  New 
Brunswick.  The  Americans  had  obstructed  the  Princeton  road,  and  had 


THE   YEAR  1777.  487 

!>roken  down  the  bridge  over  Stony  creek,  a  few  miles  from  the  town. 
Without  waiting  to  rebuild  the  bridge,  the  British  commander  forced  his 
men  through  the  icy  waters,  which  were  breast  high,  and  hastened  through 
Princeton  with  all  speed.  Believing  that  Washington  had  hurried  on  to 
New  Brunswick,  Cornwallis  marched  direct  to  that  place,  and  did  not 
notice  the  deflection  of  the  American  army  from  the  main  route.  Reach- 
ing New  Brunswick,  he  made  arrangements  to  defend  the  town,  which  he 
supposed  would  be  attacked. 

In  the  meantime  the  American  army  retreated  to  a  strong  position  at 
Morristown,  where  the  troops  erected  huts  in  which  to  pass  the  winter. 
Finding  that  the  enemy  did  not  attack  him,  Washington  ventured  to 
extend  his  line.  His  right  was  at  Princeton,  under  General  Putnam, 
and  his  left,  under  General  Heath,  was  in  the  Highlands.  His  own 
head-quarters  were  at  Morristown.  For  six  months  neither  party 
attempted  any  movement  of  importance.  Washington  was  not  idle, 
however.  Though  he  had  but  the  skeleton  of  an  army  at  Morristown, 
he  displayed  such  activity  in  cutting  off  the  foraging  parties  of  the 
British  that  they  were  unable  to  draw  any  supplies  from  the  country 
beyond  their  lines,  and  rarely  ventured  without  their  camps.  By  the 
beginning  of  spring  Cornwallis  had  abandoned  every  post  in  New  Jersey 
save  New  Brunswick  and  Perth  Amboy.  From  these  points  he  could 
communicate  with  and  draw  his  supplies  from  New  York  by  water. 
Thus  was  New  Jersey  almost  entirely  redeemed  from  the  enemy.  The 
militia  of  the  State  recovered  from  their  former  despondency,  and  warmly 
seconded  the  efforts  of  Washington  against  the  British. 

Confidence  was  returning  to  the  country ;  and  though  men  felt  that  the 
struggle  might  yet  be  long  and  arduous,  it  was  not  as  hopeless  as  they 
had  feared. 

Washington  passed  the  winter  in  endeavoring  to  reorganize  the  army, 
and  fit  it  for 'the  work  required  of  it  in  the  spring.  The  policy  of  short 
enlistments  adopted  by  Congress  was  the  source  of  very  great  trouble, 
and  the  expiration  of  the  enlistments  of  a  large  part  of  the  army  during 
this  winter  caused  the  commander-in-chief  the  greatest  anxiety.  He 
repeatedly  condemned  this  policy,  and  endeavored  to  procure  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  longer  term.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  procure  recruits, 
but  they  came  in  very  slowly.  In  order  to  check  the  ravages  of  the. 
small-pox  in  the  camp,  the  recruits  were  inoculated  immediately  upon 
their  arrival. 

Efforts  were  now  made  to  bring  about  an  exchange  of  prisoners.  The 
British  objected  to  an  exchange  of  man  for  man,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Americans  were  rebels,  and  such  an  exchange  would  be  an  acknowledg- 


488 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


raent  of  their  belligerent  rights.  Somewhat  later  General  Howe,  who 
had  about  five  thousand  prisoners  in  New  York,  renewed  the  negotiation. 
The  British  had  treated  the  captured  Americans  with  great  severity,  and 
had  confined  them  in  warehouses  in  New  York,  and  in  foul  hulks 
anchored  in  the  bay.  They  were  improperly  fed,  and  were  allowed  to 
remain  almost  naked.  Their  sufferings  were  fearful,  and  they  were 
reduced  and  emaciated  in  strength  and  body,  until  they  were  truly  said 
to  resemble  "  walking  corpses."  British  cruelty  never  exhibited  itself  in 
a  more  inhuman  form  than  in  the  treatment  of  these  unfortunate  captives 


UNITED  STATES  NAVY   YARD,   BROOKLYN. 


by  the  royal  officials.  More  than  ten  thousand  of  them  died  in  New 
York,  during  the  war,  from  the  effects  of  this  treatment.  When  Gen- 
eral Howe's  proposal  to  exchange  these  men  for  the  Hessians  taken  by 
the  Americans  was  received,  it  was  declined  by  Washington.  The  Hes- 
sians had  been  well  fed  and  well  treated  by  the  Americans,  and  were  hale 
and  hearty,  and  Washington  was  unwilling  to  liberate  them  for  service 
in  the  British  army,  and  to  receive  in  exchange  for  them  half-starved 
men,  who  were  so  weak  that  they  could  scarcely  reach  their  homes.  It 


THE   YEAR  1777.  489 

was  a  stern  necessity,  but  it  was  reco  nized  by  Congress,  and  Washing- 
ton's view  of  the  matter  was  sustained. 

During  the  winter  five  more  major-generals  were  commissioned  by 
Congress.  They  were  Stirling,  St.  Clair,  Mifflin,  Stephen,  and  Lincoln. 
Arnold,  who  was  the  senior  brigadier  in  the  service,  justly  conceived  that 
his  rank  and  services  in  battle  entitled  him  to  promotion,  and  was  indig- 
nant at  having  been  passed  over  in  the  new  appointments,  and  complained 
bitterly  of  the  injustice  done  him.  Eighteen  brigadier-generals  were  also 
appointed.  Among  them  were  Geo'rge  Clinton,  of  New  York ;  Glover, 
the  commander  of  the  Marblehead  regiment ;  Woodford  and  Muhlen- 
berg,  of  Virginia;  and  Hand  and  Anthony  Wayne,  of  Pennsylvania. 

Congress  gave  great  attention  to  the  reorganization  of  the  army  during 
this  session.  A  quartermaster's  department  was  organized,  with  General 
Mifflin  at  its  head.  Four  regiments  of  cavalry  were  ordered  to  be 
enlisted.  The  hospital  service  was  reorganized,  and  placed  under  the 
•jontrol  of  Dr.  Shippen,  of  Philadelphia ;  and  Dr.  Rush,  of  Philadel- 
phia, one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was 
appointed  surgeon-general  of  the  army. 

Efforts  were  also  made  to  place  the  navy  upon  a  better  footing. 
Several  of  the  frigates  ordered  by  Congress  to  be  built  had  been  com- 
pleted and  equipped ;  but  the  work  on  the  rest  was  delayed  by  the  wan* 
of  funds.  Efforts  were  made  to  complete  them,  as  they  were  greatly 
needed ;  all  the  vessels  constituting  the  American  fleet  being  at  this  time 
blockaded  in  the  harbor  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  by  the  enemy. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  struggle  a  destructive  warfare  had  been 
carried  on  by  the  privateers  of  New  England  against  the  commerce  of 
Great  Britain,  especially  against  the  vessels  of  that  country  trading  to 
the  West  Indies.  During  the  first  years  of  the  war  nearly  three  hundred 
of  these  were  captured  by  the  privateers.  The  cargoes  of  the  captured 
vessels  were  valued  at  the  immense  sum  of  five  millions  of  dollars.  The 
American  merchantmen  also  maintained  a  regular  communication  with 
France,  Spain,  and  Holland,  ,and  a  profitable  trade  was  carried  on 
between  the  United  States  and  those  countries.  It  was  attended  with 
^reat  risk,  however,  and  many  of  the  American  vessels  were  captured  by 
the  British  men-of-war. 

Washington  remained  at  Morristown  some  time  after  the  spring 
opened,  and  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  take  the  field  as  soon  as  the 
enemy  should  develop  their  plans.  The  first  months  of  the  season  were 
employed  by  the  British  Commander  in  a  series  of  plundering  expedi- 
tions. One  of  these  was  directed  against  Peekskill,  where  the  Americans 
had  collected  a  large  quantity  of  stores.  General  McDougall,  command- 


490  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

ing  the  American  force  at  that  point,  found  it  impossible  to  defend  the 
stores,  and  set  fire  to  them  and  retreated  to  the  heights  overlooking  the 
town.  The  enemy  made  no  attempt  to  follow  him,  and  returutd  down 
the  river.  General  Heath  had  been  transferred  to  the  command  of  the 
forces  in  Massachusetts,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  comniaud  of  the 
Highlands  by  General  Putnam. 

In  the  latter  part  of  April  General  Tryon,  the  last  roydLst  governor 
of  New  York,  was  sent  by  General  Howe,  with  a  force  of  two  thousand 
men,  to  destroy  a  large  quantity  of  stores  collected  by  t!i«  Americans  at 
Danbury,  in  the  western  part  of  Connecticut,  about  tweaty-three  miles 
from  the  sound.  On  the  26th  of  April,  Tryon  land^t'  near  Norwalk, 
and  marched  to  Danbury,  where  he  burned  the  stores  and  set  fire  to  the 
town.  Thus  far  he  had  met  with  no  opposition ;  b'lt  the  alarm  had 
spread  immediately  after  his  landing,  and  the  Connecncut  militia,  to  the 
number  of  six  hundred  men,  assembled  under  Generals  Sillimau  and 
Wooster.  Arnold  chanced  to  be  at  New  Haven,  and  collecting  a  small 
force  of  volunteers,  hurried  to  join  Silliman  and  Wooster,  and  the  whole 
command  hastened  after  the  marauders. 

Tryon  began  his  retreat  from  Danbury  before  daylight  on  the  morning 
of  the  27th,  and  was  soon  after  attacked  by  the  militia.  During  the 
27th  and  28th,  the  British  were  harassed  at  every  step  by  the  little  band 
of  Americans,  who,  though  too  weak  to  defeat  them  in  any  single  encounter, 
hung  upon  their  march  and  inflicted  upon  them  a  loss  of  nearly  three  hun- 
dred men.  The  enemy  at  last  came  under  the  protection  of  the  guns  of 
their  ships,  and  the  Americans  were  forced  to  withdraw.  Tryon  then 
re-embarked  his  exhausted  troops  and  returned  to  New  York.  The 
American  loss  was  slight.  The  brave  old  General  Wooster,  a  veteran 
of  sixty-eight  years,  was  mortally  wounded  at  the  head  of  his  men,  and 
died  a  few  days  later.  Arnold  behaved  with  such  distinguished  gallantry 
in  this  affair  that  Congress  rewarded  him  with  the  rank  of  major-gen- 
eral, and  presented  him  with  a  horse  handsomely  equipped.  Even  this 
acknowledgment  of  his  merit  was  mingled  with  injustice,  for  the  date  of 
his  commission  still  left  him  below  the  rank  he  was  entitled  to ;  and  he 
felt  the  second  slight  as  another  undeserved  injury. 

The  Connecticut  militia  were  very  indignant  at  the  burning  of  Dan- 
bury,  and  resolved  to  avenge  it.  In  the  latter  part  of  May,  a  party  of  . 
one  hundred  and  seventy  men,  under  Colonel  Meigs,  crossed  the  sound 
in  whale-boats  to  the  east  end  of  Long  island.  They  carried  their  boats 
during  the  night  fifteen  miles  across  the  neck,  and  launching  them  again, 
proceeded  to  Sag  Harbor,  where  they  destroyed  twelve  vessels  and  a  large 
quantity  of  stores  collected  there  by  the  British,  and  made  ninety  pris- 
oners. They  then  returned  to  Connecticut  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 


THE   YEAR   1777. 


491 


Recruits  came  in  to  the  American  camp  very  slowly,  and  various  ex- 
pedients were  adopted  by  Washington  to  hasten  the  enlistments.  At  his 
instance,  Congress  declared  that  all  indented  servants  who  enlisted  in  the 
army  should  receive  their  freedom  at  once.  Bounties  in  land  were  offered 
to  such  Hessians  as  should  desert  the  British  service.  This  last  measu:  j 
did  not  accomplish  much  towards  crippling  the  enemy. 

In  the  northern  department,  Schuyler  was  left  with  a  mere  skeleton 
of  an  army.  He  had  but  seven  hundred  men,  at  the  most,  at  Ticou- 
dero<ra,  and  he  was  fearful  that 

O     * 

Carlcton  would  learn  his  weak- 
ness, pass  Lake  Charnplain  on 
the  ice,  capture  Ticonderoga, 
and  push  on  to  Albany.  He 
repeatedly  urged  the  Command- 
er-in-chief to  send  him  re- 
inforcements and  supplies,  but 
his  request  could  not  be  granted, 
as  there  were  none  to  be  spared 
from  Washington's  army.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  a  persistent  eifort 
was  made  to  drive  Schuyler 
from  his  command,  in  order 
that  Gates  might  succeed  to  it. 
Charges  were  brought  against 
him  with  such  recklessness  that 
he  offered  his  resignation  to 
Congress.  That  body  refused 
to  accept  it ;  but  as  the  efforts 
of  his  enemies  were  not  discon- 

continued,  Schuyler  went  to  Philadelphia,  in  April,  1777,  and  demanded 
an  investigation  into  his  conduct.  Gates  succeeded  him  in  his  command. 
Schuyler  was  fully  vindicated  by  the  report  of  the  investigating  com- 
mittee of  Congress,  and  was  ordered  to  resume  his  command.  Gates  was 
greatly  surprised  by  the  result,  and  reluctantly  relinquished  the  command 
of  the  northern  department  to  his  rival,  and  repaired  to  Philadelphia 
to  seek  redress  at  the  hands  of  Congress  for  what  he  termed  his  wrongs. 

Until  now  the  Americans  had  been  without  a  national  flag.  Congress, 
in  June,  1777,  remedied  this  very  serious  want  by  adopting  the  old 
"  Union  Flag,"  with  its  thirteen  stripes;  but  substituted,  in  place  of  St. 
George's  Cross,  a  group  of  thirteen  stars,  one  for  each  State.  Thus  the 
"  Stars  and  Stripes  "  became  the  national  ensign  of  the  republic — a  star 


GENERAL  PHILIP  SCHUYLER. 


492  HISTORY  OF  THE   TOUTED  STATES. 

having  been  added  for  each  additional  State  that  has  since  joined  the 
original  thirteen. 

The  war  in  America  had  been  watched  with  the  deepest  interest  in 
Europe,  and  especially  by  France.  The  French  government  had  been 
convinced  long  before  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution  that  the  treatment 
'.vhich  the  colonies  were  receiving  from  Great  Britain  would  ultimately 
cause  their  separation  from  her ;  and  ten  years  before  the  war  began,  the 
Duke  de  Choiseul,  the  prime  minister  of  Louis  XV.,  had  sent  Baron 
De  Kalb  to  examine  and  report  the  state  of  the  feelings  of  the  colonists 
towards  Great  Britain.  De  Kalb  was  a  shrewd  observer,  and  furnished 
his  government  with  ample  proofs  that  England  was  alienating  the 
Americans  by  her  treatment  of  them.  Choiseul  conceived  the  hope  that, 
by  offering  the  Americans  free  trade  with  France,  they  would  be  made 
to  resent  the  course  of  England  even  more  decidedly.  When  the  revo- 
lution began,  the  French  government  was  fully  prepared  for  it,  and  was 
ready  to  avenge  the  loss  of  Canada  by  aiding  the  new  republic  in  its 
efforts  to  throw  off  the  authority  of  Great  Britain.  It  was  merely  wait- 
ing to  see  whether  the  Americans  were  able  to  maintain  the  stand  they 
had  taken.  The  news  of  the  defeat  on  Long  island,  the  loss  of  New 
York,  and  the  retreat  through  New  Jersey,  filled  the  friends  of  America 
with  serious  alarm,  and  it  was  generally  believed  in  Europe  that  the 
Americans  would  not  be  able  to  withstand  the  superior  force  of  the 
mother  country. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1777  it  was  known  in  Europe  that  the  American 
army,  which  it  was  supposed  had  been  driven  in  hopeless  disorder  over 
the  Delaware  without  the  means  of  continuing  the  war,  had  suddenly 
rallied  and  beaten  a  force  of  veteran  troops  at  Trenton,  and  again  at 
Princeton,  and  had  recovered  New  Jersey  from  the  enemy.  This  intelli- 
gence produced  the  most  profound  astonishment  in  Europe,  and  was 
received  in  France  with  genuine  satisfaction.  The  Americans  were 
extolled  as  a  race  of  heroes,  and  the  prudence  and  good  generalship  of 
Washington  were  spoken  of  with  the  highest  praise. 

The  French  government  now  felt  justified  in  aiding  the  patriots ;  but 
it  proceeded  with  caution.  American  privateers  were  secretly  fitted  out, 
with  the  connivance  of  the  government,  and  were  permitted  to  sell  their 
prizes  in  French  ports,  and  the  protests  of  the  British  ambassador  against 
such  acts  were  unheeded.  The  government  made  secret  grants  of  arms 
and  military  stores  to  the  Americans,  and  three  ship-loads  were  sent  out 
in  the  spring  of  1777.  Two  of  these  vessels  were  captured  by  the  Eng- 
lish, but  the  third  reached  America  in  safety,  and  its  cargo  went  to  supply 
the  deficiencies  of  the  army  at  Morristown. 


THE    YEAR    1777. 


493 


In  the  spring  of  this  year  the  commissioners  sent  to  France  by  Con- 
gress reached  that  country.  They  had  full  powers  to  enter  into  an 
alliance  with  the  French  king.  They  were  granted  several  private 
interviews  by  the  Count  de  Vergennes,  the  French  prime  minister, 
and  were  secretly  encouraged  to  hope  for  the  success  of  their  mission, 
As  yet,  however,  France  was  not  prepared  to  declare  war  against 
Great  Britain. 

Though  the  government  delayed  its  action,  there  were  generous  hearts 
in  France  who  were  determined  to  give  all  the  aid  and  comfort  in  their 
power  to  the  struggling  patriots.  One  of  these  was  the  youthful  Marquii? 
de  Lafayette,  the  heir  of  a  noble  name,  the  possessor  of  wealth  and  a 
high  social  position,  and  the  husband  of  a  beautiful  and  accomplished 
wife.  He  had  heard  at  a  dinner 
party  given  by  the  French  offi- 
cials at  Maycnce  to  the  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  a  brother  of  the  king 
of  England,  the  story  of  the  war 
then  going  on  in  America,  and 
its  causes,  related  by  the  lips  of 
the  royal  guest.  His  generous 
heart  at  once  went  out  in  sym- 
pathy to  the  patriots,  and  he 
resolved  to  leave  his  family  and 
all  his  advantages  at  home,  and 
go  to  the  aid  of  the  Americans. 
He  revealed  his  intention  to  the 
Count  de  Broglie,  a  Marshal  of 
France,  who  regarded  his  enter- 
prise as  Quixotic,  and  refused  to 
aid  him.  Finding  him  deter- 
mined, the  count  introduced  his  young  friend  to  the  Baron  de  Kalb,  an 
officer  of  experience  and  merit,  who  had  visited  America  as  Choiscur's 
agent  in  the  last  reign.  De  Kalb  introduced  Lafayette  to  Silas  Deane, 
then  the  only  American  commissioner  in  France.  The  news  of  the  loss 
of  New  York  and  of  New  Jersey  arrived  about  this  time,  but  did  not 
lessen  the  ardor  of  Lafayette;  and  though  the  newly-arrived  commis- 
sioners, Franklin  and  Lee,  candidly  told  him  that  they  could  not  en- 
courage him  to  hope  for  a  successful  issue  of  their  cause,  he  avowed  his 
determination  to  proceed.  He  purchased  a  veasel,  which  was  loaded 
with  arms  and  supplies  by  the  commissioners.  The  French  govern- 
ment attempted  to  prevent  him  from  sailing,  but  ke  succeeded  in  getting 


LAFAYETTE. 


494 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


off,  accompanied  by  De  Kalb  and  several  others.  He  reached  Phila- 
delphia, offered  his  services  to  Congress  without  pay,  and  was  com- 
missioned a  major-general  in  the  American  army,  though  not  yet 
twenty  years  old. 

Lafayette  was  not  the  only  foreigner  whose  services  were  accepted  by 
Congress.  De  Kalb ;  Count  Pulaski  and  Thaddeus  Kosciusko,  natives 
of  Poland ;  and  Con  way,  an  Irishman  who  had  seen  thirty  years'  service 
in  the  French  army,  and  who,  in  an  evil  hour  for  this  country,  came  to 
America ;  and,  later  still,  Baron  Steuben,  one  of  Frederick  the  Great's 
Veterans,  and  who  did  good  service  to  the  cause  by  introducing  into  the 
American  ranks  the  drill  and  discipline  of  the  Prussian  army,  were  com- 
missioned and  assigned  to  duty  by  Congress. 

About  the  middle  of  May,  Washington  broke  up  his  camp  at  Morris- 
town,  and  occupied  the  heights  of  Middlebrook  in  order  to  watch  the 
British  to  better  advantage.  Howe  made  repeated  efforts  to  draw  him 
from  this  strong  position  into  the  open  field,  where  the  superior 

discipline  of  the  royal 
troops  would  give  him 
an  advantage,  but 
Washington  out- 
generalled  him  com- 
pletely, and  Howe 
finding  it  impossible 
to  bring  on  an  engage- 
ment, withdrew  his 
army  to  Staten  island. 
While  these  move- 
ments were  in  progress,  the  British  sustained  a  serious  loss  in  the 
capture  of  General  Prescott,  one  of  their  principal  officers,  who  had 
earned  the  dislike  of  the  Americans  by  his  arbitrary  and  contemptu- 
ous treatment  of  them.  He  was  commanding  the  British  forces  at 
Newport,  and  had  his  head-quarters  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 
On  a  dark  night  in  July,  a  company  of  picked  men,  under  Colonel 
Barton,  crossed  Narragansett  bay  in  whale  boats,  and  passing  silently 
through  the  British  fleet,  landed  near  Prescott's  quarters.  The  sen- 
flncl  at  the  door  was  secured,  and  the  astounded  general  was  roused 
from  his  bed,  and  hurried  away  without  being  allowed  time  to  dress. 
He  was  conveyed  within  the  American  lines,  and  was  afterwards  ex- 
changed for  General  Charles  Lee. 

Washington  now  learned  of  the  invasion  of  New  York  by  the  army 
of  General  Burgoyne,  to  which  we  shall  refer  further  on.  It  was  evident 


LAFAYETTE  OFFERING  HI3  SERVICES  TO  DR.  FRANKLIN. 


THE  YF.AR  I'll.  495 

that  Burgoyne  was  trying  to  reach  the  Hudson.  Washington's  spies  in 
New  York  informed  him  that  Howe  was  preparing  to  send  off  the  larger 
part  of  his  force  by  water,  and  the  commander-iu-chief  was  perplexed 
to  know  whether  Howe  intended  ascending  the  Hudson  to  cooperate  with 
Burgoyne,  or  to  transport  his  army  to  Philadelphia  by  water.  Towards 
the  last  of  July  Howe  sailed  with  his  fleet  from  New  York,  anjl  stood 
out  to  sea.  Ten  days  later  his  ships  were  reported  off  the  mouth  of  the 
Delaware.  Washington  now  felt  confident  that  his  design  was  to  attack 
Philadelphia,  and  crossed  the  Delaware  with  his  army,  and  marched  to 
Germantown  to  await  the  development  of  the  enemy's  plans.  About  the 
same  time  the  British  fleet  stood  out  to  sea  again.  Its  destination  was 


SCENE  OX  THE  WISSAHICKOX. 


uncertain,  and  Washington  held  his  army  in  readiness  to  march  at  a 
minute's  notice  to  the  threatened  point. 

While  awaiting  the  movements  of  Sir  William  Howe,  Washington 
visited  Philadelphia,  where  Arnold  was  in  command  and  was  engaged 
in  fortifying  the  city,  to  consult  with  Congress,  and  push  forward  the 
measures  for  the  defence  of  the  place.  While  there  he  met  the  newly- 
arrived  Lafayette.  Washington  was  an  acute  judge  of  men,  and  at  hw 
first  interview  with  Lafayette  was  deeply  impressed  with  the  noble  and 
earnest  character  of  the  young  soldier,  and  conceived  for  him  a  warm 
regard  which  ended  only  with  his  life. 

In  the  midst  of  the  uncertainty  attending  Howe's  movements,  Wash- 
ington received  urgent  appeals  from  Schuyler  for  assistance.  He  sent 
him  two  brigades  from  the  Highlands,  and  ordered  Colonel  Morgan  to 


496 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


join  him  with  his  riflemen,  who  were  regarded  as  more  than  a  match  for 
ihe  Indians  of  Burgoyne's  army.  Arnold  was  also  sent  to  assume  com- 
mand of  a  division  in  the  northern  army,  as  he  was  familiar  with  the 
country.  Putnam  was  ordered  to  prevent  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  who  had 
been  left  at  New  York,  from  ascending  the  Hudson  and  forming  a  junc- 
tion with  Burgoyue;  and  General  Lincoln,  commanding  the  militia  oi 
Massachusetts,  was  directed  to  march  with  a  portion  of  his  force  to 
Schuyler's  assistance. 

As  nothing  had  been  heard  of  the  British  fleet,  Washington  was  about 
to  move  from  Germantown  into  New  Jersey  once  more,  when  news  was 
received  that  the  enemy  had  ascended  the  Chesapeake  to  its  head,  ar.d 
had  landed  their  forces  at  Elkton,  in  Maryland,  about  sixty  miles  fron? 
Philadelphia.  The  Delaware  had  been  obstructed  and  fortified  a  short  dis- 
tance below  Philadelphia,  and  Howe  had  ascended  the  Chesapeake  in  order 
to  -secure  an  undis- 
puted landing.  He 
intended  to  march 
his  army  across  the 
country  towards 
Philadelphia,  whilf 
the  fleet  should  re- 
turn to  the  Dela. 
ware,  and  aid  the 
army  in  reducing 

BATTLE  OF  THE  BRANDYWINE.  ^IlC     »ortS     On    thai 

river.     He    had 

eighteen  thousand  men  with  him,  and  effected  his  landing  at  Elkton, 
without  opposition,  on  the  25th  of  August,  and  at  once  began  his  advance 
towards  Philadelphia. 

Washington  had  but  eleven  thousand  effective  men  with  him,  and  was 
in  no  way  prepared  to  undertake  a  campaign  in  the  open  country. 
Nevertheless,  he  advanced  at  once  to  dispute  the  progress  of  the  enemy, 
and  by  forced  marches  succeeded  in  reaching  the  vicinity  of  Wilmington 
before  the  arrival  of  the  British.  Upon  examining  the  country  he  de- 
cided to  contest  the  passage  of  the  Brandywine  creek,  and  stationed  his 
army  along  its  left  bank.  The  British  were  advancing  by  the  main 
road  to  Philadelphia,  which  crossed  the  Brandywine  at  Chadd's  ford, 
and  as  Washington  supposed  their  main  effort  would  be  made  at  this 
point,  he  stationed  the  greater  part  of  his  army  to  cover  it.  On  the  llth 
of  September  the  British  army  reached  the  creek.  Howe  ordered  Gen- 
eral Knyphauseu  to  make  a  feint  at  Chadd's  ford,  as  if  he  were  about  to 


THE  YEAR  1777. 


force  a  passage,  while  he  sent  Cornwallis  with  a  strong  column  to  pass 
the  creek  higher  up  and  turn  the  American  right  flank.  This  plan  was 
successfully  carried  out.  Washington  was  deceived  by  the  officer  sent  to 
ascertain  if  the  enemy  were  threatening  his  right,  and  was  left  in  ignor- 
,ance  of  Cornwallis'  movement  until  it  was  too  late  to  prevent  it.  Being 
outflanked,  the  American  army  was  compelled  to  fall  back,  with  a  loss 
of  twelve  hundred  men.  The  troops  did  not  know  they  had  suifered  a 
reverse,  but  supposing  they  had  merely  experienced  a  check  were  in  high 
spirits.  Lafayette  was  wounded  in  this  battle ;  and  Pulaski  so  greatly 
distinguished  himself  that  he  was  subsequently  rewarded  by  Congress 
with  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  and  the  command  of  the  cavalry. 


THE  SCHUYLKILL,   AT  PHILADELPHIA. 

Sir  William  Howe  did  not  push  his  advantage,  but  remained  for  two 
days  near  the  battle-field.  Washington,  in  the  meantime,  retreated  to 
Chester,  and  then  to  the  Schuylkill,  which  he  crossed  on  the  12th  of 
September,  and  proceeded  to  Germantown,  where  the  army  went  into 
camp.  The  men  were  in  excellent  spirits,  and  a  day  or  two  later  Wash- 
ington recrossed  the  river,  and  moved  towards  the  enemy,  whom  he 
encountered  about  twenty-five  miles  from  Philadelphia,  on  the  16th.  A 
violent  rain-storm  prevented  the  two  armies  from  engaging,  and  injured 
the  arms  and  ammunition  of  the  men  so  much  that  Washington  deemed 
it  best  to  withdraw  to  Pott's  Grove,  on  the  Schuylkill,  about  thirty  milea 
32 


498  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

from  Philadelphia.  At  the  same  time  he  detached  General  Wayne,  with 
a  force  of  fifteen  hundred  men,  to  gain  the  enemy's  rear  and  cut  off  their 
wagon  train.  A  Tory  carried  information  of  this  movement  to  the  British 
commander,  and  Wayne  was  himself  surprised  at  Paoli  tavern,  on  the 
20th, of  September,  and  defeated  with  a  loss  of  three  hundred  men. 

It  being  impossible  to  save  the  city  of  Philadelphia  from  capture  the 
military  stores  were  removed,  and  a  contribution  was  levied  upon  the 
people  to  supply  the  army  with  clothing,  shoes,  and  other  necessaries 
during  the  winter.  Congress  in  view  of  the  great  danger  which  threat- 
ened the  country  conferred  dictatorial  powers  upon  Washington  for  sixty 
days,  and  then  extended  this  time  to  a  period  of  four  months.  Congress 
then  adjourned  to  meet  at  Lancaster,  from  which,  a  few  days  later,  it 
transferred  its  sessions  to  York  beyond  the  Susquehanna. 

Howe  crossed  the  Schuylkill  by  a  night  march,  and  on  the  26th  of 
September  entered  Philadelphia.  The  bulk  of  his  army  was  stationed  at 
Germantown,  and  a  small  detachment  was  left  to  hold  the  city. 

The  Americans,  though  they  had  lost  Philadelphia,  still  held  the  forts 
on  the  Delaware,  a  short  distance  below  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill. 
The  work  on  the  Pennsylvania  side  was  called  Fort  Mifflin,  and  was  built 
on  a  low  mud  island.  Immediately  opposite,  at  Red  Bank,  on  the  New 
Jersey  shore,  was  Fort  Mercer.  Both  works  were  armed  with  heavy 
guns,  and  commanded  the  river  perfectly.  The  channel  was  obstructed 
with  heavy  logs  fastened  together  and  sunk  in  the  stream  so  securely  as 
to  render  their  removal  difficult.  Above  these  obstructions  were  several 
floating  batteries. 

After  landing  the  British  army  .at  Elkton,  Lord  Howe  carried  his  fleet 
down  the  Chesapeake,  and  entering  the  Delaware  took  position  below  the 
forts  to  await  the  cooperation  of  the  army  in  the  attack  upon  them. 

Washington  having  learned  that  Howe  had  withdrawn  a  part  of  his 
force  from  Germantown  to  aid  in  the  operations  against  the  fort,  resolved 
to  surprise  the  remainder.  A  night  march  of  fourteen  miles  brought  the 
American  army  to  Germantown  at  sunrise  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of 
October.  A  heavy  fog  hung  over  the  country  and  prevented  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  from  seeing  either  the  position  of  the  enemy  or  that  of 
his  own  troops.  The  British  were  taken  by  surprise,  and  were  driven  in 
disorder.  The  victory  seemed  within  the  grasp  of  Washington,  when  the 
Americans  abandoned  the  pursuit  to  attack  a  stone  house  in  which  a  few 
of  the  enemy  had  taken  refuge.  While  thus  engaged  they  were  seized 
with  an  unaccountable  panic,  which  threw  them  into  confusion.  The 
British  rallied,  and  assailing  the  Americans  in  their  turn,  drove  them 
from  the  field  .with  a  loss  of  one  thousand  men.  Washington  was  greatly 


THE  YEAR  1777. 

mortified  by  this  failure.  Rewrote  to  Congress:  "Every  account  con- 
firms the  opinion  I  at  first  entertained,  that  our  troops  retreated  at  the 
instant  when  victory  was  declaring  herself  in  our  favor." 

Howe  now  drew  in  his  army  nearer  to  Philadelphia,  and  prepared  for 
an  immediate  attack  on  the  forts  on  the  Delaware.  These  held  that  river 
BO  securely  that  the  British  fleet  was  not  able  to  bring  supplies  up  to  the 
city.  The  provisions  of  the  army  were  nearly  exhausted,  and  if  the  forts 
could  not  be  reduced  it  would  be  necessary  to  evacuate  Philadelphia  in 
order  to  obtain  food.  On  the  22d  of  October,  Count  Donop  was  sent 
with  a  force  of  twelve  hundred  picked  Hessians  to  storm  Fort  Mercer,  at 
Red  Bank,  while  the  fleet  reduced  Fort  Mifflin.  Donop's  attack  waa 


THE   BATTLE   OF   GEBMANTOWN — CHEW'S   HOUSE. 

repulsed  with  a  loss  of  four  hundred  men,  the  Hessian  commander  him- 
self being  among  the  slain.  In  the  attack  on  Fort  Mifflin  the  British 
lost  two  ships,  and  the  remainder  were  more  or  less  injured  by  the  fire 
of  the  American  guns. 

Shortly  after  this  repulse,  the  British  erected  batteries  on  a  small  island 
in  the  Delaware,  which  commanded  Fort  Mifflin,  and  on  the  10th  of. 
November  opened  a  heavy  bombardment  of  the  fort  from  these  works 
and  from  their  fleet.  The  bombardment  was  continued  until  the  night 
of  the  15th.  The  works  being  nearly  destroyed,  Fort  Mifflin  was  aban- 
doned on  the  night  of  the  16th,  and  on  the  18th  the  garrison  was 
withdrawn  from  the  fort  at  Red  Bank.  The  British  now  removed  the 
obstructions  from  the  river,  and  their  fleet  ascended  to  Philadelphia. 


600 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


General  Howe  constructed  a  strongly  fortified  line  from  the  Schuylkill  tc 
the  Delaware,  above  Philadelphia,  and  went  into  winter  quarters  with 
his  army  behind  these  defences. 

The  season  being  too  late  for  active  operations,  Washington  Avithdrew 
his  army  to  Valley  Forge  on  the  Schuylkill,  about  twenty  miles  from 
Philadelphia,  and  went  into  winter  quarters.  From  this  position  he 
could  protect  Congress,  which  was  sitting  at  York,  and  insure  the  safety 
of  his  principal  depot  of  supplies  at  Reading. 

In  the  northern  department  the  year  had  been  marked  by  the  most 
important  events.  Sir  Guy  Carleton  was  succeeded  in  the  command  of 
the  British  forces  in  Canada  by  General  Burgoyne,  an  officer  of  ability  and 


ATTACK   ON   KED   BASK. 


integrity.  He  was  strongly  reinforced,  and  soon  had  under  his  command 
a  finely  equipped  army  of  ten  thousand  men.  About  eight  thousand  of 
these  were  British  and  Hessian  regulars,  the  remainder  Canadians  and 
Indians.  The  army  was  plentifully  supplied  with  artillery  of  the  most 
improved  pattern,  which  was  under  the  immediate  command  of  General 
Philips,  a  veteran  who  had  served  with  great  distinction  in  the  seven 
years  war.  The  second  in  command  of  the  army  was  General  Frazer,  an 
"officer  of  acknowledged  skill,  who  was  greatly  beloved  by  the  troops. 
Baron  Reidesel,  the  commander  of  the  Hessians,  was  also  an  old  soldier. 
Altogether,  the  force  under  Burgoyne  was  the  most  splendid  body  of 
troops  Great  Britain  had  yet  assembled  in  America.  With  this  army 
Burgoyne  was  to  advance  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  to  the  Hudson, 
while  a  detachment  under  General  St.  Leger  was  to  move  eastward  by 


THE  YEAR  1777. 


501 


way  of  Oswego  and  descend  the  Mohawk  to  the  Hudson.  Having 
secured  the  Hudson,  Burgoyne  was  to  open  communication  with  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  in  New  York,  capture  the  forts  in  the  Highlands,  and  so 
cut  off  New  England  from  the  Middle  and  Southern  States. 

To  oppose  his  advance  General  Schuyler  had  a  weak  army  between 
Albany  and  Lake  Champlain.  General  St.  Clair  with  a  detachment  of 
three  thousand  men  held  Ticonderoga,  and  though  he  seriously  feared  that 
his  force  was  too  weak  to  offer  much  resistance,  trusted  to  the  natural 
strength  of  his  position,  and  hoped  to  be  able  to  hold  Ticonderoga  until 
aid  could  reach  him. 


ALBANY,   NEW   YORK,   IN    1875. 

On  the  2d  of  July  Burgoyne's  army  appeared  before  Ticonderoga,  and 
invested  that  post.  Opposite  Fort  Ticonderoga,  on  the  right  hand  side 
of  the  outlet  of  Lake  George,  is  a  lofty  hill  known  as  Mount  Defiance. 
The  Americans  had  neglected  to  fortify  this  hill,  thinking  it  inaccessible 
to  artillery.  General  Philips  was  of  a  different  opinion,  and  in  three 
days  of  hard  labor  succeeded  in  dragging  his  guns  to  the  summit  of 
Mount  Defiance,  from  which  they  commanded  the  forts  on  both  sides  of 
the  lake.  St.  Clair  now  saw  that  the  forts  were  untenable,  and  that  hs 
must  evacuate  them  at  once  in  order  to  save  his  army.  Sending  his  bag- 
gage and  stores  in  boats  up  the  lake  to  Skenesborough,  now  Whitehall, 


502  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

he  evacuated  Fort  Ticonderoga  and  crossed  over  to  Fort  Independence, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  lake.  His  withdrawal  was  discovered  before 
it  was  completed,  and  the  British  at  once  followed  in  pursuit.  Burgoyne 
ordered  General  Frazer  to  follow  St.  Glair's  command,  while  he  himself 
passed  up  the  lake  and  destroyed  the  stores  at  Skenesborough.  Upon 
his  approach,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  7th,  the  American  force  at  Skenes- 
borough set  fire  to  the  stores,  and  retreated  rapidly  to  Fort  Anne,  which 
was  reached  the  next  morning.  The  British  appeared  before  this  fort  the 
same  day,  but  were  held  in  check,  and  that  night  the  Americans  set  fire 
to  Fort  Anne  and  retreated  to  Fort  Edward,  sixteen  miles  farther. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  7th,  General  Frazer  came  up  with  St.  Clair's 
rear  guard  at  Hubbardton,  and  defeated  it  with  severe  loss.  St.  Clair 
continued  his  retreat  through  the  woods,  and  a  week  later  reached  Fort 
Edward  with  his  exhausted  troops. 

General  Schuyler  had  advanced  to  Fort  Edward  with  a  force  of  five 
thousand  men,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  militia ;  many  were  without  arms, 
and  there  was  a  woful  scarcity  of  ammunition  and  provisions  in  his  camp. 
Schuyler  was  joined  here  by  the  remnant  of  St.  Clair's  command,  and  as 
Burgoyne  had  halted  for  a  few  days  at  the  head  of  Lake  Champlain, 
which  was  twenty-four  miles  distant  from  Fort  Edward,  Schuyler  set  his 
men  to  work  to  obstruct  the  road  between  those  two  points  by  felling 
trees  across  it  and  destroying  bridges.  So  thoroughly  was  this  work  done 
that  Burgoyne's  army  consumed  a  fortnight  in  its  advance  from  Skenes- 
borough to  the  Hudson.  It  reached  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  Edward 
on  the  29th  of  July.  Schuyler  at  once  abandoned  the  fort,  and  fell  back 
to  Saratoga,  from  which  he  moved  to  Stillwater,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Mohawk. 

The  loss  of  Ticonderoga  and  the  northern  forts  was  regarded  by  Con- 
gress as  an  evidence  of  the  incapacity  of  Schuyler  and  his  subordinates, 
and  so  little  allowance  was  made  for  the  serious  disadvantages  under 
which  those  officers  labored,  that  Congress  ordered  all  the  northern 
generals  to  be  recalled  and  their  conduct  investigated.  It  was  not  until 
Washington  called  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  fact  that  a  compliance 
with  this  order  would  leave  the  northern  army*  without  officers,  that  that 
body  consented  to  suspend  its  unwise  decree.  The  prejudice  against 
Schuyler,  though  unjust,  was  deep,  and  his  removal  from  his  command 
was  resolved  upon.  Washington  declined  to  deprive  him  of  his  com- 
mand, as  his  confidence  in  Schuyler  was  unshaken,  and  Congress  took  the 
matter  in  its  own  hands.  "  The  eastern  influence  prevailed,"  says  Irving, 
"  and  Gates  received  the  appointment  so  long  the  object  of  his  aspirations, 
if  not  intrigues." 


THE  YEAR  1777. 


503 


Upon  reaching  Fort  Edward,  Burgoyne,  confident  that  the  game  was 
in  his  own  hands,  issued  a  proclamation  calling  upon  the  people  tb  send 
representatives  to  a  convention  to  meet  at  Castleton  to  provide  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  royal  authority.  This  was  met  by  a  proclamation 
from  Schuyler,  who  declared  that  he  would  punish  as  traitors  all  who 
should  comply  with  Burgoyne's  call,  or  in  any  way  give  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  enemy.  There  was  not  much  need  for  this  threat,  for  the  militia 
of  the  northern  district  were  rapidly  rallying  to  Schuyler's  aid ;  the  people 
of  the  whole  region  were  profoundly  excited,  and  they  were  determined 
that  the  British  army  should  never  leave  their  country. 

Much  of  this  feeling  was  caused  by  the  outrages  of  the  Indians  in 
Burgoyne's  army,  who  prowled  about  the  country,  murdering  and  plun- 
dering the  people  who  were  exposed  to  their  fury.  One  of  their  crimes 
roused  the  whole  northern  region  to  action.  A  beautiful  young  girl, 
Jenny  McCrea  by 
name,  was  visiting  a 
friend  near  Fort  Ed- 
ward. She  was  be- 
trothed to  a  young 
Tory  who  had  fled  to 
Canada  some  time 
since,  and  was  now 
serving  as  a  lieuten- 
ant in  Burgoyne's 
army.  When  her 
friends  removed 

from  Fort  Edward  to  Albany,  to  avoid  the  danger  which  threat- 
ened them,  she  lingered  behind  in  spite  of  their  invitation  to  ac- 
company them,  hoping  to  meet  her  lover  upon  the  advance  of  Burgoyne's 
forces.  The  house  in  which  she  was  staying  was  attacked  by  a  party  of 
Indians,  and  she  was  taken  prisoner.  Anxious  for  her  safety  she  prom- 
ised her  captors  a  liberal  reward  if  they  would  conduct  her  to  her  lover 
in  the  British  camp.  On  the  way  they  quarrelled  over  the  promised  re- 
ward, and  in  their  rage  murdered  the  poor  girl  and  earried  her  scalp  into 
the  British  camp.  Burgoyne  was  horror-struck  at  the  atrocious  deed, 
and  promptly  disavowed  it ;  but  the  news  of  the  murder  roused  a  stern 
desire  for  vengeance  throughout  the  northern  department.  The  terrible 
scenes  of  the  old  French  war  were  not  forgotten,  and  the  people  were 
fearful  they  would  now  be  revived  under  British  influence  unless  Bur- 
goyne's army  were  destroyed.  Thousands  flocked  to  the  American  camp, 
with  such  arms  as  they  could  procure,  eager  to  crush  the  enemy. 


SIEGE  OP  FORT  SCHUYLER. 


504 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


In  the  meantime  St.  Lcger  had  moved  from  Oswego  into  the  valley  of 
the  Mohawk,  and  had  laid  siege  to  Fort  Schuyler  or  Stanwix,  on  the  site 
oi  the  present  city  of  Rome.  The  fort  was  commanded  by  Colonel  Gan- 
sevoort.  The  siege  was  begun  on  the  3d  of  August,  and  a  few  days  later 
news  was  received  by  the  little  garrison  that  General  Herkimer  with 
eight  hundred  militia  was  advancing  to  their  assistance.  On  the  6th  of 
August  Herkimer  reached  a  place  called  Oriskany,  where,  owing  to  the 
impatience  of  his  men,  he  fell  into  an  ambush  of  Tories  and  Indians. 
The  fight  which  ensued  was  one  of  the  most  desperate  of  the  war ;  quarter 


BTTRGOYNE'S  ENCAMPMENT  ON  THE  HUDSON. 

was  neither  asked  nor  given  by  either  party.  Herkimer  was  mortally 
wounded,  but  continued  to  cheer  on  his  men,  until  a  successful  sally  from 
the  fort  compelled  St.  Leger  to  recall  the  force  engaged  with  Herkimer 
to  defend  his  own  camp.  The  American  militia  then  retreated,  carrying 
with  them  their  commander,  who  died  a  few  days  later.  Fort  Schuyler 
was  left  in  a  critical  condition,  and  Arnold  was  sent  at  his  own  request  to 
its  relief.  He  caused  the  strength  of  his  force  to  be  greatly  exaggerated, 
and  spread  a  report  that  Burgoyne  had  been  defeated.  The  Indians  de- 
serted St.  JLeger  rapidly  upon  hearing  these  reports,  and  that  commandei 


THE   YEAR  1777. 


505 


hastily  abandoned  his  camp,  and  retreated  into  Canada  with  the  remainder 
of  his  force. 

Burgoyne  had  now  reached  the  Hudson,  and  had  full  command  of  Lakes 
George  and  Champlain ;  but  the  people  of  the  country  were  hostile  to 
him,  and  he  found  it  hard  to  procure  either  cattle  or  horses.  Though  his 
camp  on  the  Hudson  was  but  eighteen  miles  from  Lake  George,  this  lack 
of  animals  made  it  almost  impossible  to  transport  his  supplies  across 
the  intervening  coun- 
try, and  his  army 
was  beginning  to  run 
short  of  provisions. 

To  obtain  horses 
and  provisions,  Bur- 
goyne, early  in  Au- 
gust, sent  a  force  of 
five  hundred  Ger- 
mans and  a  detach- 
ment of  Indians  and 
Tories,  under  Lieu- 


tenant-Colonel 
Baum,  to  seize  the 
stores  collected  by 
the  Americans  at 
Bennington,  V  e  r  - 
mont,  and  to  collect 
such  horses  and  cattle 
as  they  could  on  the 
march.  He  was  told 
that  the  people  of 
the  neighborhood 
were  largely  devoted 
to  the  king,  and  that 
the  stores  were  un- 
guarded. 

The  news  of  the  approach  of  this  force  spread  rapidly  through  tn« 
country,  and  the  Groen  Mountain  Boys,  as  the  Vermont  militia  were 
termed,  flew  to  arms.  Colonel  Stark,  who  had  retired  from  the  Conti- 
.nental  army  on  account  of  having  been  neglected  in  the  recent  promo- 
tions, was  in  the  neighborhood,  and  was  offered  the  command  of  the 
gathering  forces.  He  accepted  it  promptly,  and  issued  a  warning  to  the 
people  along  the  route  of  the  British  to  drive  off  their  horses  and  cattle, 


GENERAL  JOHN  STARK. 


506 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


und  to  conceal  their  grain  and  wagons  to  prevent  their  capture  by  the 
enemv.  A  messenger  was  sent  with  all  speed  to  Manchester  to  Colonel 
Seth  Warner,  urging  him  to  march  at  once  with  his  regiment  to  Ben- 
\iington,  where  he  was  needed. 

Baum  had  advanced  to  within  six  miles  of  Bennington  when  he  heard 
of  the  approach  of  the  militia  under  Stark.  He  halted,  intrenched  his 
position,  and  sent  to  Burgoyne  fcvc  reinforcements.  Colonel  Breyman 


^^HpS 

BATTLE  OF  BENNINGTON. 


with  five  hundred  Hessians  and  two  pieces  of  artillery  was  despatched  to 
his  assistance. 

Stark  was  prevented  from  making  an  immediate  attack  upom  Baum  by 
a  furious  rain-storm,  which  also  delayed  the  march  of  Breyman  and 
Warner.  During  the  night  of  the  15th  of  August,  Stark  was  joined  by 
the  militia  from  Berkshire,  Massachusetts.  They  were  anxious  to  engage 
the  enemy  at  once,  and  were  impatient  at  the  delay  caused  by  the  storm. 
One  of  their  number,  Parson  Allen,  approached  Stark.  "  General,"  said 
he,  "  the  people  of  Berkshire  have  often  been  called  out  to  no  purpose ; 
if  you  don't  give  them  a  chance  to  fight  now,  they  will  never  turn  out 


THE  YEAR  1777.  507 

again."  Stark  remarked  his  earnestness,  and  said  with  a  smile,  "  You 
would  not  turn  out  now,  while  it  is  dark  and  raining,  would  you?" 
"  Xot  just  now,"  answered  the  parson.  "  Well,"  said  Stark, "  if  the  Lord 
should  once  more  give  us  sunshine,  and  I  don't  give  you  fighting  enough, 
I'll  never  ask  you  to  turn  out  again." 

The  morning  of  the  16th  came  bright  and  clear,  and  Stark  at  once  began 
his  advance  upon  the  enemy.  Arriving  in  sight  of  the  British  works,  he 
pointed  them  out  to  his  men.  "There  are  the  red  coats !  We  must  beat 
them  to-day,  or  Molly  Stark  sleeps  a  widow  to-night."  A  spirited  attack 
was  made  upon  the  British  lines,  both  in  front  and  in  the  rear,  and  after 
1  wo  hours'  hard  fighting  they  were  carried  by  storm.  Baum  fell  mortally 
wounded,  and  his  men  laid  down  their  arms.  The  Indians  and  Tories 
had  escaped  to  the  'woods  at  the  opening  of  the  battle. 

The  fighting  had  scarcely  ended  when  the  force  under  Colonel  Breyman 
appeared,  and  at  once  engaged  the  Americans.  At  the  same  moment 
Warner's  regiment,  which  had  pushed  forward  all  night  in  the  rain, 
reached  the  field.  The  battle  was  continued  until  nightfall,  when  Brey- 
man abandoned  his  artillery  and  made  a  hurried  retreat  to  Burgoyne's 
camp  on  the  Hudson.  The  Americans  had  fourteen  killed  and  forty 
wounded.  They  took  six  hundred  prisoners,  one  thousand  stand  of  arms, 
and  four  pieces  of  cannon. 

Burgoyne  now  found  himself  in  a  most  critical  condition.  He  had 
reached  the  Hudson,  but  his  troops  were  short  of  provisions ;  his  efforts 
against  Fort  Schuyler  and  Bennington  had  failed,  and  his  force  was  being 
reduced  by  the  desertions  of  the  Indians.  Burgoynej  who  was  a  man  of 
humanity  and  true  soldierly  spirit,  had  no  sympathy  with  the  barbarous 
policy  of  his  government  in  employing  the  savages  against  the  Americans, 
and  had  sternly  cut  short  their  cruelties.  The  Indians  had  taken  offence 
at  his  course,  and  were  leaving  his  army  in  great  numbers.  He  made  no 
effort  to  detain  them,  preferring  to  lose  their  services  rather  than  allow 
them  to  continue  their  atrocities.  On  the  other  hand  the  American  army 
wa.«  daily  growing  stronger.  The  militia  were  flocking  to  it  in  great 
numbers,  and  reinforcements  were  received  from  the  Highlands.  The 
militia  of  Xew  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  were  threatening  Ticonder- 
oga,  the  capture  of  which  post  would  cut  off  his  communications  with 
Canada.  The  contrast  between  the  present  condition  of  the  British  army 
and  that  of  a  few  weeks  before  was  marked  indeed. 

Matters  were  in  this  state  when  General  Gates  arrived,  late  in  August, 
and  assumed  the  command  of  the  army,  which  was  now  six  thousand 
strong,  and  receiving  reinforcements  every  day.  Schuyler,  superior  to 
all  sense  of  personal  wrong,  cheerfully  rendered  him  all  the  assistance  in 


508 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


his  power  in  mastering  the  question  before  him;  but  Gates  repaid  this 
generosity  with  characteristic  jealousy.  He  did  not  even  invite  Schuyler 
to  his  first  council  of  war  held  a  few  days  later.  He  at  once  left  the  posi- 
tion at  the  mouth  of  the  Mohawk,  and  on  the  12th  of  September  advanced 
to  Behmus'  Heights,  a  spur  of  hills  bordering  the  Hudson.  The  army 
now  numbered  nine  thousand  effective  men,  indifferently  armed,  but  re- 
solved to  conquer.  "  Gates  had  no  fitness  for  command,"  says  Bancroft, 
"  and  wanted  personal  courage."  He  intrenched  his  position,  and  for  the 
defence  of  his  right  and  left  flanks  erected  strong  batteries. 

Burgoyne  by  great 
exertions  succeeded 
in  bringing  up  a 
month's  provisions 
from  Lake  George 
for  his  army,  which 
M7as  now  reduced  to 
about  six  thousand 
men.  He  resolved 
to  adhere  to  his  orig- 
inal plan,  and  en- 
deavor to  force  his 
way  to  Albany,  and 
on  the  13th  of  Sep- 
tember crossed  the 
Hudson  at  Schuyler- 
ville,  and  encamped 
on  the  plains  of  Sar- 
atoga, intending  to 
decide  the  campaign, 
by  a  general  engage- 
ment. On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  19th  of 
September  he  ad- 
vanced against  the 

American  position.  Gates  wished  to  await  the  attack  of  the  enemy  in  his  in- 
trenched position,  but  Arnold  urged  him  to  throw  forward  a  force  to  hold 
them  in  check,  and  not  permit  them  to  turn  the  American  left,  as  they 
evidently  intended.  After  considerable  solicitation  he  obtained  the  desired 
permission  from  Gates,  and  moved  forward  to  check  the  advance  of  the 
British.  A  determined  conflict  immediately  ensued  and  continued  until 
nightfall.  It  was  one  of  the  most  stubbornly  contested  engagements  of  the 


GENERAL  HORATIO  GATE3. 


THE   YEAR  1777.  509 

war,  and  its  result  was  mainly  due  to  the  skill  and  courage  of  Arnold,  who 
held  the  enemy  in  check  during  the  day,  and  prevented  the  success  of  their 
plan  for  turning  Gates'  left  flank.  The  British  remained  in  possession 
of  the  field  at  night,  and  the  Americans  rejoined  their  main  body.  The 
latter  regarded  the  battle  as  a  victory,  as  they  had  accomplished  all  they 
had  expected. 

Burgoyne's  difficulties  thickened  rapidly.  On  the  17th  a  detachment 
of  Massachusetts  militia  seized  the  posts  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  George  and 
captured  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  boats  loaded  with  supplies  for  Bur- 
goyne's army,  and  took  three  hundred  prisoners.  This  force  then  united 
with  another  and  laid  siege  to  Ticonderoga.  These  successes  completely 
destroyed  Burgoyne's  communication  with  Canada,  and  with  it  his  means 
of  supplying  his  army.  In  this  emergency  he  was  greatly  encouraged  by 
the  receipt  of  a  letter  from  Sir  Henry  Clinton  at  New  York,  informing 
him  that  he  (Clinton)  would  in  a  few  days  make  an  effort  to  ascend  the 
Hudson  and  open  communication  with  him.  Burgoyne  thereupon  re- 
solved to  endeavor  to  hold  his  position  until  the  arrival  of  Clinton. 
Three  weeks  passed  away  in  inaction,  and  though  skirmishes  between  the 
advanced  parties  were  frequent,  neither  commander  cared  to  attack  the 
other ;  Burgoyne  because  he  was  anxious  to  defer  a  decisive  engagement, 
Gates  because  he  was  scantily  supplied  with  ammunition. 

The  success  of  the  battle  of  Behmus'  Heights  was  generally  attributed 
by  the  troops  to  Arnold,  who  was  very  popular  with  them.  Gates' 
jealousy  was  most  probably  aroused  by  this  belief,  and  he  unceremoni- 
ously deprived  Arnold  of  his  command.  During  this  delay  the  American 
army  was  increased  by  the  arrival  of  the  Massachusetts  militia  and  other 
reinforcements,  to  about  eleven  thousand  men. 

Burgoyne's  situation  was  now  more  critical  than  ever.  His  -best  officers 
•favored  a  retreat  to  Fort  Edward ;  but  the  British  commander  decided 
before  undertaking  that  movement  to  reconnoitre  the  American  position 
in  strong  force.  If  it  was  found  that  it  could  not  be  attacked,  he  was 

O  •  * 

willing  to  retreat  to  Fort  Edward.  A  force  of  fifteen  hundred  picked  men 
and  ten  pieces  of  cannon,  commanded  by  the  most  experienced  officers  in 
the  army,  was  sent  on  the  7th  of  October  to  reconnoitre  the  American 
position.  Gates,  by  the  advice  of  Morgan,  attacked  this  force  on  both 
flanks,  and  sent  Morgan  with  his  riflemen  to  cut  the  enemy  off  from  their 
camp. 

The  sound  of  the  firing  roused  Arnold,  who  was  brooding  over  his 
wrongs.  He  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  at  full  speed  to  the  battle-field 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Gates  to  stop  him.  He  reached  the  scene  of 
action,  and  was  recognized  by  the  troops,  who  received  him  with  cheers. 


520 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Without  orders  or  any  definite  command,  he.  placed  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  troops  and  led  them  against  the  enemy.  The  British,  led  by  Gen- 
eral Frazer,  held  their  ground  manfully,  but  at  length  Frazer  was  mor- 
tally wounded  by  one  of  Morgan's  riflemen,  and  his  line  gave  way, 
Burgoyne  fearlessly  exposed  himself  in  the  effort  to  rally  the  men,  bui 
was  at  length  obliged  to  order  a  retreat  to  the  camp.  This  was  accom« 
plished  with  extreme  difficulty,  and  the  Americans,  following  in  close 
pursuit,  made  a  determined  attack  upon  the  British  intrenchments,  which 
were  stubbornly  defended.  In  this  attack  Arnold  displayed  great  hero- 


BURGOYNE'S  RETREAT. 

ism,  and  was  wounded  within  the  enemy's  works.  Though  they  failed 
to  capture  the  whole  line,  the  Americans  carried  the  camp  of  Colonel 
Breyman's  regiment  of  Hessians,  the  key  to  Burgoyne's  position,  and  took 
a  number  of  prisoners. 

The  Americans  bivouacked  on  the  field,  intending  to  renew  the  battle 
the  next  day,  but  during  the  night  Burgoyne  abandoned  his  sick  and 
wounded,  and  silently  withdrew  from  his  intrenchments.  The  roads 
being  rendered  bad  by  the  rains,  he  halted  and  took  position  about  two 
miles  from  the  town  of  Saratoga.  On  the  night  of  the  9th,  finding  that 


THE  YEAR  1777. 


511 


the  Americans  held  the  Hudson  in  such  heavy  force  as  to  render  its  pas- 
sage impracticable,  he  retreated  to  Saratoga.  He  then  sent  out  a  detach- 
ment to  rebuild  the  bridges  on  the  road  to  Fort  Edward,  but  found  the 
road  in  the  possession  of  the  Americans,  who  also  held  Fort  Edward,  and 
had  captured  all  the  boats  laden  with  provisions  for  his  army.  He  was 
thus  left  with  but  three  days'  rations  for  his  men.  On  the  12th  the 
American  army,  which  had  followed  the  British  closely,  invested  their 
position,  and  opened 
a  heavy  fire  upon 
their  camp.  On  the 
13th  Burgoyne  called 
a  council  of  his  of- 
ficers, and  it  was  re- 
solved to  open  nego- 
tiations with  Gates. 
He  proposed  to  Gates 
to  surrender  his  army 
on  condition  that  they 
should  be  allowed  to 
sail  for  England 
from  the  port  of 
Boston,  first  pledging 
themselves  not  to 
serve  again  in  North 


America  during  the 
war.  Gates  had  heard 
of  the  successes  of 
Clinton  on  the  Hud- 
son, and  was  fearful 
that  he  would  reach 
Albany.  He  there- 
fore weakly  agreed  to 
Burgoyue's  proposal, 
and  consented  that 

the  British  army  should  march  out  of  its  camp  with  the  honors  of  war ;  that 
the  troops  should  be  taken  to  Boston  and  sent  to  England,  and  that  they 
should  pledge  themselves  not  to  serve  again  in  America  during  the  war. 
These  matters  being  arranged  the  British  army  surrendered  on  the  17th  of 
October,  and  was  fed  by  the  Americans,  for  its  provisions  were  exhausted. 
About  six  thousand  prisoners  were  surrendered,  together  with  nearly  five 
thousand  muskets,  forty-two  brass  field-pieces,  and  a  large  quantity  of 


SURRENDER  OF  BURGOYXE. 


512  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

military  stores.  Upon  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne,  the  British  garrison  at 
Ticonderoga  evacuated  that  place,  and  retreated  into  Canada. 

Congress  refused  to  ratify  the  terms  granted  to  Burgoyne  by  Gates.  It 
was  plain  that  if  they  were  sent  to  England  they  could  release  an  equal 
number  of  troops  there,  who  could  be  sent  to  the  aid  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton 
in  New  York.  This  would  deprive  the  United  States  of  one  of  the  most 
important  results  of  the  surrender.  Burgoyne  and  two  attendants  were 
permitted  to  return  to  England,  but  the  captive  troops  were  held  as  pris- 
oners of  war,  and  the  next  year  were  marched  to  Charlottesville,  Virginia, 
and  quartered  in  log  huts,  where  the  greater  part  of  them  remained  until 
near  the  close  of  the  war. 

Some  time  before  Burgoyne's  surrender,  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  having 
received  reinforcements  from  England,  resolved  to  undertake  the  capture 
of  the  forts  in  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson,  the  garrisons  of  which  had 
been  greatly  weakened  by  the  detachments  sent  from  them  to  Washington 
and  Gates.  On  the  6th  of  October  he  attacked  and  captured  Fcrts  Mont- 
gomery and  Clinton.  General  George  Clinton,  who  commanded  at  these 
forts,  finding  he  could  not  hold  them,  sent  to  General  Putnam  for  assist- 
ance, but  his  messenger  deserted  to  the  enemy,  and  the  forts  were  aban- 
doned. General  Tryon  was  sent  to  occupy  Kingston,  which  he  ordered 
to  be  burned.  When  the  enemy  heard  of  Burgoyne's  surrender,  they 
retreated,  setting  fire  to  the  house  of  every  patriot  along  the  river. 
Clinton  then  dismantled  the  captured  forts,  and  returned  to  New  York, 
taking  with  him  all  the  heavy  cannon  and  stores. 

The  capture  of  Burgoyne's  army  was  hailed  with  delight  throughout 
the  country.  It  was  the  most  important  success  of  the  war,  and  put  au 
end  to  the  danger  of  invasion  from  Canada.  Gates  was  greatly  puffed  up 
by  his  triumph,  and  imagined  himself  the  hero  of  the  war.  He  sent  his 
official  report  of  the  surrender  to  Congress  direct,  and  not  through  the 
commander-in-chief,  as  his  duty  required,  thus  offering  a  grave  insult  to 
Washington. 

General  Schuyler  now  demanded  an  investigation  of  his  conduct  pre- 
vious to  his  relinquishrnent  of  his  command  to  Gates.  He  was  thoroughly 
acquitted  of  the  charges  of  mismanagement  brought  against  him  by  his 
enemies,  and  was  strongly  urged  by  Congress  to  remain  in  the  army.  He 
declined  to  do  so,  and  resigned  his  commission  ;  but  was  soon  afterwards 
returned  to  Congress  from  the  State  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

AID    FROM   ABROAD. 

Sufferings  of  the  Army  at  Valley  Forge — Appeals  of  Washington  to  Congress — The  Britirii 
in  Philadelphia — The  Conway  Cabal — Its  Disgraceful  Failure — Efforts  to  Improve  the 
Army — Worthlessness  of  Continental  Bills — General  Lee  Exchanged — Effect  of  Biir- 
goyne's  Surrender  upon  England — The  King  is  Forced  to  Agree  to  Measures  of  Con- 
ciliation— Action  of  France — Louis  XVI.  Recognizes  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States — Alliance  Between  the  United  States  and  France — Failure  of  the  British  Mult- 
ures of  Conciliation — Clinton  Evacuates  Philadelphia — Battle  of  Monmouth — General 
Lee  Dismissed  from  the  Army — Attack  upon  Newport — Its  Failure — Withdrawal  of  the 
French  Fleet  to  the  West  Indies — Outrages  of  the  British  on  Long  Island  Sound — Mas- 
Bacre  of  Wyoming — The  Winter  of  1779-80 — The  Army  in  Winter  Quarters — Robert 
Morris — Condition  of  Congress — Georgia  Subdued  by  the  British — Prevost  Attempts  to 
take  Charleston — Siege  of  Savannah — Its  Failure — Capture  of  Stony  Point — Capture  of 
Paulus  Hook — The  Indians  Punished — Naval  Affairs — Exploits  of  John  Paul  Jones— 
Evacuation  of  Newport — Settlement  of  Kentucky — Conquest  of  the  Illinois  Country  bj 
George  Rogers  Clarke — Settlement  of  Tennessee. 

HE  sufferings  of  the  American  army  during  the  long  winter  at 
Valley  Forge  were  very  great.  Many  were  barefooted,  and  their 
marches  through  the  frost  and  snow  could  be  traced  by  the  blood 
from  their  feet.  They  were  without  clothing,  without  food,  and 
were  utterly  unable  to  keep  the  field.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  suf- 
ferings many  persons  severely  censured  the  commander-in-chief  for  going 
into  winter  quarters  without  attacking  Philadelphia.  In  reply  to  oiie  of 
these  remonstrances  from  the  legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  Washington 
wrote  to  Congress  on  the  23d  of  December,  1777 :  "Men  are  confined  to 
hospitals  or  in  farmers'  houses  for  want  of  sho*es.  We  have  this  day  no. 
less  than  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety-eight  men  in  camp  unfit 
for  duty,  because  they  are  barefoot  and  otherwise  naked.  Our  whole 
strength  in  continental  troops  amounts  to  no  more  than  eight  thousand 
two  hundred  in  camp  fit  for  duty.  Since  the  fourth  instant  our  numbers 
lit  for  duty  from  hardships  and  exposures  have  decreased  nearly  two 
thousand  men.  Numbers  still  are  obliged  to  sit  all  night  by  fires.  Gen- 
tlemen reprobate  the  going  into  winter  quarters  as  much  as  if  they 
thought  the  soldiers  were  made  of  stocks  and  stones.  I  can, assure  those 
gentlemen  that  it  is  a  much  easier  and  less  distressing  thing  to  draw 
remonstrances  in  a  comfortable  room  by  a  good  fireside  than. to  occupy  a. 
3?  513 


314 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


wild,  bleak  hill,  and  sleep  under  frost  and  snow  without  clothes  or 
blankets.  However,  although  they  seem  to  have  little  feeling  for  the 
naked  and  distressed  soldiers,  I  feel  superabundantly  i'or  them,  and  from 
my  soul  I  pity  those  miseries  which  it  is  neither  in  my  power  to  reliev3 
nor  prevent." 

Congress  did  little  or  nothing  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  army.  It 
promised  the  troops  one  month's  extra  pay,  but  made  no  effort  to  provide 
food  or  clothing  for  them.  It  authorized  Washington  to  impress  what- 
ever articles  were  needed,  but  he  remonstrated  against  this  arbitrary  use 
of  power,  as  he  was  convinced  that  it  would  not  supply  the  wants  of  the 
army,  but  would  certainly  anger  the  people  of  the  country.  Congress 
towards  the  close  of  the  winter  manifested  so  much  hostility  to  the  army 

because  of  its  ap- 
peals for  food  and 
clothes,  that 
Washington  earn- 
estly remonstrated 
: gainst  this  feei- 
ng and  reminded 
Jiat  body  that  the 
troops  were  "citi- 
zens, having  all 
the  ties  and  inter- 
ests of  citizens." 
It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  per- 
sonal influence  of 
Washington  went 

further  than  anything  else  in  keeping  the  army  together  during  this  try- 
ing winter.  Under  any  other  commander  the  troops  would  have  dis- 
persed. Encouraged  by  the  calm  and  lofty  patience  of  Washington,  the 
troops  remained  faithful  to  their  cause  and  bore  their  sufferings  with  a 
heroic  fortitude  which  their  descendants  will  ever  bear  in  grateful  honor. 
All  this  while  the  British  army  was  comfortably  quartered  ii.  Phila- 
delphia, and  the  officers  were  billeted  upon  the  inhabitants.  They  were 
amply  supplied  with  every  comfort,  and  their  leisure  time  was  given  up 
to  pleasure  and  dissipation  on  a  scale  the  Quaker  City  had  never  dreamed 
of.  '•  By  a  proportionate  tax  on  the  pay  and  allowances  of  each  officer  a 
house  was  opened  for  daily  resort,  and  for  weekly  balls,  with  a  gaming 
table  which  had  assiduous  votaries,  and  a  room  devoted  to  the  game  of 
chess.  Thrico  a  week  plays  were  enacted  by  amateur  performers.  . 


SUFFERINGS   OF   THE   TROOPS   AT   VALLEY   FORGE. 


AID  FROM  ABROAD.  515 

The  officers,  among  whom  all  ranks  of  the  British  aristocracy  were  repre- 
sented, lived  in  open  licentiousness."  The  contrast  between  the  pleasures 
and  ease  of  these  well-fed  troops  and  the  sufferings  and  privations  of  the 
ragged  patriots  at  Valley  Forge  was  marked  indeed;  and  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  comforts  of  the  British  could  have  been  purchased 
by  the  patriots  at  the  price  of  desertion  their  heroic  constancy  becomes 
more  striking. 

The  patriotism  of  Washington 'was  not  appreciated  by  all  parties.  A 
number  of  discontented  members  of  Congress  and  officers  of  the  army 
were  anxious  that  he  should  be  removed  or  forced  to  resign  in  order 
that  their  favorite  General  Gates  might  be  promoted  to  the  chief  com- 
mand of  the  army.  One  of  the  prime  movers  of  the  intrigue  was  an 
Irish  adventurer  named  Conway,  who  had  been  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
brigadier-general,  from  which  circumstance  the  plot  is  known  as  the 
"  Conway  Cabal."  The  entire  truth  concerning  this  plot  will  never  be 
known,  for  after  its  failure  the  actors  in  it  were  only  too  glad  to  disavow 
their  connection  with  it.  The  conspirators  did  not  dare  to  make  an  open 
attack  upon  the  commander-ih-chief,  but  undertook  by  means  of  anony- 
mous letters,  underhanded  appeals  to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  army, 
and  comparisons  between  Gates'  success  and  what  they  termed  Washing- 
ton's failure,  to  destroy  the  confidence  o£  the  troops  in  their  leader,  and 
to  disgust  him  with  his  command  and  so  drive  him  to  resign  it.  Gen- 
erals Mifflin  and  Gates  were  very  active  in  this  conspiracy,  and  even 
Sullivan  and  Wayne  were  in  favor  of  the  scheme  of  making  Gates  com- 
mander-in-chief.  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  wrote  a  letter,  to  which  he  did 
not  dare  sign  his  name,  to  Patrick  Henry,  then  governor  of  Virginia, 
representing  the  army  of  Washington  as  without  a  head,  and  disparaging 
Washington  as  no  general.  "A  Gates,  a  Lee,  or  a  Conway,"  he  added, 
"  would  in  a  few  weeks  render  them  an  irresistible  body  of  men.  Some 
of  the  contents  of  this  letter  ought  to  be  made  public  in  order  to  awaken, 
enlighten,  and  alarm  our  country."  Patrick  Henry  took  no  notice  of  this 
paper  save  to  forward  it  to  Washington.  A  similar  anonymous  docu- 
ment was  forwarded  to  Henry  Laurens,  the  president  of  Congress,  who 
also  sent  it  to  Washington.  Great  efforts  were  made  to  win  over  Lafay- 
ette to  the  plot,  but  without  the  least  success. 

Washington  was  to  a  great  extent  aware  of  the  plot  against  him  but 
took  no  public  notice  of  it.  He  was  deeply  pained  by  the  unjust  censure 
to  which  he  was  subjected,  but  he  never  for  a  moment  harbored  the  thought 
of  laying  down  the  great  work  he  had  assumed.  He  knew  his  course 
would  bear  the  most  rigid  inspection.  He  knew  that  the  capture  of 
Burgoyne's  army,  which  had  made  Gates  the  hero  of  the  hour,  was  due 


516  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

to  no  skill  on  the  part  of  that  officer,  but  was  the  result  of  the  plan  of 
defence  Washington  had  long  before  arranged  with  General  Schuyler.  L> 
his  efforts  to  contend  against  General  Howe  he  was  under  many  disad- 
vantages, not  the  least  of  which  was  the  fact  that  his  army  was  encamped 
in  a  region  abounding  in  Tories  who  refused  him  any  support  and  con- 
stantly aided  the  British.  His  army  was  imperfectly  disciplined ;  it  wa« 
inferior  in  numbers  and  equipment  to  the  enemy ;  and  was  in  no  condi- 
tion to  meet  Howe  in  the  open  field,  still  less  to  undertake  the  difficult 
task  of  driving  him  from  his  intrenchments  at  Philadelphia.  "  Had  the 
same  spirit  pervaded  the  people  of  this  and  the  neighboring  States,  as  the 
States  of  New  York  and  New  England,"  said  Washington,  "  we  might 
have  had  General  Howe  nearly  in  the  same  situation  of  General  Bur- 
goyne."  Washington  knew  that  the  salvation  of  the  country  demanded 
his  presence  at  the  head  of  the  army.  He  trusted  to  time  for  his  vindi- 
cation, and  was  chiefly  anxious  that  the  enemy  should  not  learn  of  the 
dissensions  in  the  councils  and  camp  of  the  Americans.  He  firmly 
opposed  the  appointment  of  Conway  to  the  post  of  "  inspector  of  the 
armies  of  the  United  States,"  but  Congress,  under  the  influence  of  the 
cabal,  appointed  Conway  to  that  place  with  the  rank  of  major-general. 

In  a  little  while  the  action  of  the  conspirators  became  known  and 
aroused  such  a  storm  of  indigpation  from  the  officers  and  men  of  the 
army,  from  the  legislatures  of  the  States,  and  from  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  that  Gates  and  Conway  and  their  associates  cowered  before  it,  and 
Congress  became  heartily  ashamed  of  having  given  the  plot  any  encour- 
agement. The  only  effect  of  the  conspiracy  was  to  raise  Washington 
higher  in  the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  countrymen.  The  members 
of  the  conspiracy  were  ever  afterwards  anxious  to  deny  their  share  in  it, 
and  exerted  themselves  to  prevent  the  truth  concerning  it  from  becoming 
known. 

The  punishment  of  Grates  came  as  soon  as  he  was  intrusted  with  an 
independent  command,  as  we  shall  see.  As  for  Conway,  he  was  despised 
by  the  better  part  of  the  officers  of  the  army,  and  found  his  position  so 
unenviable  that  he  addressed  a  note  to  Congress  complaining  that  he  had 
been  badly  treated,  and  intimated  his  intention  to  resign  because  he  was 
not  ordered  to  the  northern  department.  Congress  was  by  this  time 
ashamed  of  having  bestowed  upon  him  such  undeserved  honors,  and 
gladly  interpreted  his  letter  as  an  actual  resignation  of  his  rank,  and  at 
once  ended  the  difficulty  by  accepting  it.  Conway  was  profoundly  aston- 
ished. He  was  confident  that  Congress  would  become  terrified  by  his 
threat  to  resign,  and  urge  him  to  remain  in  the  service,  and  was  utterly 
unprepared  for  the  action  of  that  body.  He  hastened  to  explain  his 


AID  FROM  ABROAD.  517 

letter,  but  was  not  listened  to.  Some  time  after  this  he  ventured  to 
denounce  the  commander-in-chief,  and  was  challenged  to  a  duel  by  Gen- 
eral Cadwallader,  who  had  already  charged  him  with  cowardice  at  the 
battle  of  Germantown.  Conway  was  wounded ;  and  believing  himself 
near  death  wrote  to  Washington,  apologizing  for  his  conduct  toward.-; 
him.  "  You  are,"  he  said,  "  in  my  eyes  the  great  and  good  man.  May 
vou  long  enjoy  the  love,  veneration,  and  esteem  of  these  States  whoso 
liberties  you  have  asserted  by  your  virtues."  His  wound  was  not  mortal 
as  he  had  supposed,  and  he  recovered,  and  soon  left  the  country. 

The  winter  was  passed  by  Washington  in  an  effort  to  increase  the  army, 
and  render  it  more  efficient.  Baron  Steuben,  a  Prussian  officer,  who  had 
served  under  Frederick  the  Great,  was  appointed  inspector,  with  the  rank 
of  major-general.  He  introduced  into  the  army  the  drill  and  discipline 
of  the  Prussian  service,  and  greatly  increased  its  efficiency.  The  various 
States,  save  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  were  called  upon  by  Congress 
to  contribute  their  quota  of  troops  to  the  army.  In  consideration  of 
their  large  slave  population,  and  the  necessity  of  retaining  their  troops 
for  their  own  defence,  those  States  were  excused  from  compliance  with 
this  demand.  Count  Pulaski  succeeded  in  raising  an  independent  body 
of  cavalry,  and  Major  Henry  Lee  organized  a  regiment  of  light  horse, 
which  under  his  command  subsequently  became  noted  as  one  of  the  most 
efficient  corps  of  the  army.  Congress  proposed  to  increase  the  force  of 
the  army  to  sixty  thousand  men,  but  was  never  able  to  bring  Jt  to  more 
than  half  that  number. 

The  inability  of  Congress  to  pay  the  troops  compelled  many  of  the 
officers  to  leave  the  army,  in  order  to  provide  for  their  families,  who  were 
suffering.  Congress  called  upon  the  States  to  raise  money  for  the  public 
expenses  by  taxing  their  people,  but  some  of  them  neglected  to  respond 
to  this  appeal,  and  the  remainder  were  too  poor  to  render  much  assistance. 
Congress  issued  new  bills  of  credit;  but  the  value  of  the  "Continental 
Currency,"  as  this  money  was  called,  had  depreciated  so  greatly  that  a 
pair  of  shoes  could  not  be  bought  for  less  than  from  five  to  six  hundred 
dollars  in  these  bills.  The  Tories  and  the  British  depreciated  them  still 
further  by  flooding  the  country  with  counterfeits. 

A  great  improvement  was  made  in  the  supply  of  provisions  furnished 
the  army  by  the  appointment  of  General  Greene,  at  the  request  of  Wash- 
ington, to  the  post  of  quartermaster-general,  which  had  been  held  by 
General  Mifflin,  who  had  neglected  its  duties  on  all  occasions.  At  the 
urgent  solicitation  of  the  commander-in-chief,  Greene  assumed  the  dis- 
tasteful position  for  one  year,  and  discharged  its  duties  with  a  skill  and 
precision  which  kept  the  army  so  well  supplied  with  provisions  and 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

.iiinnunition  that   it  was   never,  during  his   administration,  obliged  to 
abandon  a  movement  because  of  a  lack  of  these  necessities. 

In  April,  1778,  General  Prescott  was  exchanged  for  General  Charles 
Lee,  who  at  once  returned  to  duty  in  the  army.  During  his  captivity 
Lee,  who  was  willing  to  ruin  the  cause  if  he  could  benefit  himself,  pro- 
posed a  plan  to  the  British  ministry  by  which  they  could,  in  his  opinion, 
bring  the  war  to  a  successful  close.  The  ministers  did  not  see  fit  to  adopt 
Lee's  plan,  but  filed  it  away  among  the  British  archives,  and  the  traitor 
was  exchanged  and  permitted  to  resume  his  command  in  the  American 
army,  to  become  again  a  source  of  trouble  and  loss  to  it.  * 

In  the  meantime  the  American  cause  had  assumed  a  new  phase  abroad. 
The  English  government  had  confidently  expected  that  Burgoyue's 
expedition  would  be  successful,  and  the  result  of  his  operations  was 
watched  by  France  with  the  deepest  anxiety.  When  news  arrived  of  the 
defeat  of  Burgoyiie  the  astonishment  of  King  George  and  his  ministers 
was  equalled  only  by  their  mortification.  It  was  resolved  to  wipe  out 
the  humiliation  by  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war.  It  was 
rumored  that  France  was  about  to  aid  the  Americans,  and  that  Holland 
was  on  the  point  of  loaning  them  money.  These  rumors  aroused  the 
English  people  to  .a  heartier  support  of  the  government  than  they  had 
yet  given  it,  and  many  of  the  principal  cities  offered  to  raise  troops  to 
supply  the  places  of  those  who  had  been  surrendered  by  Burgoyne.  At 
the  same  time  the  friends  of  America  were  greatly  encouraged,  and 
resolved  to  make  a  new  effort  to  put  a  stop  to  the  war  by  offering 
America  such  terms  as  would  either  induce  her  to  renew  her  former  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain,  or  to  become  the  ally  and  friend  of  that 
country.  A  considerable  sum  of  money  was  subscribed  by  these  for  the 
relief  of  the  American  prisoners,  who  were  left  by  the  government 
without  even  the  necessaries  of  life. 

When  Parliament  assembled  a  strong  attack  was  made  upon  the  policy 
of  the  king  by  the  friends  of  America.  The  employment  of  the  Hes- 
sians, and,  above  all,  of  the  barbarous  Indians  of  North  America,  whose 
cruelties  shocked  the  English  people,  was  severely  denounced.  The  mer- 
cantile class  was  seriously  discontented.  Its  trade  with  America  was 
destroyed,  and  the  activity  of  the  American  cruisers  was  so  great  that  six 
hundred  English  vessels  had  already  been  captured  ;  and  it  was  necessary 
to  convoy  merchantmen,  by  vessels  of  war,  from  one  port  of  the  kingdom 
to  another.  Thus  far  the  war  had  caused  an  expenditure  of  twenty 
thousand  lives  and  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  conquest  of 
America  was  as  far  off  as  at  the  commencement  of  hostilities. 

*  Thf  reader  is  referred  to  the  work  of  Mr.  George  H.  Moore,  "  The  Treason  ol  'Jen- 
«ral  diaries  Lee,"  for  the  details  of  this  plan. 


AID  FROM  ABROAD.  519 

Under  this  pressure  the  king  was  constrained  to  yield,  and,  in  February, 
1778,  Lord  North  presented  to  Parliament  two  bills  by  which  his  majesty 
hoped  to  maintain  his  authority  in  America,  and  conciliate  his  revolted 
subjects.  The  first  of  these  renounced  all  intention  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain  to  levy  taxes  in  America ;  the  other  appointed  five  commissioners 
to  negotiate  with  the  Americans  for  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of 
England  and  the  close  of  the  war.  The  consent  of  the  king  to  these 
measures  was  wrung  from  him  by  the  complaints  of  a  large  part  of  the 
English  people,  and  by  his  fear  that  France  would  openly  aid  the  United 
States.  These  bills  involved  a  direct  surrender  of  the  whole  ground  of 
the  war;  but  indicated  no  change  of  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  kin^;. 

This  action  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  aroused  the  French  govern- 
ment to  a  more  energetic  course.  Louis  XVI.  was  opposed  to  treating 
with  the  United  States;  but  the  French  ministers  were  aware  that  a 
prompt  recognition  on  their  part  of  the  independence  of  the  republic 
would  effectually  neutralize  the  measures  of  Great  Britain,  and  prevent  a 
reconciliation.  France  was  perfectly  willing  that  America  and  England 
should  weaken  each  other  by  their  contest,  but  she  was  resolved  that 
Great  Britain  should  never  recover  her  colonies.  The  capture  of  Bur- 
goyne's  army  had  demonstrated  the  ability  of  America  to  continue  the 
war,  and  the  French  ministers  resolved  to  lose  no  time  in  concluding  an 
alliance  with  her.  On  the  17th  of  December,  1777,  the  Count  de  Ver- 
gennes  caused  Franklin  and  Deane  to  be  informed  of  the  king's  intention 
not  only  to  acknowledge  but  to  support  the  independence  of  Americ?, 
and  on  the  6th  of  February  a  treaty  of  friendship  and  commerce,  and  a 
second  treaty  of  defensive  alliance,  were  concluded  between  the  United 
States  and  France.  The  latter  bound  the  United  States  to  support 
France  in  case  Great  Britain  should  declare  war  against  her.  The  king 
of  France  acknowledged  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  agreed  to  assist  them  with  his  fleet  and  army.  No  peace 
was  to  be  made  without  mutual  consent,  and  not  until  the  independence 
of  the  United  States  should  be  acknowledged  by  Great  Britain.  These 
treaties  were  ratified  by  Congress,  and  were  hailed  with  joy  by  the  Ameri- 
cans, whose  confidence  was  revived  by  the  assurance  of  the  assistance  of 
one  of  the  most  powerful  states  of  Europe. 

When  the  news  of  the  treaties  was  received  in  England,  the  friends  of 
America  urged  the  government  to  abandon  the  war,  and  acknowledge  the 
independence  of  the  United  States,  as  the  only  means  of  retaining  the 
good  feeling  and  trade  of  that  country.  The  government  would  not 
even  entertain  the  proposition.  The  most  it  would  do  was  to  pass  the 
conciliatory  bills  of  Lord  North,  if  they  failed  to  accomplish  the 


520 


HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 


desired  end  the  war  must  go  on.  In  March  France  formally  communi- 
cated to  England  her  treaties  with  America.  This  was  regarded  bv 
England  as  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war,  nnd  the  British  ambas- 
sador was  at  once  recalled  from  Paris. 

In  June  the  British  commissioners,  appointed  to  treat  under  Lord 
North's  conciliatory  measures,  arrived  in  America  and  opened  negotia- 
tions. Congress  demanded,  as  a  prelude  to  any  negotiations,  that  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  should  be  recognized  by  England,  and 
her  fleets  and  armies  withdrawn  from  America.  The  commissioners 
having  no  authority  to  treat  upon  any  such  basis  returned  to  England, 

having  first  made  several  in- 
effectual efforts  to  detach  prom- 
inent Americans  from  the  cause 
by  bribery. 

The  course  of  Sir  William 
Howe  had  not  pleased  the 
British  government,  and  lie 
was  removed  from  his  com- 
mand on  the  llth  of  May, 
1788,  and  was  replaced  by  Sir 
Henry  Clinton.  About  the 
same  time  Clinton  was  in- 
formed by  his  government 
that  a  large  French  fleet  might 
be  expected  at  any  moment  on 
the  American  coast,  and  was 
ordered  to  evacuate  Philadel- 
phia and  concentrate  all  his 


SIR   HENRY   CLINTON. 


forces  at  New  York.     He  ac- 
cordingly  sent   his    sick   and 

wounded,  and  most  of  his  stores,  with  his  fleet  around  to  New  York  by 
eea ;  while,  with  his  army,  twelve  thousand  strong,  he  left  Philadelphia 
on  the  18th  of  June,  and,  crossing  the  Delaware,  began  his  march 
through  New  Jersey  to  New  York.  As  soon  as  Washington  learned  of 
his  movement  he  broke  up  his  camp,  on  the  24th  of  June,  and  crossed 
the  Delaware  in  pursuit  of  the  British  army.  The  intense  heat  of  the 
weather,  and  the  heavy  train  which  the  British  carried  with  them,  caused 
them  to  move  very  slowly,  and  Washington  soon  overtook  them.  A 
council  of  war  was  called,  at  which  General  Charles  Lee,  who  held  the 
tecond  rank  in  the  American  army,  urged  that  Washington  should  con- 
fine his  efforts  to  harassing  the  British  on  the  march.  It  was  resolved, 


AID  1'EOM  ABROAD.  521 

however,  to  attack  the  enemy  and  force  them  to  a  general  engagement. 
Lee  at  first  declined  to  take  any  part  in  the  battle,  but  at  the  last  moment 
changed  his  mind,  and  solicited  a  command. 

Upon  the  adjournment  of  the  council  of  war,  on  the  27th  of  June, 
Washington  sent  Lafayette,  with  two  thousand  men',  to  occupy  the  hills 
near  Monmouth  Court-house,  and  confine  the  enemy  to  the  plains.  On 
the  morning  of  the  28th  of  June  Lee,  who  had  asked  for  a  command, 
was  sent  forward  by  Washington,  with  two  brigades,  to  attack  the  enemy. 
Upon  coming  up  with  Lafayette,  who  was  his  junior,  Lee  assumed  the 
command  of  the  whole  advanced  force,  and  marched  in  the  direction  of 
the  enemy,  who  had  encamped  on  the  previous  night  near  Monmouth 
Court-house,  and  had  resumed  their  march,  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
28th.  As  soon  as  Clinton  heard  of  Lee's  advance,  he  determined  to 
drive  him  back,  and  for  this  purpose  wheeled  about  with  his  whole  rear 
division,  and  made  a  sharp  attack  upon  Lee,  who  fell  back  to  higher 
ground.  A  misunderstanding  of  his  order  caused  one  of  his  subordinate 
officers  to  abandon  his  position,  and  Lee's  whole  force  fell  back  in  some 
confusion.  In  the  excitement  of  the  moment  Lee  forgot  to  send  word  to 
Washington  of  his  movement,  and  the  first  the  commander-in-chief,  who 
was  advancing  with  the  main  body,  knew  of  it  was  the  right  of  Lee's 
command  falling  back  rapidly,  and  in  disorder.  Riding  up  to  the  fugi- 
tives he  asked  them  why  they  were  retreating,  and  was  answered  that 
they  did  not  know,  but  had  been  ordered  to  do  so.  Suspecting  that  the 
retreat  had  been  ordered  for  the  purpose  of  ruining  the  plan  of  battle, 
Washington  hastened  forward  until  he  met  General  Lee,  and  sternly 
demanded  of  him  :  "  What  is  the  meaning  of  all  this,  sir?"  Lee  was 
disconcerted  for  a  moment,  and  then  answered  that  the  retreat  was  con- 
trary to  his  orders ;  and  moreover  that  he  did  not  wish  to  encounter  the 
whole  British  army.  "  I  am  sorry,"  said  Washington,  "  that  you  under- 
took the  command  unless  you  meant  to  fight  the  enemy."  Lee  answered 
that  he  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  bring  on  a  general  engagement. 
Washington  replied,  sternly:  "Whatever  your  opinion  may  have  been,  I 
expect  my  orders  to  be  obeyed." 

Washington  at  once  reformed  the  men  on  a  commanding  eminence, 
and  hurried  the  main  body  of  the  Americans  forward  to  their  support. 
The  British  soon  appeared  in  force,  and  endeavored  to  dislodge  the 
Americans  from  their  position,  and  failing  in  this,  attempted,  but  without 
success,  to  turn  their  left  flank.  The  battle  lasted  until  nightfall,  and 
the  American  army  bivouacked  on  the  field,  expecting  to  renew  the 
engagement  the  next  morning ;  but  during  the  night  Clinton  skilfully 
withdrew  from  his  lines  and  continued  his  retreat.  The  weather  was  so 


522  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

warm  that  Washington  did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  continue  the  pursuit, 
and  Clinton  was  allowed  to  regain  New  York  without  further  molesta- 
tion. The  Americans  lost  about  two  hundred  men  in  this  engagement, 
a  number  of  whom  died  from  the  effects  of  the  extreme  heat.  The  British 
lost  three  hundred  men.  During  the  retreat,  two  thousand  Hessians 
deserted  from  the  British  ranks. 

As  General  Lee  possessed  a  large  share  of  the  confidence  of  the  com-, 
mander-in-chief,  he  might  have  saved  himself  from  the  consequences  of 
his  fault,  had  he  sought  to  explain  his  conduct  in  a  proper  manner.  On 
the  day  after  the  battle  he  addressed  an  insulting  letter  to  Washington,  and 
met  the  reply  of  the  commander-in-chief  with  another  letter  still  more 
disrespectful  in  tone,  demanding  a  court  of  inquiry.  The  court  found 
him  guilty  of  disobedience  of  orders,  and  of  disrespect  to  the  commander- 
in-chief,  and  sentenced  him  to  be  suspended  from  his  rank  for  one  year. 
Towards  the  close  of  his  term  of  punishment  he  addressed  an  insolent 
letter  to  Congress,  in  consequence  of  some  fancied  neglect,  and  was  dis- 
missed from  the  army.  A  few  years  later  he  died  in  Philadelphia. 

After  the  battle  of  Monmouth,  Washington  halted  for  a  short  time  to 
refresh  his  men,  and  then  marching  to  the  Hudson  crossed  that  stream, 
and  took  position  at  White  Plains,  in  New  York,  to  be  ready  to  coope- 
rate with  the  French  fleet,  which  was  daily  expected,  in  an  attack  upon 
the  city  of  New  York.  The  French  fleet  under  Count  D'Estaing,  with 
four  thousand  troops  on  board,  had  arrived  in  the  Delaware  just  after 
Lord  Howe  had  sailed  for  New  York.  Failing  to  find  the  enemy  in  the 
Delaware,  D'Estaing  sailed  for  New  York,  but  Lord  Howe  withdrew 
his  vessels  into  Raritan  bay,  and  as  the  larger  French  ships  could  not 
cross  the  bar,  the  contemplated  attack  upon  New  York  was  abandoned, 
to  the  great  regret  of  Washington. 

The  French  fleet  brought  the  American  commissioners  who  had  nego- 
tiated the  treaty  with  France,  and  also  Monsieur  Gerard,  the  first  am- 
bassador from  the  French  king  to  the  United  States. 

In  place  of  the  combined  attack  upon  New  York,  it  was  resolved  by 
Washington,  in  concert  with  the  French  admiral,  to  attack  Newport  and 
drive  the  British  out  of  Rhode  Island.  The  British  had  established  one 
of  their  principal  depots  of  supplies  at  this  point,  and  had  there  a  force 
of  six  thousand  men  under  General  Pigot.  It  was  arranged  that  a  force 
of  American  troops  under  General  Sullivan  should  attack  the  enemy  by 
land,  while  the  French  fleet  and  army  should  cooperate  with  Sullivan 
from  the  sea.  On  the  29th  of  July  D'Estaing  reached  Narragansett  bny 
with  his  fleet,  and  on  the  8th  of  August  entered  Newport  harbor,  in  spite 
of  the  fire  of  the  British  batteries.  A  whole  week  had  been  lost,  how- 


AW  FROM  ABROAD.  623 

ever,  by  th-j  failure  of  the  American  troops  to  reach  the  positions  assigned 
them  as  promptly  as  the  French  fleet.  The, delay  was  unavoidable,  but, 
it  ruined  the  enterprise.  On  the  9th  Lord  Howe  arrived  off  Newport 
harbor  with  his  fleet  to  the  assistance  of  General  Pigot.  On  the  10m 
D'Estaing  sailed  out  to  engage  the  British  fleet,  but  before  this  could 
be  effected  a  sudden  and  terrible  storm  scattered  both  fleets.  Howe 
returned  to  New  York,  and  D'Estaing  made  his  way  back  to  Narra- 
gansett  bay  in  a  crippled  condition.  Instead  of  landing  the  four  thou- 
sand French  troops  he  had  brought  with  him,  the  French  admiral  sailed 
to  Boston  with  his  whole  force  to  refit. 

Sullivan  in  the  meantime  had  crossed  from  the  mainland  to  the  island 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  had  taken  position  before  the  British  intrenchments 
in  front  of  Newport.  Here  he  awaited  the  return  of  the  French  fleet, 
and  in  the  mean  white  kept  up  a  steady  fire  upon  the  British  works. 
Upon  D'Estaing's  return  he  informed  Sullivan  of  his  intention  to  sail  to 
Boston  to  refit  his  ships.  Sullivan  earnestly  begged  him  to  remain  two 
or  three  days,  as  the  British  must  certainly  surrender  by  the  end  of  that 
time.  D'Estaing  refused  to  do  so.  Sullivan  then  asked  that  the  French 
troops  might  be  left  to  cooperate  with  him,  and  this  also  was  refused. 
Left  alone,  Sullivan  was  obliged  to  retreat  to  the  mainland,  as  he  learned 
that  aid  was  on  its  way  from  New  York  to  Pigot.  He  effected  this 
movement  with  skill  and  success,  on  the  night  of  the  30th  of  August. 
The  next  day  Sir  Henry  Clinton  reached  Newport  with  a  squadron  of 
several  ships  and  a  reinforcement  of  four  thousand  men. 

As  he  had  arrived  too  late  to  attack  the  force  under  Sullivan,  Clinton 
sent  the  troops  he  had  brought  with  him,  under  Major-General  Grey,  to 
ravage  the  coasts  to  the  eastward.  Grey  destroyed  a  large  number  of 
vessels  along  the  coasts,  and  stripped  Fair  Haven,  New  Bedford,  and  the 
island  of  Martha's  Vineyard  of  everything  that  could  be  carried  off,  and 
returned  to  New  York  laden  with  plunder. 

Late  in  October  a  British  fleet  which  had  been  despatched  from  Eng- 
land under  Admiral  Byron  in  pursuit  of  D'Estaing,  arrived  off  Boston 
harbor.  Byron  was  unwilling  to  venture  within  the  harbor,  and  the 
French  would  not  leave  their  place  of  security,  and  the  English  remained 
off  Boston  until  a  storm  arose  and  scattered  their  fleet.  On  the  1st  of 
November  the  French,  taking  advantage  of  the  enforced  withdrawal  of 
their  enemy,  stood  out  to  sea  and  sailed  for  the  West  Indies,  and  on  the 
same  day  Clinton  despatched  a  force  of  five  thousand  British  troops  from 
New  York  to  the  West  Indies. 

Brutal  as  Avas  the  conduct  of  General  Grey,  it  had  been  already  sur- 
passed bv  the  British  and  their  Indian  allies  in  Pennsylvania. 


524 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES, 


inhabitants  of  Wyoming  valley,  a  beautiful  region  on  the  Srsquelmnna, 
had  driven  away  the  Tories  from  that  region,  and  these  had  resolved 
upon  revenge.  Early  in  July  a  force  of  about  eleven  hundred  Tories 
and  Indians,  under  Colonel  John  Butler  and  the  Indian  chief  Brandt, 
entered  the  Wyoming  valley.  Nearly  all  the  able-bodied  settlers  were 
.absent  with  the  American  army,  and  upon  hearing  of  the  approach  of 
the  enemy  a  small  force  had  been  despatched  by  Washington  under 
Colonel  Zebulon  Butler,  to  the  assistance  of  the  settlers.  This  force  was 
defeated  by  the  Tories  and  Indians,  who  then  proceeded  to  lay  waste  the 
valley  and  murder  the  inhabitants.  They  performed  their  bloody  work 
in  the  most  barbarous  manner,  and  the  beautiful  valley  was  made  a  deso- 
lation. In  the  following  month  Cherry  valley  in  New  York  was  ravaged 
\rith  equal  cruelty  by  a  force  of  Tories  and  Indians,  and  the  inhabitants 
were  either  murdered  or  carried  into  captivity.  The  entire  region  of  the 

upper  Susquehanna 
and  Delaware  and  the 
valley  of  the  Mohawk 
were  at  the  mercy  of 
the  savage  allies  of 
Great  Britain. 

In  the  latter  part 
of  November,  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  sent 
a  force  of  two  thou- 
sand men  from  New 
York  under  Colonel 

Campbell  to  attack  Savannah,  Georgia,  which  was  held  by  a  garrison  of 
one  thousand  men  under  General  Robert  Howe.  The  British  carried 
the  American  position  after  a  sharp  engagement,  and  on  the  29th  of 
December,  Savannah  surrendered  to  them.  General  Prevost,  the  English 
commander  in  Florida,  now  repaired  to  Savannah,  and  assumed  the  com- 
mand. On  his  march  across  the  country  he  captured  Sun  bury,  a  fort 
of  considerable  importance.  Upon  reaching  Savannah  he  sent  Colonel 
Campbell  to  seize  Augusta,  which  was  quickly  secured  and  fortified. 
Georgia  was  thus  entirely  subdued  by  the  British  by  the  middle  of 
January,  1779. 

After  the  failure  of  the  attack  upon  Newport  the  American  army  went 
into  winter  quarters,  occupying  a  series  of  cantonments  extending  from 
the  eastern  end  of  Long  Island  sound  to  the  Delaware.  This  disposition 
enabled  them  to  oppose  a  force  to  the  British  at  every  important  point. 
Washington  established  his  head-quarters  at  Middlebrook,  New  Jersey, 


SURRENDER   OF   SAVANNAH. 


AW  FROM  ABROAD.  625 

near  the  centre  of  his  line.  The  winter  passed  away  without  any  event 
of  importance.  The  British  held  Ne\v  York  and  Newport  with  too 
strong  a  force  to  make  an  attack  upon  either  post  successful,  and  the 
vv\'ithdrawal  of  the  French  fleet  to  the  West  Indies  left  Washington 
without  any  means  of  encountering  the  naval  force  of  the  enemy. 

The  season  was  not  without  its  trials,  ho\\e/er.  Washington  wrote 
t  the  beginning  of  the  year  1779,  "Our  affairs  are  in  a  more  distressed, 
ruinous,  and  deplorable  condition  than  they  have  been  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war."  The  currency  of  the  country  grew  more  worth- 
less every  day.  During  the  year  1779  the  enormous  sum  of  one  hunrded 
and  thirty-one  million  of  dollars  was  issued  in  continental  bills.  The 
magnitude  of  the  volume  of  the  currency  only  served  to  depreciate  it 
more  and  more,  and  though  supplies  and  articles  of  trade  were  plentiful, 
their  owners  refused  to  accept  the  depreciated  bills  of  Congress,  and 
would  sell  for  gold  and  silver  only.  "A  wagon-load  of  money,"  Washing- 
ton wrote  to  the  president  of  Congress,  "  will  not  purchase  a  wagon-load 
of  provisions."  During  the  year  the  currency  depreciated  from  $8  for  one 
dollar  to  $41.60  for  one  dollar.  Congress  had  so  little  specie  that  every- 
thing must  have  gone  to  ruin  but  for  the  exertions  of  Robert  Morris,  -A 
member  of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  and  a  leading  merchant  of 
Philadelphia,  who  borrowed  large  sums  of  coin  on  his  own  credit,  anr* 
loaned  them  to  the  government.  This  he  continued  to  do  throughout 
the  war. 

Congress  had  long  before  this  been  deprived  of  many  of  its  ablest  mem- 
bers, who  had  resigned  their  seats  in  order  to  accept  appointments  in  their 
own  States,  or  to  enter  the  army.  Their  places  were  filled  with  weaker 
men,  and  many  dissensions  mark  the  deliberations  of  the  Congress  of 
this  period.  Many  members  of  Congress  and  a  large  part  of  the  people 
seemed  to  regard  the  alliance  with  France  as  decisive  of  the  war,  and 
Were  disposed  to  relax  their  efforts.  During  the  winter  it  was  proposed 
to  join  the  French  in  an  expedition  for  the  recovery  of  Canada  for  France, 
and  the  scheme  found  favor  with  a  majority  of  the  delegates  in  Congress. 
Washington  opposed  it  with  firmness.  He  pointed  out  to  Congress  the 
difficulties  of  the  undertaking,  and  declared  his  conviction  that  it  was 
not  to  the  interest  of  the  United  States  that  a  power  different  in  race, 
language  and  religion  from  the  people  of  this  republic  should  have  a 
footing  upon  this  continent.  In  addition  to  this  he  did  not  desire  the 
people;  of  the  United  States  to  increase  their  obligations  to  a  foreign,  even 
though  a  friendly,  power. 

The  American  forces  in  the  Southern  States  were  commanded  by  Gen- 
eral Benjamin  Lincoln.  The  Tories  were  very  numerous  and  very  active 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


hi  this  region,  and  the  feeling  between  them  and  the  patriots  was  one  of 
Uie  bitterest  hostility,  and  often  manifested  itself  in  bloody  and  relentless 
conflicts.  Seven  hundred  Tories  under  Colonel  Boyd  set  out  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1779,  to  join  Colonel  Campbell  at  Augusta.  On  the  14th  they 
were  attacked  at  Kettle  creek,  by  a  force  of  patriots  under  Colonel  Pickens, 
ind  were  defeated  with  heavy  loss.  Pickens  hung  five  of  his  prisoners 
as  traitors. 

General  Lincoln  now  sent  General  Ashe  with  two  thousand  men  to 
drive  the  British  out  of  Augusta.    Upon  hearing  of  his  approach  Colonel 

Campbell  evacuated 
Augusta  and  fell 
back  to  Brier  creek, 
a  small  stream  about 
halfway  to  Savan- 
nah. Ashe  followed 
him,  but  without  ob- 
serving proper  cau- 
tion, and  on  the  3d 
of  March  was  sur- 
prised and  routed  by 
Campbell,  with  the 
loss  of  nearly  his 
entire  force.  This 
d  e  f e  a  t  encouraged 
General  Prevost  to 
attempt  the  capture 
of  Charleston.  He 
marched  rapidly 
across  the  country 
to  Charleston,  and  demanded  its  surrender.  Lincoln,  who  had*  been 
reinforced,  no  sooner  heard  of  this  movement  than  he  hastened  by  forced 
marches  to  the  relief  of  Charleston,  and  compelled  Prevost  to  retire  to  St. 
John's  island,  opposite  the  mainland.  The  British  threw  up  a  redoubt 
at  Stone  ferry  to  protect  the  crossing  to  this  island.  It  was  attacked  on 
the  20th  of  June  by  the  forces  of  General  Lincoln,  who  were  repulsed 
with  heavy  loss.  A  little  later  Prevost  withdrew  to  Savannah.  Tlv^ 
intense*  heat  of  the  weather  suspended  military  operations  in  the  south 
during  the  remainder  of  the  summer. 

In  September,  1779,  the  French  fleet  under  Count  D'Estaing  arrived 
off  the  coast  of  Georgia  from  the  West  Indies,  and  the  admiral  agreed  to 
ioin  Lincoln  in  an  effort  to  recapture  Savannah.  The  American  army 


GENERAL  BENJAMIN  LINCOLN. 


AID  FROM  ABROAD.  527 

began  its  investment  of  the  city  on  the  23d  of  September,  and  everything 
promised  favorably  for  success ;  but  D'Estaing  became  impatient  of  the 
delay  of  a  regular  siege,  and  declared  that  he  must  return  to  the  West 
Indies  to  watch  the  British  fleet  in  those  waters.  Savannah  must  either 
be  taken  by  assault,  or  he  would  withdraw  from  the  siege.  To  please 
him  Lincoln  consented  to  storm  the  British  works,  and  the  assault  was 
made  on  the  9th  of  October,  but  was  repulsed  with  severe  loss.  D'Estaing 
himself  was  wounded,  and  the  chivalrous  Count  Pulaski  was  killed. 
Lincoln  now  retreated  to  Charleston,  and  the  French  fleet  sailed  to  the 
West  Indies,  having  a  second  time  failed  to  render  any  real  assistance  to 
the  Americans.  This  disaster  closed  the  campaign  for  the  year  in  the 
south. 

In  the  meantime  Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  been  ordered  by  his  govern- 
ment to  harass  the  American  coast,  and  in  accordance  with  these  instruc- 
tions despatched  a  number  of  plundering  expeditions  from  New  York 
against  exposed  points.  One  of  these  was  sent  in  May,  under  General 
Mathews,  into  the  Chesapeake.  Mat-hews  entered  the  Elizabeth  river, 
plundered  the  towns  of  Korfolk  and  Portsmouth,  and  burned  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  merchant  vessels  and  several  ships  of  war  on  the  stocks 
at  Gosport,  near  Portsmouth.  He  then  ascended  the  James  for  some 
distance  and  ravaged  its  shores.  He  destroyed  in  this  expedition  two 
millions  of  dollars  worth  of  property,  and  carried  off  about  three  thousand 
hogsheads  of  tobacco. 

Upon  the  return  of  this  expedition,  Clinton  ascended  the  Hudson  for 
the  purpose  of  destroying  two  forts  which  the  Americans  were  construct- 
ing a  short  distance  below  West  Point,  for  the  protection  of  King's  ferry, 
an  important  crossing-place  between  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States.  One 
of  these,  which  was  being  built  at  Stony  Point,  was  abandoned.  The 
work  on  Verplanck's  Point,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Hudson,  immediately 
opposite,  ivas  compelled  to  surrender  early  in  June. 

Returning  to  New  York,  Clinton  sent  General  Tryon  with  twenty-five 
hundred  men  to  plunder  the  coast  of  Long  Island  sound.  He  plundered 
New  Haven,  burned  Fairfield  and  Norwalk,  and  committed  other  out- 
rages at  Sag  Harbor,  on  Long  island.  In  the  course  of  a  few  days  this 
inhuman  wretch  burned  two  hundred  and  fifty  dwelling-houses,  five 
elmrches,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  barns  and  stores.  Many  of 
the  inhabitants  were  cruelly  murdered,  and  a  number  of  women  were 
outraged  by  the  British  troops.  Tryon  would  have  carried  his  outrages 
further  had  he  not  been  recalled  to  New  York  by  Clinton,  who  feared 
that  Washington  was  about  to  attack  him. 

The  loss  of  Stony  Point  was  a  serious  blow  to  Washington,  as  it  com- 


528 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES, 


pelled  him  to  establish  a  new  line  of  communication  between  the  opposite 
sides  of  the  Hudson  by  a  longer  and  more  tedious  route  through  the 
Highlands.  He  resolved,  therefore,  the  recapture  of  the  post  from  the 
British  at  all  hazards.  The  British  had  greatly  strengthened  the  fort, 
which  the  Americans  had  left  unfinished,  and  the  only  way  in  which  it 
could  be  captured  was  by  a  surprise.  It  was  a  desperate  undertaking,  and 
Washington  proposed  to  General  Anthony  Wayne  to  attempt  it.  Wayne 
readily  consented,  and  the  two  generals  made  a  careful  reconnoissance  of 

the  position.  It  was 
agreed  to  make  the 
attempt  at  midnight, 
and  in  order  to 
guard  against  a  be- 
trayal of  the  move- 
ment every  dog  in 
the  vicinity  was  put 
to  death.  A  negro 
who  visited  the  fort 
regularly  to  sell 
fruit,  and  who  had 
been  for  some  time 
acting  as  a  spy  for 
I  the  Americans, 
agreed  to  guide  them 
to  the  work. 

n 

At    midnight    on 
the    loth  of    July, 
the  storming  party, 
guided    by  the   ne- 
gro, approached  the 
fort    in    two    divi- 
his    musket     lest    the 
the    movement.       The 


GENERAL  ANTHONY  WAYNE. 


load 


sions.  Not  a  man  was  permitted  to 
accidental  discharge  of  a  gun  should  ruin 
negro,  accompanied  by  two  soldiers  who  were  disguised  as  farmers, 
approached  the  first  sentinel  and  gave  the  countersign.  The  sen- 
tinel was  at  once  seized  and  gagged,  and  the  same  was  done  with  th: 
second  sentinel.  The  third,  however,  gave  the  alarm,  and  the  garrison 
flew  to  arms  and  opened  a  sharp  fire  upon  the  Americans.  The  latter 
now  dashed  forward  at  a  run,  scaled  the  parapet,  and  in  a  few  moments 
the  two  opposite  divisions  met  in  the  centre  of  the  fort.  The  Americans 
took  more  than  five  hundred  prisoners,  and  all  the  supplies  and  artillery 


AID  FROM  ABROAD. 


529 


of  the  fort  fell  into  their  hands.  Though  they  were  justly  exasperated  by 
the  brutal  outrages  of  the  British,  which  we  have  related,  they  conducted 
themselves  towards  their  prisoners  with  a  noble  humanity.  The  British 
historian  Stedman  declares, "  They  (the  Americans)  would  have  been  fully 
justified  in  putting  the  garrison  to  the  sword ;  not  one  man  of  which  was 
put  to  death  but  in  fair  combat."  It  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  expe- 
ditions of  the  war.  Wayne  now  proceeded  to  prepare  for  the  reduction 
of  the  fort  at  Verplanck's  Point,  but  while  he  was  thus  engaged  a  heavy 
British  force  ascended  the  river  to  its  relief,  and  he  was  obliged  to  forego 
his  attack,  and  also  to  abandon  Stony  Point. 

On  the  night  of  the  18th  of  June,  Major  Henry  Lee  made  a  bold  dash 


STORMING  OF  STONY  POINT. 


at  the  British  fort  at  Paulus  Hook,  now  Jersey  City,  and  captured  it, 
taking  one  hundred  and  fifty-nine  prisoners.  The  British  made  great 
efforts  to  intercept  him,  but  he  effected  his  retreat  in  safety,  bringing  off 
his  prisoners,  and  losing  only  two  men.  For  these  gallant  exploits 
Wayne  and  Lee  were  each  voted  a  gold  medal  by  Congress. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  summer  of  1779,  Washington  resolved  to  in- 
flict upon  the  Indians  a  severe  punishment  for  their  outrages  upon  the 
whites,  and  especially  for  the  massacres  of  Wyoming  and  Cherry  valley 
in  the  previous  year.  Early  in  August  General  Sullivan  was  sent  into 
western  New  York  with  three  thousand  men,  with  orders  to  ravage  the 
country  of  the  Six  Nations.  He  was  joined  by  General  James  Clinton 
34 


530 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


with  two  thousand  men,  and  on  the  29th  of  August  attacked  and  defeated 
a  force  of  seventeen  hundred  Indians  and  Tories  at  Newtown,  now  El- 
mira.  Sullivan  followed  up  this  victory  by  pushing  forward  into  the 
Indian  country,  and  laying  it  waste  with  fire  and  sword.  In  the  course 
of  a  few  weeks  he  destroyed  more  than  forty  Indian  villages,  and  burned 
all  the  cornfields  and  orchards.  The  beautiful  valley  of  the  Genesee  was 
made  a  desert,  and  to  avoid  starvation  the  Indians  and  their  Tory  allies 
were  obliged  to  emigrate  to  Canada.  They  were  quieted  but  for  a  time 
by  the  terrible  vengeance  of  the  Americans,  and  soon  renewed  their 
depredations,  and  continued  them  to  the  end  of  the  war. 

Congress  had  made  great  efforts  to   increase  the  force  of  the  navy, 

and  the  number  of  American  men- 
of-war  had  been  materially  en- 
larged. Many  of  them  had  been 
captured,  however,  by  the  enemy, 
and  the  navy  was  still  weak  and 
unable  to  render  much  service  to 
the  cause.  The  privateers  were 
unusually 'active,  and  were  hunted 
with  unremitting  vigilance  by  the 
English  war  vessels.  They  man- 
aged to  inflict  great  losses  upon 
the  commerce  of  Great  Britain, 
however.  A  number  of  American 
cruisers  were  fitted  out  in  France, 
and  kept  the  English  coast  in 
terror. 

John  Paul  Jones,  a  native  of 
Scotland,  who  had  been  brought  to 
Virginia  at  an  early  age,  was  one  of  the  first  naval  officers  commissioned 
by  Congress.  He  was  given  the  command  of  the  "  Ranger,"  a  vessel  of 
eighteen  guns,  and  by  his  brilliant  and  daring  exploits  kept  the  English 
coast  in  a  state  of  terror,  and  even  ventured  to  attack  exposed  points  on 
the  coast  of  Scotland.  In  1779  he  was  given  command  of  a  small 
squadron  of  three  ships  of  war  fitted  out  in  France,  and  sailing  from 
L'Orient,  proceeded  on  a  cruise  along  the  coast  of  Great  Britain.  On 
the  23d  of  September,  he  fell  in  with  a  fleet  of  merchantmen  convoyed  by 
two  English  frigates,  and  at  once  attacked  them.  The  battle  began  at 
seven  in  the  evening,  and  was  continued  for  three  hours  with  great  fury. 
Jones  lashed  his  flagship,  the  "  Bon  Homme  Richard,"  to  the  English 
frigate  "  Serapis,"  and  the  two  vessels  fought  muzzle  to  muzzle  until  the 


LIEUTENANT-COLONEL   HENEY   LEE. 


AID 


ABROAD. 


'531 


1 


"Serapts"  surrendered.     The  otlier  Englisli  vessel  was  also  captured. 

The  battle  was  one  of  the  most  desperate  in  the  annals  of  naval  warfare, 

and  Jones'  flagship  was  so  badly  injured  that  it  sunk  in  a  few  hours  after 

the  fighting  was  over. 

In  October,  Sir   Henry 

Clinton,  in  obedience    to 

orders  from  home,  evacuated 

Newport,    and    concentrated 

his    forces    at    New    York, 

which  place  he  believed  was 

in  danger  of  an  attack  by  the 

Americans    and     French. 

Until  the  close  of  the  season 

Washington     cherished     the 

hope   that   the   French  fleet 

would  return  and  assist  him 

in   an  effort  vo  regain  New 

York,  and  had  called  out  the 

militia      for     this     purpose. 

When  he  learned  that  D'Es- 

taing  had  sailed  to  the  West 

Indies  after  the  failure  of  the 

attack  upon  Savannah,  he  dismissed  the  militia  to  their  homes,  and  went 

into  winter  quarters  in  New  Jersey,  with  his   head-quarters  at   Mor- 

ristown. 

While  these  events  had  been  transpiring  upon  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 

the  United  States  had  been  steadily  pushing  their  way  westward  beyond 

the  mountains.  In  1769,  before 
the  commencement  of  the  Revo- 
lution, the  beautiful  region  now 
known  as  Kentucky  had  been 
visited  and  explored  by  Daniel 
Boone,  a  famous  Indian  hunter. 
He  was  charmed  with  the  beauty 
of  the  country  and  the  excellence 
of  the  climate,  and  resolved  to 

make  it  his  home.     The  reports  of  Boone  and  his  companions  aroused  a 

great  interest  in  the  new  country  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  older  settle- 
ments in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  more  especially  as  it  was  in  this 

region  that  the  lands  given  to  the  Virginia  troops  for  their  services  in  the 

French  war  were  located.     Surveyors  were  soon  after  sent  out  to  lay  off 


JOHN  PATH.  JOXES. 


COAT  OF  ARMS   OP   KENTtJCKt. 


532 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


these  lands,  and  in  1773  a  party  under  Captain  Bullit  reached  the  falls 
of  the  Ohio,  and  built  a  fortified  camp  there  for  the  purpose  of  surveying 
the  region.  This  was  the  commencement  of  the  city  of  Louisville,  but 
the  actual  settlement  of  the  place  was  not  begun  until  1778.  In  1774 
Harrodsburg  was  founded  by  James  Harrod,  one  of  Boone's  companions  ; 
and  in  1775  Daniel  Boone  built  a  fort  on  the  site  of  the  present  town  of 
Boonesborough.  The  savages  made  repeated  attacks  upon  his  party,  but 
failed  to  drive  them  away.  The  fort  was  finished  by  the  middle  of  April, 
and  soon  after  Boone  was  joined  by  his  wife  and  daughters,  the  first 
white  women  in  Kentucky. 

The  region  of  Kentucky  was  claimed  by  Virginia,  but  the  settlers  sub- 
mitted to  the  authority  of  that  province  with  impatience.  They  sent  a 

delegate  to  the  Continental 
Congress  in  October,  1775, 
and  claimed  representation  in 
that  body  as  an  independent 
colony  under  the  name  of 
Transylvania ;  but  the  dele- 
gate of  the  fourteenth  colony 
was  not  admitted  by  Congress, 
as  Virginia  claimed  the  terri- 
tory as  her  own.  In  the  spring 
of  1777  the  general  assembly 
of  Virginia  organized  the 
Kentucky  region  as  a  county, 
and  established  a  court  of 
quarter  sessions  at  Harrods- 
burg. In  this  condition  Ken- 
tucky remained  during  the 
Revolution.  The  population  increased  rapidly  in  spite  of  the  war  and 
of  the  unremitting  hostility  of  the  Indians. 

During  the  Revolution  the  Kentucky  settlements  suffered  very  much 
from  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  who  were  urged  on  by  the  emissaries 
of  Great  Britain  to  a  war  of  extermination.  The  principal  agent  of  the 
»mother  country  in  this  barbarous  warfare  was  Hamilton,  the  British 
commander  at  Detroit.  In  order  to  put  a  stop  to  his  intrigues  and  de- 
prive the  Indians  of  his  aid,  Congress  resolved  to  despatch  a  force  to 
attack  Detroit. 

While  this  plan  was  in  contemplation  the  State  of  Virginia,  in  1778, 
sent  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clarke  with  a  force  of  two  hundred  men  to 
conquer  the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  which  Virginia  claimed  as 


DANIEL  BOONE. 


AID  FROM  ABROAD. 


533 


a  part  of  her  possessions.  Clarke  \vas  a  backwoodsman,  but  one  of 
nature's  heroes.  He  assembled  his  men  at  Pittsburg,  and  descended  the 
Ohio  to  the  fulls  in  flat-boats.  There  he  established  a  settlement  of 
thirteen  families,  the  germ  of  the  present  city  of  Louisville.  Being 
joined  by  some  Kentuckians  he  continued  his  descent  of  the  river  to  a 
short  distance  below  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee.  Landing  and  conceal- 
ing his  boats,  he  struck  across  the  country  and  surprised  and  captured 
the  town  of  Kas- 
kaskia,  within  the 
limits  of  the  present 
State  of  Indiana. 
A  detachment  was 
sent  to  Kahokia, 
SUM!  received  its  sub- 
mission. The  peo- 
ple of  these  towns 
were  of  French 
origin,  and  were 
greatly  averse  to  the 
English  rule  under 
w  h  i  c h  they  had 
lived  since  the  con- 
quest of  Canada. 
The  alliance  between 
the  United  States 
and  France  made 
them  very  willing 
to  acknowledge  the 
authority  of  the 
Union,  to  which 
they  readily  swore 
allegiance.  The 
fort  at  Vincennes 

was  in  a  weak  condition  and  was  held  by  a  small  garrison,  and  readily 
submitted  to  Clarke. 

Hamilton  no  sooner  heard  of  the  successes  of  Clarke  than  he  set  out 
from  Detroit  on  the  7th  of  October,  1778,  with  a  force  of  three  hundred 
and  fifty  warriors,  and  on  the  17th  of  December  reoecupied  Vincenne?. 
He  now  prepared  to  drive  the  Americans  out  of  the  Illinois  country,  and 
spent  the  winter  in  trying  to  arouse  the  savages  against  them.  He 
offered  a  significant  reward  lor  every  American  scalp  brought  in  to  him, 


GENERAL  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARKE. 


534 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES?. 


but  offered  nothing  for  prisoners.     At  the  same  time  he  proposed  in 
invade  Virginia  in  the  spring  with  an  overwhelming  force  of  Indians. 

Clarke  and  his  party  were  in  very  great  danger.  They  were  entirely 
cut  off*  from  Virginia  and  without  hope  of  reinforcements.  In  this 
emergency,  Clarke,  who  had  learned  that  Hamilton  had  greatly  weakened 
the  garrison  at  Vincennes,  resolved  to  stake  the  fate  of  the  west  on  a 
single  issue,  and  attempt  the  capture  of  that  post.  On  the  7th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1779,  he  left  Kaskaskia  with  one  hundred  and  thirty  men,  and 
marched  across  the  country  towards  Vincennes.  On  the  18th  they  were 
within  nine  miles  of  Vincennes.  The  Wabash  had  overflowed  the 
country  along  its  banks,  and  in  order  to  reach  the  object  of  their  march, 


FRANKFORT,   KENTUCKY. 


Clarke  and  his  men  were  obliged  to  cross  the  submerged  lands,  up  to 
their  armpits  in  water.  They  were  five  days  in  crossing  these  "  drowned 
lands,"  and  had  the  weather  been  less  mild,  must  have  perished.  On 
the  23d  Vincennes  was  reached,  and  the  town  was  at  once  carried. 
Clarke  then  laid  siege  to  the  fort,  assisted  in  this  task  by  the  inhabitants 
of  the  town,  and  in  twenty-four  hours  compelled  Hamilton  and  his  men 
to  surrender  themselves  prisoners  of  war. 

*'  Clarke  was  unable  to  advance  against  Detroit  because  of  the  insuffu 
•ciency  of  his  force.  His  successes,  however,  were  among  the  most  im-> 
portant  of  the  war.  They  not  only  put  an  end  to  the  British  scheme  of 
a  general  Indian  war  along  the  western  frontier  of  the  United  States, 
but  established  the  authority  of  the  Union  over  the  country  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  prevented  Great  Britain  from  asserting  a  claim  to  that 


AID  FROM  ABROAD. 


535 


region  at  the  conclusion  of  peace,  a  few  years  later.  Returning  to  the 
Ohio,  Clarke  built  a  blockhouse  at  the  falls.  The  conquered  territory 
was  claimed  by  Virginia,  and  was  erected  by  the  legislature  of  that  State 
into  the  county  of  Illinois.  By  order  of  Governor  Jefferson  of  Virginia, 
Clarke  established  a  fort  on  the  Mississippi,  about  five  miles  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  which  he  named  Fort  Jefferson,  and  entered  intc- 
friendly  relations  with  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Louis. 

The  Tennessee  region,  which  formed  a  part  of  the  province  of  North 
Carolina,  had  been  settled  previous  to  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  Fort 
Loudon,  about  30  miles  southwest 
of  Knoxville,  was  built  in  1756,  and 
in  1770  the  Cumberland  valley  was 
settled,  and  Nashville  was  founded. 
By  the  commencement  of  the  revo- 
lution the  Tennessee  country  was 
quite  thickly  settled,  and  the  popula- 


COAT   OF  ARMS   OF  TENNESSEE. 


tion  was  increasing  at  an  encouraging 
rate.  In  1776  the  Cherokees,  incited  by  the  British,  waged  a  for- 
midable war  upon  the  settlers,  but  were  defeated  by  the  forces  of  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina.  A  little  later  the  legislature  of  North  Caro- 
lina organized  the  Tennessee  settlements  as  the  "  District  of  Washington." 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   WAR. 

Severity  of  the  Winter  ot  1779-80— Sufferings  of  the  American  Army— Clinton  Sails  for 
the  Carolinas— Colonel  Tarleton— Capture  of  Charleston — Conquest  of  South  Carolina- 
Gates  in  Command  of  the  Southern  Army — Battle  of  Camden— Exploits  of  Marion  and 
Sumter — Advance  of  Cornwallis — Battle  of  King's  Mountain — Gates  Succeeded  by 
General  Greene — Knyphaasen's  Expeditions  into  New  Jersey — Arrival  of  the  French 
Fleet  and  Army — Arnold's  Treason — The  Plot  for  the  Betrayal  of  West  Point — Arrest  of 
Major  Andre" — Flight  of  Arnold — Execution  of  Andre" — Mutiny  of  the  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  Troops — Measures  of  Congress — Arnold  Captures  Richmond,  Virginia — 
Battle  of  the  Cowpens — Masterly  Retreat  of  General  Greene — Cornwallis  Baffled — Battle 
of  Guilford  Court  House — Cornwallis  at  Wilmington — Battle  of  Hobkirk's  Hill— Siege 
of  Ninety-Six — Execution  of  Colonel  Hayne — Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs — Washington 
Decides  to  Attack  New  York — The  French  Army  on  the  Hudson — Financial  Affairs — 
Resumption  of  Specie  Payments — Message  from  the  Count  De  Grasse — Cornwallis  at 
Yorktown — The  American  Army  Moves  Southward— Siege  of  Yorktown— Surrender  of 
Cornwallis — Effect  of  the  News  in  England — Indian  Troubles — Efforts  in  England  for 
Peace — Negotiations  Opened — Treaty  of  Paris — End  of  the  War— The  Army  Disbanded 
— Washington  Resigns  his  Commission. 

HE  winter  of  1779-80  was  passed  by  the  American  army  in  huts 
near  Morristown.  It  was  one  of  the  severest  seasons  ever  ex- 
perienced in  America.  The  harbor  of  New  York  was  frozen 
over  as  far  as  the  Narrows,  and  the  ice  was  strong  enough  to 
bear  the  heaviest  artillery.  Communication  between  New  York 
and  the  sea  was  entirely  cut  off,  and  the  British  garrison  and  the  citizens 
Buffered  from  a  scarcity  of  provisions.  Knyphausen  was  afraid  the 
Americans  would  seek  to  pass  the  Hudson  on  the  ice  and  attack  the  city, 
and  landed  the  crews  of  the  shipping  in  the  harbor,  and  added  them  to 
the  garrison.  His  precautions  were  useless,  as  the  American  army  was 
too  weak  and  too  poorly  supplied  to  undertake  the  capture  of  New  York. 
The  troops  at  Morristown  suffered  very  greatly  during  the  winter. 
They  had  scarcely  clothing  enough  to  protect  them  from  the  cold ;  and 
provisions  were  so  scarce  that  in  order  to  keep  his  men  from  starvation, 
Washington  was  compelled  to  impress  supplies  from  the  people  of  the 
surrounding  country.  The  heavy  snows  made  the  army  entirely  depen- 
dent upon  New  Jersey  for  its  subsistence,  as  transportation  from  a  long 
distance  could  not  be  attempted.  The  people  of  New  Jersey  bore  the 
536 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR. 


537 


sacrifices  imposed  upon  them  with  a  noble  cheerfulness,  and  though  their 
State  was  drained  almost  to  exhaustion,  were  untiring  in  their  efforts  to 
provide  food  and  clothing  for  the  troops.  The  Continental  currency  had 
fallen  so  low  that  one  dollar  in  silver  was  worth  thirty  dollars  in  paper 
by  the  beginning  of  the  year  1780;  but  neither  officers  nor  men  could 
obtain  their  pay  in  this  depreciated  currency.  It  was  almost  impossible 
for  the  government  to  purchase  anything  with  its  notes. 

About  the  last  of  December,  1779,  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  leaving  a  strong 
garrison  under  General  Knyphausen  to  hold  New  York,  sailed  south, 
with  the  greater  part  of  his  army,  in  the  fleet  of  Admiral  Arbuthnot.  He 


CHARLESTON,  SOTJTH  CAROLINA,  IN  1877. 

proceeded  first  to  Savannah,  and  then  moved  northward  for  the  purpose 
of  besieging  Charleston.  General  Lincoln  exerted  himself  with  energy  to 
fortify  that  city.  Four  thousand  citizens  enrolled  themselves  to  assist  the 
regular  garrison  in  the  defence,  but  only  two  hundred  militia  from  the 
interior  responded  to  Lincoln's  call  for  aid.  Reinforcements  were  received 
from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  Lincoln  was  able  to  muster  seven 
thousand  men,  of  whom  but  two  thousand  were  regular  troops.  In 
February,  1780,  the  British  landed  at  St.  John's  island,  about  thirty 
miles  below  Charleston.  Clinton  advanced  towards  the  city  along  the 
banks  of  the  Ashley,  while  the  fleet  sailed  around  to  force  an  entrance 
into  the  harbor.  The  advance  of  Clinton  was  very  gradual,  and  Lincoln 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

was  enabled  to  strengthen  his  works,  and  prepare  for  a  siege.  It  was  not 
until  early  in  April  that  Clinton's  array  appeared  before  the  American 
works  and  began  preparations  to  reduce  them.  A  day  or  two  1  er  the 
British  fleet  passed  Fort  Moultrie  with  but  little  loss,  and  took  position 

off  the  city. 

Clinton  had  lost  nearly  all  his  horses  on  the  voyage  from  New  York, 
and  was  anxious  to  replace  them  from  the  country  north  of  Charleston, 
The  Americans  had  stationed  bodies  of  militia  at  different  points  north  of 
the  city  to  keep  open  the  communications  with  Charleston,  and  to  prevent 
the  foraging  parties  of  the  British  from  reaching  the  interior.  Clinton 
intrusted  the  task  of  breaking  up  these  posts  and  obtaining  fresh  horses 
to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Banastre  Tarleton,  a  young  and  energetic  officer. 
Tarleton  was  short  of  stature,  of  a  dark,  swarthy  complexion,  and  broad 
shouldered  and  muscular.  He  was  insensible  to  fatigue,  unscrupulous  as 
to  the  means  by  which  he  accomplished  his  objects,  merciless  in  battle, 
and  unflagging  in  pursuit.  He  was  one  of  the  most  efficient  officers  in 
the  English  army,  and  one  of  the  most  cruel.  By  purchase  from  friends 
and  seizures  from  foes,  he  soon  supplied  Clinton  with  all  the  horses  he 
needed.  He  then  began  his  attempt  to  break  up  the  American  posts 
north  of  Charleston.  On  the  night  of  the  14th  of  April,  he  surprised  a 
body  of  fourteen  hundred  cavalry  under  General  Huger  and  Colonel 
William  Washington,  at  Monk's  Corner,  about  thirty  miles  north  of 
Charleston.  The  Americans  were  defeated  with  a  loss  of  one  hundred 
prisoners  and  four  hundred  wagons  laden  with  stores.  A  little  later  Fort 
Moultrie  surrendered,  and  soon  after  Tarleton  cut  to  pieces  another 
detachment  of  American  cavalry. 

Charleston  was  now  completely  invested,  and  the  siege  was  pressed  with 
vigor  by  Clinton.  Lincoln's  situation  became  every  day  more  hopeless. 
The  fire  of  the  British  artillery  destroyed  his  defences  and  dismounted 
his  cannon,  and  as  he  was  entirely  cut  off  from  the  country  he  had  no 
hope  of  relief  from  without.  On  the  9th  of  May,  a  terrible  fire  was 
opened  upon  the  defences  and  the  city  of  Charleston.  The  city  was  set 
on  fire  in  five  places,  and  the  American  works  were  reduced  to  a  mass  of 
ruins.  On  the  12th,  Lincoln  surrendered  the  towii  and  his  army  to  Sir 
Henry  Clinton.  The  prisoners,  including  every  male  adult  in  the  city, 
Cumbered  about  six  thousand  men.  The  regulars  were  held  as  prisoners 
of  war,  but  the  militia  were  dismissed  to  their  homes  on  their  promise 
not  to  serve  again  during  the  war. 

Clinton  followed  up  his  capture  of  the  city  by  a  series  of  vigorous  meas- 
ures. Tarleton  was  despatched  into  the  interior  to  attack  a  Virginia 
regiment  under  Colonel  Beaufort,  which  was  advancing  to  the  relief  of 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR.  539 

Charleston.  Beaufort  began  his  retreat  as  soon  as  he  heard  of  the  surren- 
der of  Charleston,  but  was  overtaken  and  surprised  by  Tarleton  at  Wax- 
haw's,  on  the  boundary  of  North  Carolina.  The  British  had  made  a  forced 
march  of  one  hundred  and  five  miles  in  fifty-four  hours.  They  gave  no 
quarter  to  the  Americans,  and  put  to  the  sword  all  who  were  unable  to 
escape.  Their  barbarous  conduct  on  this  occasion  was  termed  by  the 
American's  "  Tarletoii's  quarters."  A  second  column  was  sent  by  Clinton 
towards  Augusta,  and  a  third  towards  Camden  to  reduce  the  country 
between  Charleston  and  those  points.  They  encountered  but  little 
resistance.  Clinton  issued  a  proclamation  threatening  to  visit  the  severest 
punishments  upon  those  who  refused  to  submit  to  the  royal  authority ; 
and  this  was  followed  a  little  later  by  another,  offering  pardon  to  all  who 
would  return  to  their  allegiance  and  assist  in  restoring  the  authority  of 
the  king.  The  measures  of  the  British  commander  were  entirely  success- 
ful, and  South  Carolina  was  so  completely  subjugated  that  early  in  June, 
Sir  Henry  Clinton  sailed  for  New  York,  leaving  Lord  Cornwallis  to 
complete  the  conquest  of  the  State.  The  country  abounded  in  Tories,  who 
exerted  themselves  actively  to  assist  the  British  commander  in  his  efforts 
to  hold  the  Carolinas  in  subjection.  Large  numbers  of  them  joined  the 
British  army,  and  "  loyal  legions  "  were  formed  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  The  only  resistance  kept  up  by  the  Americans  was  maintained 
by  the  partisan  corps  of  patriots  led  by  Marion,  Sumter,  and  Pickeus. 
The  exploits  of  these  daring  bands  caused  the  British  commander  to  feel 
that  he  could  not  hold  the  Carolinas  except  by  the  aid  of  a  strong  force,  and 
kept  him  in  a  state  of  constant  uneasiness.  On  the  16th  of  August,  Sum- 
ter defeated  a  large  body  of  British  and  Tories  at  Hanging  Rock,  east  of 
the  Wateree  river.  Large  numbers  of  negroes  deserted  their  masters  and 
fled  to  the  British. 

In  order  to  offer  a  definite  resistance  to  the  British,  and  to  collect  a 
regular  army  to  oppose  them,  the  Baron  De  Kalb  was  sent  to  take  com- 
mand of  the  troops  in  the  south,  and  all  the  regulars  south  of  Pennsyl- 
vania were  ordered  to  join  him.  De  Kalb  managed  to  collect  about  two 
regiments,  and  with  these  moved  slowly  southward.  A  lack  of  provisions 
forced  him  to  halt  three  weeks  on  Deep  river,  one  of  the  upper  tributaries 
of  the  Cape  Fear. 

Matters  were  so  bad  in  the  south  that  Congress  resolved  to  send 
General  Gates,  the  conqueror  of  Burgoyne,  to  take  command  of  the  army 
in  that  quarter.  General  Charles  Lee,  who  knew  that  Gates  was  not  the 
man  to  retrieve  such  losses,  predicted  that  "his  northern  laurels  would 
soon  be  changed  into  southern  willows."  Gates  hastened  southward,  and 
overtook  De  Kalb  at  Deep  river,  and  assumed  the  command.  De  Kalb 


540  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

advised  him  to  move  into  South  Carolina  by  a  circuitous  route  through 
the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  which  was  true  to  the  patriot  cause,  and  where 
provisions  could  be  easily  obtained.  Gates  declined  to  take  his  advice, 
and  marched  towards  Camden  by  the  direct  route,  which  led  through  a 
barren  and  almost  uninhabited  region.  He  was  sure  that  his  wagons  from 
the  north  laden  with  provisions  would  overtake  the  troops  in  two  days; 
but  he  was  mistaken :  the  wagons  never  made  their  appearance,  and  the 
troops  suffered  greatly  from  hunger  and  disease.  His  army  increased 
every  day  by  reinforcements  from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  On  the 
13th  of  August,  he  reached  Clermont,  about  twelve  miles  from  Camden. 
His  force  now  amounted  to  nearly  four  thousand  men,  nearly  two-thirds 
of  whom  were  Continentals. 

Upon  the  approach  of  Gai^s,  Lord  Rawdon,  the  British  commander  in 
this  part  of  the  State,  fell  back  to  Camden,  where  he  was  joined  by  Corn- 
wallis,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Charleston,  and  who  assumed  the  com- 
mand. On  the  night  of  the  15th,  Gates  moved  nearer  to  Camden,  and 
at  the  same  time  Cornwallis  advanced  to  attack  Gates,  whom  he  hoped  to 
surprise.  The  advanced  guards  encountered  each  other  in  the  woods, 
and  the  two  armies  halted  until  morning.  The  battle  began  with  dawn, 
on  the  16th  of  August.  The  militia  fled  at  the  first  charge  of  the  British, 
but  the  Continentals,  under  the  brave  De  Kalb,  stood  firm,  though  attacked 
in  front  and  flank.  At  length  De  Kalb  fell  mortally  wounded,  and  the 
Continentals  gave  way.  The  American  army  was  completely  routed, 
and  was  broken  up  into  small  parties  and  scattered  through  the  country. 
These  continued  a  disorderly  retreat,  closely  followed  for  about  thirty 
miles  by  Tarleton's  cavalry,  who  cut  them  down  without  mercy. 

The  battle  of  Camden  was  the  most  disastrous  defeat  incurred  by  the 
Americans  during  the  whole  war.  They  lost  nearly  eighteen  hundred 
men  in  killed  and  prisoners,  and  all  their  artillery  and  stores.  .  A  few 
days  after  the  battle,  Gates  reached  Charlotte,  North  Carolina,  with  about 
two  hundred  men,  the  remains  of  the  army  which  his  incapacity  had 
ruined. 

A  few  days  previous  to  the  battle,  Sumter  surprised  a  detachment 
convoying  stores  to  the  British  array  at  Camden,  *and  took  two  hundred 
prisoners.  As  soon  as  Cornwallis  heard  of  this,  he  sent  Tarleton  in  pur- 
suit of  the  "  Game  Cock,"  as  he  styled  Sumter.  Tarleton  pushed  forward 
with  such  vigor  that  half  of  his  men  and  horses  were  broken  down.  He 
overtook  Sumter  at  Fishing  Creek,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Catawba,  and 
routed  him  with  the  loss  of  the  greater  part  of  his  partisan  corps,  and 
rescued  the  prisoners. 

All  united  and  organized  resistance  to  the  British  in  the  Carolinas  now 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR.  r>\\ 

ceased  for  a  time.  The  true  policy  of  Cormvallis  was  to  conciliate  the 
people  by  acts  of  clemency,  but  instead  of  this  he  exasperated  them  by 
his  unnecessary  severity.  Among  the  prisoners  taken  at  the  defeat  of 
Sumter  were  a  number  who  had  given  their  parol  not  to  serve  during  the 
war.  Some  of  these  were  hanged  on  the  spot ;  the  remainder  were  sub- 
jected to  a  severe  imprisonment.  These  severities  aroused  a  desire  for 
vengeance  among  the  people,  and  gave  many  recruits  to  Marion,  who 
from  the  swamps  of  the  lower  Pedee  maintained  a  constant  and  severe 
partisan  warfare  against  the  British.  At  the  same  time,  Sumter  by  great 
exertions  recruit- 
ed his  command, 
and  resumed  his 
operations  in  the 
upper  country. 
These  bands  were 
deficient  in  arms 
at  first,  but  sup- 
plied themselves 
from  the  enemy. 
They  made  their 
gunpowder, 


own 

cast   their  own 
bullets,  and  pro- 
vided  food 
themselves 
their  horses, 
their    rapid 
secret  movements 
they    kept    the 
British  in  a  state 
of  constant  alarm. 
They  would  make 

a  sudden  and  unexpected  attack  upon  the  enemy  at  some  exposed  point, 
and  before  pursuit  could  be  attempted  would  be  miles  away,  or  safe  in 
the  labyrinths  of  the  swamps. 

Gates  continued  to  retreat  slowly  to  the  northward  after  his  defeat. 
He  had  now  about  a  thousand  men  with  him.  Virginia  and  Maryland 
made  great  exertions  to  reinforce  him,  but  without  success. 

In  September,  Cornwallis  advanced  northward  with  the  main  body  of 
his  army.  Upon  reaching  Charlotte  he  despatched  Colonel  Ferguson, 
one  of  his  most  trusted  officers,  to  rally  the  Tories  among  the  mountains 


GENERAL  FRANCIS  MARION. 


642 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


in  the  interior.  Cornwallis  intended  to  advance  from  Charlotte  by  way 
of  Salisbury  and  Hill.sborough  into  Virginia,  and  form  a  junction  with  a 
force  to  be  sent  to  the  lower  Chesapeake  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton.  The 
success  of  this  movement  would  complete  the  subjugation  of  the  south. 
The  patriots  in  the  country  through  which  his  army  passed  were  very 
active.  His  expresses  were  captured  or  shot,  and  his  plans  made  known 
to  the  Americans.  While  Ferguson  was  on  the  march,  Cornwallis 
advanced  to  Salisbury. 

The  movement  of  Ferguson  roused  the  patriots  of  the  interior  counties 
to  arms,  and  they  assembled  rapidly,  with  the  intention  of  cutting  him 
off  from  the  army  under  Cornwallis.  They  came  from  all  directions, 


BATTLE  OP   KING'S  MOUNTAIN. 

from  as  far  as  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Their  weapons  were  their  rifles, 
to  the  use  of  which  they  had  been  trained  from  childhood ;  they  had  no 
baggage ;  and  they  moved  forward  as  rapidly  as  their  horses  could  carry 
them.  These  forces  had  been  gathering  for  several  days  before  the  rumors 
of  their  march  reached  Colonel  Ferguson.  He  regarded  the  reports  with 
distrust  at  first,  but  upon  receiving  more  accurate  information  began  a 
rapid  retreat.  About  the  same  time  the  various  parties  of  the  Americans 
effected  ajunction.  They  numbered  three  thousand  men.  A  council  of 
war  was  held,  and  it  was  resolved  to  send  forward  a  detachment  to  bring 
Ferguson  to  a  stand,  and  to  follow  with  the  main  body  as  quickly  as 
possible. 

Nine  hundred  men,  mounted  on  swift  horses,  were  sent  forward,  under 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR.  543 

Colonel  Campbell.  They  rode  for  thirty-six  hours,  a  large  part  of  the 
time  through  a  drenching  rain,  and  dismounted  but  once  during  this? 
period.  Ferguson,  alarmed  and  astounded  at  this  determination  to  crush 
him,  fell  back  to  a  strong  position  on  King's  mountain,  near  the  Catawba. 
He  was  attacked  there  on  the  7th  of  October  by  the  Americans,  and 
defeated  after  a  hotly  contested  fight.  Ferguson  and  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  his  men  were  killed,  the  remainder  were  compelled  to  sur- 
render. The  prisoners  numbered  about  nine  hundred  and  fifty,  of  whom 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  wounded.  The  Americans  lost  twenty 
killed  and  a  somewhat  larger  number  wounded.  The  North  Carolinians 
selected  ten  of  the  Tories  who  had  earned  their  fate  by  their  cruelties  to  the 
Americans,  and  hanged  them  on  the  spot.  The  Americans  then  separated 
and  returned  home,  after  seeing  their  prisoners  safe  in  the  hands  of  the 
proper  authorities.  Their  victory  raised  the  drooping  spirits  of  their 
countrymen,  and  encouraged  them  to  fresh  exertions  to  resist  the  British. 
As  soon  as  Cornwallis  heard  of  it,  he  abandoned  his  forward  movement, 
and,  falling  back  into  South  Carolina,  took  position  between  the  Broad 
and  Saluda  rivers.  He  remained  there  until  the  close  of  the  year. 

Marion  took  advantage  of  the  change  of  feeling  caused  by  the  victory 
of  King's  mountain  to  renew  his  operations  on  the  Pedee,  but  Tarleton 
compelled  him  to  withdraw  to  his  fastness  in  the  swamps.  Sumter  was 
more  successful  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State,  and  defeated  a  detach- 
ment sent  in  pursuit  of  him.  -  Tarleton  then  went  after  him  in  person, 
but  was  defeated  and  forced  to  retreat.  Sumter  was  wounded  in  this 
engagement,  and  was  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  field  for  several 
months.  During  this  period  his  command,  deprived  of  their  leader,  dis- 
banded. The  contest  in  the  Carolinas  degenerated  into  a  savage  civil 
war.  The  patriots  and  Tories  fought  each  other  wherever  they  met,  and 
destroyed  each  other's  property  throughout  the  State.  The  country  was 
thus  kept  in  constant  terror. 

Upon  the  retreat  of  Cornwallis  from  Salisbury,  Grates  advanced  south- 
ward as  far  as  Charlotte.  Here  he  "was  relieved  of  his  command  by 
General  Nathaniel  Greene,  who  had  been  appointed  by  Congress,  at  the 
urgent  solicitation  of  Washington,  to  take  charge  of  the  southern  depart- 
ment. Gates  had  given  great  dissatisfaction  by  his  failure  in  the  south 
and  Congress  ordered  a  court  of  inquiry  to  examine  into  his  condu 
Greene  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  entire  south  from  Delaware  to  Georgia, 
"  subject  to  the  control  of  the  commander-in-chief."  Thus  Washington 
was  given  the  supreme  direction  of  the  war.  Greene  possessed  his  entire 
confidence,  and  the  most  cordial  and  affectionate  relations  existed  between 
them.  Greene  found  the  remnants  of  Gates'  army  in  a  half  .mutinous 


544 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


condition.  The  men  were  without  pay,  without  clothing,  and  suffering 
for  the  necessaries  of  life.  Reinforcements  were  sent  him  from  the  north, 
among  which  were  Morgan's  regiment  of  riflemen,  Lee's  legion  of  light- 
horse,  and  several  batteries  of  artillery. 

We  must  now  return  to  the  army  under  Washington.  As  the  spring 
opened  the  sufferings  of  the  troops  at  Morristown  increased.  Food  was 
SO  scarce  that  the  troops  were  driven  to  desperation.  Two  regiments  of 

Connecticut  troops 
declared  their  in- 
tention to  abandon 
the  army  and  march 
home,  or  wrest  pro- 
visions from  the  peo- 
ple of  the  surround- 
ing country  by  force. 
WT  ash  ing  ton  was 
compelled  to  exert 
all  his  influence  and 
authority  to  restore 
order.  It  was  with 
great  difficulty  that 
provisions  were  pro- 
cured, and  the  wants 
of  the  troops  sup- 
plied. The  danger 
caused  by  this  state 
of  affairs  was  so 
great  that  Congress 
authorized  Wash- 
ington to  declare 
martial  law. 

The  news  of  these 
troubles    in   the 

American  camp  induced  Knyphausen  to  undertake  an  expedition  into 
New  Jersey.  He  landed  at  Elizabethtown,  with  five  thousand  men,  on 
the  6th  of  June,  and  marched  towards  Springfield.  His  advance  was 
warmly  contested  by  the  militia  of  the  region,  but  he  penetrated  as  far  as 
the  village  of  Connecticut  Farms.  Being  unable  to  advance  farther  he 
caused  the  village  to  be  sacked  and  burned  ;  and  Mrs.  Caldwell,  the  wife 
of  the  minister  of  the  village,  was  murdered  by  some  of  the  British 
troops.  The  militia  of  the  region  gathered  in  force,  and  Knyphausen 
was  obliged  to  make  a  hasty  retreat  to  Elizabethtown. 


GENERAL  NATHANIEL  GREENE. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR.  545 

The  murder  of  Mrs.  Caldwell  aroused  the  most  intense  excitement 
throughout  New  Jersey.  It  was  denounced  as  one  of  the  most  infamous 
deeds  of  the  war,  and  gave  rise  to  a  fierce  and  general  spirit  of  vengeance. 
Her  husband,  an  eloquent  and  highly  esteemed  minister,  animated  his 
countrymen  by  his  stirring  sermons,  and  he  soon  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  that  his  labors  were  not  in  vain. 

After  the  return  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton  to  New  York,  Washington 
moved  a  part  of  his  troops  towards  the  Highlands.  Knyphausen  again 
advanced  from  Elizabethtown  towards  Springfield,  hoping  to  gain  the 
passes  beyond  Morristown  before  his  march  should  be  discovered.  His 
advance  was  detected,  however,  and  General  Greene,  who  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  American  forces,  prepared  to  resist  him.  A  sharp  fight 
ensued,  in  which  Greene  succeeded  in  checking  the  British  advance. 
The  New  Jersey  regiment,  of  which  Caldwell  was  chaplain,  was  engaged 
in  the  battle.  The  wadding  of  the  men  gave  out,  and  Caldwell,  mount- 
ing his  horse,  galloped  to  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  returned  with  an 
armful  of  Dr.  Watts'  hymn  books,  which  he  distributed  among  the 
troops,  with  the  pious  injunction,  "  Now  put  Watts  into  them,  boys  ! " 
The  militia  came  flocking  in  to  the  support  of  General  Greene,  and 
Knyphausen  finding  it  impossible  to  advance  farther,  burned  Springfield 
and  fell  back  to  Elizabethtown. 

The  Americans  were  greatly  encouraged  in  the  spring  by  the  return 
of  Lafayette,  who  had  spent  the  winter  in  France.  He  had  been  success- 
ful in  his  endeavors  to  induce  the  French  court  to  send  another  fleet  and 
army  to  the  assistance  of  the  patriots ;  and  he  now  brought  the  good  news 
that  a  new  expedition  was  on  its  way  to  America.  In  July  a  fleet  under 
Count  de  Tiernay,  with  an  army  of  seven  thousand  men,  under  Count  de 
Rochambeau,  reached  Newport.  The  Count  de  Rochambeau  was  directed 
by  his  government  to  place  himself  under  the  orders  of  General  Washing- 
ton in  order  to  avoid  disputes  that  might  arise  from  military  etiquette. 
This  expedition  was  the  first  division  of  the  army  to  be  sent  to  America 
by  France.  The  second  division  was  to  sail  from  Brest,  but  was  unable 
to  do  so,  as  it  was  blockaded  in  that  harbor  by  a  British  squadron. 
Thus  the  supplies  of  arms  and  clothing  which  were  to  have  been  sent  to 
the  American  army  were  delayed,  and  the  troops  under  Washington  were 
unable  to  cooperate  with  the  French  in  an  attack  upon  New  York.  An 
English  fleet  had  followed  the  French  across  the  Atlantic,  and  Clinton 
was  anxious  to  secure  its  cooperation  in  an  attack  upon  the  French  at 
Newport.  He  could  not  agree  with  Admiral  Arbuthnot  upon  a  plan  of 
attack,  and  the  English  admiral  contented  himself  with  blockading  the 
French  in  Newport  harbor.  Washington  called  out  the  militia  of  New 
35 


546  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

England  to  assist  in  the  defence  of  Newport  in  case  of  an  attack.  The 
French  fleet  was  shut  up  in  this  port,  and  to  the  great  disappointment 
of  Washington,  was  unable  to  take  part  in  any  combined  operation. 

Some  weeks  later  Washington,  anxious  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  at  the 
enemy,  invited  the  French  commanders,  De  Tiernay  and  Rochambeau,  tc 
meet  him  at  Hartford,  to  arrange  a  plan  for  an  attack  upon  New  York. 
The  meeting  was  held,  but  it  was  decided  to  ask  the  cooperation  of  the 
French  admiral  in  the  West  Indies,  as  the  fleet  at  Newport  was  not 
strong  enough  to  cope  with  the  British  fleet  at  New  York.  Until  the 
answer  of  the  admiral  was  received  nothing  could  be  done. 

While  absent  at  Hartford  a  plot  was  discovered  which  involved 
the  fair  fame  of  one  of  the  most  brilliant  officers  of  the  American  army. 
General  Benedict  Arnold  had  been  disabled  by  the  wounds  he  had 

received  at  Quebec  and  Saratoga  from 
undertaking  active  service,  and  through 
the  influence  of  Washington  had  been 
placed  in  command  of  Philadelphia 
after  its  evacuation  by  Clinton  in  1778. 
There  he  lived  in  a  style  far  beyond 
his  means,  and  became  involved  in 
debts,  which  he  was  unable  to  pay. 
To  raise  the  funds  to  discharge  them 
he  engaged  in  privateering  and  mer- 
cantile speculations.  These  were  gen- 
erally unsuccessful,  and  merely  in- 
creased his  difficulties.  His  haughty 
and  overbearing  manner  involved  him 
in  a  quarrel  with  the  authorities  of  Pennsylvania,  who  accused  him  before 
Congress  of  abusing  his  official  position  and  misusing  the  public  funds. 
He  was  tried  by  a  court-martial  and  was  sentenced  to  be  reprimanded 
by  the  commander-iu-chief.  Washington  performed  this  disagreeable 
task  as  delicately  as  possible,  but  did  not  lose  his  confidence  in  Arnold. 
He  knew  him  as  an  able  officer,  but,  as  his  acquaintance  with  him  was 
limited,  was  most  likely  ignorant  of  the  faults  of  Arnold's  character, 
which  were  well  known  tc  the  members  of  Congress  from  Connecticut, 
who  had  no  confidence  in  him.  To  them  he  was  known  to  be  naturally 
dishonest,  regardless  of  the  rights  of  others,  and  cruel  and  tyrannical 
in  his  dealings  with  those  under  his  authority.  Arnold  never  forgave 
the  disgrace  inflicted  upon  him  by  the  sentence  of  the  court-martial,  and 
cherished  the  determination  to  be  revenged  upon  Washington  for  the 
reprimand  received  from  him. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR. 


547 


While  in  Philadelphia,  Arnold  had  married  a  member  of  a  Tory- 
family,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  communicate  readily  with  the  British 
officers.  He  opened  a  correspondence  with  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  signing 
himself  Gustavus.  He  kept  up  this  correspondence  for  several  months, 
and  then  made  himself  known  to  the  British  commander.  In  the  mean- 
time, at  his  earnest  solicitation,  he  was  appointed  by  Washington,  in 
August,  1780,  to  the  command  of  West  Point,  the  strongest  and  most 
important  fortress  in  America.  He  did  this  with  the  deliberate  intention 
of  betraying  the  post  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

The  correspondence  had  been  conducted  on  the  part  of  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  by  Major  John  Andre^  of  the  British  army,  a  young  man  of  amia- 
ble character  and  more  than  ordinary  accomplishments.  He  wrote  under 
the  assumed  name  of  John  Anderson.  He  was  an  especial  favorite  of 
Sir  Henry  Clinton,  and  was  beloved 
by  the  whole  army  in  which  he  served. 
Soon  after  the  appointment  of  Arnold 
to  the  command  of  West  Point,  Andr6 
volunteered  to  go  up  the  Hudson  and 
have  an  interview  with  him  for  the  pur- 
pose of  completing  the  arrangements  for 
the  betrayal  of  that  fortress.  His  offer 
was  accepted  by  Clinton,  and  he  ascend- 
ed the  Hudson  as  far  as  Haverstraw 
in  the  sloop  of  war  "  Vulture."  He 
was  set  ashore  and  was  met  near  Hav- 
erstraw on  the  west  bank  of  the  Hud- 
Bon  by  General  Arnold,  on  the  22d  of 
September.  The  meeting  took  place  about  dark,  and  the  night  had  passed 
before  the  arrangements  were  completed.  Much  against  his  will,  Andr6 
was  compelled  to  pass  the  next  day  within  the  American  lines.  During 
the  23d  the  "  Vulture,"  having  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Americans, 
was  fired  upon  and  forced  to  drop  down  the  river.  Andre*  found  the  man 
who  had  set  him  ashore  unwilling  to  row  him  back  to  the  sloop,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  return  to  New  York  by  land.  He  changed  his  uniform 
for  a  citizen's  dress,  and,  provided  with  a  pass  from  Arnold,  under  the 
name  of  John  Anderson,  set  out  for  New  York  along  the  east  bank  of 
the  river,  which  he  deemed  safer  than  the  opposite  shore. 

All  went  well  until  Andre"  reached  the  vicinity  of  Tarrytown.  There 
he  was  stopped  by  three  young  men,  John  Paulding,  David  Williams, 
and  Isaac  Van  Wart.  They  asked  him  his  name  and  destination,  and 
he,  supposing  them  to  be  Tories,  did  not  use  the  pass  given  him  by  Arnoldj, 


548 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


but  frankly  avowed  himself  a  British  officer  travelling  on  important  busi- 
ness. To  his  dismay  he  then  learned  that  his  captors  were  of  the  patriot 
party,  and  he  offered  them  his  watch,  purse,  and  any  reward  they  might 
name  if  they  would  suffer  him  to  proceed.  They  refused  to  allow  him 
to  stir  a  step,  and  searched  his  person.  They  found  concealed  in  his 
boots  papers  giving  the  plan  of  West  Point,  and  an  account  of  its  gar- 
rison. Andre'  was  taken  by  his  captors  before  Colonel  Jamison,  the  com- 
mander of  the  nearest  American  post.  Jamison  recognized  the  hand- 
writing as  that  of  Arnold,  but,  unwilling  to  believe  that  his  commander 
could  be  guilty  of  treason,  he  detained  the  prisoner,  and  wrote  to  Arnold 
informing  him  of  the  arrest  of  Andr6  and  of  the  papers  found  upon  his 
person.  The  papers  themselves  he  forwarded  by  a  special  messenger  to 
Washington,  who  was  on  his  return  from  Hartford. 

Arnold  Deceived  Colonel  Jamison's  letter  as  he  sat  at  breakfast  with 
some  of  his  officers.  He  concealed  his  emotion,  and  excusing  himself 
to  his  guests,  called  his 
wife  from  the  room, 
told  her  he  must  flee 
for  his  life,  and  hast- 
ening to  his  barge, 
escaped  down  the  river 
to  the  "Vulture," 
and  was  received  on 
board  by  the  com- 
mander of  that  vessel. 
From  his  place  of 
safety  he  wrote  to 
Washington  asking  him  to  'protect  his  wife,  who,  he  declared,  was  inno- 
cent of  any  share  in  his  plot. 

When  he  learned  that  Arnold  was  safe,  Andre'  wrote  to  Washington, 
and  confessed  the  whole  plot.  He  was  at  once  brought  to  trial  upon  the 
charge  of  being  within  the  American  lines  as  a  spy.  The  court-martial 
was  presided  over  by  General  Greene,  and  Lafayette  and  Steuben  were 
among  its  members.  Andre*  asserted  that  he  had  been  induced  to  enter 
the  American  lines  by  the  misrepresentations  of  Arnold.  He  denied  that 
he  was  a  spy,  and  though  cautioned  not  to  say  anything  that  might  crim- 
inate himself,  he  frankly  confessed  the  whole  plot.  He  was  sentenced 
upon  his  own  confession  to  be  hanged.  Clinton  made  great  exertions 
to  save  him,  and  Washington,  whose  sympathy  was  won  by  the  amiable 
character  of  Andre*,  was  anxious  to  spare  him.  The  circumstances  of  the 
case  demanded  that  the  law  should  be  executed,  and  Andre*  was  hanged 


CAPTURE  OF  MAJOB  ANDKE. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR. 


549 


at  Tappan.  near  the  Hudson,  on  the  2d  of  October,  1780.  Congress 
voted  to  each  of  his  three  captors  a  pension  of  two  hundred  dollars  for 
life  and  a  silver  medal. 

The  plot  of  Arnold  had  been  discovered  by  the  merest  chance,  and  the 
American  cause  had  narrowly  escaped  a  crushing  disaster.  The  loss  of 
West  Point  would  have  given  the  British  the  entire  control  of  the  Hud- 
son, and  have  enabled  them  to  separate  New  England  from  the  Middlt 
and  Southern  States.  It  might  have  proved  fatal  to  the  cause,  and  cer- 
tainly would  have  reduced  Washington  to  great  extremities.  Arnold 


WEST  POINT  IN  1875. 

received  for  his  treachery  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling  and  a 
commission  as  brigadier-general  in  the  English  service.  He  was  regarded 
with  general  contempt  by  the  English  officers,  who  refused  to  associate 
with  him,  and  were  greatly  averse  to  serving  under  him. 

In  the  summer  of  1780  it  seemed  likely  that  England  would  be 
involved  in  war  with  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  claim  of  Great 
Britain  to  the  right  to  search  the  vessels  of  neutral  nations  for  article* 
contraband  of  war  was  productive  of  great  annoyance  to  the  northern 
powers,  whose  commerce  was  subjected  to  serious  loss  by  these  arbitrary 


550  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

measures.  Catharine  II.  of  Russia  determined  to  resist  it,  and  organized 
with  Denmark  and  Sweden  a  league  known  us  the  "Armed  Neutrality," 
for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  principle  that  neutral  ships  in  time  of 
•war  are  entitled  to  carry  merchandise  without  being  liable  to  search  or 
seizure  by  the  belligerent  powers. 

Holland  joined  this  league,  and  concluded  a  secret  commercial  treaty 
with  the  United  States.  This  treaty  was  discovered  by  Great  Britain 
almost  immediately,  and  in  the  following  manner :  The  American  min- 
ister to  Holland,  Henry  Laurens,  was  captured  at  sea  by  a  British  frigate. 
He  threw  his  papers,  the  treaty  among  them,  into  the  sea,  but  they  were 
recovered  by  an  English  sailor,  who  sprang  overboard  and  secured  them. 
They  were  laid  before  the  British  government,  which  demanded  that 
Holland  should  disavow  the  treaty  and  the  correspondence  with  the 
United  States.  The  Dutch  government  returned  an  evasive  answer,  and 
England  immediately  declared  war  against  Holland.  The  English  fleet 
at  once  proceeded  to  attack  the  Dutch  possessions  and  commerce  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  Holland  declared  war  against  Great  Britain,  and 
her  fleet  was  added  to  that  of  France  against  England.  Spain  now  made 
an  alliance  with  France  against  England,  and  sent  her  fleet  to  cooperate 
with  the  French  in  the  West  Indies,  and  also  laid  siege  to  Gibraltar.  The 
Irish  about  the  same  time  demanded  a  reform  of  the  many  abuses  from 
which  that  island  had  been  suffering  since  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  and  this 
demand  was  sustained  by  a  force  of  eighty  thousand  armed  Protestant 
volunteers  which  had  been  raised  for  the  defence  of  Ireland  against  a 
threatened  attack  of  the  French.  They  demanded  an  independent  parlia- 
ment, and  even  threatened  a  total  separation  from  Great  Britain.  In  the 
face  of  these  difficulties  the  spirit  of  England  rose  higher  than  ever,  ana 
that  country,  with  a  vigor  worthy  of  her  ancient  renown,  put  forth  all 
her  energies  to  find  a  way  out  of  her  difficulties.  The  whole  world  was 
arrayed  against  her,  but  in  the  face  of  it  she  held  her  own.  The  heroism 
manifested  by  England  at  this  trying  period  is  worthy  of  the  highest 
admiration. 

The  American  army  passed  the  winter  of  1780-81  in  cantonments 
east  and  west  of  the  Hudson.  The  Pennsylvania  troops  were  stationed 
near  Morristown,  and  the  New  Jersey  regiments  at  Pompton.  Though 
the  troops  were  better  provided  with  food  than  during  the  previous  winter, 
their  sufferings  were  still  very  severe.  They  were  neglected  by  Congress, 
which  was  too  much  occupied  with  its  dissensions  to  make  any  serious 
effort  to  relieve  the  wants  of  the  soldiers.  The  Pennsylvania  troops  had 
an  especial  cause  of  complaint.  Their  enlistments  were  for  three  years  or 
the  war.  The  three  years  had  expired,  but  the  government  refused  to 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR.  551 

discharge  them  on  the  ground  that  the  enlistments  were  for  the  period  of 
the  war,  no  matter  how  long  it  should  last.  The  troops  on  the  other 
hand  contended  that  the  words  u  for  the  war  "  meant  that  the  enlistments 
should  expire  if  the  war  closed  in  less  than  three  years. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1781,  thirteen  hundred  Pennsylvania  troops 
left  the  camp  at  Morristown  under  arms,  and  set  off  for  Philadelphia,  to 
obtain  redress  from  Congress.  General  Wayne,  their  commander,  placed 
himself  in  front  of  them,  and,  pistol  in  hand,  attempted  to  stop  their 
march.  In  an  instant  their  bayonets  were  at  his  breast.  "  We  love,  we 
respect  you,"  they  exclaimed,  "  but  you  are  a  dead  man  if  you  fire.  Do 
not  mistake  us ;  we  are  not  going  to  the  enemy ;  were  they  now  to  come 
out  you  would  see  us  fight  under  your  orders,  with  as  much  resolution 
and  alacrity  as  ever."  They  halted  at  Princeton,  where  they  were  met  by 
the  agents  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  who  endeavored  to  induce  them  to  join 
the  British  service.  They  promptly  seized  these  men  and  delivered  them 
up  to  General  Wayne  as  spies.  At  a  later  period  it  was  proposed  to 
reward  them  for  this  action,  but  they  refused  to  accept  anything,  saying : 
"  We  ask  no  reward  for  doing  our  duty  to  our  country." 

Congress  was  greatly  alarmed  by  the  approach  of  these  troops,  and  a 
committee,  accompanied  by  Reed,  the  president  of  Pennsylvania,  was  sent 
to  meet  them.  The  committee  met  the  leaders  of  the  mutineers,  and 
agreed  to  relieve  their  immediate  wants,  and  to  secure  them  their  back 
pay  by  means  of  certificates.  Permission  was  given  to  all  who  had  served 
three  years  to  withdraw  from  the  army.  Upon  these  conditions  the  troops 
returned  to  duty.  The  disaffection  in  the  army  was  increased  by  the 
yielding  of  Congress.  On  the  20th  of  January  the  New  Jersey  troops 
at  Pompton  mutinied,  but  this  outbreak  was  quelled  by  a  detachment 
sent  from  West  Point  by  Washington. 

The  mutiny  opened  the  eyes  of  the  country  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
army,  and  aroused  all  parties  to  the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  troops. 
It  was  clearly  understood  that  a  failure  to  sustain  the  army  would  result 
in  the  defeat  of  the  cause.  Urgent  appeals  were  made  by  Congress  to 
all  the  States,  and  especially  to  those  of  New  England,  to  supply  the 
wants  of  the  army,  and  Congress  endeavored  to  negotiate  a  loan  abroad. 
Direct  taxation  was  resorted  to  to  provide  money  at  once. 

The  year  1781  opened  with  a  military  expedition  under  the  command 
of  the  traitor  Arnold,  now  a  brigadier-general  in  the  British  service. 
Early  in  January  he  was  sent  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  with  sixteen  hun- 
dred British  and  Tories,  from  New  York  to  the  Chesapeake,  to  ravage 
the  shores  of  Virginia.  After  plundering  the  plantations  along  the  lower 
bay  and  the  James,  Arnold  ascended  that  river,  and  landing  his  troops 


552 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


marched  to  Richmond.  Thomas  Jefferson,  then  governor  of  Virginia, 
called  out  the  militia,  but  only  a  handful  responded.  Arnold  occupied 
Richmond,  burned  the  public  buildings  and  some  private  dwellings,  and 
then  re-embarked  and  dropped  down  the  river  to  Portsmouth.  Wash- 
ington was  anxious  to  capture  him,  and  sent  Lafayette,  with  a  force 
of  twelve  hundred  men,  southward,  by  land,  to  prevent  Arnold  from- 
escaping  overland  to  join  Cornwallis  in  the  Carolinas,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  French  fleet  sailed  from  Newport  for  the  Chesapeake  to  prevent 
the  escape  of  the  traitor  by  water.  The  British  Admiral  Arbuthnot  fol- 
lowed the  French  fleet,  and  brought  it  to  an  engagement  off  the  mouth 
of  the  Chesapeake.  The  French  were  worsted  and  obliged  to  return  to 
Newport,  and  Admiral  Arbuthnot  entered  the  bay,  and  reinforced  Arnold 
with  two  thousand  British  troops,  under  General  Philips,  who  assumed 

the  command  at 
Portsmouth,  and 
fortified  his  position 
there.  From  his 
camp  he  sent  out  de- 
tachments to  ravage 
the  country  in  all 
directions.  La- 
fayette, in  the  mean- 
time, upon  hearing 
of  the  failure  of  the 
plan,  halted  at  An- 
napolis, in  Maryland.  Arnold,  upon  being  superseded  by  Philips, 
returned  to  New  York. 

Early  in  January  Cornwallis,  who  was  at  Winnsborough,  South  Caro- 
lina, sent  Colonel  Tarleton,  with  a  force  of  one  thousand  cavalry  and 
light  infantry,  to  cut  off  Morgan's  division  from  the  column  under  Gen- 
eral Greene.  Morgan  was  between  the  Broad  and  Catawba  rivers  at  the 
time,  and  upon  hearing  of  Tarleton's  approach  began  to  retreat  towards 
the  Catawba.  Tarleton  pushed  on  with  such  speed  that  Morgan  saw  he 
must  be  overtaken.  He  accordingly  halted,  and  took  position  at  the 
'•  Cowpens,"  about  thirty  miles  west  of  King's  mountain,  and  rested  his 
men.  Tarleton  arrived  in  front  of  this  position  on  the  17th  of  January, 
and  made  an  impetuous  attack  upon  the  Americans.  At  first  he  drove 
the  militia  before  him,  but  Morgan  keeping  his  Continentals  well  in  hand, 
suddenly  wheeled  upon  him,  and  drove  him  from  the  field.  The  two 
forces  were  about  equal.  Morgan  lost  but  eighty  men,  while  the  loss  of 
the  British  was  over  six  hundred.  Tarleton  escaped  from  the  field  with 
only  a  few  of  his  cavalry. 


BATTLE  OF  THE   COWPENS. 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR. 


553 


Cornwallis  moved  forward  as  soon  as  he  learned  of  Tarleton's  defeat. 
He  supposed  that  Morgan  would  be  encumbered  with  his  wounded  and 
prisoners,  and  would  be  slow  in  leaving  the  scene  of  his  victory,  and  he 
hoped  by  a  rapid  march  to  come  up  with  him,  crush  him,  and  rescue  the 
prisoners  before  he  could  join  General  Greene.  Morgan  was  much  toe 
wary  to  be  caught  in  such  a  trap.  He  felt  sure  Cornwallis  would  seek  to 
avenge  Tarleton's  defeat,  and  leaving  his  wounded  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
he  resumed  his  retreat  with  all  speed  immediately  after  the  battle,  and 
hurrying  towards  the  Catawba,  crossed  that  river.  Two  hours  after  he 
had  passed  it  the  ad- 
vance of  Cornwallis' 
army  reached  the  bank 
of  the  river,  but,  owing 
to  a  sudden  rise  in  the 
stream,  were  unable  to 
cross  it.  The  British 
were  detained  in  this 
manner  for  two  days, 
during  which  Morgan 
rested  his  men,  and 
sent  off  his  prisoners 
to  a  place  of  safety. 

Two  days  after  the  i 
passage    of    the    Ca-  HI 
tawba     Morgan     was 
joined  by  the   troops 
under  General  Greene, 
who  had  heard  of  the 
victory  of   the   Cow- 
pens,  and  was  advanc- 
ing to  the  assistance  of 
his  lieutenant.   Greene 

Was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  meet  the  British,  and  he  continued  the 
retreat  towards  the  Yadkin.  He  moved  slowly,  and  his  rear-guard  was 
still  engaged  in  the  passage  of  the  Yadkin,  when  the  advanced  guard  of 
Cornwallis  reached  that  stream,  on  the  3d  of  February.  Cornwallis  had 
burned  all  his  heavy  baggage,  and  had  reduced  his  army  to  the  strictest 
light  marching  order,  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  intercept  Greene.  A 
skirmish  ensued  on  the  banks  of  the  Yadkin,  and  night  coming  on  the 
British  commander  deferred  the  passage  of  the  stream  until  the  next  day. 
During  the  night  a  heavy  rain  swelled  the  river  so  high  that  it  could  not 


GENERAL   DANIEL   MORGAN. 


554  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

be  forded,  and  the  Americans  had  secured  all  the  boats  on  the  other  side. 
Greene,  profiting  by  this  delay,  hurried  on  to  cross  the  Dan  into  Vir- 
ginia, where  he  could  receive  reinforcements  and  supplies.  Morgan  was 
left  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  army,  but  falling  ill  was  obliged  to  relin- 
quish the  command  of  the  rear-guard  to  Colonel  Otho  H.  Williams. 

Cornwallis  passed  the  Yadkin  as  soon  as  possible,  and  strained  every 
nerve  to  prevent  Greene  from  crossing  the  Dan.  He  supposed  the  Ameri- 
cans would  not  be  able  to  cross  at  the  lower  ferries,  but  would  be  obliged 
to  pass  the  river  higher  up,  where  it  could  be  forded.  He  therefore 
urged  his  army  to  its  utmost  exertions  to  secure  these  fords  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Americans.  Perceiving  Cornwallis'  error,  Colonel  Wil- 
liams retreated  towards  the  upper  fords,  and  so  confirmed  the  British 
commander  in  his  delusion.  Having  led  the  British  sufficiently  out  of 
the  way,  Williams  wheeled  about,  and  by  a  rapid  march  of  forty  miles 
in  twenty-four  hours,  down  the  river,  rejoined  Greene,  who  had  moved 
with  all  speed  to  the  lower  ferries,  where,  in  anticipation  of  his  retreat, 
he  had  collected  a  supply  of  boats.  The  Dan  was  passed  on  the  15th  of 
February,  and  the  American  army  was  safe  from  its  pursuers.  An  hour 
or  two  later  Cornwallis,  who  had  discovered  his  mistake,  and  had  marched 
with  speed  from  the  upper  fords,  appeared  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the 
river,  only  to  see  his  adversary  safely  beyond  his  reach.  The  river  was 
too  deep  to  be  forded,  and  Greene  had  all  the  boats  in  his  possession. 
Cornwallis  was  deeply  mortified  at  his  failure  to  intercept  Greene.  He 
had  pursued  him  for  over  two  hundred  miles,  and  had  made  great  sacri- 
fices to  come  up  with  him,  but  the  American  commander  had  managed  to 
elude  him,  and  had  successfully  carried  out  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
retreats  in  history.  The  Americans  regarded  their  escape  as  providen- 
tial ;  and  not  without  cause.  Their  way  across  the  Carolinas  might  be 
tracked  by  the  blood  from  their  feet ;  and  twice,  when  the  enemy  had 
come  within  gunshot  of  them,  the  rising  of  the  waters  of  the  Catawba  and 
the  Yadkin,  which  they  had  passed  in  safety,  had  held  back  the  British 
and  enabled  them  to  escape.  After  resting  his  men  for  a  few  days  on 
the  banks  of  the  Dan,  Cornwallis  fell  back  to  Hillsborough. 

Having  received  reinforcements,  General  Greene  recrossed  the  Dan, 
about  the  last  of  February,  and  advanced  into  the  Carolinas  to  watch 
Cornwallis  and  encourage  the  patriots  of  that  region.  Cornwallis,  being 
short  of  supplies,  moved  slowly  southward.  Greene  followed  him  cau- 
tiously, too  weak  to  risk  a  battle,  but  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  first 
error  on  the  part  of  his  adversary.  His  movements  were  conducted  with 
the  utmost  circumspection,  and  in  order  to  guard  against  a  surprise  he 
never  remained  in  the  same  place  more  than  one  day,  and  kept  secret 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR.  555 

until  the  last  moment  the  places  he  selected  for  his  encampments.  In  the 
meantime  he  was  gradually  receiving  reinforcements,  from  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  until  his  army  numbered  four  thousand  men. 

Feeling  himself  strong  enough  to  attack  the  enemy,  Greene  left  his 
baggage  at  a  point  of  safety,  and  advanced  to  Guilford  Court-house, 
seventeen  miles  distant,  with  the  intention  of  bringing  Cornwallis  to  a 
decisive  engagement.  Here  he  was  attacked  by  Cornwallis,  on  the  15th 
of  March,  and  after  one  of  the  hardest-fought  battles  of  the  war,  was 
compelled  to  retreat.  Greene  withdrew  in  good  order,  and  Cornwallis, 
though  victorious  on  the  field,  was  so  sorely  crippled  that  he  was  unable 
to  make  any  pursuit,  and  was  obliged  to  fall  back  to  Wilmington,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  river.  By  the  time  he  reached  that  place, 
his  army  had  been  so  much  weakened  by  desertions,  and  losses  in  battle, 
that  it  amounted  to  but  fourteen  hundred  men. 

Greene  lost  a  thousand  militia  by  desertion  during  his  retreat,  but  was 
soon  enabled  to  supply  their  places.  He  then  moved  into  South  Carolina 
for  the  purpose  of  attacking  the  British  force  under  Lord  Rawdon,  which 
was  posted  at  Camden.  He  advanced  to  Hobkirk's  Hill,  about  two  miles 
from  Camden,  where  he  was  attacked,  on  the  25th  of  April,  by  Lord 
Rawdon.  After  a  sharp  engagement  Greene  was  defeated,  and  obliged 
to  retreat.  He  withdrew  his  army  in  good  order,  having  inflicted  upon 
his  adversary  a  loss  about  equal  to  his  own.  Rawdon  was  unable  to 
derive  any  advantage  from  his  victory,  as  he  could  not  bring  Greene  to 
another  general  engagement.  The  activity  of  the  American  partisan 
corps  in  his  rear  alarmed  him  for  the  safety  of  his  communications 
with  Charleston,  and  he  abandoned  Camden  and  fell  back  to  Monk's 
Corner. 

In  the  meantime  Lee,  Marion,  Pickens,  and  the  other  partisan  leaders 
had  broken  up  the  fortified  posts  of  the  British  with  such  success,  that  by 
the  month  of  June,  1781,  only  three  positions  of  importance  remained  to 
the  British  in  South  Carolina — Charleston,  Nelson's  Ferry,  and  Fort 
Ninety-six,  near  the  Saluda.  The  last-named  position  was  of  the  greatest 
importance,  and  was  held  by  a  force  of  Carolina  Tories.  Lee  and 
Pickens  were  sent  against  Augusta,  Georgia,  and  captured  it  after  a  close 
investment  of  seven  days.  General  Greene  himself  marched  against 
Ninety-six,  and  laid  siege  to  it.  Being  informed  that  Lord  Rawdon  was 
marching  to  relieve  it,  he  determined  to  carry  the  fort  by  assault  before 
Rawdon  could  arrive.  The  assault  was  made  on  the  18th  of  June,  but 
was  repulsed  with  severe  loss.  Greene  then  raised  the  siege  and  retreated 
across  the  Saluda. 

Early  in  July  the  excessive  heat  put  an  end  to  active  operations  on  the 


656 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


part  of  the  two  armies.  Greene  withdrew  to  the  high  hills  of  the  Santee, 
and  the  British  went  into  camp  on  the  Congaree.  A  bitter  partisan  war- 
fare now  sprung  up  between  the  patriots  and  the  Tories,  and  continued 
through  the  summer.  Houses  were  pillaged  and  burned,  farms  were 
laid  waste,  and  no  quarter  was  given  by  either  party.  Even  women  and 
children  were  included  in  these  dreadful  massacres. 

Lord  Kawdon  now  resolved  to  add  to  the  horrors  of  this  warfare  by 
executing  as  traitors  those  who  had  given  their  parole  not  to  engage  in  the 
war,  or  had  received  a  protection,  if  they  should  be  taken  in  arms.  Among 
the  prisoners  taken  by  the  British,  at  the  capture  of  Charleston,  was 
Colonel  Isaac  Hayne,  a  distinguished  citizen  of  that  place.  His  wife  was 
dying  and  his  children  were  helpless,  and  he  gave  his  parole  to  remain 


BATTLE  OP  EUTAW  SPRINGS. 


neutral,  in  order  to  be  able  to  take  care  of  them,  and  was  promised  pro- 
tection. At  a  later  period,  the  British  commander  being  in  need  of 
reinforcements,  Hayne  was  ordered  to  take  up  arms  against  his  country 
in  behalf  of  the  king.  He  regarded  himself  as  relieved  from  his  parole 
by  this  (jommand,  and  soon  after  escaped  from  Charleston,  and  raised  a 
partisan  corps,  at  the  head  of  which  he  was  captured.  He  was  con- 
demned to  die  as  a  traitor ;  and  though  the  inhabitants  cf  Charleston, 
both  patriot  and  royalist,  petitioned  for  his  pardon,  it  was  refused,  and 
he  was  hanged,  by  order  of  Lord  Rawdon,  on  the  5th  of  August.  His 
execution  was  regarded  by  the  Americans  as  cruel  and  unjust,  and  as  con- 
trary to  military  law.  General  Greene  felt  himself  obliged  to  retaliate 
by  executing  as  deserters  all  these  prisoners  who  had  formerly  served  in 
his  own  army,  and  so  bitter  was  the  feeling  of  the  American  troops  thai 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR. 


657 


they  could  scarcely  be  prevented  from  shooting  the  British  officers  who 
fell  into  their  hands. 

Lord  Ravvdon  now  sailed  for  England,  and  left  the  command  of  his 
army  to  Colonel  Stewart,  an  officer  of  ability  and  experience.  At  the 
close  of  the  summer  General  Greene,  whose  army  had  been  increased  by 
the  commands  of  Marion  and  Pickens  to  twenty-five  hundred  men, 
resumed  the  offensive.  He  attacked  the  British  at  Eutaw  Springs,  on 
the  8th  of  September,  and  after  a  severely  contested  battb  t^e  left  wing 
of  the  British  was  routed.  In  the  moment  of  victory  the  American 
army  stopped  to  plunder  the  enemy's  camp,  and  the  British  taking 
advantage  of  the  delay,  rallied  and  made  a  stand  in  a  large  stone  house, 
from  which  they  could  not  be  driven.  Greene  was  forced  to  draw  off 
his  troops  and  leave  the  field  to  the  British,  who  lost  seven  hundred  men 
in  the  engagement.  The  American  loss  was  five  hundred  men.  Both 
sides  claimed  the  victory ;  but  the  advantage  certainly  was  not  with  the 
British,  who  lost  more  than  a  third  of  their  men.  Colonel  Stewart,  in 
view  of  this  loss,  fell  back  to  the  vicinity  of  Charleston.  Greene  fol- 
lowed him  as  far  as  Monk's  Corner,  and  then  returned  to  the  hills  of  the 
Santee.  The  American  commander  had  abundant  reason  to  be  satisfied 
with  the  result  of  his  operations  in  South  Carolina.  He  had  rescued  the 
greater  part  of  the  State  from  the  British,  and  had  confined  them  to  the 
region  between  the  Santee  and  the  lower  Savannah.  He  had  repeatedly 
engaged  the  enemy  with  the  most  inadequate  means,  and  under  the  most 
unfavorable  circumstances,  and  had  never  failed,  even  though  defeated, 
to  accomplish  the  object  for  which  he  fought.  He  had  baffled  the  British 
commanders  over  again,  and,  like  William  of  Orange,  had  managed  to 
derive  greater  advantages  from  his  reverses  than  his  adversaries  were  able 
to  draw  from  their  victories. 

Washington  was  well  pleased  with  the  achievements,  in  the  south,  of 
his  most  trusted  lieutenant.  He  was  very  anxious  to  attempt  something 
decisive  with  his  own  army,  if  he  could  secure  the  aid  of  a  French  army 
and  fleet.  Two  enterprises  offered  themselves  to  him — an  attack  upon 
New  York,  which  had  been  greatly  weakened  by  detachments  sent  from 
its  garrison  to  the  south,  and  an  expedition  against  Cornwallis.  That 
commander  had  left  Wilmington,  on  the  20th  of  April,  and  had  advanced, 
without  encountering  any  serious  resistance,  to  Petersburg,  Virginia.  He 
arrived  there  on  the  20th  of  May,  and  was  joined  by  the  troops  under 
General  Philips,  who  had  been  plundering  the  country  along  the  James 
river.  While  Washington  was  hesitating  which  would  be  the  best  course 
to  pursue,  a  French  frigate  arrived  at  Newport,  with  the  Count  de  Barras 
ou  board,  who  had  come  to  take  command  of  the  fleet  at  Newport.  H€ 


558 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


brought  the  good  news  that  a  fleet  of  twenty  ships-of-the-line,  under  the 
Count  de  Grasse,  having  on  board  a  considerable  force  of  troops,  had 
sailed  for  America,  and  might  be  expected  to  arrive  in  the  course  of  a 
few  months.  Washington  held  a  conference  with  the  Count  de  Ilocham- 
beau,  at  Weathersfield,  Connecticut,  and  it  was  resolved  to  attack  New 
York.  The  French  army  was  to  march  from  Newport  and  form  a  junc- 
tion with  the  Americans  on  the  Hudson.  A  frigate  was  despatched  to 
the  West  Indies  to  inform  the  Count  de  Grasse  of  this  arrangement,  and 
to  ask  his  cooperation  in  the  proposed  attack. 

Sir  Henry  Clinton,  who  suspected  the  designs  of  Washington,  now 
ordered  Lord  Corn  wall  is,  who  had  crossed  the  James  river,  and  was  at 
Williamsburg,  to  send  him  a  reinforcement  of  troops.  Cornwallis  pre- 
pared to  comply  with  this  order,  and  for  that  purpose  marched  towards 
Portsmouth,  followed  cautiously  by  Lafayette  and  Steuben,  who  had  with 
them  about  four  thousand  American  troops.  On  the  march  a  slight 
engagement  occurred,  near  Westover,  between  Lafayette  and  Cornwallis, 
in  which  the  Americans  narrowly  escaped  a  defeat.  The  British  army 
crossed  to  the  south  side  of  the  James,  and  a  detachment  was  embarked 
for  New  York.  At  this  moment  a  second  order  was  received  from  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  who  had  received  a  reinforcement  of  Hessians  from  Eng- 
land, directing  Cornwallis  to  retain  all  his  force,  choose  some  central 
position  in  Virginia,  fortify  himself  in  it,  and  await  the  development  of 
the  American  plans.  Cornwallis  should  have  taken  position  at  Ports- 
mouth, from  which  place  his  line  of  retreat  to  the  south  would  have 
remained  intact.  In  an  evil  hour  for  himself  he  recrossed  the  James, 
and  crossing  the  peninsula  between  that  river  and  the  York,  took  position 
at  the  towns  of  Gloucester  and  Y'orktown,  opposite  each  other,  on  the 
York  river.  He  had  with  him  an  army  of  eight  thousand  effective 
troops,  and  proceeded  to  fortify  his  position  with  strong  intrenchments. 
A  number  of  vessels  of  war  were  anchored  between  Yorktown  and 
Gloucester  to  maintain  the  communication  between  those  points,  and  to 
assist  in  the  defence  of  the  place. 

During  all  this  time  the  financial  affairs  of  the  republic  were  growing 
worse  and  more  hopeless.  The  continental  currency  had  become  utterly 
worthless,  one  dollar  in  paper  being  worth  only  one  cent  in  coin,  at  the 
opening  of  the  year  1781.  In  the  spring  of  that  year  Congress  sought 
to  put  an  end  to  its  financial  troubles  by  taking  the  control  of  the  finances 
from  a  board  which  had  hitherto  mana-ged  them,  and  intrusting  them  to 
Robert  Morris,  whose  services  in  behalf  of  the  cause  have  been  men- 
tioned before.  Morris  was  an  experienced  financier,  and  had  opposed, 
with  nil  his  energy,  the  system  of  making  continental  money  a  legal 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR. 


559 


tender.  He  now  made  a  return  to  specie  payments  the  condition  of  his 
acceptance  of  the  trust  imposed  upon  him  by  Congress.  On  the  22d  of 
May,  1781,  Congress  most  unwillingly  resolved  :  "  That  the  whole  debts 
already  due  by  the  United  States  be  liquidated  as  soon  as  may  be  to  their 
specie  value,  and  funded,  if  agreeable  to  the  creditors,  as  a  loan  upon 
interest ;  that  the  States  be  severally  informed  that  the  calculations  of 
the  present  campaign  are  made  in  solid  coin,  and,  therefore,  that  the 
requisitions  from  them  respectively  being  grounded  on  those  calculations, 
must  be  complied  with  in  such  manner  as  effectually  to  answer  the  pur- 
pose designed;  that,  experience  having  evinced  the  inefficacy  of  all 
attempts  to  support  the  credit  of  paper  money  by  compulsory  acts,  it  is 


THIS  Bill  entitles  tk 
Bearer  to  Tece 


COKTIHENTAL  BILLS. 

recommended  to  such  States,  where  laws  making  paper  bills  a  tender  yet 
exist,  to  repeal  the  same."  On  the  31st  of  May  continental  bills,  being 
ao  longer  a  legal  tender,  ceased  to  circulate.  Henceforth  all  transactions 
were  to  be  in  hard  money.  The  result  amply  vindicated  the  wisdom  of 
Morris'  views.  He  induced  Congress  to  establish  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States,  at  Philadelphia,  with  a  capital  of  two  millions  of  dollars 
and  a  charter  for  ten  years.  This  bank  was  allowed  the  privilege  of 
issuing  its  own  notes,  which  it  was  required  to  redeem  in  specie  upon 
presentation.  This  requirement  gained  for  the  bank  the  confidence  of 
the  people,  and  capitalists  availed  themselves  of  it  for  the  investment  of 
their  money.  Morris  used  the  bank  freely  in  his  public  operations,  and 


560 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


at  the  same  time  used  it  so  wisely  that  he  was  able  to  secure  all  the  aid  it 
was  capable  of  bestowing  without  subjecting  it  to  too  severe  a  strain. 
He  raised  the  credit  of  the  government  higher  than  it  had  ever  stood 
before,  and  was  able  to  do  much  towards  paying  the  soldiers  and  supply- 
ing them  with  food  and  clothing.  As  often  as  the  public  funds  failed,  he 
pledged  his  own  credit  to  supply  the  deficiency.  No  man  did  more  to 
contribute  to  the  success  of  the  cause  than.  Robert  Morris ;  and  no  man 


SCENE  IN  THE  HIGHLANDS  OF  THE  HUDSON. 

received  more  ingratitude  from  the  government  and  people  of  the  Union 
than  he. 

In  July  "Washington  was  joined,  in  the  Highlands,  by  the  French  army 
Under  Count  de  Kochambeau,  and  preparations  were  made  to  attack  New 
York.  An  intercepted  letter  informed  Sir  Henry  Clinton  of  this  design, 
and  he  exerted  himself  to  put  the  city  in  a  state  of  defence.  In  the 
midst  of  his  preparations  Washington  received  a  letter  from  the  Count  de 
Grasse,  stating  that  he  would  sail  for  the  Chesapeake  instead  of  Newport. 
This  decision  of  the  French  admiral  compelled  an  entire  change  of  plan 
on  the  part  of  the  Americans.  As  De  Grasse  would  not  cooperate  with 
them,  they  must  abandon  the  attack  upon  New  York,  and  attempt  the 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR.  561 

capture  of  Cormvallis  at  Yorktown.  No  time  was  to  be  lost  in  making 
the  attempt,  for  it  was  now  the  month  of  August.  By  a  series  of  skilful 
movements  Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  induced  to  believe  that  an  attack  upon 
New  York  would  soon  be  made,  and  at  the  same  time  the  American 
irmy  was  marched  rapidly  across  New  Jersey,  i'ol lowed  by  the  Frcncli. 
Lafayette,  who  was  in  Virginia,  was  ordered  to  prevent  at  all  hazards  A 
retreat  of  Cormvallis'  army  to  North  Carolina,  and  was  directed  to  ask 
assistance  of  General  Greene,  if  necessary.  The  plan  of  Washington  was 
to  blockade  Corn  wall  is  in  the  York  river  by  means  of  the  French  fleet, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  besiege  him  in  Yorktown  with  the  army.  The 
troops  were  somewhat  unwilling  to  undertake  a  southern  campaign  in 
August,  but  their  good  humor  was  restored  at  Philadelphia,  where  they 
received  a  part  of  their  pay  in  specie,  and  a  supply  of  clothing,  arms, 
and  ammunition,  which  had  just  arrived  from  France.  From  Phil- 
adelphia the  combined  armies  proceeded  to  Elkton,  at  the  head  of  the 
Chesapeake,  where  they  found  transports,  sent  by  the  French  admiral 
and  by  Lafayette,  to  convey  them  to  the  James  river. 

The  first  intimation  Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  of  a  change  in  the  American 
plans  was  the  sudden  sailing  of  the  French  fleet  from  Newport  on  tha 
28th  of  August.  Supposing  that  Be  Barras's  object  was  to  unite  with 
another  fleet  in  the  Chesapeake,  Clinton  sent  Admiral  Graves  to  prevent 
the  junction.  Upon  reaching  the  capes  the  British  admiral  was  aston- 
ished to  find  the  fleet  of  the  Count  de  Grasse,  consisting  of  twenty  ships- 
of-the-line,  anchored  within  the  bay.  De  Grasse  at  once  put  to  sea  as  if 
to  engage  the  enemy,  but  in  reality  to  draw  them  off  and  allow  De  Barras 
to  enter  the  Chesapeake.  For  five  days  he  amused  the  English  by  con- 
stant skirmishing.  De  Barras  at  length  appeared  and  passed  within  the 
capes  and  De  Grasse  at  once  followed  him.  Admiral  Graves  was  unwill- 
ing to  attack  Lhis  combined  force  and  returned  to  New  York. 

The  movement  of  the  American  army  to  the  south  was  known  to 
Dlinton,  but  he  supposed  it  was  only  a  manoeuvre  to  draw  him  off  of  Man- 
hattan island  into  the  open  country.  When  the  Americans  were  beyond 
the  Delaware  and  the  French  fleets  had  effected  their  junction  in  the 
Chesapeake,  he  recognized  his  mistake  and  saw  that  the  object  of  Washr 
ington  was  the  capture  of  Cormvallis.  It  was  too  late  to  prevent  it;  but 
in  the  hope  of  compelling  Washington  to  send  back  a  part  of  his  force  tc 
lefend  New  England,  Clinton  sent  the  traitor  Arnold  with  a  large  bod> 
jf  troops  to  attack  New  London  in  Connecticut.  On  the  6th  of  Septem- 
ber Arnold  captured  that  town  and  burned  the  shipping  and  a  large  part 
^f  the  town.  He  then  took  Fort  Griswold,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Thames,  by  storm,  and  basely  massacred  CoJoueL  I/^dyard,  the  commauderv 


562 


HISTORY  Of  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


«ml  sixty  of  the  garrison  after  the  surrender  of  the  fort.  The  militia  of 
the  State  were  summoned  to  take  up  arms  for  its  defence,  and  responded 
in  such  numbers  that  Arnold  became  alarmed  for  his  safety  and  returned 
to  New  York.  The  object  of  his  expedition  failed  most  signally.  Wash- 
i-.vton  left  New  England  to  defend  herself  and  continued  his  movement 
igainst  Cornwallis. 

Cornwallis  was  very  slow  to  realize  his  danger.  He  believed  the  small 
force  under  Lafayette  the  only  command  opposed  to  him,  and  on  the  10th 
of  September  wrote  to  Clinton  that  he  could  spare  him  twelve  hundred 
men  for  the  defence  of  New  York.  He  did  not  perceive  his  error  until 
'.he  French  fleet  had  anchored  in  the  Chesapeake  and  cut  off  his  escape 


BURNING  OF  NEW  LONDON,   CONNECTICUT,   BY  ARNOLD, 

*>y  water.  He  then  attempted  to  retreat  to  North  Carolina,  as  Waging; 
ton  had  foreseen,  but  Lafayette,  who  had  been  reinforced  by  three  vftou- 
sand  French  troops  under  the  Marquis  de  St.  Simon,  from  the  fleet  of 
De  Grasse,  was  too  active  for  him,  and  finding  his  retreat  impossible, 
Cornwallis  sent  urgent  appeals  to  Clinton  for  assistance,  and  strengthened 
his  fortifications. 

Tn  the  meantime  the  American  and  French  armies  descended  th* 
Chesapeake,  and  took  position  before  Yorktown,  while  the  French  flecl 
closed  the  mouth  of  York  river.  The  siege  was  begun  on  the  28th  of 
6(-ptember.  Sixteen  thousand  men  were  present  under  Washington** 
orders.  Works  were  erected  completely  enclosing  those  of  the  British, 
aad  on  the  9th  of  October  the  cannonade  was  begun.  It  was  continued 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR. 


563 


for  four  days,  and  the  British  outworks  were  greatly  damaged,  and 
several  of  their  vessels  in  the  river  were  burned  by  means  of  red  hot  shot 
thrown  into  them  by  the  French  vessels.  On  the  14lh  two  of  the 
advanced  redoubts  of  the  enemy  were  stormed  and  taken,  one  by  the 
Americans,  the  other  by  the  French.  From  the  positions  thus  gained  a 
very  destructive  fire  was  maintained  upon  the  English  lines,  which  were 
broken  in  many  places,  while  many  of  their  guns  were  dismounted  and 
rendered  useless.  On  the  15th  Cornwallis  found  himself  almost  out  of 
ammunition,  and  unable  to  maintain  his  position  but  for  a  few  days 
longer. 

In  this  strait  the  British  commander  resolved  upon  the  desperate 
alternative  of  crossing  the  York  to  Gloucester,  abandoning  his  sick 
and  wounded  and  baggage,  and  endeavoring  to  force  his  way  north- 
ward by  extraordi- 
nary marches  to 
New  York.  It  was 
a  hopeless  under- 
taking, but  Cornwal- 
lis resolved  to  make 
the  trial.  On  the 
night  of  the  16th  of 
October  he  crossed 
a  part  of  his  army 
from  Yorktown  to 
Gloucester,  but  a 
sudden  storm  delayed  the  passage  of  the  river  by  the  second  division 
until  after  daylight,  when.it  was  useless  to  make  the  attempt.  The  first 
division  was  with  difficulty  brought  back  to  Yorktown,  as  the  boats  were 
exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  American  batteries  while  crossing  the  river. 
Nothing  was  left  to  Cornwallis  now  but  a  capitulation,  as  his  works  weis 
in  no  condition  to  withstand  an  assault,  and  simple  humanity  to  his  men 
demanded  that  the  contest  should  cease.  He  sent  to  Washington  an  offer 
to  surrender  and  the  terms  were  soon  arranged.  On  the  19th  of  October 
Cornwallis  surrendered  his  army  of  seven  thousand  men  as  prisoners  of 
war  to  Washington,  as  commander  of  the  allied  army,  and  his  shipping, 
seamen,  and  naval  stores  to  the  Count  de  Grasse,  as  the  representative 
of  the  king  of  France. 

Washington  despatched  one  of  his  aids  to  Philadelphia  to  communicate 
the  good  news  to  Congress.  The  officer  pushed  forward  with  all  speed, 
and  reached  Philadelphia  at  midnight,  and  delivered  his  message.  Soon 
the  peals  of  the  State-house  bell  roused  the  citizens,  and  the  watchmen 


LAFAYETTE  STORMING  THE  REDOUBT  AT  YORKTOWX. 


564 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


took  up  the  cry,  "  Cornwall  is  is  taken  !  Cornwallis  is  taken  1 "  The  peo- 
ple poured  out  into  the  streets  in  throngs,  and  no  one  slept  in  Philadel- 
phia that  night.  The  next  day  Congress  proceeded  in  a  body  to  a  church 
and  gave  thanks  for  the  great  victory.  A  national  thanksgiving  was 
ordered,  and  throughout  the  whole  land  rejoicings  went  up  to  God  for 
the  success  which  all  men  felt  was  decisive  of  the  war. 

On  the  19th  of  October,  the  day  of  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  sailed  from  New  York  to  his  assistance  with  a  force  of 
cieven  thousand  men.  Off  the  capes  he  learned  of  the  surrender  of  the 
British  army  at  Yorktown,  and  as  his  fleet  was  not  strong  enough  to  meet 
that  of  the  French  he  returned  at  once  to  New  York. 

The  news  of  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  was  received  in  England  with 


SURRENDER   OF   CORNWALLIS. 


astonishment  and  mortification.  It  was  the  second  time  England  had 
lost  an  entire  army  by  capture,  and  her  efforts  to  subdue  the  United 
States  were  no  nearer  success  than  they  had  been  at  the  opening  of  the 
war.  The  English  people  had  never  regarded  the  attempt  to  conquer 
America  with  favor,  and  they  now  became  more  open  and  energetic  in 
their  demands  for  peace.  "  Lord  North,  the  prime  minister,"  says  an 
English  writer,  "  received  the  intelligence  of  the  capture  of  Cornwallis  as 
he  would  have  done  a  cannon  ball  in  his  breast ;  he  paced  the  room,  and 
throwing  his  arms  wildly  about,  kept  exclaiming,  '  O  God  !  it  is  all  over  I 
it  is  all  over ! ' '  The  king  and  the  aristocracy,  however,  had  no  thought 
of  yielding  yet  to  the  popular  pressure,  and  were  resolved  to  carry  on 
the  war. 

After  the  surrender  at  Yorktown,  Washington  urged  the  Count  de 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR.  555 

Grasse  to  cooperate  with  General  Greene  in  an  attack  upon  Charleston. 
The  French  admiral  declined  to  comply  with  his  request,  alleging  the 
necessity  of  his  immediate  return  to  the  West  Indies.  The  French  troops 
were  quartered  for  the  winter  at  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  and  the  Ameri- 
can army  returned  northward  and  resumed  its  old  positions  on  the 
Hudson.  Washington,  though  convinced  that  peace  was  close  at  hand, 
did  not  relax  his  vigilance,  and  urged  upon  Congress  the  necessity  of 
preparing  for  a  vigorous  campaign  the  next  year ;  but  so  thoroughly  was 
Congress  carried  away  by  the  prospect  of  peace  that  his  recommendations 
were  unheeded. 

In  the  south  the  British  and  Tories  were  so  disheartened  by  the  sur- 
render of  Cornwallis  that  they  ceased  active  operations  and  evacuated  all 
their  posts  but  Savannah  and  Charleston.  General  Greene  at  once  dis- 
posed his  army  in  such  a  manner  as  to  confine  them  closely  to  Charleston. 
In  the  Northern  States  the  only  place  held  by  the  British  was  New  York. 

Though  active  operations  had  ceased  on  the  part  of  the  two  armies,  a 
cruel  and  destructive  warfare  was  continued  by  the  Indian  allies  of  the 
British  against  the  border  settlements  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and 
a  similar  warfare  was  maintained  by  the  Tories  and  Indians  along  the 
frontier  of  New  York.  These  outrages  involved  the  Christian  Delaware 
*  Indians  in  the  punishment  of  the  guilty  savages.  The  Delawares  had 
become  converted  to  Christianity  under  the  influence  of  the  Moravian 
missionaries,  and  had  removed  from  the  Susquehanna  to  the  Muskingum. 
They  were  suspected  by  the  Americans  of  the  crimes  of  their  heathen 
brethren,  and  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1782  their  towns  were 
destroyed  and  numbers  of  them  were  slain.  The  war  was  carried  into 
the  country  of  the  Wyandottes  by  the  whites,  but  with  less  success.  On 
the  6th  of  June  a  force  of  Pennsylvanians  under  Colonel  Crawford  was 
defeated  by  the  AVyandottes.  In  the  same  summer  a  band  of  northern 
Indians  led  by  Simon  Girty,  a  Tory  of  infamous  character,  invaded 
Kentucky.  They  were  mev,  by  the  Kentuckians  under  Boone,  Todd, 
and  other  leaders.  A  severe  battle  was  fought  at  the  Big  Blue  Lick, 
and  the  Kentuckians  were  defeated  with  the  loss  of  nearly  half  their 
force. 

In  the  meantime  the  desire  of  the.  English  people  for  the  close  of  the 
war  had  grown  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  and  the  king  and  his  minister* 
were  at  length  forced  to  yield.  The  impossibility  of  conquerin<r  America 
had  become  so  apparent  to  the  continental  nations  that  in  the  spring  olf 
1782  the  Dutch  republic  recognized  the  independence  of  the  United 
States,  and  received  John  Adams  as  envoy  from  that  government.  The 
king  of  England  maintained  his  obstinate  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  hi* 


tnSTOBY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

people  to  the  last  moment.  On  the  22d  of  February,  1782,  a  resolution 
was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons  to  put  an  end  to  the  A  men- 
can  war,  and  was  supported  by  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  party.  It  was 
defeated  by  a  majority  of  one,  but  on  the  27th  of  February  a  similar 
resolution  was  introduced  and  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  nineteen. 
On  the  20th  of  March  Lord  North  and  his  colleagues  were  forced 
to  relinquish  their  offices,  and  a  new  ministry  was  formed  under  the 
Marquis  of  Rockingham.  Sir  Henry  Clinton  was  removed  from  his 
command  in  America,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  whose 
humane  conduct  of  the  war  while  governor  of  Canada  we  have  related. 
Carleton  arrived  in  New  York  in  May,  178£,  with  full  powers  to  open 
negotiations  for  peace.  He  at  once  put  a  slop  to  the  savage  warfare  of 
the  Tories  and  Indians  on  the  borders  of  western  New  York,  and  opened 
a  correspondence  with  Washington  proposing  a  cessation  of  hostilities 
until  a  definite  treaty  of  peace  could  be  arranged. 

Five  commissioners  were  appointed  by  Congress  to  conclude  a  treaty 
with  Great  Britain.  They  were  John  Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  John 
Jay,  Henry  Laurens,  who  had  just  been  released  from  the  tower  of  Lon- 
don, where  he  had  been  kept  a  prisoner  for  about  a  year,  and  Thomas 
Jefferson.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  unable  to  leave  America.  Five  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  by  Great  Britain  to  treat  with  "  certain  colonies  " 
named  in  their  instructions.  The  commissioners  from  the  two  countries 
met  at  Paris,  but  the  American  commissioners  refused  to  open  the  nego- 
tiations except  in  the  name  of  the  "  United  States  of  America."  This 
right  was  acknowledged  by  Great  Britain,  and  on  the  30th  of  November, 

1782,  a  preliminary  treaty  was  signed,  which  was  ratified  by  Congress  in 
April,  1783.     This  treaty  could  not  be  final  because  by  the  terms  of  the 
alliance  between  the  United  States  and  France  neither  party  could  make 
a  separate  treaty  of  peace  with  England.     In  January,  1783,  France  and 
Great  Britain  agreed  upon  terms  of  peace,  and  on  the  3d  of  September, 

1783,  a  final  treaty  of  peace  was  signed   by  all  the  nations  who  had 
engaged  in  the  Avar — by  the  United  States,  France,  Spain,  and  Holland 
on  the  one  side,  and  Great  Britain  on  the  other.     Great  Britain  acknowl- 
edged the  independence  of  the  States  of  the  Union  in  the  following 
words :  "  His  Britannic  Majesty  acknowledges  the  said  United  States,  viz. : 
New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plan- 
tations, Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  to  be 
free,  sovereign,  and  independent  States ;  that  he  treats  with  them  as  such ; 
and  for  himself,  his  heirs,  and  successors,  relinquishes  all  claim  to  the 
government,  propriety,  and  territorial  rights  of  the  same,  and  every  part 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR. 


567 


thereof."  It  should  be  observed  that  the  treaty  acknowledged  the  inde- 
pendence and  sovereignty  of  each  of  the  thirteen  States,  and  not  of  the 
United  States  as  a  single  nation.  The  independence  of  the  States  had 
already  been  recognized  by  several  of  the  European  powers:  by  Sweden, 
on  the  5th  of  February,  1783;  by  Denmark,  on  the  25th  of  February. 
1783;  by  Spain,  on  the  24th  of  March;  and  by  Russia,  in  July,  1783 


THE  BOWERY,  »KW  TOKK,  IN   1875. 

Treaties  of  friendship  and   commerce   were   entered   into   between  tri* 
United  States  and  these  powers. 

During  the  year  1782  the  greater  part  of  the  American  army  \v^ 
encamped  at  Newburg,  ca  the  Hudson.  The  troops  were  unpaid,  and 
were  neglected  by  Congress  and  by  the  various  States.  Washington 
warned  the  government  of  the  danger  of  further  neglect  of  the  army, 
but  his  warning  was  unheeded,  and  in  March  the  patience  of  the  army 
was  so  far  exhausted  that  it  was  seriously  proposed  to  march  tc  Philadei 


568 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


phia  and  compel  Congress  to  do  justice  to  the  troops.  Washington 
appealed  to  the  officers  to  remain  patient  a  little  longer,  and  pled  ed  him- 
self to  use  his  influence  with  Congress  to  fulfil  its  neglected  promises  to 
the  army.  11  is  appeal  quieted  the  trouble  for  a  time.  Congress  shortly 
.ifter  agreed  to  advance  full  pay  to  the  soldiers  for  four  months,  and  to 
pay  in  one  gross  sum  the  full  pay  of  the  officers  for  five  years. 

The  condition  of  the  country  was  a  subject  of  the  gravest  apprehen- 
sion. It  was  plain  that  the  articles  of  confederation  were  not  capable  of 
continuing  the  Union  much  longer,  and  many  persons  believed  that  the 
only  hope  of  preserving  a  regular  government,  and  a  permanent  union 
to  the  country,  lay  in  the  establishment  of  a  monarchy.  In  May,  1782, 


•WASHINGTON   RESIGNING   HIS  COMMISSION. 


Colonel  Nicola,  of  the  Pennsylvania  line,  at  the  instate  of  a  number  of 
officers,  wrote  a  letter  to  Washington  proposing  the  creation  of  a  mon- 
archy, and  offering  him  the  crown.  Washington  indignantly  refused  tv 
entertain  the  proposition,  and  severely  rebuked  the  writer  of  the  letter. 

In  the  spring  of  1783  the  news  of  the  signing  of  the  preliminary 
treaty  of  peace  was  received  in  America,  and  was  officially  communicated 
to  the  nation  in  a  proclamation  by  Congress.  On  the  19th  of  April,  1783, 
just  eight  years  from  the  commencement  of  the  war  at  Lexington,  the 
close  of  hostilities  was  proclaimed,  in  general  orders,  to  the  army  at  New- 
burg.  A  general  exchange  of  prisoners  followed,  and  large  numbers  of 
Tories  were  obliged  to  leave  the  country,  as  they  feared  to  remain  after 
the  protection  of  the  British  forces  was  withdrawn.  They  emigrated 
Chiefly  to  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  West  Indies.  The  final  treaty 


THE  CLOSE  OF  THE   WAR.  569 

having  been  signed,  the  army  was  disbanded  on  the  3d  of  Novembe", 
and  the  troops,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  force,  returned  to  their 
homes  to  enjoy  their  well-earned  honors  and  the  thanks  of  their  grateful 
countrymen.  On  the  25th  of  November  the  British  evacuated  New 
York,  which  was  at  once  occupied  by  a  small  force  of  Americans,  under 
General  Knox.  In  December  Charleston  was  also  evacuated  by  thi» 
British. 

On  the  2d  of  December  Washington  issued  a  farewell  address  to  th*» 
army,  and  on  the  4th  of  that  month  took  leave  of  the  officers  at  New 
York.  He  then  proceeded  to  Annapolis,  where  Congress  was  in  session, 
and  on  the  23d  of  December,  under  circumstances  of  great  solemnity, 
resigned  his  commission  to  that  body,  and  after  receiving  the  thanks  of 
Congress  for  the  able  and  faithful  manner  in  which  he  had  discharged 
the  task  intrusted  to  him,  retired  to  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  which 
he  had  not  visited  for  eight  years,  except  for  a  few  hours,  while  on  hU- 
ivay  to  attack  Corn  wall  is  at  York  town. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

THE  ADOPTION  OF   THE   CONSTITUTION — WASHINGTON'S 
ADMINISTRATION. 

Unsettled  Condition  of  the  Country—  Failure  of  the  Articles  of  Confederation — De?ire  ioi 
Reform — Meeting  of  the  Federal  Convention  at  Philadelphia — The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States — Adoption  of  a  Decimal  Currency — The  Northwest  Territory — Washing- 
ton Elected  President — His  Journey  to  New  York — Establishment  of  the  New  Govern- 
ment— The  First  Cabinet — Financial  Measures — Removal  of  the  Capital  agreed  upon 
— The  Government  at  Philadelphia — The  First  Census — The  Indians  of  the  Northwest 
Conquered — Reelection  of  Washington — Division  of  Paries — The  French  Revolution 
— The  United  States  Neutral — Citizen  Genet — Efforts  to  Commit  the  United  States  to 
the  French  Alliance — Genet's  Recall  Demanded — The  "  Whiskey  Insurrection  " — Jay's 
Treaty  with  England — Opposition  to  it — Negotiations  with  Algiers — Political  Disputes 
— Hostility  to  Washington — His  Farewell  Address — Its  Effect  upon  the  Country — Elec- 
tion of  John  Adams  to  the  Presidency — Admission  of  Vermont,  Kentucky,  and  Ten- 
nessee— Retirement  of  Washington — Results  of  his  Administration. 

HE  long  war  was  over,  and  independence  had  been  achieved ;  but 
the  condition  of  the  country  was  such  as  to  excite  the  gravest 
apprehension.  The  country  was  exhausted  by  the  sacrifices  and 
burdens  of  the  war,  and  its  debts  amounted  to  the  enormous 
sum  of  one  hundred  and  seventy  millions  of  dollars,  a  sum 
vastly  out  of  proportion  to  its  resources.  Two-thirds  of  these  debts  had 
been  contracted  by  Congress ;  the  remainder  by  the  States.  The  articles  of 
confederation  were  found  inadequate  to  the  task  of  enforcing  the  authority 
of  the  general  government,  and  the  States  treated  the  orders  of  Congress 
with  neglect.  Commerce  was  sadly  deranged  for  the  Avant  of  a  uniform 
system.  The  States  entered  into  competition  with  each  other  for  the 
trade  of  foreign  nations,  and  articles  which  were  required  to  pay  heavy 
duties  in  some  of  the  States  were  admitted  free  of  duty  in  others.  Many 
pf  the  States  were  unable  to  enforce  the  collection  of  taxes  within  their 
Own  limits.  The  British  merchants,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  flooded  the 
American  markets  with  their  manufactures  at  reduced  prices.  .  The 
result  was  that  the  domestic  manufactures  of  the -States  were  ruined;  the 
country  was  drained  of  its  specie,  and  the  merchants  and  people  of  the 
Union  were  involved  in  heavy  debts.  A  general  poverty  ensued  in  the 
Eastern  States,  which  gave  rise  to  much  discontent.  In  Massachusetts, 
570 


THE  ADOPTION  OF  TUB  CONSTITUTION.  57  \ 

in  December,  1786,  a  body  of  a  thousand  men,  under  Daniel  Shays, 
assembled  at  Worcester  and  compelled  the  supreme  court  to  adjourn,  in 
order  to  prevent  it  from  issuing  writs  for  the  collection  of  debts.  Tin 
militia  was  called  out,  and  "Shays'  Rebellion"  was  put  down;  but  it 
was  evident  that  the  sympathies  of  the  people  were  largely  with  the 
insurgents.  These  troubles  brought  home  to  the  whole  country  th« 
necessity  of  a  more  perfect  system  of  government,  and  measures  were 
begun  for  bringing  about  the  changes  needed. 

In  September,  1 783,  delegates  from  five  of  the  States  met  at  Annapolis 
30  deliberate  upon  a  plan  for  the  improvement  of  commerce  and  the 
revenue.  They  recommended  the  assembling  of  a  convention  to  revise 
the  articles  of  confederation;  and,  accordingly,  delegates  from  all  the 
States  met  for  this  purpose,  at  Philadelphia,  in  May,  1787.  George 
Washington,  who  was  one  of  'the  delegates  from  Virginia,  was  unani- 
mously chosen  president  of  the  convention.  The  sessions  of  this  body 
lasted  four  months,  and  the  convention,  instead  of  revising  the  articles 
of  confederation,  adopted  an  entirely  new  constitution.  Each  article  of 
this  constitutioi;  was  discussed  with  care  and  minuteness,  and  with  great 
feeling.  The  sessions  of  the  convention  were  held  with  closed  doors; 
b:it  its  proceedings  "were  so  far  from  harmonious  that  there  were  several 
occasions  when  it  seemed  likely  the  convention  would  break  up  in  con- 
fusion, and  leave  its  work  unfinished.  At  length,  however,  through  the 
patriotism  and  forbearance  of  its  members,  the  convention  brought  its 
work  to  a  close,  and  presented  the  constitution  to  Congress.  It  was  sub- 
mitted by  that  body  to  the  several  States  for  their  approval.  The  State 
governments  summoned  conventions  of  their  respective  people,  and  SUD- 
mitted  the  constitution  to  them  for  their  acceptance  or  rejection.  By  the 
end  cf  1788  it  was  ratified  by  eleven  States.  North  Carolina  did  nc( 
ratify  it  until  November,  1789;  and  Rhode  Island  held  aloof  from  th* 
Union  until  May,  1790.  The  right  of  these  States  to  reject  the  constitu- 
tion, and  to  continue  their  separate  existence  as  independent  States,  wax 
not  questioned  by  any  one. 

The  new  constitution  was  not  entirely  satisfactory  to  any  party,  and 
represented  the  sacrifices  made  by  all  to  achieve  the  great  end  of  a  central 
government,  strong  enough  to  carry  out  the  objects  of  the  Union.  It 
was  a  document  of  compromises,  three  of  which  were  of  especial  im- 
portance. The  first  was  a  concession  to  the  smaller  States,  which  had 
feared  the  loss  of  their  independence ;  they  were  placed  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  tne  larger  States  'by  being  given  an  equal  representation  in  the 
Senate.  The  second  was  a  concession  to  the  slave-holding  States  of  the 
south,  and  guaranteed  that  hi  apportioning  their  representation  in  Con- 


572 


HISTORY  OF  THE  U*,JtED  STATES. 


gress  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  were  to  be  included  with  the  white  popa* 
.aiion.  The  third  was  a  concession  to  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  and 
granted  them  permission  to  continue  the  African  slave-trade  until  1808. 
The  delegates  from  those  States  refused  to  sign  the  constitution  except 
upon  this  condition. 

.  In  the  meantime  Congress  had  taken  a  step  of  the  highest  importance 
in  adopting  the  plan,  presented  by  Mr.  Jeiferson,  for  a  decimal  currency 
Until  now  the  use  of  the  English  currency  had  been  general  in  all  the 
States.  In  August,  1786,  our  present  system  of  dollars  and  cents  was 
adopted  by  Congress,  and  a  mint  was  established  somewhat  later.  The 
government  was  so  poor,  however,  that  it  could  only  coin  a  small  quantity 
of  copper  cents. 

The  sessions  of  Congress  were  held  at  New  York.     In  the  session  of 
1787  a  measure  >vas  adopted,  which  had  the  most  important  influence 


GREAT  SEAL  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


apon  the  subsequent  history  of  the  country.  The  treaty  of  Paris  fixed 
the  Mississippi  river  as  the  western  boundary  of  the  United  States. 
This  river  consequently  became  the  western  limit  of  Virginia,  Con- 
necticut, and  Massachusetts.  In  1784  Virginia  ceded  to  the  general 
government  of  the  United  States  her  claim  to  the  vast  region  owned  by 
her  beyond  the  Ohio.  Massachusetts  aria  Connecticut  soon  followed  her 
example,  and  New  York  also  ceded  her  western  territory  to  the  govern- 
ment. In  July,  1787,  Congress  organized  this  vast  region  as  the  terri- 
tory of  the  northwest.  It  was  provided  that  slavery  should  never  be 
permitted  to  exist  in  this  territory,  or  in  any  of  the  States  which  might 
afterwards  be  formed  out  of  it.  This  wise  provision,  which  was  the  basis 
of  the  wonderful  prosperity  of  this  great  region,  was  due  to  the  foresight 
of  Thonia.  Jeiferson.  The  northwest  being  secured  to  freedom,  emigra- 


WASHINGTON'S 


tion  soon  set  in,  and  it  began  its  great  career  of  prosperity  which  hat 
since  known  no  .slackening. 

It  was  provided  by  the  constitution  that  when  it  should  have  bee.! 
ratified  by  two-thirds  of  the  States,  it  should  go  into  Deration  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1789.  Eleven  of  the  States  having  ratified  the  constitution,  eltx> 
tions  ,vere  held  for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  I  uited  States. 
and  for  members  of  Congress.  New  York  was  named  as  the  seat  of  tlu, 
new  government.  The  4th  of  March,  1789,  was  ushered  in  with  a 
pablic  demonstration  at  New  York;  but  a  sufficient  number  of  member,/ 
*jf  Congress  to  form  a  quorum  for  the  transaction  of  business  did  not 
arrive  until  the  30th  of  March.  On  the  6th  of  April  the  electoral  votes 
were  counted,  and  it  was  found  that  Ge^rgo  Washington  had  been 
unanimously  chosen  first  President  of  the  United  States,  and  John 
Adams  Vice  -Presi- 
dent. 

Charles  Thomp- 
son, the  oldest  secre- 
tary of  Congress,  was 
sent  to  Mount  Ver- 
non  to  notify  Wash- 
ington of  his  election, 
and  a  messenger  was 
despatched  to  Boston 
on  a  similar  errand  to 
Mr.  Adams.  Wash- 
ington promptly  sig- 
nified his  acceptance  of  the  office,  and,  two  days  later,  started  for  New 
York.  It  was  his  desire  to  travel  as  quietly  and  unostentatiously  as  pos- 
sible, but  the  people  of  the  States  through  which  he  passed  would  not 
permit  him  to  do  so.  His  journey  was  a  constant  ovation.  Crowds 
greeted  him  at  every  town  with  the  most  enthusiastic  demonstrations  of 
affection  and  confidence;  triumphal  arches  were  erected;  his  way  was 
strewn  with  flowers  by  young  girls  ;  and  maidens  and  mothers  greeted 
him  with  songs  composed  in  his  honor.  In  consequence  of  these  demon- 
strations his  progress  was  so  much  retarded  that  he  did  not  reach  New 
fork  until  tfia  latter  part  of  April. 

On  the  30th  of  April  Washington  appeared  on  the  balcony  of  "^dera? 
flail,  New  York,  on  the  site  of  which  the  United  ..tates  Treasury  now 
stands,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  in  the  presence  of  ;he  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives,  and  a  large  crowd  of  citizens  assembled  in  the 
streets  below.  He  then  repaired  to  the  Senate  chamber,  and  there  deliv- 


WASHINGTON  RECEIVING  THE  INTELLIGENCE  OP  m§ 
ELECTION. 


$74 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


ered  an  address  to  both  houses  of  Congress,  The  organization  of  the 
government  being  now  complete,  Congress  proceeded  to  arrange  the 
executive  department  by  the  creation  of  the  departments  of  state,  the 
f-reasury,  and  wjir.  President  Washington  appointed  Thomas  Jeffer- 
ion,  secretary  of  state,  Alexander  Hamilton,  secretary  of  the  treasury,. 
and  General  Henry  Knox,  secretary  of  war,,  John  Jay  was  made  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States,  and  Edmund  Randolph,  attorney- 
general. 

The  new  government  found  itself  face  to  face  with  many  difficulties, 
the  principal  of  which  was  the  payment  of  the  national  debt.  This  debt 
was  in  the  form  of  notes  of  the  government,  or  promises  to  pay  for  value 
received.  These  notes  had  been  issued  by  the  States  as  well  as  by  Con-' 
gress  during  the  revolution,  and  had  been  given  in  payment  for  services 

rendered  the  general  and  State  gov- 
ernments, and  for  supplies.  In  Jan- 
uary, 1790,  Alexander  Hamilton  pro- 
posed to  pay  all  these  debts  in  full, 
and  that  the  general  government 
should  assume  the  war  debts  of  the 
States.  This  plan  met  with  consider- 
able opposition  at  first,  but  was  at 
length  adopted.  It  was  also  arranged 
that  the  revenue  of  the  country  should 
be  divided  as  follows :  As  the  control 
of  commerce  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  Congress  the  revenue  derived  from 
the  duties  levied  upon  imported  mer- 
chandise was  to  be  applied  to  the  uses 
of  the  general  government.  The  proceeds  of  the  direct  taxes  upon  real 
estate  and  other  property,  which  could  be  levied  only  by  the  respective 
States,  were  to  be  used  for  the  expenses  of  those  States. 

It  had  been  for  some  time  considered  desirable  to  remove  the  seat  of 
the  federal  government  to  some  point  more  central  than  New  York,  and 
which  could  be  brought  under  the  supreme  control  of  Congress.  In 
1790  it  was  resolved  that  the  seat  of  government  be  fixed  at  Philadelphia 
for  ten  years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  be  removed  to  a  new  city  to  be 
built  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  A  federal  district,  ten  miles  square, 
was  obtained  by  cession  from  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  was  place-3 
under  the  sole  control  of  the  United  States.  The  foundations  of  t  nev/ 
city,  named  Washington,  in  honor  of  the  "  Father  of  his  Country,"  were 
laid  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Potomac,  a  short  distance  below  the  falls  of 


PRESIDENT  WASHINGTON, 


WASHINGTON'S  ADMINISTRATION.  575 

•hat  river,  and  buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  the  general  govern- 
ment were  begun  and  pushed  forward  as  rapidly  as  possible. 

The  general  governme-^  '^as  removed  to  Philadelphia  in  1791,  and  in 
December  of  that  year  the  second  Congress  began  its  sessions  in  that  city. 
The  principal  measure  of  this  session  was  ii»e  establishment  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  in  accordance  with  tiie  recommendations  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton.  The  bank  was  chartered  for  twenty  years,  and  ite 
capital  was  ten  millions  of  dollars,  of  which  the  government  took  two 
millions,  and  private  individuals  the  remainder.  The  measure  \vas 
carried  in  the  face  of  considerable  opposition  in  Congress,  but  was  very 
beneficial  to  the  government,  as  well  as  to  the  general  business  of  the 
country.  The  notes  of  the  bank  were  payable  in  gold  and  silver  upon 
presentation  at  its  counters. 

Commerce  now  began  to  show  signs  of  a  great  revival  from  the  stagna- 
tion and  loss  caused  by  the  war.  The  duties  levied  upon  foreign  goods 
gave  to  domestic  manufactures  an  opportunity  to  place  themselves  upon  a 
firmer  foundation.  Very  great  improvements  were  made  in  the  character 
of  American  manufactures.  In  New  England  the  weaving  of  cotton  and 
woollen  goods  was  begun,  in  a  feeble  way  it  is  true,  but  the  foundation 
vis  laid  of  that  great  industry  which  has  since  been  a  constant  and  grow- 
ing source  of  wealth  to  that  section. 

In  1790,  the  first  census  of  the  United  States  was  taken,  and  showed 
the  population  to  be  3,929,827  souls. 

The  Indians  of  the  northwest  had  been  very  troublesome  for  some  time. 
The  British  agents  in  that  region  incited  them  to  hostility  against  the 
United  States,  and  urged  them  to  claim  the  Ohio  as  their  southern  and 
eastern- boundary .  They  committed  innumerable  outrages  along  this  river, 
and  almost  put  a  stop  to  the  trade  upon  its  waters  by  attacking  and  plunder- 
ing the  flatboats  of  the  emigrants  and  traders  which  were  constantly  de- 
scending the  river.  The  general  government  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  their 
outrages,  and  General  Harmer  was  sent  against  them  in  1790,  but  was  de- 
feated with  great  loss.  In  1 791  General  St.  Clair,  the  governor  of  the  north- 
west territory,  was  placed  in  command  of  an  expedition  against  the  savages. 
He  set  out  from  Fort  Washington,  now  Cincinnati,  about  the  middle  of 
September,  with  a  force  of  two  thousand  men,  but  near  the  head  waters 
of  the  Wabash  was  surprised  and  defeated  by  an  Indian  force  under  Little 
Turtle,  a  famous  chief  of  the  Miamis.  The  wreck  of  his  army  fled  to 
Fort  Washington,  and  the  frontier  was  once  more  defenceless. 

President  Washington  now  placed  General  Anthony  Wayne  in  com- 
mand of  the  forces  destined  to  operate  against  the  Indians.  With  his 
usual  energy  Wayne  assembled  his  army  at  Fort  Washington,  and  in  the 


576 


mSTORY  OF  Till    UNITED  STATES. 


summer  of  1794  marched  into  the  Indian  country,  laid  it  waste,  an& 
defeated  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  battle  of  the  Maumee  on  the  20th  of 
August.  In  the  summer  of  1795,  the  Indians,  cowed  by  their  defeat,  and 
alarmed  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  British  from  the  frontier  posts,  met 
General  Wayne  at  his  camp  on  the  Miami,  and  entered  into  a  treaty  with 
the  United  States  by  which  they  ceded  all  the  eastern  and  southern  part 
of  Oiiio  to  the  whites,  and  withdrew  farther  westward. 

In  the  elections  of  1792  Washington  and  Adams  were  chosen  President 
and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  for  a  second  term  of  four  years. 
The  disputes  which  had  been  begun  by  the  adoption  of  the  constitution 
had  been  continued  during  the  first  term  of  Washington's  presidency,  and 
had  given  rise  to  two  political  parties — the  Federalists,  or  those  who  favor 


BATTLE  OP  THE  MAUMEE. 

a  strong  national  government,  and  who  supported  the  administration  ;  and 
Me  Anti-Federalists,  who  opposed  the  policy  of  the  administration.  Among 
(he  leaders  of  the  Federalist  party  were  Washington,  Adams,  Hamilton, 
\nd  Jay ;  among  the  Anti-Federalist  leaders  were  Jefferson,  Madison,  and 
Monroe.  The  differences  between  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  increased  with 
time,  and  soon  assumed  the  character  of  a  personal  hostility,  a  circumstance 
which  was  productive  of  great  trouble  to  the  president,  since  it  prevented 
his  cabinet  from  acting  harmoniously.  As  the  quarrel  deepened,  the 
Anti-Federalist  party  repudiated  that  title,  and  took  the  name  of  Repub- 
lican, as  it  better  expressed  their  principles.  The  political  questions 
entered  largely  into  the  second  election,  and  prevented  Mr.  Adams  from 
receiving  the  unanimous  vote  which  was  given  to  Washington. 


WASHINGTON'S  ADMINISTRATION.  577 

Shortly  after  the  commencement  of  Washington's  first  term  of  u3oe,  the 
French  revolution  broke  out,  and  drew  upon  France  the  attention  of  the 
whole  world.  The  events  of  this  great  struggle  were  watched  with  the 
deepest  interest  in  America,  for  the  nation  cherished  the  warmest  senti- 
ments of  gratitude  to  France  for  her  aid  in  the  revolution.  The  Repub- 
lican party  urgently  favored  an  alliance  with  the  French  republic,  but 
Washington  and  the  greater  part  of  his  cabinet  were  resolved  to  maintain 
a  strict  neutrality  as  to  all  European  quarrels.  The  excesses  of  the 
revolutionists  shocked  the  public  sentiment  of  America,  and  the  events 
of  the  reign  of  terror  cooled  the  zeal  of  many  of  the  most  ardent  friends 
of  the  French  republic.  Still  party  feeling  ran  high  upon  the  subject, 
And  the  disputes  were  yet  very  bitter  when  Mr.  Edmond  Charles  Genet, 
or  "  Citizen  Genet,"  as  he  was  generally  styled,  arrived  in  the  United 
States,  in  1793,  as  minister  from  the  French  republic.  He  brought  the 
news  that  France  had  declared  war  against  Great  Britain.  He  was  well 
received  by  the  Republicans,  who  were  anxious  that  the  United  States 
should  become  the  ally  of  France  and  thus  engage  in  a  new  war  with 
Great  Britain.  Washington  and  his  cabinet  were  unmoved  by  this 
clamor,  and  a  proclamation  was  issued  declaring  the  neutrality  of  the 
United  States  in  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  and  warning 
the  American  people  to  refrain  from  the  commission  of  acts  inconsistent 
with  this  neutrality.  The  firmness  of  the  president  in  resisting  the 
demand  for  an  alliance  with  France  saved  the  country  from  innumerable 
losses,  perhaps  from  the  destruction  of  the  work  of  the  revolution. 

Genet,  encouraged  by  the  sympathy  of  the  Republican  party,  was 
determined  to  embroil  the  United  States  with  Great  Britain  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  would  be  compelled  to  make  common  cause  with  France. 
He  therefore  began  to  fit  out  privateers  from  American  ports  agrinst  the 
commerce  of  England.  He  was  warned  by  the  government  that  he  was 
transcending  his  privileges  ac  the  minister  of  a  friendly  powsr,  but  paid 
no  attention  to  this  rebuke.  The  Republican  party  now  took  a  more 
active  stand  in  favor  of  the  French  alliance,  and  its  more  ultra  members 
assumed  the  name  of  Democrats,  while  others  styled  themselves  Demo- 
cratic Republicans.  The  determination  of  President  Washington  not  to 
interfere  in  the  quarrels  of  Europe  was  vehemently  assailed,  and  the  news- 
papers of  this  party  went  so  far  as  to  denounce  the  president  and  his  sup- 
porters as  the  enemies  of  France  and  the  friends  and  secret  supporters  of 
their  old  oppressor,  the  king  of  England. 

Genet  was  greatly  deceived  by  these  clamors,  which  he  mistook  for  the 
sentiment  of  the  American  people.  He  took  a  step  further,  and  authorized 
the  French  consuls  in  the  American  ports  to  receive  and  sell  vessels  cap- 
37 


573  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

turecl  by  French  cruisers  from  the  English,  with  whom  the  United  States 
were  at  peace.  He  also  contemplated  raising  a  force  in  Georgia  and  the 
Carolina*  for  the  purpose  of  seizing  Florida,  and  another  in  Kentucky  for 
the  conquest,  of  Louisiana,  both  of  which  regions  were  then  held  by  Spain, 
a  power  friendly  to  the  United  States.  The  patience  of  the  president 
having  been  exhausted  by  Genet's  insolent  conduct,  Washington  requested 
the  French  government  to  recall  him,  which  it  did  in  1794,  much  to  the 
astonishment  of  citizen  Genet.  M.  Fauchet  was  appointed  in  his  place. 
Genet  did  not  return  home,  but  became  a  citizen  of  the  United  States. 

The  impunity  with  which  Genet  had  braved  the  federal  government 
gave  rise  to  fears  that  it  was  not  strong  enough  to  enforce  its  authority. 
Advantage  was  taken  of  this  feeling  in  an  unexpected  quarter.  The 
fertile  region  of  western  Pennsylvania,  watered  by  the  Monongahela  and 
its  tributaries,  had  been  settled  by  a  hardy  population,  chiefly  of  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterians,  who  had  with  great  labor  and  amid  constant  exposure 
to  the  attacks  of  the  Indians,  redeemed  the  land  from  the  wilderness,  and 
covered  it  with  thriving  farms  and  orchards.  Grain  and  apples  and 
peaches  were  their  staple  products  j  the  grain  was  distilled  into  whiskey, 
and  the  fruits  were  made  into  brandies.  One  of  Hamilton's  favorite 
measures  for  the  raising  of  a  revenue  was  the  imposition  of  an  excise  or 
duty  upon  whiskey.  This  tax  was  generally  unpopular  throughout  the 
country,  but  especially  so  in  the  four  western  counties  of  Pennsylvania. 
The  settlers  of  this  region  organized  themselves  in  secret  societies  for  the 
purpose  of  resisting  this  tax,  and  at  length,  in  1792,  rose  in  rebellion 
against  the  government,  refused  to  pay  the  tax,  and  drove  off  the  excise 
officers.  The  best  men  in  this  section  were  engaged  in  the  rebellion,  and 
it  was  openly  proposed  to  separate  from  Pennsylvania  and  form  a  new 
State.  Nearly  seven  thousand  armed  men  assembled,  and  declared  their 
intention  to  resist  the  authority  of  the  State  and  federal  governments. 
Matters  remained  in  this  condition  for  about  two  years,  and  at  length 
Washington,  finding  it  necessary  to  employ  force  for  the  suppression  of 
the  revolt,  sent  a  strong  body  of  troops  to  compel  the  rebels  to  submit. 
Upon  the  appearance  of  the  troops,  the  leaders  of  the  movement  fled,  and 
the  "Whiskey  Insurrection"  suddenly  came  to  an  end.  This  vigorous 
itftion  of  the  federal  government  greatly  added  to  its  strength. 

The  fidelity  with  which  Washington  sought  to  discharge  his  duty 
towards  England,  as  a  neutral,  was  but  little  appreciated  by  the  govern- 
ment of  that  country,  which  conducted  itself  towards  the  United  States 
in  a  manner  that  seemed  likely  to  result  in  another  war.  By  the  treaty 
of  Paris  England  had  agreed  to  surrender  the  frontier  posts  held  by  her 
forces  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  These  were  still  retained, 


WASHINGTON'S  ADMINISTRATION.  579 

and  were  made  by  the  British  agents  so  many  centres  for  stirring  up  the 
Indians  to  acts  of  hostility  against  the  Americans.  Orders  were  issueu 
to  the  British  naval  officers  to  seize  and  detain  all  vessels  laden  with 
French  goods,  or  with  provisions  for  any  of  the  French  colonies.  As  the 
American  ships  were  largely  engaged  in  trade  with  France  and  her 
colonies,  this  order  threatened  the  commerce  of  the  States  with  ruin. 
The  feeling  of  indignation  against  England,  caused  by  these  outrages, 
was  increasing  throughout  the  Union,  and  the  country  was  rapidly  drift- 
ing into  a  war  with  that  kingdom.  The  interests  of  the  United  States 
demanded  peace  with  all  the  world,  as  the  country  was  yet  too  weak  ami 
unsettled  to  endure  another  war  with  safety.  This  necessity  was  recog- 
nized by  Washington  and  his  advisers,  and  the  constant  aim  of  the  presi- 
dent was  to  avoid,  as  far  as  possible,  all  complications  which  might  lead 
to  war.  The  conduct  of  Great  Britain  could  not  be  passed  by,  and  if  a 
settlement  of  the  matter,  consistent  with  the  honor  and  interests  of  the 
republic  could  not  be  arranged,  war  was  inevitable. 

Anxious  to  exhaust  all  peaceful  means  of  settlement,  President  Wash- 
ington sent  John  Jay,  the  chief  justice,  to  England  to  enter  into  negotia- 
tions with  the  British  government  for  the  settlement  of  all  matters  in 
dispute  between  the  two  countries.  Mr.  Jay  was  eminently  qualified  for 
the  task,  both  by  his  remarkable  abilities  and  his  great  and  honorable 
services  to  the  country  since  the  outbreak  of  the  revolution.  lie  was 
received  in  England  with  great  respect,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  concluded  a  treaty,  which  was  submitted  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  for  ratification.  By  the  terms  of  this  treaty  Great  Britain 
agreed  to  give  up  the  western  posts  within  two  years,  to  grant  to  Ameri- 
can vessels  the  privilege  of  trading  with  the  West  Indies  upon  certain 
conditions,  and  to  admit  American  ships  free  of  restrictions  to  the  ports 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  English  East  Indian  possessions.  On  the  othe* 
hand  provision  was  made  by  the  United  States  for  the  collection  of  debts 
due  British  merchants  by  American  citizens. 

This  treaty  did  not  please  any  party  entirely,  not  even  Mr.  Jay  him- 
self; but  it  was  the  best  that  could  be  obtained  from  Great  Britain  at  the 
time,  and  as  such  was  accepted  by  the  administration,  which  threw  all  its 
influence  in  favor  of  its  adoption.  It  met  with  very  great  opposition  in 
.•'the  Senate,  and  subjected  the  president  to  a  great  deal  of  adverse  criticism 
throughout  the  country.  After  a  fortnight's  debate  in  secret  session  the 
Senate  advised  the  ratification  of  the  treaty.  The  acceptance  of  this 
treaty,  imperfect  and  unsatisfactory  as  it  was,  secured  peace  to  the  United 
States  for  a  number  of  years  at  this  most  critical  period  of  its  history. 
In  1795  treaties  were  also  negotiated  with  Spain,  by  which  the  bound* 


580 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


vies  between  the  United  States  and  Louisiana  and  Florida  were  definitely 
settled.  The  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  was  made  free  to  both  parties, 
and  the  Americans  were  granted  the  privilege  of  making  New  Orleans, 
for  three  years,  a  place  of  deposit  for  their  trade. 

The  commerce  of  the  United  States,  M'hich  was  increasing  rapidly,  was 
confined  chiefly  to  the  New  England  States.  A  lucrative  trade  with  the 
countries  of  Europe  bordering  the  Mediterranean  had  grown  up,  but  was 
greatly  interfered  with  by  the  Algerine  pirates,  who  sallied  out  from  their 
harbors  on  the  African  coast  and  captured  many  of  the  vessels  engaged 
in  this  trade,  and  sold  the  crews  into  slavery.  The  European  powers  had 
purchased  exemption  from  these  outrages  by  paying  an  annual  tribute  to 
the  Dey  of  Algiers.  The  United  States  for  the  present  thought  it  best 
to  follow  the  universal  custom,  and  ransomed  the  captive  American 
sailors  by  the  payment  of  nearly  a  million  of  dollars.  At  the  same 
time  the  more  sensible  policy  of  establishing  a  navy  for  the  protection  of 
American  commerce  was  resolved  upon,  and  in  1795  a  bill  was  passed  by 

Congress  for  the  construction  of 
six  first-class  frigates.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  United 
States  navy. 

Mr.  Jeiferson  had  retired  from 
the  cabinet  at  the  close  of  1793, 
and  after  his  withdrawal  party 
quarrels  ran  higher  than  ever. 
The  motives  and  conduct  of  the  president  were  denounced  with  great  bit- 
terness by  his  opponents,  and  he  was  subjected  to  considerable  annoyance 
by  these  attacks.  He  continued,  with  firmness,  the  course  he  had  marked 
out  for  himself,  trusting  to  time  and  the  good  sense  of  his  countrymen  for 
his  vindication.  In  September,  1796,  he  issued  a  farewell  address  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  in  which  he  announced  his  purpose  to  retire 
from  public  life  at  the  close  of  his  second  term,  and  delivered  to  his 
countrymen  such  counsels  and  admonitions  as  he  deemed  suited  to  their 
future  guidance.  It  was  the  warning  of  a  father  to  his  children  engaged 
in  a  difficult  and  all-important  undertaking.  It  had  a  most  happy  effect. 
It  brought  up  the  memory  of  the  great  and  unselfish  services  of  Wash- 
ington, and  enabled  his  countrymen  to  see  him  in  his  true  light.  The 
gratitude  of  the  nation,  which  had  been  long  obscured  by  party  passion, 
burst  forth  in  a  mighty  stream,  and  from  every  quarter  came  evidences 
of  the  affection  and  veneration  of  the  American  people  for  their  great 
leader.  Congress  adopted  a  reply  to  the  farewell  address,  expressing 
the  highest  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  integrity  of  Washington,  and 


COAT  OF  ARMS  OF  VERMONT. 


WASHINGTON'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


681 


during  the  winter  of  1796-97  nearly  all  the  State  legislatures  adopted 
similar  resolutions. 

At  the  elections  held  in  the  fall  of  1796  the  Federalists  put  forward 

John  Adams  as  their  candidate,  while  the  Republicans  supported  Thomas 

•  Jefferson.     The  contest  was  very  bitter,  and  resulted  in  the  electiou  of 

Mr.  Adams.     Mr.  Jefferson,  receiving  the  next  highest  number  of  votes, 

was  declared  Vice-President,  in  accordance  with  the  law  as  it  then  stood. 

During  the  administration  of  President  Washington  three  new  Slates 
were  admitted  into  the  Union,  making  the  whole  number  of  States  six- 


MOTTNT  VERNON. 

teen.  They  were  Vermont,  which  was  admitted  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1791,  making  the  first  new  State  under  the  constitution;  Kentucky, 
which  was  admitted  in  1792;  and  Tennessee,  admitted  on  the  1st  of 
June,  1796. 

At  the  close  o£  his  term  of  office,  Washington  withdrew  to  his  home 
at  Mount  Vernon,  to  enjoy  the  repose  he  had  so  well  earned,  and  which 
was  so  grateful  to  him.  His  administration  had  been  eminently  success- 
ful. When  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  presidency  the  government 
was  new  and  untried,  and  its  best  friends  doubted  its  ability  to  exist  long; 


582  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  finances  were  in  confusion  and  the  country  was  burdened  with  debt ; 
the  disputes  with  Great  Britain  threatened  to  involve  the  country  in  a 
new  war ;  and  the  authority  of  the  general  government  was  uncertain 
and  scarcely  recognized.  When  he  left  office  the  state  of  affairs  was 
changed.  The  government  had  been  severely  tested  and  had  been 
found  equal  to  any  demand  upon  it  j  the  finances  had  been  placed  upon 
a  safe  and  healthy  footing,  and  the  debt  of  the  country  had  been 
adjusted  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties  concerned  in  it.  The  dis- 
putes with  England  had  been  arranged,  and  the  country,  no  longer 
threatened  with  war,  was  free  to  devote  its  energies  to  its  improvement. 
Industry  and  commerce  were  growing  rapidly.  The  exports  from  the 
United  States  had  risen  from  nineteen  millions  to  over  fifty-six  millions 
of  dollars,  and  the  imports  had  increased  in  nearly  the  same  proportion. 
The  rule  of  non-interference  in  European  quarrels,  and  of  cultivating 
friendly  relations  with  all  the  world,  had  become  the  settled  policy  of 
the  republic,  and  its  wisdom  had  been  amply  vindicated.  The  progress 
of  the  republic  during  the  eight  years  of  Washington's  administration 
'#!&  indeed  gratifying,  and  gave  promise  of  a  brilliant  future. 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

THE   ADMINISTRATIONS   OF  JOHN  ADAMS  AND   THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

Inauguration  of  John  Adams — Aggressions  of  France  upon  the  United  States — The 
American  Commissioners  Insulted  by  the  French  Government — The  Alien  and  Sedition 
Laws — The  United  States  Prepare. for  War  with  France — France  Signifies  her  Willing- 
ness to  Treat — New  Commissioners  appointed — Settlement  of  the  Dispute — Hostilities 
at  Sea — Capture  of  the  "  Insurgente"  and  "  Vengeance" — Death  of  Washington — Removal 
of  the  Capital  to  Washington  City — The  Second  Census — Inauguration  of  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son— The  President's  Message — His  First  Measures — Admission  of  Ohio — Louisiana 
Purchased  by  the  United  States — War  with  the  Barbary  Powers — Burning  of  the"  Phila- 
delphia"— Re-election  of  Mr.  Jefferson — Aaron  Burr  Kills  Alexander  Hamilton  in  a  Duel 
— Burr's  Subsequent  Career — Fulton's  Steamboat — Outrages  of  England  and  France 
upon  American  Commerce — American  Vessels  Searched  and  American  Seamen  Im- 
pressed by  England — Efforts  to  Settle  these  Questions — Affair  of  the  "Chesapeake"  and 
"  Leopard  " — The  Embargo — Results  of  this  Measure — Losses  of  the  Eastern  States — 
Election  of  James  Madison  to  the  Presidency — Repeal  of  the  Embargo — Retirement  of 
Mr.  Jefferson. 

the  4th  of  March,  1797,  John  Adams  was  inaugurated  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  Thomas  Jefferson  took  the  oath  of 
office  as  Vice-President.  Mr.  Adams  was  in  the  sixty-second 
year  of  his  age,  and  in  the  full  vigor  of  health  and  intellect. 
He  made  no  changes  in  the  cabinet  left  by  President  Washing- 
ton, and  the  policy  of  his  administration  corresponded  throughout  with 
that  of  his  great  predecessor.  He  came  into  office  at  a  time  when  this 
policy  was  to  be  subjected  to  the  severest  test,  and  was  to  be  triumph- 
antly vindicated  by  the  trial.  Mr.  Adams  began  his  official  career  with 
the  declaration  of  his  "determination  to  maintain  ]>eace  and  inviolate 
faith  with  all  nations,  and  neutrality  and  impartiality  with  the  belligerent 
powers  of  Europe." 

The  relations  of  the  United  States  with  France  had  been  of  an  un- 
friendly nature  for  some  time.  Jay's  treaty  had  greatly  offended  the  French 
government,  and  the  insolent  conduct  of  M.  Ade't,  the  French  minister 
to  the  United  States,  had  led  to  a  suspension  of  diplomatic  intercourse 
between  the  two  republics.  The  French  Directory  now  proceeded  to 
manifest  its  disregard  of  the  rights  of  America  by  ordering  the  seizure  of 
all  American  vessels  in  its  ports  laden  with  English  manufactured  goods. 

583 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

At  the  same  time  the  American  minister  to  France,  Charles  C.  Pinckney, 
was  treated  with  such  studied  insult  that  he  demanded  his  passports  and 
withdrew  to  Holland.  Privateers  were  sent  out  from  French  ports,  which 
captured  American  merchantmen  and  treated  their  crews  as  prisoners  of 
war.  France  also  exerted  her  influence  with  Spain  and  Holland  to  in- 
duce them  to  treat  the  United  States  with  hostility  because  of  the  alleged 
partiality  of  Jay's  treaty  with  Great  Britain.  All  this  while  there  was  a 
considerable  party  in  the  United  States  which  was  anxious  for  the  conclu- 
sion of  an  alliance  with  France,  and  which  either  could  not,  or  would  not, 
see  the  deliberate  purpose  of  that  country  to  treat  with  the  American 
republic  only  as  a  dependent. 

In  May,  1797,  President  Adams  called  a  special  session  of  Congress  and 
laid  before  it  a  statement  of  the  relations  with  France.  The  announcement 
of  the  insults  received  by  the  American  minister  at  the  hands  of  the 
Directory  and  the  increased  aggressions  upon  American  commerce,  aroused 

a  feeling  of  deep  indignation  throughout  the 
country,  and  drew  upon  the  partisans  of  France 
in  America  a  considerable  amount  of  deserved 
odium. 

In  the  hope  that  a  peaceful  and  honorable 
settlement  might  yet  be  had,  John  Marshall  and 
Elbridge  Gerry,  the  former  a  Federalist  and  the 
latter  a  Republican,  were  appointed  special  com- 
missioners, and  were  ordered  to  proceed  to  Paris 
and  unite  with  Mr.  Pinckney  in  the  negotiation 
of  a  treaty  which  should  not  conflict  with  those 
JOHN  ADAMS.  existing  with  other  nations,  and  which  should 

place  beyond  question  the  right  of  the  United 

States  to  maintain  their  neutrality.  Marshall  and  Gerry  joined  Pinckney 
in  Paris  in  October,  1798,  and  made  their  business  known  to  the  French 
minister  of  foreign  affairs,  the  famous  Talleyrand.  He  at  first  refused 
to  receive  the  American  envoys  in  an  official  capacity,  and  afterwards 
employed  unknown  agents  to  communicate  with  them,  in  order  that  he 
might  be  free  to  disavow  any  engagement  entered  into  with  them.  It  soon 
transpired  that  the  object  of  these  secret  interviews  was  to  extort  money 
from  the  commissioners.  They  were  given  to  understand  that  if  they 
would  pay  Talleyrand  a  certain  sum  of  money  for  the  use  of  himself 
and  his  friends,  and  would  pledge  the  United  States  to  make  a  loan  to 
France,  negotiations  would  be  begun  without  delay.  The  answer  of  the 
American  commissioners  was  well  expressed  in  the  indignant  words  of 
Pinckney :  "  Millions  for  defence,  not  one  cent  for  tribute."  Marshall 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  585 

and  Pinckney  were  ordered  to  quit  France  at  once,  but  Mr.  Gerry  was 
invited  to  remain  and  negotiate  a  treaty.  He  was  nevertheless  unable 
to  accomplish  anything.  The  correspondence  between  the  commissioners 
and  Talleyrand's  agents  was  published  in  the  United  States,  and  aroused 
such  a  storm  of  indignation  that  the  French  party  disappeared.  It  never 
dared  to  make  its  appearance  again. 

About  thirty  thousand  French  exiles  were  residing  in  the  United  States 
at  this  time,  and  it  was  believed  by  the  government  that  some  of  these 
had  acted  as  spies  for  the  Directory.  It  was  known  that  many  had 
abused  the  hospitality  extended  to  them  by  seeking  to  induce  the  people 
of  the  south  and  west  to  join  them  in  an  effort  to  wrest  Louisiana  and 
Florida  from  Spain,  and  by  endeavoring  to  strengthen  the  opposition  to 
the  efforts  of  the  government  to  discharge  its  duty  of  neutrality  towards 
the  European  powers.  In  the  spring  of  1798,  in  order  to  remedy  this 
trouble,  Congress  passed  the  measures  known  as  the  "  alien  and  sedition 
acts,"  by  the  first  of  which  the  president  was  empowered  to  order  out 
of  the  country  "any  foreigner  whom  he  might  believe  to  be  dangerous 
to  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  United  States."  By  the  sedition  act  it 
was  made  a  crime  with  a  very  heavy  penalty  for  any  one  to"  write,  utter, 
or  publish"  any  "false,  scandalous,  and  malicious  writing"  against 
"  either  House  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  or  the  president  of 
the  United  States,  with  intent  to  defame,  or  to  bring  them,  or  either  of 
them,  into  contempt  and  disrepute."  These  acts  met  with  great  opposition 
throughout  the  country,  and  the  latter  especially  was  regarded  as  an 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  government  to  destroy  the  freedom  of  the  press. 
The  alien  act  was  not  executed,  but  a  large  number  of  foreigners  left 
the  country  soon  after  its  passage.  Several  persons  were  prosecuted  under 
the  sedition  act  for  their  severe  criticisms  of  the  government,  and  the 
result  was  invariably  to  increase  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party,  which 
steadfastly  opposed  the  laws  as  unconstitutional  and  violative  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  people  of  the  Union. 

In  the  summer  of  1798  Mr.  Marshall  returned  from  France,  and  his 
report  confirmed  the  statements  that  had  been  made  respecting  the  hostile 
intentions  of  the  government  of  that  country.  The  president  submitted 
to  Congress  a  statement  of  the  disputes  between  the  two  republics,  and 
Congress,  recognizing  the  danger  of  war,  began  to  prepare  for  it.  It 
was  resolved  to  create  a  navy,  and  the  three  frigates  just  completed  were 
fitted  for  sea.  The  president  was  authorized  to  have  built,  or  to  purchase 
or  hire  twelve  ships  of  war  of  twenty  guns  each.  An  army  was  ordered 
to  be  raised,  and  the  prominent  points  on  the  coast  were  to  be  placed  in 
a  state  of  defence.  Washington  was  made  commander-in-chief  of  the 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  53  7 

army,  with  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Geueral.  He  accepted  the  position 
and  applied  himself  with  energy  to  the  task  of  preparing  the  country  for 
defence.  He  gave  a  hearty  support  to  the  measures  of  the  president,  and 
used  his  great  influence  to  secure  for  them  a  similar  approval  on  the  part 
of  the  people.  In  the  winter  of  1798-99  Congress  appropriated  a 
million  of  dollars  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  military  preparations,  and 
authorized  the  construction  of  six  ships  of  war  of  seventy-four  guns  each, 
and  six  sloops  of  war  of  eighteen  guns  each. 

The  energy  and  enthusiasm  with  which  the  Americans  prepared  for 
war  opened  the  eyes  of  Talleyrand.  He  had  not  supposed  they  would 
fight,  and  now  that  he  found  they  would,  he  was  not  willing  to  add  to  the 
difficulties  of  France  by  engaging  in  a  new  war.  He  therefore  signified 
in  an  informal  manner  to  Mr.  Van  Murray,  the  United  States  minister 
in  Holland,  that  the  French  government  was  willing  to  renew  diplo- 
matic intercourse  with  the  United  States.  Mr.  Adams,  upon  being  in- 
formed of  this,  resolved  to  make  one  more  effort  to  secure  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  the  quarrel.  He  sent  Oliver  Ellsworth,  Chief  Justice  of 
the  United  States,  William  R.  Davie,  and  William  Van  Murray,  minister 
to  Holland,  as  commissioners  to  treat  with  the  French  republic  for  a 
settlement  of  all  differences  between  the  two  countries.  In  taking  this 
step  he  greatly  offended  many  of  the  leaders  of  his  party,  who  insisted 
that  overtures  for  peace  should  come  from  France.  The  most  rational 
and  probable  solution  of  Mr.  Adams'  course,  in  the  absence  of  direct 
proof,  says  the  Hon.  A.  H.  Stephens,  "  is  that  he  acted  under  the  urgent 
private  advice  of  Washington.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  proved  to  be  one  of 
the  wisest  and  most  beneficent  deeds  of  his  life."  The  commissioners 
were  ordered  by  the  president  not  to  enter  France  unless  they  were 
assured  that  they  would  be  received  in  a  "manner  befitting  the  commission- 
ers of  an  independent  nation." 

Upon  reaching  Paris  the  commissioners  found  that  a  great  change  had 
taken  place  in  the  affairs  of  France.  A  revolution  had  unseated  the 
Directory,  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  at  the  head  of  the  government 
as  first  consul.  Commissioners  were  appointed  to  meet  the  American 
envoys,  and  negotiations  were  begun  and  carried  forward  with  such  suc- 
cess that  on  the  30th  of  November,  1800,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed 
between  the  United  States  and  France. 

In  the  meantime,  though  war  was  not  actually  declared,  hostilities  had 
begun.  More  than  three  hundred  merchant  vessels  were  licensed  to  carry 
arms  for  their  defence.  On  the  9th  of  February,  1799,  the  American 
frigate  "  Constellation  "  captured  the  French  frigate  "  L'  Insurgente,"  of 
about  equal  force,  after  a  severe  engagement  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter, 


588 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


inflicting  upon  her  a  severe  loss  in  killed  and  wounded.  Somewhat  later 
the  "Constellation"  encountered  the  French  frigate  "  La  Vengeance,"  of 
superior  force,  and  in  an  engagement  of  about  five  hours  duration  silenced 
her  fire  and  inflicted  upon  her  a  loss  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  men  in 
killed  and  wounded.  The  French  vessel  succeeded  in  making  her  escape. 
These  successes  were  very  gratifying  to  the  Americans,  as  they  showed 
what  their  navy  could  accomplish  if  given  a  fair  trial.  The  news  of  the 
conclusion  of  peace  put  a  stop  to  hostilities.  The  army  was  disbanded, 
but  the  navy  was  kept  afloat,  and  the  coast  defences  were  maintained. 
Before  the  arrival  of  the  news  of  the  treaty  the  country  was  called 


THE  SUSQUEHANNA   ABOVE  HARRISBURG,   PENNSYLVANIA. 

upon  to  mourn  the  loss  of  its  most  illustrious  citizen,  George  Washington. 
He  took  cold  while  riding  over  his  estate  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  was 

O 

seized  with  a  violent  sore  throat,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  died  on  the 
14th  of  December,  1799,  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  He  was 
buried  in  his  family  vault  at  Mount  Vernon,  where  his  ashes  still  lie. 
The  highest  honors  wrere  paid  to  his  memory  by  Congress,  and  by  the 
various  State  governments,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  Union  a  universal 
mourning  was  held  for  the  Father  of  his  Country.  Not  less  sincere  were 
the  tributes  paid  in  foreign  lands  to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead. 
Upon  the  receipt  of  the  sad  news  the  flags  of  the  Channel  fleet  of  Great 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 


589 


Britain  were  placed  at  half-mast  by  order  of  the  Admiral  Lord  Bridport. 
Napoleon,  then  first  consul  of  France,  caused  the  standards  of  the 
French  army  to  be  draped  in  mourning  for  ten  days,  and  announced  the 
news  to  the  army  in  the  orders  of  the  day.  The  proudest  tribute  of  all 
to  the  grandeur  and  purity  of  the  character  of  Washington  is  the  unceas- 
ing and  ever  increasing  love  and  veneration  with  which  his  memory  is 
cherished  by  his  countrymen. 

During  the  summer  of  the  year  1800  the  seat  of  the  general  govern- 
ment was  removed  from  Philadelphia  to  the  new  federal  city  of  Wash- 
ington, in  the  District  of  Columbia.  On  the  22d  of  November,  the 
session  of  Congress  was  opened  in  the  unfinished  capitol  at  Washington. 

The  elections  for 
president  and  vice- 
president  were  held 
in  the  autumn  of  1800. 
Mr.  Adams  was  the 
Federalist  candidate 
for  the  presidency,  and 
Charles  Cotesworth 
Pinckney  the  candi- 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


date  of  that  party  for 
vice-president.  The 
Republican  or  Demo- 
cratic party  nominated 
Thomas  Jefferson  for 
the  presidency,  and 
Colonel  Aaron  Burr, 
of  New  York,  for  the 
vice-presidency.  The 
alien  and  sedition  laws 

had  rendered  the  Federalist  party  so  unpopular  that  the  electors 
chosen  at  the  polls  failed  to  make  a  choice,  and  the  election  was  thrown 
upon  the  House  of  Representatives,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Consti- 
tution. On  the  17th  of  February,  1801,  after  thirty-six  ballots,  the 
House  elected  Thomas  Jefferson  President,  and  Aaron  Burr  Vice-Presi- 
dent, of  the  United  States,  for  a  term  of  four  years  from  and  after  the 
4th  of  March,  1801. 

The  second  census  of  the  United  States,  taken  in  1800,  showed  the 
population  of  the  country  to  be  5,319,762  souls. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  the   third   President   of  the   United   States,   was 
inaugurated  at  the  new  capitol,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  on  the  4th  of 


590 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON.  591 

March,  1801.  He  was  in  his  fifty-eighth  year,  and  had  long  been  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  illustrious  men  in  America.  He  was  the  author  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  had  represented  the  country  as  minister 
to  France,  had  served  in  the  cabinet  of  General  Washington  as  secretary 
of  state,  and  had  filled  the  high  office  of  vice-president  during  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Adams.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Democratic 
party,  and  was  regarded  by  it  with  an  enthusiastic  devotion  which  could 
see  no  flaw  in  his  character.  By  the  Federalists  he  was  denounced  with 
intense  bitterness  as  a  Jacobin,  and  an  enemy  of  organized  government. 
He  was  unquestionably  a  believer  in  the  largest  freedom  possible  to  man, 
but  he  was  too  deeply  versed  in  the  lessons  of  statesmanship,  and  was  too 
pure  a  patriot  to  entertain  for  a  moment  the  levelling  principles  with 
which  his  enemies  charged  him.  Under  him  the  government  of  the 
republic  suffered  no  diminution  of  strength,  but  his  administration  was 
a  gain  to  the  country. 

Mr.  Jefferson  began  his  administration  by  seeking  to  undo  as  far  as 
possible  the  evil  effects  of  the  sedition  act  of  1798.  A  number  of  per- 
sons were  in  prison  in  consequence  of  sentences  under  this  act  at  the  time 
of  his  inauguration.  .These  were  at  once  pardoned  by  the  president  and 
released  from  prison. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  seventh  Congress,  in  December,  1801,  President 
Jefferson,  in  pursuance  of  an  announcement  made  some  time  before, 
inaugurated  the  custom  which  has  since  prevailed  of  sending  a  written 
message  to  each  House  of  Congress,  giving  his  views  on  public  affairs  and 
the  situation  of  the  country.  Previous  to  this  the  president  had  always 
met  the  two  houses  upon  their  assembling,  and  had  addressed  them  in  per- 
son. A  strong  Democratic  majority  controlled  this  Congress,  and  gave  a 
hearty  support  to  the  president.  The  obnoxious  measures  of  the  last 
administration,  such  as  the  internal  taxes,  the  taxes  on  stills,  distilled 
spirits,  refined  sugars,  carriages,  stamped  paper,  etc.,  were  repealed.  In 
accordance  with  a  suggestion  of  the  president  the  period  of  naturalization 
was  reduced  from  fourteen  to  five  years.  Measures  were  also  set  on  foot 
for  the  redemption  of  the  public  debt,  and  it  was  provided  that  seven 
millions  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  should  be  annually  appropriated 
as  a  sinking  fund  for  that  purpose.  Another  act,  of  which  the  wisdom 
was  not  so  apparent,  was  passed  for  the  reduction  of  the  army. 

During  the  interval  which  had  elapsed  since  the  organization  of  the 
Territory  of  the  Northwest,  emigrants  had  been  pouring  into  the  southern 
and  eastern  part  of  it  with  great  rapidity.  In  one  year  twenty  thousand 
new  settlers  were  added  to  the  population  of  the  Territory  of  Ohio.  The 
population  had  now  become  so  large  that  the  eastern  part  of  the  North- 


592  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

west  Territory  applied  for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  separate  State. 
Its  request  was  granted,  and  on  the  19th  of  February  it  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  the  State  of  Ohio,  with  a  population  of  seventy 
thousand. 

In  1801  France  by  a  secret  treaty  received  back  from  Spain  the  Terri- 
tory of  Louisiana.  The  French  did  not  occupy  the  country,  but  left  it 
under  Spanish  rule.  In  1803  the  Spanish  governor  of  New  Orleans,  in 
violation  of  the  treaty  of  1795,  closed  the  port  of  New  Orleans  to 
American  commerce.  This  act  aroused  the  most  intense  indignation 
among  the  people  along  the  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi,  who  were  thus 
cut  off  from  the  sea,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  they  could  be  re- 
strained from  an  attempt  to  take  possession  of  Louisiana. 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  long  been  anxious  to  obtain  for  the  United  States 
the  country  bordering  the  lower  Mississippi,  as  he  was  convinced  that  the 
power  holding  the  mouth  of  that  river  must  of  necessity  control  the  great 
valley  through  which  it  flows.  Accordingly,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  the 

American  minister  at  Paris,  was 
ordered  to  open  negotiations  with 
the  French  government  for  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana.  He  found 
this  an  easier  task  than  he  had  ex- 
pected, for  Napoleon,  who  was  on 
the  eve  of  a  great  European  war, 

COAT  OF  ARMS  OF  OHIO.  wag     much     .Q     ^^    Qf    money>   an(J 

was  by  no  means  anxious  to  add  to  his  troubles  by  being  obliged  to  de- 
fend Louisiana.  A  bargain  was  soon  concluded  by  which  the  United 
States  became  the  possessors  of  the  whole  region  of  Louisiana,  from  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Pacific,  embracing  over  a  million  of  square  miles.  The 
United  States  paid  to  France  the  sum  of  $15,000,000  for  this  immense 
region,  and  guaranteed  to  the  then  inhabitants  all  the  rights  of  American 
citizens.  "  This  accession  of  territory,"  said  Napoleon,  upon  the  comple- 
tion of  the  purchase,  "strengthens  forever  the  power  of  the  United  States, 
and  I  have  just  given  to  England  a  maritime  rival  that  will  sooner  or 
later  humble  her  pride." 

This  purchase  was  of  the  highest  importance.  It  about  doubled  the 
area  of  the  United  States,  and  placed  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
within  the  territory  of  the  republic.  It  was  naturally  a  most  popular 
tict,  and  was  approved  by  the  entire  nation,  with  the  exception  of  a  small 
number  of  the  old  Federalist  leaders.  Congress  divided  this  great  regior 
into  two  territories — the  Territory  of  Orleans,  corresponding  to  the  pres- 
ent State  of  Louisiana,  and  the  District  of  Louisiana,  comprising  the 
remainder  of  the  purclr 


ADMIXISTRATIOXS  Of  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 


593 


Mention  has  been  made  of  the  payment  of  tribute  to  the  dey  of  Algiers 
by  the  United  States  during  the  administration  of  Washington.  Previous 
to  1301  the  United  States  expended  nearly  two  million  dollars  in  pur- 
chasing exemption  from  capture  for  its  merchant  vessels  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean. These  payments  were  made  to  all  the  Barbary  powers,  Tunis, 
Tripoli,  Algiers,  and  Morocco.  As  the  American  republic  lay  at  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  its  ships  of  war  were  not  often  seen  in  the 
Mediterranean,  the  African  pirates  did  not  trouble  themselves  to  comply 
with  their  agreements,  and  continued  their  outrages  upon  American  shif 
in  spite  of  the  tribute  paid  them. 

In  1801  the  bey  of  Tripoli,  dissatisfied  with  the  tribute  paid  him,  d« 


LAFAYETTE  SQUARE,   NEW  ORLEANS. 

clared  war  against  the  United  States,  and  a  number  of  American  wa. 
vessels  were  sent  to  the  Mediterranean  to  protect  the  commerce  of  their 
country  in  that  sea.  In  1803  Commodore  Preble  was  sent  to  the 
Mediterranean  with  a  fleet.  The  frigate  "  Philadelphia"  was  stationed 
to  blockade  Tripoli,  while  Pr  ble,  with  the  remainder  of  the  vessels, 
sought  to  punish  tr-  emperor  of  Morocco  by  an  attack  on  Tangiers. 
While  thus  engaged  the  "  P'  delphia"  ran  ashore  in  chasing  an 
Algcriiie  cruiser.  In  (his  helpless  condition  she  was  surrounded  bv 
Tripolitan  gunboats  and  captured  after  a  fight  which  lasted  ihe  entire 
day.  Captain  Bainbridge,  her  commander,  and  three  hundred  of  her 
crew  were  made  prisoners.  The  officers  were  held  for  ransom,  but  the 
seamen  were  reduced  to  slavery.  On  the  5th  of  February,  1804,  Lieu- 
38 


594  HISTORY  CF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

tenant  Stephen  Decatur,  with  a  picked  crew  of  seventy-six  men,  entered 
the  harbor  of  Tripoli  in  a  small  schooner  named  the  "  Intrepid."  Placing 
his  vessel  alongside  of  the  *'  Philadelphia "  by  night,  he  boarded  the 
frigate  as  she  lay  under  the  guns  of  the  castle  and  the  Tripolitan  fleet, 
drove  the  Turkish  crew  into  the  sea,  set  fire  to  the  frigate  in  every  part, 
and  retreated  from  the  harbor  without  the  loss  of  a  man.  During  the 
year  1804  the  American  fleet  repeatedly  bombarded  Tripoli  and  did  con- 
siderable damage  to  it.  The  war  went  on  until  the  summer  of  1805, 
when  the  bey  of  Tripoli  asked  for  peace,  and  a  treaty  was  made  by 
which  the  Tripolitan  pirates  surrendered  their  captives  on  payment  of  a 
ransom,  and  agreed  to  refrain  from  aggressions  upon  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States  in  future  without  payment  of  further  tribute.  For  some 
vears  the  American  vessels  were  safe  from  the  outrages  of  the  Barbary 
pirates. 

In  the  fall  of  1804  Mr.  Jefferson  was  elected  president  for  a  second 
term,  but  this  time  C  lonel  Burr  was  dropped  by  his  party,  who  nomi- 
nated and  elected  George  Clinton,  of  New  York,  vice-president  in  his 
place.  Burr  had  at  last  experienced  the  reward  of  his  insincerity  :  both 
parties  had  come  to  distrust  him.  After  his  defeat  for  the  vice-presi- 
dency he  had  been  nominated  by  his  party  as  their  candidate  for  governor 
of  New  York.  He  was  warmly  opposed  by  Alexander  Hamilton,  who 
was  mainly  instrumental  in  bringing  about  his  defeat.  Burr  never  for- 
e^ive  Hamilton  for  his  course  in  this  election,  and  took  advantage  of  the 
fi.st  opportunity  to  challenge  him  to  a  duel.  They  met  at  Weehawkcn, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  opposite  New  York,  on  the  llth  of  July, 
1804.  Hamilton,  who  had  accepted  the  challenge  in  opposition  to  his 
better  judgment,  and  who  had  expressed  his  intention  not  to  fire  at  Burr, 
was  mortally  wounded,  and  died  within  twenty-four  hours.  In  him  per- 
ished one  of  the  brightest  intellects  and  most  earnest  patriots  of  the 
republic.  His  loss  wao  regarded  as  second  only  to  that  of  Washington, 
and  the  sad  news  of  his  death  was  received  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
with  profound  and  unaffected  sorrow.  A  feeling  of  deep  and  general  in- 
dignation was  aroused  against  Burr,  who  found  it  expedient  to  withdraw 
from  New  York  and  retire  to  Georgia  until  the  excitement  had  subsided. 

The  murder  of  Hamilton,  for  it  was  nothing  else,  closed  Burr's  politi- 
cal career.  His  remaining  years  were  passed  in  restless  intrigue.  In 
1805  he  went  west,  and  there  undertook  the  organization  of  a  military 
movement  of  some  sort,  which  from  the  secrecy  with  which  it  was  con- 
ducted, was  generally  regarded  as  treasonable,  and  intended  for  his  own 
aggrandizement.  In  1806  he  was  arrested  b*r  the  United  States,  and  after 
a  prolonged  trial,  during  which  he  defended  himself  with  great  ability. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AXD  JEFFERSON.  595 

he  was  acquitted  of  the  charge  of  treason.  His  subsequent  career  was 
obscure,  and  he  died  in  1836,  friendless  and  alone.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  ability ;  but  he  failed  to  put  his  great  talents  to  an  honest  use. 

In  the  year  1807  a  great  change  was  made  in  the  system  of  navigation 
by  Robert  Fulton,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  who  built  and  successful ly 
navigated  the  first  steamboat.  He  named  it  the  "Clermont,"  and  made 
the  voyage  from  New  York  to  Albany,  a  distance  of  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  in  thirty-six  hours.  From  this  time  steam  navigation 
rapidly  superseded  the  old  system  of  sailing  vessels  in  the  waters  of  tlie 
United  States,  and  exercised  a  powerful  influence  in  the  development  of 
the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  country. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  century  France  and  England  had  been  at 
war  with  each  other,  and  their  quarrels  had  drawn  the  wb  .>le  European 
world  into  the  struggle.  The  administration  of  Mr.  Jefferson  had  con- 
tinued the  neutrality  of  its  predecessors,  but  in  a  fit  of  mistaken  economy 
had  exhibited  the  greatest  hostility  to  the  navy,  wl.iui  had  been  reduced 
to  the  most  inefficient  state  possible.  The  oommerce  of  the  Union  had 
grown  with  remarkable  rapidity,  and  the  need  of  a  vy  for  its  protection 
was  now  greater  than  ever.  The  administration  could  not  be  brought  to 
recognize  this  fact,  however,  and  it  regarded  the  navy  as  of  no  other  use 
than  to  enforce  the  revenue  laws  in  its  home  waters. 

The  general  character  of  the  European  war  had  thrown  the  commerce 
of  the  old  world  into  the  hands  of  the  few  nations  which  were  not  en- 
gaged in  the  struggle.  The  United  States  btained  the  largest  share  of 
this  trade,  but  were  not  left  long  to  enjoy  it  in  peace.  The  efforts  of 
Great  Britain  and  France  to  injure  each  other  caused  them  to  extend 
their  attacks  to  neutral  nations.  The  British  government,  by  its  "  orders 
in  council,"  declared  all  vessels  engaged  in  conveying  West  India  pro- 
duce from  the  United  States  to  Europe  legal  prizes.  This  measure  was 
intended  to  cripple  France,  and  at  the  same  time  to  injure  the  United 
States,  which  had  become  too  successful  a  commercial  rival  to  England. 

'  O 

A  number  of  American  vessels  were  seized  and  condemned  upon  this  pre- 
text. Great  indignation  was  expressed  throughout  the  United  States 
but  the  government  did  nothing  to  remedy  the  trouble.  In  May,  1800, 
Great  Britain  declared  the  European  coast,  from  Brest  to  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Elbe,  in  a  state  -  f  blockade,  thus  forbidding  neutral  vessels  tc 
trade  with  any  port  within  these  prescribed  limits,  on  pain  of  capture  and 
confiscation.  This  high-handed  measure  was  a  direct  blow  to  the  United 

O 

States.  It  was  met  on  the  part  of  France  by  an  act  equally  unjustifiable. 
Napoleon  issued  his  famous  "Berlin  decree,"  by  which  he  declared  the 
whole  coast  of  Great  Britain  in  a  state  of  blockade,  and  forbade  the  intro- 


506  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

duction  of  English  goods  into  France,  and  the  admission  into  French 
ports  of  any  neutral  vessel  that  should  first  touch  at  an  English  port. 
In  answer  to  this  decree  Great  Britain  forbade  all  trade  with  France  by 
neutral  nations.  Napoleon  thereupon  issued  his  '  Milan  decree,"  confis- 
cating not  only  the  vessels  and  cargoes  that  should  violate  the  "  Berlin 
decree,"  but  also  such  as  should  submit  to  be  bcarchcd  by  the  English. 
Thus  the  commerce  of  the  world  was  placed  at  the  mercy  of  these  two 
nations.  The  United  States  were  the  chief  sufferers  by  these  arbitrary 
measures.  Their  ships  were  captured  by  both  British  and  French  cruisers, 
and  their  remonstrances  produced  no  cessation  of  the  outrages.  It  was 
not  possible  to  do  anything  for  the  protection  of  the  commerce  of  the 
country,  as  the  mistaken  policy  of  the  administration  had  deprived  it  of 
an  efficient  navy.  The  whole  Atlantic  seaboard  demanded  a  change  in 
this  respect,  and  petitions  poured  in  upon  Congress  asking  for  the  con- 
struction of  more  vessels  of  war,  and  for  protection  from  the  aggressions 
of  the  European  powers.  The  only  result  of  these  petitions  was  a  recom- 
mendation from  the  president  to  Congress  to  build  more  gunboats.  It 
was  not'  possible  to  go  to  war  with  both  England  and  France,  and  the 
American  government  was  left  to  make  a  choice  as  to  which  power  it 
would  undertake  to  settle  the  question  with.  The  popular  feeling  was 
stronger  against  England,  which,  being  the  most  active  power  at  sea,  was 
the  principal  aggressor,  and  the  events  to  be  related  finally  turned  the 
scale  against  England. 

The  British  government  maintained  the  doctrine  that  no  subject  could 
expatriate  himself,  or  become  a  citizen  of  another  country.  This  was 
the  opposite  of  the  view  held  by  the  United  States,  'which  welcomed 
emigrants  from  other  countries,  bestowed  upon  them  the  rights  of  citizen- 
ship, and  in  their  new  character  of  adopted  citizens  protected  them.  The 
commanders  of  the  British  men-of-war  were  accustomed  to  stop  American 
vessels  on  the  high  seas  and  search  them  for  deserters.  Under  this  head 
they  included  all  persons  born  within  the  dominions  of  Great  Britain, 
whether  naturalized  American  citizens  or  not.  When  found  on  American 
vessels,  these  persons  were  removed  by  force  and  compelled  to  serve  on 
board  English  ships  of  war.  The  British  officers  did  not  confine  these 
impressments  to  "deserters,"  but  seized  and  forced  into  their  service 
great  numbers  of  native-born  Americans,  who  were  thus  torn  from  their 
homes  and  consigned  to  a  slavery  which  was  bitter  and  cruel  to  them. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  addressed  urgent  remonstrances 
to  that  of  Great  Britain  against  these  outrages,  and  finally,  in  the  spring 
of  1806,  sent  William  Pinckney  as  joint  commissioner  with  James  Mon- 
roe, then  minister  to  England,  for  the  purpose  of  negotiating  a  treat% 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 


597 


•which  should  put  a  stop  to  the  acts  complained  of.  The  commissioners 
appointed  by  Great  Britain  expressed  the  desire  of  their  country  not  to 
impress  American  seamen,  and  their  willingness  to  redress  as  promptly  as 
possible  any  mistake  of  the  kind.  They  declined  to  relinquish  the  right 
to  search  for  deserters,  as  it  would  be  ruinous  to  the  English  navy.  The 
truth  is  Great  Britain  treated  her  seamen  with  such  cruelty  that  they 
would  have  deserted  by  the  thousand  had  they  been  assured  of  protection 
from  arrest.  The  British  commissioners  declared  that  while  their  country 
would  not  relinquish  the  riglit  of  search  and  impressment,  strict  orders 
would  be  issued  to  their  naval  commanders  to  use  the  right  with  caution 


A  NEW  JERSEY  FRUIT  FARM. 


and  moderation.  The  British  government  itself  was  sincerely  desirous 
of  conciliating  the  United  States,  but  its  naval  commanders,  tempted  by 
the  weakness  of  the  American  navy,  paid  no  attention  to  its  orders  and 
conducted  themselves  with  haughty  insolence  towards  American  vessels, 
seizing  and  searching  them,  and  forcing  men  from  their  decks  with  the 
same  activity  as  before,  aim  rarely  missing  an  occasion  to  insult  the  flag 
of  the  republic.  Meanwhile  the  commissioners  concluded  a  treaty  for 
ten  years  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  It  was  on  the 
whole  more  advantageous  than  Jay's  treaty,  but  the  president  was  not 


593  HISTORY  OF  THE   U SITED  STATES. 

satisfied  with  it,  and  assumed  the  responsibility  of  rejecting  it,  in  the 
spring  of  1807,  without  submitting  it  to  the  Senate. 

A  British  naval  eommander  now  ventured  upon  an  act  which  threw 
the  relations  between  the  two  countries  into  a  more  hopeless  state  than 
ever.  The  United  States  frigate  "  Chesapeake,"  38,  under  the  command 
of  Commodore  Barron,  was  about  to  sail  for  a  European  station.  Strict 
orders  were  issued  to  her  officers  not  to  enlist  any  British  subject,  know- 
ing him  to  be  such  :  but  it  was  said  that  four  of  her  crew  were  deserters 

O  ' 

from  the  British  frigate  "  Melampus."  Several  British  war  vessels  were 
lying  in  the  Chesapeake  bay,  and  one  of  these,  the  "  Leopard,"  a  fifty- 
gun  frigate,  put  to  sea  a  few  hours  before  the  "Chesapeake"  sailed.  The 
latter  vessel  sailed  before  she  was  fully  ready  for  sea,  and  the  work  of 
getting  the  ship  in  order  was  still  in  progress,  when  she  was  hailed  off  the 
capes  by  the  "  Leopard,"  under  the  pretence  of  sending  despatches  to 
Europe.  A  lieutenant  of  the  British  frigate  came  on  board  and  de- 
manded the  surrender  of  the  four  men  we  have  mentioned.  Commodore 
Barron  refused  the  demand  on  the  ground  that  there  were  no  such  men 
on  board.  The  lieutenant  then  returned  to  his  ship,  and  the  "Leopard" 
opened  fire  upon  the  "  Chesapeake  "  and  killed  three  of  her  men  and 
wounded  eighteen  others.  The  "  Chesapeake"  was  utterly  unprepared 
for  resistance,  and  Barron  struck  his  colors  after  a  single  gun  had  been 
fired.  The  four  men  were  taken  from  the  "  Chesapeake,"  the  "  Leopard  " 
sailed  for  Halifax,  and  the  American  frigate  returned  to  Norfolk. 

The  news  of  this  outrage  excited  the  profoundest  indignation  through- 
out the  country.  On  the  2d  of  July,  1807,  the  president  issued  a  proc- 
lamation ordering  all  British  vessels  of  war  to  depart  from  American 
waters,  and  the  people  were  warned  against  holding  any  intercourse  with 
them.  A  special  session  of  Congress  was  called,  and  the  American 
minister  at  London  was  ordered  to  demand  satisfaction  for  the  outrage. 
The  British  government  had  received  information  of  the  affair  before  the 
arrival  of  the  American  demand.  The  action  of  the  commander  of  the 
"  Leopard "  was  disavowed,  and  a  special  messenger  was  sent  to  the 
United  States  to  arrange  the  matter.  Great  Britain  disclaimed  the  right 
to  search  vessels  of  war,  and  the  excitement  was  quieted  for  a  time. 

In  December,  1806,  as  the  outrages  upon  American  commerce  were 
continued,  Congress,  at  the  recommendation  of  the  president,  passed  the 
"  Embargo  Act,"  by  which  all  merchant  vessels  of  the  United  States 
were  prevented  from  leaving  the  ports  of  this  country.  This  measure 
entirely  put  an  end  to  the  intercourse  between  the  United  States  and  the 
European  nations.  It  was  hoped  by  the  president  and  the  friends  of  the 
measure  that  it  would  compel  Great  Britain  and  France,  by  the  loss  of 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ADAMS  AND  JEFFERSON. 


599 


our  trade,  to  put  a  stop  to  their  arbitrary  measures.  Its  only  effects 
were  to  cause  very  heavy  loss  to  the  mercantile  interests  of  this  country, 
and  to  produce  a  general  discontent  throughout  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
States.  Thousands  of  persons  were  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the 
.enforced  idleness  of  the  ships,  and  many  of  tiicse  turned  their  attention 
to  manufacturing  pursuits,  which  received  a  decided  impetus;  so  that 
some  good  grew  out  of  the  embargo,  after  all. 

In  the  election  of  1808  Mr.  Jefferson,  following  the  example  of  Wash- 
ington, declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  a  third  term,  and  the  Democratic 

O  *  ' 

or  administration  party  supported  James  Madison  for  the  presidency, 
and  George  Clinton  for  the  vice-presidency.  They  were  elected  by  large 
majorities;  but  the  effect  of  the  embargo  was  seen  in  the  casting  of  the 
electoral  votes  of  the  five  New  England  States  against  the  administration. 

The  disaffection  of  the  New  England  States  induced  Mr.  Jefferson,  just 
before  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office,  to  recommend  to  Congress  the 
repeal  of  the  embargo  act.  His  opinion  was  unchanged  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  the  embargo,  but  he  recommended  its  repeal  as  a  measure  of 
peace  and  conciliation.  The  law  was  re- 
pealed on  the  1st  of  March,  1809,  and  in 
the  same  month  Congress  passed  an  act  pro- 
hibiting trade  with  France  and  England. 

At  the  close  of  his  term  of  office  Mr. 
Jefferson  withdrew  from  public  life,  and 
retired  to  his  home  at  Monticello,  in  Vir- 
ginia. The  wisdom  and  success  of  the 
general  policy  of  his  administration  had 
far  outweighed  his  mistakes,  and  he  retired 
from  office  with  undiminished  popularity, 
and  with  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
nation.  Indeed  his  popularity  was  greater  at 
the  close  of  his  administration  than  at  the 
beginning — a  rare  and  gratifying  reward  to 
a  public  servant.  His  great  services  in  the 
revolution,  his  draft  of  the  Declaration  of 

Independence,  his  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  and  the  purity  and  grandeur 
of  his  character,  placed  him,  in  the  public  estimation,  next  to  Washington. 


AARON  BCRR. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

THE    ADMINISTRATION   OF   JAMES   M'ADISON — THE   SECOND  WAR 
WITH   ENGLAND. 

Inauguration  of  Mr.  Madison — Negotiations  with  Mr.  Erskine — Their  Failure — Seizure  of 
American  Vessels  in  France — Sufferings  of  American  Ship-Owners — Great  Britain  Sta- 
tions her  Ships  of  War  off  American  Ports — Affair  of  the  "  President"  and  "  Little  Belt" 
— Trouble  with  the  Northwestern  Indians — Tecumseh — Battle  of  Tippecanoe — Meeting 
of  the  Twelfth  Congress — Measures  for  Defence — Admission  of  Louisiana  into  the  Union 
— Death  of  George  Clinton — The  British  Ultimatum — War  Declared  against  Great 
Britain — Opposition  to  the  War — The  British  Offer  of  Settlement  Rejec'ed — The  War 
for  "Free  Trade  and  the  Sailors'  Rights" — Mr. Madison  Re-elected — Campaign  of  1812 
— Preparations  for  the  Invasion  of  Canada — General  Hull  Surrenders  Detroit  to  the 
British — Loss  of  the  Northwestern  Frontier — Failure  of  the  Attack  on  Queenstown — 
Exploits  of  the  Navy — Capture  of  the  "Guerriere"  by  the  "Constitution" — The  Priva- 
teers— Russia  offers  to  Mediate  between  the  United  States  and  England — Financial 
Affairs — Harrison's  Campaign — Massacre  at  the  River  Raisin — Defence  of  Forts  Meigs 
and  Stephenson — Perry's  Victory  on  Lal>e  Erk — Battle  of  the  Thames — Death  of 
Tecumseh — Recovery  of  the  Northwest — Capture  of  York — British  Attack  on  Sackett's 
Harbor  Repulsed — Removal  of  General  Dearborn — Failure  of  the  Campaign  on  the 
Lower  Lakes — The  Creek  War — Jackson's  Victories — Naval  Affairs — The  British  Out- 
rages in  Chesapeake  Bay — Negotiations  for  Peace — Capture  of  Fort  Erie — Battles  of 
Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane — Siege  of  Fort  Erie — Successes  of  the  Americans — Advance 
of  Prevost — Battle  of  Plattsburgh — Macdonough's  Victory  on  Lake  Champlain — Battle 
of  Bladensburg — Capture  of  Washington — Destruction  of  the  Public  Buildings  by  the 
British — Attack  on  Baltimore — Death  of  General  Ross — "The  Star-Spangled  Banner" 
—The  British  Attack  on  the  New  England  Coast — Opposition  of  New  England  to  the 
War — The  Hartford  Convention — The  British  in  Florida — General  Jackson  expels 
them — Jackson  at  New  Orleans — Arrival  of  the  British  Expedition  off  the  Coast — Vig- 
orous Measures  of  Jackson — Battle  of  New  Orleans — Defeat  of  the  British — Naval 
Affairs— The  Treaty  of  Peace— The  Barbary  Powers  Humbled— The  Tariff— Tin;  Bank 
of  the  United  States — Admission  of  Indiana — James  Monroe  elected  President. 

) 

[AMES  MADISON,  the  fourth  president  of  the  United  States, 
was  inaugurated  at  Washington  on  the  4th  of  March,  1809. 
He  was  in  the  fifty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  and  had  long  been 
one  of  the  most  prominent  men  in  the  Union.     He  had  borne  a 
distinguished    part   in  the   convention   of   1787,  and    was   the 
author  of  the  Virginia  resolutions  of  1786,  which  brought  about  the 
•assembling  of  this  convention.     He  had  entered  the  convention  as  one 
of  the  most  prominent  leaders  of  the  national  party,  which  favored  the 
600 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  MADISON. 


601 


consolidation  of  the  States  into  one  distinct  and  supreme  nation,  and  had 
acted  with  Randolph,  Hamilton,  Wilson,  Morris,  and  King,  in  seeking 
to  bring  about  such  a  result.  When  it  was  found  impossible  to  carry  out 
this  plan  Mr.  Madison  gave  his  cordial  support  to  the  system  which  was 
finally  adopted  by  the  convention ;  and  while  the  constitution  was  under 
discussion  by  "the  States,  he  united  with  Hamilton  and  Jay  in  earnestly 
recommending  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  by  the  States,  in  a  series 
of  able  articles,  to  which  the  general  title  of  the  "  Federalist"  was  given. 
After  the  organization  of  the  government  Mr.  Madison  was  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  Federalist  party,  and  gave  to  Hamilton  his  cordial  support  in  the 
finance  measures  of  that  minister.  Towards  the  close  of  Washington's 
administration,  however,  Mr.  Madison's  political  views  underwent  a  great 
change.  He  was  a  near  neighbor  and  warm  friend  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
was  greatly  influenced  by  the  opinions  and  the 
strong  personal  character  of  that  great  states- 
man. As  the  political  controversies  of  the 
time  deepened,  he  became  more  and  more  in- 
clined towards  the  Republican  or  "Strict  Con- 
struction "  party,  and  in  Mr.  Adams'  admin- 
istration took  his  position  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ers of  that  party.  At  the  time  of  his  election 
to  the  presidency,  Mr.  Jefferson  having  with- 
drawn from  public  life,  Mr.  Madison  Avas  the 
recognized  leader  of  the  Democratic  party,  as 
the  Republican  party  had  come  to  be  called.  In 
1799  his  famous  report  upon  the  Virginia 
resolutions  of  1798  stamped  him  as  one  of  the 

first  statesmen  in  America  ;  and  this  report  has  always  been  regarded  by 
succeeding  generations  as  the  most  masterly  exposition  of  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  the  constitution  ever  penned.  During  the  whole  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's administration  Mr.  Madison  served  as  secretary  of  state,  and  not 
only  added  to  his  great  fame  by  his  eminent  services  in  that  capacity,  but 
prepared  himself  for  the  difficult  duties  of  the  presidency. 

Mr.  Madison  had  opposed  the  embargo,  while  sustaining  the  general 
foreign  policy  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  but  was  in  favor  of  the  non-intercourse 
act,  which  forbade  the  country  to  trade  with  England  and  France.  This 
act  contained  a  clause,  which  provided  that  it  should  cease  to  apply  to 
either  or  both  of  them  as  soon  as  they  should  repeal  their  "  decrees,"  or 
"  Vders  in  council,"  affecting  the  commerce  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Erskine,  the  British  minister  to  the  United  States,  a  man  of  noble 


JAMES  MADISON. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  MADISON. 


G03 


and  generous  character,  was  anxious  that  the  differences  between  the  two 
countries  should  be  settled  amicably,  and  he  entered  heartily  into  negotia- 
tions with  the  American  government  for  this  purpose.  In  accordance  with 
the  instructions  he  had  received  from  England,  he  believed  himself  author- 
ized to  inform  the  American  government  that  the  "orders  in  council"  of 
Great  Britain  would  be  revoked  by  that  government,  as  far  as  thoy  applied 
to  the  commerce  of  the  United  States,  and  to  offer  "  a  suitable  provision  for 
the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who  were  killed  on  board  the  '  Chesa- 
peake.'" Upon  these  assurances  the  president,  on  the  19th  of  April, 
1810,  issued  a  proclamation  suspending  the  non-intercourse  act,  as  to 


SUPERIOR  STREET,  CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 

England,  after  the  10th  of  June  following.  The  news  was  received  with 
joy  all  over  the  country,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  over  one 
thousand  vessels  sailed  from  the  United  States,  laden  with  American 
products,  for  foreign  ports.  They  had  hardly  gotten  to  sea  when  the 
president  was  informed  by  the  British  government  that  Mr.  Erskine  had 
exceeded  his  powers  in  promising  the  withdrawal  of  the  "orders  in 
council."  The  president  immediately  issued  a  second  proclamation,  with- 
drawing his  first,  and  matters  resumed  their  old  footing.  Mr.  Krskine 
was  recalled,  and  a  Mr.  Jackson  was  appointed  in  his  place.  The  failure 
of  the  negotiation  with  Erskine  had  greatly  mortified  not  only  tho  j.n-i- 
dcnt  and  his  cabinet,  but  the  whole  nation,  and  Mr.  Jackson  was  coldly 


604  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

received.  That  gentleman  adopted  a  tone  and  style  in  his  correspondence 
with  the  secretary  of  state,  which  were  so  offensive  that  the  president 
refused  to  hold  communication  with  him,  and  demanded  his  recall.  All 
diplomatic  intercourse  between  the  two  countries  thus  came  to  an  end. 

The  outrages  upon  American  commerce  continued.  Danish  pri- 
vateers almost  drove  the  American  merchantmen  from  the  Baltic. 
American  ship-owners  asked  permission  to  arm  their  vessels  for  their 
own  defence,  a»  the  government  had  not  a  navy  sufficient  to  protect  them  ; 
but  their  petition  was  refused  by  Congress  on  the  ground  that  such  a 
state  of 'affairs  would  be  equivalent  to  war.  The  sentiment  of  the  people 
of  the  country  was  rapidly  settling  in  favor  of  war,  and  they  could  see 
little  difference  between  the  existing  state  of  affairs  and  open  hostilities. 
France  was  equally  guilty  with  Great  Britain.  In  the  spring  of  1810 
Napoleon  issued  a  decree  by  which  any  American  vessel  entering  any 
port  of  France,  or  of  any  country  under  French  control,  was  made  liable 
to  seizure  and  confiscation.  The  decree  was  held  back  for  six  weeks 
after  its  date,  with  the  deliberate  design  of  involving  as  many  American 
ships  as  possible  in  the  ruin  intended  for  them.  The  first  intimation 
given  to  the  United  States  of  its  existence  was  the  seizure  of  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-two  American  ships  in  the  French  ports.  They  were 
shortly  afterwards  sold  with  their  cargoes,  and  added  the  sum  of  eight 
millions  of  dollars  to  the  French  treasury .  The  government  of  the 
United  States  remonstrated  against  this  high-handed  outrage;  but  to  no 
purpose,  until  Napoleon's  want  of  money  induced  him  to  adopt  a  more 
honest  course. 

About  the  middle  of  the  year  1810  the  American  minister  at  Paris 
was  informed  that  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  were  revoked,  and 
would  cease  to  have  effect  after  the  1st  of  November  of  that  year.  In 
accordance  with  this  information  the  president,  on  the  1st  of  November, 
18!0,  issued  a  proclamation  suspending  the  non-intercourse  act  with 
respect  to  France,  and  announcing  that  the  provisions  of  the  act  would 
be  continued  with  respect  to  Great  Britain  unless  her  "orders  in  council" 
should  be  revoked  within  three  months  from  that  date.  The  president 
also  called  the  attention  of  the  British  government  to  the  repeal  of  the 
French  decrees,  and  as  the  "  orders  in  council "  were  based  upon  these 
decrees,  urged  their  repeal.  Great  Britain  replied  that  the  evidence  of 
the  revocation  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  was  insufficient,  and  that 
the  non-intercourse  acts  of  Congress  and  the  president's  proclamation 
were  partial  and  unjust.  This  answer  was  regarded  in  the  United  States 
as  evidence  of  Great  Britain's  deliberate  intention  to  continue  her  ot  - 
rages  upon  this  country,  and  very  greatly  increased  the  popular  desire  for 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  MADISON.  605 

war.  England  persisted  in  her  determination  to  enforce  her  "  orders  in 
council,"  and  even  went  to  the  inexcusable  length  of  stationing  her  war 
vessels  off  the  principal  harbors  of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of 
intercepting  our  merchantmen. 

While  matters  were  in  this  unsettled  condition  the  American  frigate 
"President,"  on  the  evening  of  the  10th  of  May,  1811,  encountered  a 
strange  vessel  off  the  mouth  of  the  Delaware.  As  the  dusk  of  the  evening 
was  too  deep  for  Commodore  Rodgers  to  distinguish  the  stranger's  nation- 
ality, he  hailed  her, and  was  insolently  answered  by  a  gun  from  her.  He  re- 
plied with  a  broadside,  and  after  an  action  of  twenty  minutes  the  stranger 
was  disabled.  Rodgers  then  hailed  again,  and  was  answered  that  the  dis- 
abled vessel  was  the  British  sloop  of  war  "  Little  Belt."  She  was  greatly 
damaged,  and  had  thirty-two  of  her  crew  killed  and  wounded.  The 
"  President"  was  scarcely  injured,  and  had  but  one  man  slightly  wounded. 
A  different  statement  of  the  affair  was  rendered  to  his  government  by  each 
cf  the  commanding  officers,  and  was  accepted  by  each  government.  In  this 
conflict  of  testimony,  the  matter  was  suffered  to  pass  by.  The  news  of 
the  prompt  chastisement  of  the  insolence  of  the  British  commander  was 
received  with  delight  in  the  United  States,  and  the  affair  was  generally 
regarded  as,  in  some  measure,  an* atonement  for  the  disgrace  of  the  surren- 
der of  the  "  Chesapeake  "  to  the  "  Leopard," 

The  Indians  of  the  northwest  were  becoming  very  troublesome,  and 
their  aggressions  were  attributed  to  the  instigation  of  the  British  in 
Canada.  Tecumseh,  a  Shaw-nee  chief  of  unusual  abilities,  attempted  to 
unite  the  Indians  of  the  continent  in  a  grand  effort  against  the  Americans, 
and  for  this  purpose  passed  from  tribe  to  tribe,  from  the  great  lakes  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  urged  them  to  take  up  the  hatchet.  He  was 
assisted  by  iiis  twin  brother  Elskwatawa,  generally  called  "  the  Prophet," 
who  appealed  to  the  superstitious  fears  of  the  savages  by  his  juggler)'. 

The  federal  government  determined  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  savages 
before  their  plans  for  union  could  be  brought  to  a  successful  issue.  In 
the  autumn  of  1811,  Major-General  William  Henry  Harrison,  theu 
governor  of  Indiana  Territory,  was  sent  to  operate  against  the  tribes  on 
the  Wabash.  He  took  with  him  a  body  of  Kentucky  and  Indiana 
militia,  and  one  regiment  of  regular  troops.  On  the  6th  of  November 
he  arrived  at  the  junction  of  the  Tippecanoe  and  Wabash  rivers  near  the 
town  of  the  Prophet,  the  brother  of  Tecumseh.  The  Prophet  sent  several 
of  the  principal  Indian  chiefs  to  meet  Harrison  with  offers  of  submission, 
They  informed  him  that  the  Prophet  would  come  into  camp  the  next  day, 
and  make  a  treaty  with  him.  Harrison  suspected  that  the  purpose  of  the 
IndiaiiS  wras  simply  to  gain  time,  and  that  they  would  probably  seek  to 


COG 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATE*. 


surprise  him  during  the  night,  and  accordingly  caused  his  men  to  bivouac 
on  their  arms  that  night.  His  precautions  were  well  taken.  About 
four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  November  7th  the  savages  made  a  furious 
attack  on  the  American  camp.  They  were  promptly  received,  and  after 
a  severe  conflict  of  several  hours  were  put  to  flight.  Tecumseh  was  not 
present  in  this  engagement.  General  Harrison  followed  up  his  victory 
by  destroying  the  Prophet's  town,  and  building  some  forts  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  country.  The  battle  of  Tippecanoe  quieted  the  Indians  of 
the  northwest  for  a  while,  but  greatly  increased  the  desire  of  the  people 
«f  that  region  for  war  with  England. 
In  view  of  the  threatening  condition  of  affairs  the,  president  by  his 


OSWEGO,   N.  Y.,   IN   1875. 

proclamation  convened  the  twelfth  Congress  in  session  a  month  earlier 
than  usual,  and  that  body  met  on  the  4th  of  November,  1811.  It  was 
remarkable,  as  was  also  its  successor,  the  thirteenth  Congress,  for  the 
number  of  its  members  who  afterwards  took  their  places  among  the  great 
men  of  the  republic.  The  public  men  of  the  revolutionary  period  \vcic> 
dropping  out  of  political  life,  and  new  men,  with  new  ideas,  were  takinir 
their  places  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  Among  the  new  members  ot 
Congress  were  Henry  Clay,  a  native  of  Virginia,  but  a  representative  from 
Kentucky,  John  C.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina,  John  Randolph  of  Vir- 
ginia, Felix  Grumly  of  Tennessee,  Josiah  Quincy  of  Massachusetts,  and 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  MADISON.  CC7 

Langdon  Cheeves  and  William  Lowndes  of  South  Carolina.  There  was 
a  large  administration  majority  in  both  Houses,  and  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment of  Congress  was  in  favor  of  war  with  England.  In  this  respect 
Congress  fairly  reflected  the  feeling  of  the  country. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  feeling,  Congress  during  this  session  voted 
to  increase  the  regular  army  to  thirty-five  thousand  men,  and  authorized 
the  president  to  accept  the  services  of  fifty  thousand  volunteers,  and  to 
call  out  the  militia  whenever  occasion  might  require.  The  vessels  of  the 
navy  were  ordered  to  be  fitted  for  sea,  and  new  ships  were  to  be  con- 
structed. There  was  need  for  these  measures,  as  the  army  at  the  time 
consisted  of  but  three  thousand  men,  and  the  navy  of  less  than  twenty 
frigates  and  sloops  of  war  in  commission,  and  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
gunboats  for  harbor  defence.  The  third  census,  taken  in  1810,  showed 
the  population  of  the  country  to  be  7,239,903. 

During  this  winter  the  government  detected  and  laid  before  Congress 
an  effort  of  Great  Britain  to  produce  disaffection  in  the  New  England 
States,  with  a  view  to  secure  their 
withdrawal  from  the  Union.  The 
agent  of  this  plot  was  one  John 
Henry.  The  committee  appointed 
by  Congress  to  investigate  the  matter 

mm  '  m  TrmTW"  nnmrf 

Wfg- 

COAT   OF  ARMS   OF    LOUISIANA. 

presents  to  the  mind  of  the  committee 

conclusive  evidence  that  the  British  government,  at  a  period  of  peace,  and 
during  the  most  friendly  professions,  have  been  deliberately  and  perfidi- 
ously pursuing  measures  to  divide  these  States,  and  to  involve  our  citizens 
in  all  the  guilt  of  treason  and  the  horrors  of  civil  war." 

Amid  these  troubles  the  State  of  Louisiana  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
on  the  8th  of  April,  1812.  Shortly  afterwards  that  portion  of  the 
Louisiana  purchase  lying  outside  of  the  limits  of  the  State  of  Louisiana 
was  organized  into  the  Territory  of  Missouri. 

On  the  20th  of  April,  1805,  George  Clinton,  the  vice-president  of  the 
United  States,  died  at  Washington,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three.  His 
place  was  filled  by  William  H.  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  the  president  pro 
tempore  of  the  Senate. 

On  the  30th  of  May,  1812,  the  British  minister  at  Washington  deliv- 
ered to  the  government  of  the  United  States  the  final  reply  of  his  gov- 
ernment to  the  demands  of  this  country  in  the  questions  at  issue  between 
them.  This  ultimatum  was  submitted  to  Congress  by  the  president  on 
the  1st  of  June,  accompanied  by  a  message  in  which  he  recapitulated  the 


CA$ON  OF  THE  LODOBE  AND  GBEEXE  RIVERS,  WYOMING  TEEEITOBY. 


G08 


THE  SECOND   WAR    WITH  ENGLAND.  609 

wrongs  inflicted  by  Great  Britain  upon  this  country,  her  violations  of  the 
rights  of  neutrals,  her  impressment  of  American  seamen,  her  seizures  of 
American  ships,  and  her  refusal  to  enter  into  any  equitable  arrangement 
for  the  settlement  of  these  questions.  The  determination  of  Great  Britain 
to  drive  American  commerce  from  the  seas  was  evident,  and  the  questicn 
was  submitted  to  Congress  whether  the  United  States  should  continue  to 
submit  to  these  outrages,  or  should  resort  to  war  to  protect  their  rights. 
After  a  debate  of  several  days,  an  act  declaring  war  against  Great  Britain 
was  passed  by  Congress,  and  was  approved  by  the  president  on  the  18th 
of  June,  1812.  On  the  19th  the  president  issued  a  proclamation  declar- 
ing that  war  existed  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  and  her 
dependencies.  Congress  authorized  the  president  to  enlist  twenty-five 
thousand  men  for  the  regular  army,  to  raise  a  force  of  fifty  thousand 
volunteers,  and  to  call  out  one  hundred  thousand  militia  for  garrison 
duty.  General  Henry  Dearborn,  of  Massachusetts,  was  appointed  to  the 
chief  command  of  the  army. 

The  war  measures  of  Congress  were  not  passed  without  considerable 
opposition.  A  large  party,  composed  of  some  of  the  ablest  and  best  men 
in  that  body,  was  opposed  to  the  war,  and  resented  the  effort  to  go  to  war 
with  England  alone.  They  claimed  that  France  had  given  as  good  cause 
for  war,  but  that  nothing  was  said  of  punishing  her.  This  was  true,  but 
this  party  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  United  States  could  not  go  to 
war  with  both  powers,  and  were  compelled  to  direct  their  efforts  against 
the  principal  offender,  which  was  clearly  England.  The  war  was  re- 
garded as  .an  administration  measure,  and  though  it  was  sustained  by  a 
large  majority  of  the  American  people,  there  was  still  a  strong  and 
respectable  party,  especially  in  the  New  England  States,  which  opposed 
it,  and  which  .claimed  that  all  peaceful  means  of  settlement  had  not  yet 
been  exhausted.  John  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  opposed  the  declaration 
of  war  in  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives  remarkable  for  it&. 
boldness  and  vigor,  and  declared  that  h"e  had  no  hesitation  in  saying  that, 
he  should  prefer  a  contest  with  France  to  one  with  England. 

Soon  after  the  declaration  of  war  England  made  an  effort  to  settle  the 
controversy  with  the  United  States  by  negotiation.  In  September,  1812; 
Admiral  Warren,  commanding  the  British  fleet  at  Halifax,  addressed  -a- 
letter  to  Mr.  Monroe,  the  secretary  of  state,  informing  him  that  he  was 
authorized  by  his  government  to  enter  into  negotiations  for  a  cessation  of 
hostilities  upon  the  basis  of  a  revocation  of  the  "orders  in  council."  Mr. 
Monroe  replied  that  the  president  was  willing  to  enter  into  an  armistice 
provided  Admiral  Warren  had  power  and  was  willing  to  include  in  the 
negotiations  measures  for  the  discontinuance  of  the  practices  of  seizing 
39 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

and  searching  American  vessels  and  impressing  American  sailors  frotii 
their  decks,  as  experience  had  shown  that  no  peace  between  the  two 
countries  could  be  lasting  which  did  not  include  a  settlement  of  thes^ 
questions.  As  Admiral  Warren  had  no  authority  to  enter  into  these 
questions  the  president  declined  to  proceed  further,  and  the  effort  at 
negotiation  came  to  an  end.  It  has  been  held  by  many  that  the  rejection 
by  the  president  of  the  British  overture  was  a  grave  error.  John  Ran- 
dolph thought  that  all  the  questions  at  issue,  save  the  right  of  a  British 
subject  to  expatriate  himself  and  receive  American  protection,  could  be 
settled  by  negotiation.  That  point  he  did  not  believe  England  would 
ever  concede.  His  opinion  was  to  some  extent  vindicated  by  the  uncon- 
ditional revocation  of  the  French  decrees,  and  the  immediate  repeal  of 
the  British  "  orders  in  council "  upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  this 
revocation.  These  measures  were  repealed  within  a  month  after  the 
declaration  of  war  by  the  United  States.  The  only  cause  of  the  war 
remaining  unsettled  was  the  impressment  question.  The  war  thus  became 
a  struggle  for  the  personal  freedom  of  American  sailors ;  and  in  a  better 
cause  no  nation  ever  drew  the  sword. 

The  weakness  of  the  American  navy  made  it  impossible  for  this  coun- 
try to  attempt  any  distant  enterprise  against  Great  Britain,  and  it  was 
not  believed  by  even  the  most  enthusiastic  Americans  that  we  could  con- 
tend with  her  upon  terms  of  equality  at  sea.  The  only  means  by 
which  she  could  be  crippled  by  this  country  was  by  the  invasion  and 
conquest  of  Canada,  and  to  this  end  the  efforts  of  the  United  States  were 
directed  during  the  war.  It  was  also  believed  that  the  commerce  of 
England  could  be  seriously  injured  by  the  efforts  of  American  privateers, 
and  from  the  commencement  of  hostilities  great  activity  was  displayed  in 
getting  vessels  of  this  class  to  sea. 

In  the  autumn  of  1812  Mr.  Madison  was  reflected  to  the  presidency 
by  a  large  majority.  Elbridge  Gerry,  of  Connecticut,  was  chosen  vice- 
president.  Mr.  Madison  entered 'upon  his  second  term  en  the  4th  of 
March,  1813,  some  months  after  the  war  had  begun. 

At  the  outset  of  the  war  the  American  forces  were  stationed  along  the 
Canadian  frontier  as  follows :  General  Dearborn,  the  commander-in-chief 
held  the  right,  or  eastern  part  of  the  line ;  the  centre  was  commanded  by 
General  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer;  and  the  left  was  held  by  General 
William  Hull,  then  governor  of  Michigan  Territory.  The  forces 
under  these  commanders  were  to  cooperate  with  each  other  in  their  move- 
ments, and  were  to  converge  upon  Montreal  as  the  objective  point  of  the 
-campaign. 

Early  in  July  General  Hull,  who  had  seen  service  in  the  war  of  tho 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  ENGLAND. 


till 


revolution,  collected  a  force  of  about  two  thousand  men  at  Detroit.  His 
position  was  very  much  exposed,  Detroit  being  at  that  time  separated 
from  the  other  settlements  by  about  two  hundred  miles  of  unbroken 
forest.  He  urged  upon  the  government  to  increase  his  force  to  three 
thousand  men,  and  to  secure  the  command  of  Lake  Erie  before  the 
British  should  obtain  possession  of  it  His  requests  could  not  be  com- 
plied with,  and  he  was  obliged  to  depend  upon  the  force  at  Detroit. 

Immediately  upon  the  declaration  of  war  the  British  commanders  in 
Canada  displayed  great  activity,  seizing  the  most  important  points  along 
the  frontier.  In  less  than  a  mouth  Fort  Mackinaw  and  other  points 
were  in  their  possession,  and  Hull's  position  at  Detroit  was  surrounded 


WOODWAKD  AVENUE,  DETROIT,   MICHIGAN. 

and  his  communications  with  the  States  cut  off.  Hull  thereupon  fortified 
his  position,  and  endeavored,  but  without  success,  to  open  communication 
with  the  country  in  his  rear.  In  the  meantime  a  strong  British  foro 
assembled  at  Fort  Maiden,  in  Canada,  opposite  Detroit,  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Brock,  the  governor  of  Upper  Canada;  and  the  British 
agents  set  to  work  to  arouse  the  Indians  of  the  northwest  a;rainst  th* 
Americans.  In  these  efforts  they  were  successful.  Brock  erected  bat- 
teries on  the  Canadian  side  of  the  river,  in  a  position  to  command  Detroit, 
and  demanded  of  Hull  the  surrender  of  that  place.  The  demand  bc'in^ 
refused,  Brock  crossed  his  forces  to  the  American  shore,  about  three  mi  lea 


612  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

below  the  position  occupied  by  General  Hull,  on  the  16th  ot  August,  a::rt 
advanced  to  attack  him.  As  the  British  army  drew  near  the  America:) 
lines  they  were  astounded  to  see  a  white  flag  flying  from  them.  An  ofll  • 
cer  rode  up  to  inquire  the  cause.  The  flag  was  the  signal  for  a  parley. 
Negotiations  were  begun,  and  later  in  the  day  Detroit,  with  its  garriso.) 
and  stores,  and  the  whole  of  Michigan  Territory,  was  surrendered  to  tht 
British  by  General  Hull.  The  American  troops  were  overcome  witli 
astonishment  and  mortification  at  this  shameful  surrender ;  for  the  force 
of  the  enemy,  to  whom  they  were  betrayed  by  their  commander,  consisted 
of  but  seven  hundred  British  and  Canadians,  and  six  hundred  Indians. 
By  the  surrender  of  Detroit  the  whole  northwestern  frontier  was  exposed 
to  the  British  and  their  Indian  allies.  Great  Britain,  unmindful  of  the 
shame  she  had  incurred  by  her  employment  of  the  savages  during  the 
revolution,  did  not  hesitate  once  more  to  devote  the  American  frontier 
to  the  horrors  of  a  savage  war.  The  west  was  greatly  alarmed,  and  ten 
thousand  volunteers  offered  their  services  to  the  government  for  the 
defence  of  the  frontier.  They  were  accepted,  and  were  placed  under  the 
command  of  General  Harrison,  who  was  appointed  to  succeed  Hull. 

Two  years  later,  after  being  exchanged,  General  Hull  was  brought  to 
trial  by  a  court-martial  for  his  surrender  of  Detroit  and  his  army.  He 
was  found  guilty  of  cowardice  and  neglect  of  duty,  and  was  sentenced  to 
be  shot.  He  was  pardoned  by  the  president  in  consideration  of  his 
services  during  the  revolution. 

This  was  a  sorry  beginning  for  the  war,  and  was  followed  by  another 
disaster.  General  Van  Rensselaer,  the  commander  of  the  centre  of  the 
American  line,  had  collected  a  force,  principally  New  York  militia,  at 
Lewiston,  on  the  Niagara  river.  At  Queenstown,  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river,  General  Brock  had  stationed  himself  with  a  British  force. 
On  the  13th  of  October  General  Van  Rensselaer  crossed  a  force,  under 
Colonel  Van  Rensselaer,  and  attacked  the  British  fort  and  captured  it. 
General  Brock  now  arrived  with  a  reinforcement  of  six  hundred  men, 
and  endeavored  to  regain  the  fort,  but  was  defeated  and  killed.  General 
Van  Rensselaer  hastened  back  to  the  American  side  to  bring  over  more 
troops,  but  his  men  refused  to  obey  his  orders,  alleging  that  they  could 
not  be  ordered  out  of  their  own  State  without  their  consent.  The  British 
were  heavily  reinforced,  and  the  Americans  were  attacked  and  defeated ; 
all  who  had  crossed  to  the  Canada  side  being  killed  or  captured.  Among 
the  prisoners  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  Winfield  Scott,  afterwards  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  American  army,  then  a  young  man,  who  had 
crossed  over  as  a  volunteer  to  aid  the  force  on  the  Canada  side.  Utterly 
disg:'i«ied  with  the  conduct  of  his  troops,  General  Van  Rensselaer 


THE  SECOND    WAR   WITH  ENGLAND.  613 

resigned  his  command  after  the  battle  of  Queenstown.  General  Smyth, 
of  Virginia,  was  appointed  to  succeed  him.  He  made  one  or  two  efforts 
to  enter  Canada,  but  being  each  time  prevented  by  his  council  of  war, 
resigned  his  command. 

Thus  closed  the  year  1812,  and  the  first  campaign  of  the  war.  Its 
results  were  disastrous  and  disheartening.  The  attempt  to  invade  Canada 
had  ended  with  the  surrender  of  Detroit  and  the  defeat  at  Queenstown. 
A  large  part  of  the  frontier  was  lost,  and  over  twenty-five  hundred  men 
had  been  captured  by  the  enemy.  These  failures  had  aroused  the  discon- 
tent of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  people  of  the  Union,  and  the 
opposition  of  the  New  England  States  to  the  war  was  greatly  increased. 
Matters  would  have  seemed  hopeless  had  not  the  navy,  which  had  been 
the  most  neglected  branch  of  the  public  service,  redeemed  the  national 
honor  by  a  series  of  brilliant  successes. 

It  was  the  intention  of  the  government  at  the  outset  of  the  war  to 
retain  the  vessels  of  the  navy  in  the  ports  of  the  country  to  assist  in  the 
defence  of  the  harbors  of  the  United  States.  The  fear  was  openly  ex- 
pressed that  if  these  vessels  should  venture  to  put  to  sea  they  would 
certainly  be  captured  by  the  British  cruisers.  The  officers  of  the  navy 
were  indignant  at  these  insinuations,  and  as  soon  as  the  news  of  the 
declaration  of  war  was  received  at  New  York,  several  of  the  vessels  of 
war  in  that  port  put  to  sea  at  once  to  avoid  the  orders  which  their  com- 
manders feared  were  on  the  way  to  detain  them  in  port,  and  also  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  dash  at  the  Jamaica  fleet,  which  was  on  its  way  to 
England.  They  followed  this  fleet  to  the  entrance  to  the  British  channel, 
but  without  overtaking  it. 

A  British  squadron  sailed  from  Halifax  to  cruise  off  the  port  of  New 
York.  The  American  frigate  "  Constitution,"  Captain  Hull,  while  en- 
deavoring to  enter  New  York  harbor,  fell  in  with  this  squadron,  and  was 
chased  by  it  for  four  days.  Her  e.°cape  was  due  entirely  to  the  superior 
skill  of  her  officers  and  the  energy  of  her  crew.  The  chase  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  history,  and  the  escape  of  the  American  frigate 
won  great  credit  for  Capcain  Hull.  Failing  to  reach  New  York,  Hull 
sailed  for  Boston,  and  reached  that  port  in  safety.  Remaining  there  a 
few  days,  he  put  to  sea  again,  just  in  time  to  avoid  orders  from  Wash- 
ington to  remain  in  po^. 

In  July  the  Amsvican  frigate  "  Essex  "  captured  a  transport  filled  with 
British  soldiers,  and  a  few  days  later  encountered  the  British  sloop  of  war 
"Alert,"  Mrhich  mistook  her  for  a  merchantman.  The  "  Essex  "  suffered 
her  to  approach,  and  then  opened  a  rapid  fire  upon  her,  which  soon  dis- 
abled her,  7iv<j  forced  her  to  surrender. 


614 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


The  "Constitution"  sailed  from  Boston  to  the  northeast.  On  the  19th 
of  August,  while  cruising  off  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  she  fell  in 
with  the  British  frigate  "  Guerriere,"  Captain  Dacres,  one  of  the  vessels 
that  had  chased  her  during  the  previous  month.  The  "Guerriere"  im- 
mediately stood  towards  her,  and  both  vessels  prepared  for  action.  The 
English  commander  opened  his  fire  at  long  range,  but  Captain  Hull, 
refused  to  reply  until  he  had  gotten  his  ship  into  a  favorable  position, 
and  for  an  hour  and  a  half  he  manoeuvred  in  silence,  under  a  heavy  fire 
from  the  British  frigate.  At  length,  having  gotten  within  pistol  shot 


COMMODORE  HULL. 


of  her  adversary,  the  "  Constitution  "  opened  a  terrible  fire  upon  her,  and 
poured  in  her  broadsides  with  such  effect  that  the  "  Guerriere "  struck 
her  colors  within  thirty  minutes.  The  "Guerriere"  lost  seventy-nine 
men  killed  and  wounded,  while  the  loss  of  the  "Constitution"  was  but 
seven  men.  The  "Guerriere"  was  so  much  injured  in  the  fight  that  she 
could  not  be  carried  into  port,  and  Hull  had  her  burned.  The  "Con- 
stitution "  then  returned  to  Boston  with  her  prisoners,  and  was  received 
with  an  ovation.  It  was  the  first  time  in  half  a  century  that  a  British 
frigate  had  struck  her  flag  in  a  fair  fight,  and  the  victory  was  hailed 
delight  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  ENGLAND.  615 

On  the  18th  of  October  the  American  sloop  of  war  "Wasp,i7  18, 
Captain  Jones,  met  the  British  brig  "  Frolic,"  22,  convoying  six  merchant- 
men. In  order  to  give  her  convoy  a  chance  to  escape,  the  "Frolic" 
shortened  sail,  and  awaited  the  approach  of  the  "  Wasp."  The  "Wasp" 
poured  a  raking  fire  into  her  antagonist,  and  then  boarded.  The  board- 
ers found  the  deck  of  the  "  Frolic "  covered  with  the  dead.  Only  one 
man  remained  unhurt,  and  he  stood  gallantly  at  his  post  at  the  wheel. 
Before  the  prize  could  be  secured  the  British  frigate  "  Poictiers,"  74,  hove 
in  sight,  and  captured  both  vessels.  The  "  Wasp  "  lost  eight  men  in  the 
engagement;  the  "  Frolic"  eighty. 

On  the  25th  of  October  the  frigate  "  United  States,"  44,  Captain  De- 
catur,  encountered  the  British  frigate  "  Macedonian,"  49,  off  the  Azores, 
and  after  a  running  fight  of  an  hour  and  a  half  forced  her  to  strike  her 
colors.  The  "  United  States "  lost  seven  killed  and  five  wounded ;  tho 
"  Macedonian,"  thirty-six  killed  and 
sixty-eight  wounded,  out  of  a  crew  of 
three  hundred  men.  Decatur  succeeded 
ji  bringing  his  prize  into  New  York. 

On  the  29th  of  December  the  "  Con- 
stitution," now  under  the  command  of 
Captain  Bainbridge,  captured  the  British 
frigate  "  Java,"  38,  off  the  coast  of  Bra- 
zil, after  an  action  of  three  hours.  The 
"Java"  was  reduced  to  a  wreck,  and  as 
he  was  not  able  to  get  her  into  a  friendly 

port,  Captain  Bainbridge  caused  her  to          COMMODORE  BAINBRIDGE. 
be  burned.     The  "Java"  lost  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-one  men  out  of  a  crew  of  four  hundred ;  the  "  Constitu- 
tion" lost  thirty-four  in  killed  and  wounded.     Among  the  wounded  was 
Captain  Bainbridge. 

These  victories  aroused  the  greatest  enthusiasm  in  the  United  States. 
The  great  disparity  in  the  losses  sustained  by  the  respective  combatants 
made  it  evident  to  both  nations  that  the  American  ships  had  been  better 
handled  in  every  engagement.  The  British  endeavored  to  account  for  the 
American  successes  by  declaring  that  the  United  States  vessels  were 
seventy-fours  in  disguise,  or  that  they  carried  heavier  guns  than  their 
adversaries ;  but  the  thinking  men  of  both  countries  saw  that  they  had 
been  won  by  the  superior  skill  of  the  American  officers,  and  that  they 
were  the  plain  announcement  of  the  fact  that  England  had  found  a  rival 
capable  of  contesting  her  supremacy  on  the  ocean. 

The  American  privateers  inflicted  great  damage  upon  the  commerce  of 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITLD  STATES. 

Great  Britain.  During  the  year  1812  these  vessels  captured  about  five 
hundred  British  merchantmen,  and  made  prisoners  of  three  thousand 
British  seamen.  The  cargoes  of  the  captured  vessels  amounted  to  an 
enormous  sura. 

On  the  8th  of  March,  1813,  the  Russian  minister  at  Washington  com- 
municated to  President  Madison  an  offer  from  the  Emperor  Alexander 
of  his  mediation  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  about  a  peace  between  them.  The  president  at  once 
accepted  the  Russian  offer,  and  sent  Albert  Gallatin  and  James  A.  Bayard 
to  St.  Petersburg  to  join  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  minister  to  Russia, 
as  commissioners  to  negotiate  a  treaty.  The  British  government  declined 
the  Russian  mediation,  and  the  matter  was  dropped. 

The  thirteenth  Congress  met  on  the  24th  of  May,  1813,  and  entered 
upon  the  task  of  providing  the  means  of  carrying  on  the  war.  The 
principal  measure  resorted  to  was  the  imposition  of  direct  taxes  and  in- 
ternal duties.  The  financial  situation  of  the  government  was  dishearten- 
ing. The  expenses  of  the  war  had  greatly  exceeded  the  estimates,  and  a 
heavy  deficit  had  to  be  provided  for.  To  meet  the  necessities  of  the 
occasion  new  loans  were  authorized,  but  they  were  generally  paid  in  the 
depreciated  treasury  notes,  which  had  been  issued  according  to  act  of 
Congress,  and  did  not  yield  much  to  the  government.  The  business  of 
the  country  was  in  a  state  of  confusion.  All  the  banks,  save  a  few  in 
New  England,  had  suspended  specie  payments,  and  the  war  spirit  was 
dying  out  in  many  parts  of  the  Union.  New  England  had  entered  into 
the  war  with  great  reluctance,  and  was  a  heavy  loser  by  it.  Her  opposi- 
tion to  it  was  increasing  daily. 

The  government  opened  the  campaign  of  1813  with  the  determination 
to  make  another  effort  to  conquer  Canada.  The  army  of  the  west,  under 
General  Harrison,  was  stationed  at  the  upper  end  of  Lake  Erie ;  that  of 
the  centre,  under  General  Dearborn,  the  commander-in-chief,  was  posted 
along  the  Niagara  river ;  and  that  of  the  east,  under  General  Wade 
Hampton,  was  at  Lake  Champlain.  Simultaneous  movements  were  to 
be  made  from  these  points  against  the  British  in  Canada.  To  oppose 
these  forces  the  British  stationed  their  armies  along  their  frontier  as  fol- 
lows: General  Proctor  was  stationed  with  a  considerable  force  near 
Detroit ;  General  Sheaf  with  another  force  covered  Montreal  and  the 
approaches  from  the  United  States  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  and  the 
Sorel  river ;  and  Sir  George  Prevost,  the  commander-in-chief,  held  the 
line  of  the  Niagara  river. 

General  Harrison  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  recovering  the  territory 
lost  by  General  Hull.  Volunteers  flocked  to  him  from  all  parts  of  the 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  ENGLAND. 


617 


west,  and  especially  from  Kentucky.  A  part  of  his  force,  under  General 
Winchester,  held  a  fort  on  the  Maumee.  In  January,  1813,  the  British 
made  a  demonstration  against  Frenchtown,  on  the  river  Raisin,  and 
Winchester  sent  a  detachment  to  its  relief,  which  compelled  the  British 
to  retreat.  A  little  later  Winchester  followed  with  the  rest  of  his  troops 
and  took  position  in  the  open  country.  His  whole  force  amounted  to 
scarcely  one  thousand  men.  Hearing  of  Winchester's  exposed  position, 
General  Proctor  marched  from  Fort  Maiden,  opposite  Detroit,  with  fifteen 
hundred  British  and  Indians,  and,  crossing  the  lake  on  the  ice,  attacked 
Winchester  on  the  22d  of  January,  and  after  a  desperate  encounter  forced 
him  to  surrender.  Proctor  promised  Winchester  that  his  men  should  be 
treated  as  prisoners  of  war,  but  in  violation  of  his  pledge  set  out  at  once 


DEFENCE  OF   FORT   MEIGS 


on  his  retreat  to  Maiden,  leaving  the  wounded  Americans  ehind.  The 
Indians  of  Proctor's  command  fell  upon  the  helpless  wounded  men, 
massacred  the  majority  of  them,  and  carried  the  remainder  to  Detroit. 
Some  of  these  they  offered  to  release  on  payment  of  heavy  ransoms ;  the 
others  they  held  for  torture.  Proctor  made  no  effort  to  save  his  reputa- 
tion by  protecting  his  prisoners,  and  his  inhuman  conduct  in  leaving 
them  to  the  fury  of  the  savages,  in  violation  of  his  pledge,  met,  as  it  de- 
served, the  unqualified  denunciation  of  every  honorable  man.  It  roused 
a  fierce  spirit  of  revenge  throughout  the  west. 

Harrison  was  on  his  march  to  Winchester's  assistance  when  he  learned 
of  his  surrender.  He  halted  at  the  rapids  of  the  Maumee,  and  built  a 
fort  which  he  named  Fort  Meigs,  in  honor  of  the  governor  of  Ohio. 


618 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Proctor  advanced  in  the  spring  to  attack  this  fort,  and  on  the  1st  of  May 
opened  his  batteries  upon  it.  A  force  of  twelve  hundred  Kentuckians, 
under  General  Green  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  advanced  to  the  relief  of  the 
fort,  and  the  British  and  Indians  were  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  and 
retreat. 

General  Clay  was  placed  in  command  of  Fort  Meigs.  In  July  Proc- 
tor again  advanced  and  laid  siege  to  it,  but  was  unable  to  capture  it. 
Hearing  that  Fort  Stephenson,  on  the  Sandusky,  had  a  small  garrison, 
Proctor  withdrew  from  Fort  Meigs  and  attacked  Fort  Stephenson.  This 
fort  had  a  garrison  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  and  was  commanded 
by  Major  George  Croghan,  a  young  man  in  his  twenty-second  year.  He 


DEFENCE  OF  FORT  STEPHENSON. 


was  summoned  to  surrender,  but  answered  that  he  should  hold  the  fort  to 
the  last  man.  On  the  2d  of  August  Proctor  made  a  determined  assault 
upon  the  fort,  and  his  regulars  gained  the  ditch  into  which  they  crowded 
preparatory  to  attempting  to' scale  the  parapet.  At  this  moment  the  only 
cannon  in  the  fort,  which  had  been  doubly  charged  with  musket-balls, 
opened  upon  them  from  a  masked  port-hole.  The  British  were  cut  down 
by  the  score,  and  retreated  in  confusion.  That  night,  fearing  that  Harri- 
son would  come  to  Croghan's  relief,  Proctor  abandoned  the  siege,  and 
retreated  towards  Maiden. 

It  was  clear  that  nothing  of  importance  could  be  accomplished  in'this 
quarter  as  long  as  the  British  held  Lake  Erie.  Oliver  Hazard  Perry,  a 
young  lieutenant  of  the  United  States  navy,  volunteered  to  win  back  the 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  ENGLAND. 


619 


lake  from  the  enemy,  who  held  it  with  a  small  squadron  under  Captain 
Barclay.  By  extraordinary  exertions  Perry  built  and  equipped  a  fleet  at 
Presque  Isle,  now  Erie.  It  consisted  of  nine  vessels  of  various  sizes, 
frem  one  which  carried  twenty-five  guns  down  to  one  which  carried  one 
gun.  Its  total  armament  amounted  to  fifty-five  guns.  It  was  manned 
by  a  small  force  of  sailors  from  the  cast,  and  by  a  large  number  of  volun-. 
teers  from  General  Harrison's  army.  As  soon  as  his  fleet  was  in  proper 
condition  Perry  stood  out  into  the  lake  to  seek  the  enemy.  The  British 
squadron  consisted  of  six  vessels,  carrying  sixty-three  guns.  Each  fleet 
carried  about  five  hundred  men.  The  two  squadrons  Boon  encountered 
each  other,  and  on  the  10th  of  September  a  severe  battle  was  fought 
between  them  at  the  western  end  of  the  lake.  Perry  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  fight 
displayed  a  flag 
from  his  vessel 
bearing  the  words 
of  the  brave  Law- 
rence, "Don't  give 
up  the  ship."  It 
was  greeted  with 
cheers  from  the 
men.  During  the 
battle  the  Ameri- 
can flag  ship,  the 
"  Lawrence,"  was 
disabled,  an  d 
Perry  passed  in  an 
open  boat,  under  a 
heavy  fire,  to  the  "Niagara,"  the  next  largest  ship,  and  transferred  his 
flag  to  her.  The  result  was  that  the  British  fleet  was  defeated  and  forced 
to  surrender.  Perry  announced  his  victory  to  General  Harrison  in  the 
following  characteristic  message :  "  We  have  met  the  enemy  and  they  are 
ours.  Two  ships,  one  brig,  a  schooner,  and  a  sloop." 

This  victory  was  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  Americans.  It  gave 
them  the  command  of  Lake  Erie,  and  opened  the  way  to  Canada. 
Harrison  hastened  to  profit  by  it,  and  advanced  rapidly  towards  Detroit 
and  Maiden.  Proctor  abandoned  those  places  and  retreated  with  his  own 
forces  and  Tecumseh  and  his  Indians  into  Canada.  At  Detroit  Harrison 
was  joined  by  thirty-five  hundred  mounted  Kentuckians,  under  the  aged 
Governor  Shelby,  one  of  the  heroes  of  King's  Mountain,  and  ColoneJ 
Richard  M.  Johnson.  He  at  once  entered  Canada  in  pursuit  of  Proctor, 


DEATH   OF  TECUMSEH. 


620 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


and  by  a  forced  march  of  sixty  miles  came  up  with  him  on  the  banks  of 
the  Thames,  on  the  5th  of  October.  A  short  but  desperate  battle  ensued, 
in  which  Tecumseh  was  killed  and  his  Indians  put  to  flight.  The  British 
were  routed,  and  Proctor  saved  himself  only  by  the  speed  of  his  horse. 

By  these  successes  the  Americans  won  back  Michigan  Territory,  and 
»for  the  present  gave  peace  and  security  to  the  northwestern  frontier.. 
The  Kentuckians  returned  home,  and  Colonel  Lewis  Cass,  who  was  soon 
after  appointed  governor  of  Michigan,  was  left  to  garrison  Detroit  with 
his  brigade.  With  fifteen  hundred  regulars  Harricon  embarked  on  Lake 
Erie  and  sailed  for  Buffalo  to  assist  in  the  invasion  of  Canada  from  that 
quarter. 

A  email  fleet  of  armed  vessels  was  maintained  in  Lake  Ontario  by 


DEATH  OP  GENERAL   PIKE. 

each  of  the  combatants.  The  American  fleet  was  commanded  by  Commo- 
dore Chauncey.  In  April  General  Dearborn  embarked  a  force  of  seven- 
teen hundred  picked  men  in  these  vessels  and  sailed  across  Lake  Ontario 
to  attack  York,  now  Toronto,  the  capital  of  Upper  Canada.  The  Ameri- 
cans landed  a  short  distance  below  the  town,  and  advanced  upon  it.  On 
the  27th  of  April  the  place  was  carried  by  assault.  The  British  fired  the 
magazine  of  one  of  the  works  from  which  they  were  driven,  and  General 
Pike,  the  commander  of  the  storming  party,  and  one  or  two  hundred  of 
his  troops  were  killed  by  the  explosion.  A  large  amount  of  military 
stores  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  captors.  They  were  transferred  to 
Sackett's  Harbor. 

As  it  was  not  a  part  of  the  plan  of  General  Dearborn  to  hold  York, 


THE  SECOND  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND. 


621 


the  place  was  evacuated.  Just  before  the  withdrawal  of  the  Americans 
a  small  building,  known  as  the  Parliament  House,  was  burned.  The 
British  attributed  this  act  to  the  Americans,  who  disclaimed  it.  The 
American  officers  believed  that  the  house  was  set  on  fire  by  the  disaffected 
Canadians,  who  had  threatened  to  burn  it.  The  burning  of  this  build- 
ing was  made  by  the  British  the  pretext  for  the  destruction  of  the  capitol 
and  other  public  buildings,  at  Washington,  the  next  year. 

From  York  General  Dearborn  sailed  to  the  Niagara  to  attack  Fort 
George.  The  commander  of  this  work,  on  the  approach  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, blew  up  his  magazines  and  retreated  to  Burlington  Heights,  near 
the  western  end  of  the  lake.  Dearborn  followed  them  in  pursuit,  but 


ATTACK  UPON  SACKETT'9  HARBOR. 

was  attacked  and  driven  back  by  the  British  on  the  night  of  the  6th  of 
June.  Two  American  generals,  Winder  and  Chandler,  were  made 
prisoners  in  this  engagement.  Dearborn  fell  back  in  haste  to  Fort 
George. 

In  the  meantime  General  Prevost,  having  learned  of  Dearborn's 
absence  from  Sackett's  Harbor,  attacked  that  place,  on  the  29th  of  May, 
with  one  thousand  men.  He  was  repulsed  with  such  vigor  by  the  garri- 
KOII,  under  General  Brown,  that  he  retreated  to  his  ships,  leaving  his> 
wounded  behind. 

Soon  after  this  General  Dearborn  suffered  another  reverse  at  Fort 
George,  and  allowed  a  detachment  of  six  hundred  men  of  his  army  to  be 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

cut  off  by  the  British.  In  consequence  of  these  failures  General  Dear- 
born was  removed  by  the  president,  who  appointed  General  Wilkinson, 
the  commander  of  the  troops  at  New  Orleans,  as  his  successor. 

It  was  proposed  that  General  Wilkinson  should  enter  Canada  with  his 
troops  and  advance  upon  Montreal,  and  that  General  Hampton,  com- 
manding the  forces  on  Lake  Champlain,  should  join  him  on  the  St. 
Lawrence.  Wilkinson  and  Hampton  were  not  on  friendly  terms,  and 
neither  of  them  were  possessed  of  sufficient  patriotism  to  overlook  their 
personal  differences  for  the  good  of  their  country.  Wilkinson  advanced 
as  far  as  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  sent  a  body  of  troops, 
under  General  Brown,  to  cover  the  descent  of  the  rapids  by  the  army. 
An  engagement  occurred  at  Chrysler's  Farm,  on  the  llth  of  November; 
the  British  were  driven  back ;  but  the  Americans  lost  more  than  three 
hundred  men.  Wilkinson  now  sent  word  to  Hampton  to  move  forward 
to  his  support,  but  the  latter  answered  that  he  had  abandoned  the  expedi- 
tion, and  was  going  into  winter  quarters.  Under  these  circumstances 
Wilkinson  fell  back  to  French  Mills,  about  nine  miles  from  St.  Regis, 
where  he  went  into  winter  quarters.  Hampton  prepared  to  pass  the 
winter  at  Plattsburg  on  Lake  Champlain.  Thus  the  expedition  was 
ruined  by  the  quarrels  of  its  commanders. 

In  December  the  Americans  abandoned  Fort  George,  and  retreated 
across  the  Niagara  river.  Before  doing  so  General  McClure,  the  com- 
manding officer,  burned  the  village  of  Newark,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
enemy  from  using  it  as  quarters  for  their  troops  during  the  winter. 
There  was  no  necessity  and  no  excuse  for  the  destruction  of  this  village, 
and  it  was  speedily  avenged  by  the  enemy.  About  the  middle  of  Decem- 
ber the  British  crossed  the  Niagara  river,  surprised  Fort  Niagara,  and 
put  the  garrison  to  the  sword.  In  retaliation  for  the  burning  of  New- 
ark they  burned  every  town  and  house  that  could  be  reached  on 
the  American  side  of  the  river,  including  Lewistown,  Youngstown, 
Manchester,  Black  Rock,  and  Buffalo. 

The  war  was  not  confined  to  the  northern  frontier.  In  the  spring  of 
1813  Tecumseh  had  visited  the  Creek  tribes  in  the  southwest  and  aroused 
their  war  spirit.  In  August  seven  hundred  Creeks  attacked  and  cap- 
tured Fort  Mims,  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Alabama  river,  near  the 
r  mouth  of  the  Tombigbee.  Between  three  and  four  hundred  settlers,  who 
had  taken  refuge  in  the  fort,  were  massacred. 

The  south  was  soon  aroused  by  the  news  of  this  massacre,  and  in  a 
short  while  a  force  of  seven  thousand  volunteers  was  marching  into  the 
Indian  country  in  four  divisions,  One  division,  under  General  Andrew 
Jackson,  of  Tennessee,  moved  southward  from  Nashville ;  another  from 


THE  SECOND   WAR   WITH  ENGLAND.  623 

East  Tennessee,  under  General  Cocke ;  a  third  from  Georgia,  under  Gen- 
eral Floyd ;  and  a  fourth  from  Mississippi  Territory.  In  addition  to 
these  forces  the  lower  Creeks  took  up  arms  against  their  brethren,  and 
the  Cherokees  and  Choctaws  joined  the  Americans.  The  principal  vil- 
lages of  the  hostile  Creeks  lay  on  and  near  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa 
rivers,  and  their  hunting-grounds  extended  much  farther  north.  The 
Tennessee  forces,  under  General  Jackson,  were  the  first  to  enter  the  In- 
dian country,  and  a  number  of  unimportant  encounters  occurred.  On 
the  3d  of  November  the  Indians  were  defeated  in  a  bloody  battle  at  Tal- 
lasehatche,  and  on  the  8th  of  the  same  month  at  Talladega.  These  were 
hard-won  victories  for  the  Americans,  and  terrible  blows  .to  the  savages. 
OR  the  29th  of  'November  the  Georgia  volunteers,  under  General 
Floyd,  attacked  the  Creek  town  of  Autossee,  and  killed  two  hundred 
warrior*. 

The  Creeks  were  badly  armed,  but  their  spirit  was  unbroken  by  their 
reverses.  Early  in  the  year  1814  they  assumed  the  offensive,  and  on  the 
22d  of  January  attacked  General  Jackson  at  Emucfau.  Jackson  suc- 
ceeded in  repulsing  them,  but  in  spite  of  his  victory  deemed  it  best  to  fall 
back  to  Fort  Strother.  On  the  25th  the  Indians  again  attacked  him, 
and  were  again  defeated.  Soon  after  this  Jackson,  being  largely  rein- 
forced, advanced  into  the  Indian  country  with  an  army  of  four  thousand 
Tennesseeans.  At  the  Horse-Shoe  Bend  of  the  Tallapoosa  the  Creeks  had 
their  principal  settlement,  an  intrenched  camp,  in  wl^ch  they  had  col- 
lected their  women  and  children,  under  the  protection  of  one  thousand 
warriors.  They  were  attacked  here  on  the  27th  of  March,  1814,  by 
Jackson's  army,  and  their  camp  was  carried  after  a  desperate  fight,  in 
which  six  hundred  warriors  were  killed,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty 
women  and  children  were  made  prisoners.  This  terrible  blow  put  an 
end  to  the  resistance  of  the  Creeks.  They  sought  peace,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  purchase  it  by  the  surrender  of  more  than  two-thirds  of  their 
hunting-grounds. 

The  year  1813  was  eventful  and  important  in  the  naval  history  of  the 
republic,  and  once  more  the  navy  sustained  fhe  spirits  of  the  country, 
which  had  been  cast  down  by  the  failure  of  the  army.  On  the  25th  of 
February  the  American  sloop  of  war  "  Hornet,"  Captain  Lawrence,  cap- 
tured the  British  brig  "Peacock,"  off  the  mouth  of  the  Demerara  river, 
after  an  action  of  fifteen  minutes.  The  "  Peacock  "  was  so  terribly  cut 
up  by  her  adversary's  fire  that  she  sank  in  a  few  minutes  after  she  struck 
her  flag.  Captain  Lawrence  returned  to  the  United  States,  and  was  pro- 
moted to  the  command  of  the  frigate  "  Chesapeake,"  which  was  lying  in 
Boston  harbor  preparing  for  sea.  While  there  Lawrence  was  challenged 


624  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

by  Captaiii  Broke,  of  the  British  frigate  "  Shannon,"  which  was  cruising 
off  Boston  harbor.  Although  his  ship  was  badly  manned,  and  his  crew 
undisciplined,  Lawrence  accepted  the  challenge,  and  put  to  sea  on  the  1st 
of  June  to  meet  the  "  Shannon."  The  action  was  begun  about  thirty 
miles  east  of  Boston  Light,  and  lasted  but  fifteen  minutes.  The  "Shan- 
non" was  in  every  way  superior  to  the  "Chesapeake,"  and  the  latter  ship 
was  forced  to  strike  her  flag,  with  a  loss  of  one  hundred  and  forty-six  of 
her  crew.  Captain  Lawrence  was  mortally  wounded.  As  he  was  being 
'Carried  below  hia  last  words  were:  "Don't  give  up  the  ship!" — words 
which  have  since  become  the  watchword  of  the  service  of  which  'he  was 
one  of  the  brightest  ornaments. 

The  rejoicings  in  England  over  the  capture  of  the  "Chesapeake"  were 
very  great.  They  were  highly  gratifying  to  the  Americans,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  little  navy  of  the  Union,  whose  splendid  services  had  won 
the  respect  of  "  the  mistress  of  the  seas." 

In  the  summer  of  1813  the  "United  States,"  "Macedonian,"  and 
"  Hornet,"  while  attempting  to  get  to  sea  from  New  York  through  Long 
Island  sound,  were  driven  into  the  harbor  of  New  London,  and  block- 
aded there  by  a  British  squadron.  In  August  the  American  sloop  of  war 
"Argus  "  was  captured  while  cruising  in  the  English  channel  by  the  "  Peli- 
can." In  September  the  American  brig  "Enterprise,"  12  guns,  Captain 
Burrows,  captured  the  British  brig  "Boxer,"  Captain  Blythe,  off  the 
coast  of  Maine.  gBoth  commanders  fell  in  the  engagement,  and  were 
buried  with  equal  honors. 

During  the  summer  of  1813  the  British  fleet  of  Sir  George  Cockburn 
entered  the  Chesapeake  repeatedly  and  ravaged  its  shores.  All  the  ship- 
ping that  could  be  reached  by  the  enemy  was  destroyed,  and  the  towns 
of  Frenchtown,  Georgetown,  Havre  de  Grace,  and  Fredericktown  were 
plundered  and  burned.  An  attack  was  made  on  Norfolk,  but  was 
repulsed  with  heavy  loss.  Cockburn  then  plundered  the  town  of  Hamp- 
ton, and  sailed  to  the  southward.  The  barbarities  committed  by  this  fleet 
along  the  Chesapeake  and  its  tributaries  were  horrible.  Neither  age  nor 
Sex  was  spared  by  the  Bmish  sailors  and  marines,  and  women  were  rav- 
ished, and  old  men  and  little  children  murdered,  with  the  knowledge  of 
the  admiral,  who  made  no  effort  to  stop  the  outrages. 

During  the  winter  of  1813-14  a  communication  was  received  from  the 
British  government,  stating  that  although  Great  Britain  had  declined  the 
Russian  mediation,  she  was  willing  to  enter  into  direct  negotiations  with 
the  United  States,  either  at  London  or  Gottenburg,  in  Sweden.  The 
president  at  once  accepted  the  English  offer,  and  Henry  Clay  and  Jona- 
than Russell  were  added  to  the  commissioners  already  in  Europe.  Got- 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  E 


tenburg  was  at  first  selected  as  the  place  of  meeting,  which  was  i  *lcrward* 
changed  to  Ghent. 

At  this  time  the  opposition  to  the  war  was  very  great  in  many  p^rts  of 


NIAGARA   FALLS. 


the  Union.  The  New  England  States  continued  bitterly  hostile  to  it, 
and  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  a  remonstrance  addressed  to  Con- 
gress, denounced  the  war  as  unreasonable,  and  urged  the  conclusion  of  a 

40 


526 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


peace.  Congress  itself  was  more  divided  upon  the  support  of  the  war 
than  it  had  ever  been.  It  contained  many  new  men,  some  of  them  des- 
tined to  play  prominent  parts  in  the  .Titure  history  of  the  country. 
Pre-eminent  among  these  was  Daniel  Webster,  of  New  Hampshire,  who 
from  the  first  took  a  high  position  as  one  of  the  most  gifted  men  in 
Congress. 

Hostilities  were  resumed  by  the  Americans  on  the  Niagara  frontier 
with  the  beginning  of  the  spring  of  1814.  Early  in  May  General 
Brown,  whose  force  had  been  increased  to  five  thousand  men,  crossed  the 
_  Niagara.  Fort  Erie  sur- 

rendered to  him,  without  a 
blow,  on  the  3d  of  July. 
On  the  4th  General  Scott, 
with  the  advanced  guard 
of  the  army,  moved  to- 
wards the  British,  who 
had  taken  position,  under 
General  Riall,  at  Chip- 
pewa,  fifteen  miles  distant. 
Scott  was  joined  by  Gen- 
eral Brown,  with  the  rest 
of  the  army,  on  the  night 
of  the  4th,  and  the  next 
day  a  severe  engagement 
occurred,  in  which  the 
British  were  defeated, 
with  a  loss  of  five  hun- 
dred men.  The  loss  of  the 
Americans  was  three  hun- 
dred. 

After  his  defeat  at  Chip- 
pewa  General  Riall  fell 
back  to  Burlington  Heights,  and  the  Americans  advanced  to  Queenstown, 
but  soon  after  withdrew  to  Chippewa.  Being  strongly  reinforced  by  a 
body  of  troops,  under  General  Drummond,  Riall  advanced  from  Burlington 
Heights -to  attack  the  Americans,  followed  by  General  Dvummond's  com- 
mand; and  at  the  same  time  General  Brown,  who  had  heard  of  Drum- 
mond's  arrival,  set  out  from  Chippewa  to  attack  the  British.  The  advanced 
forces  of  the  Americans  were  commanded  by  General  Scott.  The  two 
irmies  unexpectedly  met  at  Bridgowater,  or  Lundy's  Lane,  immediately 
>ppoeite  Niagara  Falls,  at  sunset,  on  the  25th  of  July.  Tho  British  occu- 


OENERAL  WINFIELD  SCOTT  IN   1814. 


THE  SECOND  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  627 

pied  a  strong  position,  and  notwithstanding  the  lateness  of  the  hour  Scott 
resolved  to  attack  them.  The  main  body  of  the  Americans,  under  Gen- 
eral Brown,  soon  arrived,  and  the  battle  became  general.  The  British 
had  posted  a  battery  on  a  hill  which  commanded  the  field,  and  were 
doing  great  execution  in  the  American  ranks.  It  was  captured  by  the 
regiment  of  Colonel  James  Miller,  and  General  Drummond,  who  had 
arrived  on  the  field  and  had  taken  command  in  place  of  General  Riall, 
who  had  been  wounded  and  captured  by  the  Americans,  advanced  to 
recover  it.  Drummond  made  three  determined  efforts  to  retake  the  bat- 
tery, but  was  driven  back  each  time.  It  was  now  midnight,  and  about 
eight  hundred  men  had  fallen  on  each  side.  The  Americans  had  ex- 


BATTLE  OF   LUNDY  S   LANE. 

I  austed  their  ammunition  and  were  dependent  now  upon  the  cartridges 
they  obtained  from  the  boxes  of  the  fallen  British.  Finding  all  their 
efforts  vain  the  British  sullenlv  withdrew  and  left  the  field  to  the  Ameri- 
cans. The  latter  were  so  exhausted  by  their  hard  march  of  fifteen  miles, 
and  five  hours  of  constant  fighting,  that  they  made  no  effort  at  pursuit, 
and  soon  withdrew  from  the  hill  to  their  camp.  As  they  had  no  moan- 
of  hauling  off  the  captured  guns  they  were  obliged  to  leave  them  on  the 
field.  Generals  Brown  and  Scott  were  both  wounded  during  the  battle, 
as  were  nearly  all  of  the  field  officers. 

The  victory  of  Lundy's  Lane  was  particularly  gratifying  to  the  Amer- 
icans.    It  was  won,  not  over  Canadian  militia,  but  over  veteran  trooje 


S28 


HISTORY  CF  THE   UN 1 TED   STATES. 


who  had  served  under  Wellington  in  the  wars  with  Napoleon.  It  broke 
the  long  series  of  defeats  sustained  by  the  Americans  since  the  opening 
of  the  war,  and  showed  what  could  be  accomplished  by  American  soldiers 
under  competent  and  determined  commanders  and  in  anything  like  a 
fair  fight. 

General  Brown  withdrew  to  Fort  Erie  after  the  battle,  and  being  dis- 
abled by  his  wounds,  relinquished  the  command  to  General  Gainos. 
General  Drummond  moved  forward,  and  on  the  4th  of  August  laid  siege 
to  Fort  Erie.  On  the  15th  he  attempted  to  carry  the  fort  by  an  assault 
at  midnight,  but  was  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  one  thousand  men.  In  spite 
of  this  reverse  he  pressed  the  siege  with  vigor,  and  in  the  meantime  Gen- 


SIEGE   OF   FORT   ERIE. 


eral  Brown  recovered  from  his  wounds  and  resumed  the  command  of  the 
fort.  On  the  17th  of  September  the  Americans  made  a  sortie  against 
the  batteries  of  the  British,  which  were  two  miles  in  advance  of  their 
camp.  By  a  sudden  dash  from  the  fort,  they  stormed  and  carried  the 
batteries,  spiked  the  guns,  set  fire  to  the  magazines,  inflicted  a  loss  of  six 
hundred  in  killed  and  Avounded  upon  the  enemy,  and  retreated  into  the 
fort,  carrying  with  them  four  hundred  prisoners.  The  American  loss  in 
this  brilliant  sally  was  three  hundred  men.  Drummoml  immediately  raised 
the  siege  and  retreated  across  the  Chippewa.  In  October  a  reinforcement 
of  four  thousand  men  arrived  from  Lake  Champlain  under  General  Izar<l 
•who  assumed  the  command  of  the  American  army  on  the  Niagara.  He 
was  one  of  the  old-style  commanders,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  neutralize 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  ENGLAND.  62fi 

'the  gallant  achievements  of  Brown  and  Scott.  He  did  nothing  until 
November,  when,  fearing  that  Drummond  would  be  reinforced,  he  ble"/ 
up  Fort  Eric,  and  retreated  across  the  Niagara,  leaving  the  entire  Ca;*a- 
ilian  shore  in  the  possession  of  the  British. 

General  I^ard  had  succeeded  General  Hampton  in  the  command  of  ths 
army  on  Lake  Champlain.     Upon  his  withdrawal  to  the  Niagara,  Gei.- 


SCENE   OP   THE  BATTLE   OF   I,AKE   CHAMPLAIX. 

eral  Macomb  took  command  of  the  troops  that  remained  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  held  Plattsburg  with  a  force  of  about  three  thousand  men. 
Hearing  that  General  Prevost  was  advancing  to  attack  him,  Macomb 
called  on  the  militia  of  New  York  and  Vermont  to  come  to  his  aid,  and 
about  three  thousand  of  them  joined  him,  bringing  his  force  to  six  thou- 
sana  men.  General  Prevost  having  been  reinforced  from  Englan-l. 
advanced  against  Plattsburg  witii  a  force  of  twelve  thousand  vet  "ran 
troops,  for  the  purpose?  of  invading  the  State  of  New  York.  Upon  the 


630 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


epproacn  of  this  force  Macomb  fell  back  behind  the  Saranac,  a  deep  and 
rapid  stream  which  empties  into  the  lake  at  Plattsburg,  and  the  small 
American  squadron,  under  Commodore  Macdonough,  was  moored  across 
the  entrance  of  Plattsburg  bay.  This  squadron  carried  eighty-six  guns, 
Vid  was  manned  by  eight  hundred  and  fifty-six  men.  The  British  army 
jras  accompanied  by  a  squadron  superior  in  strength  to  that  of  the  Amer- 
icans, and  upon  which  they  depended  for  the  control  of  Lake  Champlain 
It  was  commanded  by  Captain  Downie,  mounted  ninety-five  guns,  and  was 
manned  by  one  thousand  men. 

Prevost  arrived  before  Plattsburg  on  the  7th  of  September,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  erect  batteries  to  cover  his  passage  of  the  Saranac.     On  the 


MACDONOUGH'S  VICTORY  ON  LAKE  CHAMPLAIN. 

llth  of  September  he  made  a  combined  attack  by  land  and  water  upon 
the  American  position.  The  British  sq  adron  advanced  to  force  an 
entrance  into  Plattsburg  bay,  and  the  British  army  at  the  same  time 
attempted  to  force  a  passage  of  the  Saranac.  As  the  enemy's  fleet 
advanced  Macdonough  called  the  crew  of  his  flag-ship  around  him,  and 
kneeling  on  the  quarter-deck  of  his  vessel  prayed  God  to  crown  the 
American  arms  with  victory  that  day.  After  a  severe  engagement  of 
two  hours  and  a  quarter  the  British  fleet  was  defeated  and  forced  to 
surrender,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  gunboats  which  escaped.  While 
this  battle  was  going  on,  Prevost  tried  repeatedly  to  cross  the  Saranac, 
but  was  each  time  driven  back  with  heavy  loss.  During  the  night  the 


THE  SECOND  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  631 

British  army  retreated  in  disorder,  abandoning  their  sick  and  wounded 
and  a  large  quantity  of  military  stores;  having  lost  twenty-five  hundred 
men  in  the  engagement. 

The  country  had  ample  cause  to  regret  the  weakness  of  its  navy  during 
this  war.  The  exploits  of  those  vessels  which  had  managed  to  get  to  sea 
had  shown  what  could  be  accomplished  by  this  branch  of  the  public 
service,  and  our  deficiency  in  this  respect  enabled  the  enemy  to  blockade 
the  ports  of  the  Union,  and  to  use  the  Chesapeake  bay  with  as  much 
freedom  as  if  it  were  one  of  their  own  harbors.  In  the  summer  of  1814 
a  fleet  of  sixty  British  ships  under  Admirals  Cockburn  and  Cochrane, 
having  on  board  a  land-force  of  five  thousand  men  under  General  Ross, 
assembled  in  the  Chesapeake.  Admiral  Cochrane  endeavored  to  induce 
the  slaves  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  to  desert  their  masters,  and  offered 
them  free  transportation  to  the  West  Indies  and  Canada.  As  it  was  not 
known  at  what  point  General  Ross  would  land  his  troops,  General  Win- 
der of  Maryland  was  ordered  to  collect  a  force  of  fifteen  thousand  militia 
from  the  neighboring  States.  He  proposed  to  occupy  a  central  position 
from  which  he  could  cover  Washington  City,  Annapolis,  and  Baltimore, 
and  was  anxious  to  call  out  the  militia  at  once;  but  General  Armstrong, 
the  secretary  of  war>  decided  that  it  would  be  time  enough  to  call  out  the 
militia  when  the  British  had  revealed  their  designs  more  plainly.  He 
did  not  believe  the  British  had  any  idea  of  advancing  upon  Washington, 
and  thought  Baltimore  could  defend  itself.  Mr.  Madison  submitted  to 
the  decision  of  the  secretary  of  war,  and  the  national  capital  was  left 
defenceless. 

In  the  meantime,  the  British  commanders,  learning  the  exposed  con- 
dition of  the  city  of  Washington,  determined  to  attack  it.  They  divided 
their  fleet  for  this  purpose,  one  portion  ascending  the  Potomac,  and 
another  the  Patuxent.  The  latter  division  conveyed  the  troops  of  Gen- 
eral Ross,  and  landed  them  at  Benedict,  on  the  Patuxent,  about  fifty 
miles  from  Washington.  General  Ross  at  once  set  out  for  Washington, 
advancing  slowly  and  meeting  with  no  resistance.  As  he  had  no  horses, 
his  troops  were  obliged  to  drag  their  three  or  four  cannon  by  hand,  ano 
the  British  made  but  about  ten  miles  a  day.  A  few  determined  troop? 
night  have  driven  them  back,  and  the  roads  might  at  least  have  been 
obstructed  and  the  progress  of  the  enemy  impeded. 

General  Winder  gathered  a  small  force  of  militia,  and  took  position  at 
Bladensburg,  0:1  the  east  branch  of  the  Potomac,  about  three  miles  from 
Washington.  He  was  joined  here  by  Commodore  Barney  with  five  hun- 
dred sailors  and  marines  from  the  gunboat  flotilla  in  the  Patuxent,  which 
Barney,  unable  to  offer  any  resistance,  had  bu  -nod  upon  the  approach  of 


THE  SECOND  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  633 

the  British  fleet.  On  the  24th  of  August  the  British  reached  Bladens- 
burg,  and  attacked  the  force  under  General  Winder.  The  militia  fled 
at  the  first  fire,  but  Barney  and  his  sailors  and  marines  stood  their  ground, 
and  served  their  guns  with  vigor  until  their  position  was  turned  on  both 
flanks  by  the  superior  force  of  the  enemy,  when  they  retreated,  leaving 
their  guns  and  wounded  in  the  hands  of  the  victors.  The  so-called  battle 
of  Bladensburg  was  little  more  than  a  skirmish. 

General  Ross  halted  to  rest  his  men,  who  were  worn  out  with  the 
heat,  and  towards  sunset  resumed  his  march,  and  entered  Washington 
a  little  before  dark.  The  government  had  abandoned  the  city  some 
hours  before,  and  had  removed  the  greater  part  of  its  papers  and  archives, 
and  such  public  property  as  could  be  carried  away,  and  only  a  few 
frightened  citizens  remained  in  the  town.  Admiral  Cochrane  had  some 
time  before  announced  that  the  British  forces  were  ordered  "to  destroy 
and  lay  waste  all  towns  and  districts  of  the  United  States  found  accessi- 
ble to  the  attack  of  British  armaments,"  and  the  army  of  General  Ross 
now  proceeded  to  carry  out  these  infamous  instructions.  They  burned 
the  capitol,  and  with  it  the  library  of  Congress,  the  buildings  occupied 
by  the  treasury  and  state  departments,  and  plundered  the  president's 
mansion  and  set  it  on  fire.  A  number  of  stores  and  private  dwellings 
were  also  pillaged  and  set  on  fire.  The  navy  yard,  with  all  its  contents 
and  several  vessels  on  the  stocks,  was  entirely  destroyed.  The  British 
afterwards  attempted  to  excuse  their  shameful  conduct  in  Washington 
by  alleging  that  it  was  in  retaliation  for  the  burning  of  the  parliament 
house  at  York  in  Canada,  an  act  which  had  been  disclaimed  by  the 
Americans  and  which  the  British  had  not  been  able  to  prove  was  their 
work.  General  Ross  occupied  Washington  during  the  night  of  the  24th, 
and  until  dark  on  th-3  25th.  Then  fearing  lest  the  Americans  would 
assemble  in  such  force  as  to  intercept  him,  he  retreated  stealthily  from 
Washington  on  the  night  of  the  25th,  and  on  the  29th  reached  Benedict 
and  rcembarkcd  his  troops.  The  English  vessels  sent  up  the  Potomac 
fuccecded  in  passing  Kort  Washington,  which  made  little  or  no  effort  to 
Ktoj)  them,  and  on  the  "2Stl>  anchored  off  Alexandria.  Twenty-one  vessels 
\vere  captured,  and  the  town  saved  itself  from  bombardment  by  paying 
ti  ransom  of  sixteen  thousand  barrels  of  flour  and  one  thousand  hogs- 
heads of  tobacco. 

After  resting  his  men,  General  Ross  ascended  the  Chesapeake  to  the 
T'atapsco,  for  the  purpose  of  attacking  Baltimore,  which  was  defended 
l.y  Fort  McHenry  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  and  a  force  of  Maryland 
militia  and  some  volunteers  from  Pennsylvania.  A  force  of  eight  thou- 
sand men  was  landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Patapsco,  under  General  Ross, 


THE  SECOND   WAR   WITH  ENGLAND. 


635 


and  on  the  12th  of  September  advanced  towards  the  city,  while  the  fleet 
ascended  the  river  to  capture  Fort  McHenry  and  force  its  way  into  the 
harbor.  A  small  party  of  Americans  contested  the  advance  of  the  British 
army,  and  a  skirmish  ensued  in  which  General  Ross  was  killed.  A  sharp 
encounter  followed,  each  side  losing  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
The  American  militia  retired  in  good  order,  and  on  the  morning  of  the 
13th  the  British  resumed  their  march  towards  Baltimore.  The  Amer- 
icans were  discovered  in  considerable  force,  occupying  a  line  of  intrench- 
nients  defended  by  artillery,  and  commanded  by  General  Samuel  Smith, 


BATTLE   MONUMENT,   BALTIMORE,    ERECTED   IN    MEMORY   OF   THOSE   WHO 
FELL   AT   NORTH    POINT. 

an  officer  of  the  revolution.  The  British  commander  now  deemed  it  best 
to  await  the  result  of  the  engagement  between  the  fleet  and  Fort  Mel  It  nry, 
which  was  in  progress  at  the  time.  The  British  fleet  maintained  a  heavy 
fire  upon  the  fort,  which  replied  with  vigor,  and  soon  made  it  app-ireiv 
to  the  enemy  that  they  could  not  silence  it  or  pass  it.  The  attack  rn  the 
fort  proving  a  failure,  the  British  withdrew  to  North  Point  on  the  night 
of  the  13th,  and  rcembarked  on  their  ships.  During  this  cann. Minus 
Francis  S.  Key  of  Baltimore,  who  had  visited  the  British  flwt  t«>  obtain 
the  release  of  certain  prisoners,  and  who  was  detained  by  the  admiral 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

during  the  bombardment,  wrote  the  famous  song  of  "Tho  Stir-Spangled 
Banner,"  which  has  since  become  the  national  song  of  America. 

The  Chesaj>eake  was  not  the  only  part  of  the  coast  that  suffered  from 
the  ravages  of  the  British.  The  shores  of  Maine  were  ravaged  with  great 
t/arbarity.  Stonington,  Connecticut,  was  subjected  to  a  four  days'  bom- 
bardment by  a  Brit'.'h  fleet,  but  the  militia  repulsed  every  attempt  cf  the 
enemy  to  land.  The  foreign  commerce  of  the  country  was  completely 
destroyed.  The  superior  naval  strength  of  the  British  enabled  them  to 
blockade  the  Atlantic  ports  so  thoroughly,  that  the  government  ordered 
the  lights  along  the  coast  to  be  destroyed,  as  they  only  served  as  guides 
to  British  cruisers. 

The  opposition  of  the  New  England  States  to  the  war,  which  l.ad 
caused  them  such  severe  loss,  increased  daily,  and  at  length  the  legislature 
of  Massachusetts  recommended  a  convention  of  delegates  from  the  sea- 
board States  to  devise  amendments  to  the  Constitution  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  them  from  a  recurrence  of  such  evils  as  they  were  suffering 
from.  The  convention  met  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  on  the  14lh  of 
December,  1814,  and  was  composed  of  delegates  from  the  Xcw  En<r''and 
States.  The  convention  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  advocates  of  the 
war,  who  charged  it  with  the  intention  to  make  a  separate  peace  \v!t!i 
Gr:-at  Britain,  which  would  have  been  a  practical  secession  from  the 
Union.  The  convention  continued  in  session  for  twenty  days,  and 
adopted  an  address  to  the  country  very  moderate  in  its  tone.  It  pro- 
posed to  amend  the  Constitution  by  making  the  representation  in  the 
lower  House  of  Congress  equal  by  basing  it  upon  the  free  population 
only;  by  forbidding  embargo  and  non-intercourse  laws;  and  by  making 
the  President  ineligible  for  a  second  term.  The  convention  was  for  many 
years  exposed  to  the  bitterest  denunciation  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
American  people.  One  of  the  results  of  the  opposition  to  the  war  \va.s 
the  complete  destruction  of  the  old  Federalist  party  which  had  opposed 
the  war. 

Previous  to  the  assembling  of  the  convention,  the  president,  in  hope 
of  relieving  the  embarrassments  occasioned  by  the  opposition  of  Xe\v 
V~  -land  to  the  war,  advised  the  repeal  of  the  embargo  and  non-inter- 
eoi  "se  acts  and  the  abandonment  of  the  entire  restrictive  system.  His 
fecr  emendations  were  carried  out  by  Congress. 

In  the  meantime  stirring  events  were  transpiring  in  the  south.  At 
this  time  Florida  was  a  possession  of  Spain,  which  was  supposed  to  be  a 
neutral  power.  Great  Britain  had  laid  Spain  under  heavy  obligations 
in  her  struggle  against  Napoleon,  and  the  British  had  now  no  difficulty 
in  entering  Florida,  and  using  it  as  a  base  of  operations  against  the 


THE  SECOND    WAR    \\'1T11  ESQLAXD. 


637 


soutli.  Their  fk>et  entered  Pensacola  harbor,  and  obtained  possession  of 
the  forts.  From  this  point  they  began  to  stir  up  the  Creek  Indians  to 
make  war  on  the  Americans,  and  fitted  out  an  expedition  against  Fort 
Bowyer,  commanded  by  Major  Lawrence,  which  defended  the  harbor  of 
Mobile.  On  the  15th  of  September  an  attack  was  made  upon  this  fort, 
and  was  repulsed  with  the  loss  to  the  enemy  of  a  vessel  and  a  number  of 
men.  General  Jackson,  having  collected  a  force  of  three  thousand  Ten- 
ncssecans,  marched  to  Pensacola,  entered  the  town  on  the  7th  of  Novem- 
ber, demanded  that  the  British  should  leave  the  place  at  once,  and  noti- 
fied the  Spanish  governor  that  he  should  hold  him  responsible  for  the 


JACKSON  SQUARE,  NEW  ORLEANS. 

occupation  of  the  town  or  the  forts  by  the  British  for  purposes  of  hostility 
towards  the  United  States.  The  British  immediately  blew  up  a  fort 
which  they  had  erected  seven  miles  below  the  town,  and  embarked  in 
their  ships. 

Confident  that  New  Orleans  would  be  the  next  object  of  attack  by  the 
British,  and  knpwing  that  the  city  was  poorly  prepared  to  resist,  General 
Jackson  at  once  sent  General  Coffee  with  the  mounted  Tennesseeans  to 
that  city,  and  followed  with  the  rest  of  his  troops  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
New  Orleans  was  at  this  time  a  city  of  about  twenty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, less  than  one-half  of  whom  were  whites.  The  whites  were  princi- 
pally of  French  birth  or  parentage,  and  cared  little  for  the  United  States. 
They  could  not  be  relied  upon  to  iold  the  city  against  the  British.  The 


638  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

defences  were  in  a  miserable  state,  and  the  people  were  demoralized  and 
insubordinate.  Jackson  set  to  work  with  vigor.  He  proclaimed  mar- 
tial law,  and  put  down  the  opposition  to  his  measures  for  the  safety  of 
the  city  with  a  firm  hand.  He  called  for  volunteers  to  defend  the  city, 
and  urged  the  free  men  of  color  i.o  come  forward  and  enroll  themselves. 
They  responded  in  considerable  numbers.  The  prisons  were  emptied,  and 
the  prisoners  enrolled  in  the  ranks  of  the  army.  The  services  of  Lafitte, 
a  noted  smuggler-chief  of  Barataria  bay,  and  of  his  band,  were  accepted. 
The  British  had  endeavored  to  secure  the  aid  of  this  band  as  pilots,  as 
they  knew  the  coast  thoroughly,  but  Lafitte  and  his  men  had  refused  to 
hold  any  communication  with  them. 

While  Jackson  was  thus  engaged,  the  British  fleet  arrived  on  the  coast 
of  Louisiana  and  cast  anchor  off  the  mouth  of  Lake  Borgne,  the  shortest 
passage  by  water  to  New  Orleans.  It  had  on  board  a  force  of  twelve 
thousand  veteran  troops,  just  released  from  the  wars  against  Napoleon,  and 
four  thousand  marines  and  sailors.  The  British  army  was  commanded 
by  Sir  Edward  Pakenham,  the  brother-fh-law  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, and  an  officer  of  tried  ability,  and  under  him  were  Generals  Gibbs, 
Keene,  and  Lambert,  veterans  of  the  peninsular  war. 

The  Americans  had  a  small  flotilla  in  Lake  Borgne,  and  by  extraordi- 
nary exertions,  Jackson  managed  to  collect  a  force  of  five  thousand  troops, 
only  one  thousand  of  whom  were  regulars.  On  the  14th  of  December 
the  British  sent  their  boats  into  Lake  Borgne,  and  after  a  severe  engage- 
ment captured  the  American  flotilla,  and  opened  the  way  to  the  city. 
On  the  22d  of  December  the  British  landed  twenty-four  hundred  men 
under  General  Keene,  who  advanced  to  a  point  on  the  bank  of  the 
Mississippi,  about  nine  miles  below  New  Orleans.  Jackson  attacked  this 
party  on  the  night  of  the  23d  with  the  regulars  and  Coffee's  Tennesseeans 
dismounted,  and  drove  them  to  take  shelter  behind  a  levee.  The  success 
of  the  Americans  in  this  engagement  greatly  encouraged  them  to  hope 
for  a  similar  issue  to  the  final  conflict. 

The  next  day  Jackson  took  position  on  solid  ground  behind  a  broad 
nnd  deep  trench  that  extended  across  the  plain  of  Chalmette  from  the 
Mississippi  to  an  impassable  swamp,  and  covered  his  position  with  a  line 
of  intrenchments.  The  British,  believing  Jackson's  force  to  be  much 
stronger  than  it  really  was,  made  no  attempt  to  interfere  with  him  for 
several  days,  and  he  employed  this  delay  in  strengthening  his  line  with 
bales  of  cotton.  The  British  on  the  28th  of  December  opened  a  heavy 
cannonade  upon  the  American  line.  Jackson  replied  with  energy  with  his 
five  pieces  of  artillery,  and  the  firing  was  continued  without  accomplish- 
ing anything  definite  for  several  hours.  On  the  1st  of  January,  1815,  they 


THE  SECOND    WAR   WITH  ENGLAND. 


G39 


attempted  a  second  cannonade,  but  the  American  guns  soon  silenced  their 
fire.  On  the  4th  of  January,  a  body  of  twenty-two  hundred  Ken- 
tucky riflemen,  who  had  descended  the  Mississippi  to  his  assistance, 
reached  Jackson's  camp.  Only  one-half  of  them  were  armed.  Jackson 
could  not  supply  the  remainder  with  arms,  but  set  them  to  work  to  con- 
struct a  second  line  of  intrenchmcnts  in  the  rear  of  his  first. 

Having  finished  their  preparations,  the  British  erected  a  battery  of  <-ix 


THE  PLAIN  OF  CHALMETTE — SCENE  OP  THE  BATTLE  OP  NEW  ORLEANS. 

eighteen  pounders  on  the  night  of  the  7th  of  January,  and  on  the  morning 
of  the  8th  advanced  to  carry  the  American  line  by  storm.  Their  centre 
was  led  by  General  Pakenham  in  person,  and  other  columns  under  Gen-- 
evals  Gibbs  and  Keene  moved  against  tlic  right  and  left  wings  of  the 
Americans.  The  open  space  over  which  the  enemy  were  obliged  to  pass 
was  nearly  a  mile  in  width,  and  was  completely  commanded  by  Jackson's 
guns.  The  British  advanced  in  splendid  style,  and  wcrv»  soon  within 


G40 


HISTORY  OF  THE   VSITED  STATES. 


range  of  tlio  American  artillery,  which  opened  on  them  with  terrible 
effect.  They  never  wavered,  but  closing  nj>  their  ranks  firmly  pressed 
on.  As  they  came  within  musket  shot  the  Kentucky  and  Tennessee 
riflemen  opened  a  fatal  fire  upon  them  which  literally  mowed  them  down. 
They  wavered  and  broke.  General  Pakcnham  attempted  to  rally  them, 
and  was  shot  down.  Generals  Gibbs  and  Kccnc  were  wounded  while 
engaged  in  the  same  attempt,  the  latter  mortally.  The  command  devolved 
upon  General  Lambert,  who  made  two  more  attempts  to  carry  the  line 
by  storm.  Each  time  the  fatal  fire  of  the  American  riflemen  drove 
back  the  tried  veterans  of  Wellington's  campaigns,  and  at  last  they  broke 
and  fled  in  confusion.  General  Lambert  continued  the  retreat  to  tiie 


BATTLE  OP  NEW  ORLEANS. 


shore  of  the  gulf,  where  the  British  fleet  lay,  and  about  a  fortnight  later 
embarked  his  troops  and  withdrew. 

The  American  loss  in  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  was  seven  killed  *ml 
six  wounded.  The  British  lost  two  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded 

The  victory  was  of  the  highest  importance.  It  saved  not  only  New 
Orleans  but  the  mouth  of  the  Missi  dppi  from  British  control.  Had 
the  army  of  General  Pakenham  been  successful,  there  is  good  reason  tc 
believe  that  England  would  have  refused  to  relinquish  the  Mississippi, 
and  the  war  would  have  gone  on,  or  peace  would  have  been  made  with 
the  mouth  of  the  great  river  under  the  control  of  England.  The  victory 
closed  the  war,  and  was  won  as  we  shall  sea  three  weeks  after  the  >*eaty 
of  peace  was  signed. 


THE  SECOND   WAR    WITH  ENGLAND.  641 

•  At  sea  the  war  was  carried  on  by  the  few  American  cruisers  that  maiu 
nged  to  elude  the  blockade  of  our  coast.  The  frigate  "  Essex,"  Commodore 
Porter,  went  to  sea  in  1813,  and  made  a  number  of  captures  in  the 
Atlantic.  Learning  that  the  British  whalers,  which  had  been  armed  for 
the  purpose  of  capturing  American  vessels  engaged  in  the  same  trade, 
were  doing  considerable  damage  in  the  Pacific,  Commodore  Porter  sailed 
around  Cape  Horn  and  entered  that  ocean.  He  captured  twelve  armed 
British  whalers  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  and  then  learning  that  the 
British  frigate  "Phoebe"  had  been  sent  in  pursuit  of  him,  Porter  sailed  to 
Valparaiso  to  look  for  her.  While  he  lay  there  the  "  Phoebe,"  accompanied 
by  the  English  sloop  of  war  "  Cherub,"  arrived  off  the  luirhor.  The 
"Phoebe"  was  herself  a  full  match  for  the  "Essex,"  but  Porter  resolved  to 
fight  both  vessels.  As  he  was  leaving  the  harbor  a  sudden  squall  carried 
away  his  main  topmast,  and  left  him  at  the  mercy  of  his  enemicc,  which  at 
once  attacked  him.  His  defence  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  and  desperate 
in  history,  but  he  was  forced  to  surrender,  but  not  until  he  had  lost  fifty- 
eight  of  his  crew  killed,  and  sixty-six  wounded. 

In  January,  1815,  the  frigate  "President,"  Commodore  Decatur,  man- 
aged to  elude  the  blockade  of  New  York  and  get  to  sea.  She  was  chased 
by  a  British  squadron  of  five  vessels,  and  a  running  fight  ensued.  Being 
entirely  disabled,  the  "  President "  was  forced  to  surrender. 

In  February,  1815,  while  cruising  off  the  port  of  Lisbon,  one  fine 
moonlight  night,  the  "  Constitution,"  Captain  Stewart,  encountered  two 
British  sloops  of  war,  the  "Cyane,"  24,  and  the  "Levant,"  18,  and  cap- 
tured both  of  them  after  a  short  engagement.  These  vessels  were  captured 
after  peace  was  signed,  and  were  restored  to  the  British.  On  the  23d  of 
March,  the  "  Hornet,"  Captain  Biddle,  captured  the  British  brig  "  Penguin" 
off  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  "  Penguin  "  was  so  much  injured  that 
Biddle  was  forced  to  destroy  her.  On  the  30th  of  June  the  "  Peacock/' 
Captain  Warrington,  ignorant  of  the  close  of  the  war,  captured  the 
"  Nautilus "  in  the  East  Indies.  The  latter  vessel  was  restored  to  the 
British.  Thus  the  war,  which  opened  so  gloomily  for  the  Americans, 
closed  with  a  series  of  brilliant  successes  for  them. 

In  the  meantime  negotiations  for  peace  had  been  conducted  between  the 
American  and  British  commissioners  at  Ghent,  in  Belgium.  The  Amer- 
ican commissioners  had  been  instructed  to  demand  the  settlement  of  the 
impressment  question,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  assurance  that  upon 
the  relinquishment  of  that  claim  by  England  Congress  would  enact  a  law 
forbidding  the  enlistment  of  English  sailors  in  either  the  navy  or  mer- 
chant service  of  the  United  States.  On  the  14th  of  December,  1814,  the 
labors  of  the  commissioners  were  brought  to  a  close,  and  a  treaty  of  peace 
41 


642 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  was  signed.  The  treaty 
provided  that  all  places  captured  by  either  party  during  the  war  should 
be  restored  to  their  rightful  possessors.  Arrangements  were  made  for 
determining  the  northwest  boundary  of  the  United  States,  and  for  set- 
Ming  matters  of  minor  importaiu  <.-.  The  treaty  was  silent  on  the  subject 
jf  impressments,  the  cause  of  the  war.  Nevertheless  Great  Britain 
ceased  to  exercise  her  claim  to  this  right  as  regarded  the  United  States, 
and  has  not  since  attempted  to  revive  it,  so  that  the  object  of  the  war,  the 
protection  of  American  sailors  from  impressment  by  England,  \vas  at- 
tained after  all.  The  treaty  was  unanimously  ratified  by  the  Senate,  and 
on  the  18th  of  February  peace  was  proclaimed  by  the  president.  \  few 


THE  "  HORNET  "  AND  THE  "  PENGUIN." 

days  later  the  president  recommended  to  Congress  the  passage  of  a  'aw 
forbidding  the  enlistment  of  foreign  seamen  in  American  vessels. 

The  proclamation  of  peace  was  hailed  with  delight  in  all  parts  of  the 
country,  especially  in  the  Atlantic  cities,  which  had  suffered  heavily  by 
the  wai ,  and  the  national  rejoicings  were  intensified  by  the  news  which 
arrived  a  few  days  later  of  the  brilliant  victory  of  New  Orleans. 

Soon  after  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  the  United 
States  were  called  upon  to  punish  the  insolence  of  the  dey  of  Algiers. 
That  ruler,  thinking  that  the  United  States  were  too  much  crippled  by 
their  recent  conflict  with  Great  Britain  to  punish  his  insolence,  suddenly 
reade  war  upon  them.  He  threatened  to  reduce  Mr.  Learr  the  America? 


THE  SECOND    WAR    WITH  ENGLAXu. 


643 


l,  to  slavery,  and  compelled  him  to  purchase  his  liberty  and  that  of 
iu»  family  by  the  payment  of  a  large  ransom.  Several  American  mer- 
chantmen were  captured  by  the  Algerine  pirates,  and  their  crews  reduced 
to  slavery.  The  excuse  offered  by  the  dey  for  these  outrages  was  that 
fche  presents  of  the  American  government  were  not  satisfactory. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  determined  to  compel  the  Bar 
bary  powers  to  make  a  definite   settlement  of  the  questions   at   issu-c 
between  them  and  this  country,  and  in  May,  1815,  Commodore  Decatur 
was  despatched  to  the  Mediterranean  with  a  fleet  of  ten  vessels,  three  of 
which  were  frigates.     He  was  ordered  to  compel  the  dey  to  make  satis 


COMMODORE   DECATUR. 


faction  for  his  past  outrages,  and  to  give  a  guarantee  for  his  future  good 
conduct.  On  the  voyage  out  Decatur  fell  in  w:+h  the  largest  frigate  in 
the  Algerine  service,  near  Gibraltar,  on  the  17th  of  June,  and  captured 
her  after  a  fight  of  thirty  minutes.  On  the  19th  another  Algerine  cruiser 
was  taken.  The  fleet  then  proceeded  to  Algiers,  but  upon  its  arrival 
found  the  dey  in  a  very  humble  frame  of  mind.  The  loss  of  his  twc 
best  ships,  and  the  determined  aspect  of  the  Americans,  terrified  him  intr 
submission,  and  he  humbly  sued  for  peace.  He  was  required  to  come  on 
board  of  Decatur's  flag-ship,  and  there  sign  a  humiliating  treaty  with  t::: 
United  States,  by  which  he  bound  himself  to  indemnify  the  Americans 
from  whom  he  had  extorted  ransoms,  to  surrender  all  his  prisoners  uncon- 


644  HISTORY  OtT  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ditionally,  to  renounce  all  claim  to  tribute  from  the  American  govern- 
ment, and  to  cease  from  molesting  American  vessels  in  future. 

The  difficulty  with  Algiers  having  been  satisfactorily  settled,  Decatiu 
sailed  to  Tunis  and  Tripoli,  and  demanded  of  the  government  of  each  of 
those  countries  indemnity  for  some  American  vessels  which  had  been  cap- 
tured by  the  British  in  their  harbors  with  their  connivance.  The  demand 
was  coupled  in  each  case  with  a  threat  of  bombardment,  and  was  com- 
plied with.  About  the  middle  of  the  summer  Commodore  Bainbridge 
joined  Decatur  with  the  "  Independence,"  74,  the  "  Congress,"  and  sev- 
eral other  vessels,  but  the  energetic  Decatur  had  settled  all  the  difficulties, 
and  had  so  humbled  the  Barbary  powers  that  they  never  again  renewed 
their  aggressions  upon  American  commerce.  The  American  fleet  then 
visited  the  principal  ports  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  brilliant  record 
made  by  the  navy  during  the  war  with  England  secured  it  a  flattering 
reception  everywhere. 

In  the  autumn  of  1815  the  Indian  tribes  deprived  of  the  support  of 
Great  Britain  made  peace  with  each  other  and  with  the  United  States. 
The  northwestern  frontier  was  thus  secured  against  the  further  hostility 
of  the  savages. 

The  finances  of  the  country  were  in  a  wretched  condition  at  the  close 
of  the  war.  All  the  banks  but  those  of  New  England  had  suspended 
specie  payments,  and  none  were  now  in  a  condition  to  return  to  a  specie 
basis.  The  public  debt  was  over  $100,000,000,  and  there  was  a  general 
lack  of  confidence  throughout  the  country.  Mr.  A.  J.  Dallas,  the  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury,  in  view  of  the  general  distress,  proposed  to  abolish 
a  number  of  the  internal  taxes  which  had  been  levied  for  the  support  of 
the  war.  In  their  place  he  advised  the  imposition  upon  imports  from 
foreign  countries  of  duties  sufficiently  high  not  only  to  afford  a  revenue, 
but  aiso  to  protect  the  manufactures  which  had  sprung  up  during  the 
war,  and  which  were  threatened  with  ruin  by  the  competition  of  European 
goods.  The  president,  in  his  annual  message,  warmly  recommended  such 
i  course.  Another  important  measure  was  also  enacted.  The  charter  of 
the  first  Bank  of  the  United  States  expired  in  1811.  Efforts  had  been 
made,  without  success,  to  obtain  its  renewal,  and  Mr.  Madison,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1814,  had  vetoed  a  bill  for  this  purpose  which  had  passed  both 
Houses  of  Congress.  In  the  spring  of  1816  a  bill  was  passed  by  Con« 
gress  chartering  a  new  Bank  of  the  United  States  for  twenty  years,  with 
a  capital  of  $35,000,000,  and  received  the  president's  signature  on  the 
10th  of  April.  It  was  located  in  Philadelphia,  but  had  branches  in 
other  States.  It  gave  the  people  a  uniform  currency,  good  in  all  parts 
of  the  country,  and  redeemable  on  demand  in  gold  and  silver,  and  thus 


THE  SECOND    WAR   WITH  ENGLAND. 


645 


did  much  to  remedy  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  times.  Some- 
what later  a  law  was  passed  requiring  that  all  sums  of  money  due 
the  United  States  should  be  paid  in  gold  or  silver  coin,  "in  treasury 
notes,  in  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  or  in  notes  of  banks 
payable,  and  paid  on  demand,  in 
specie." 

On  the  19th  of  April,  1816,  the 
Territory  of  Indiana  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  9  State,  making 
the  nineteenth  member  of  the  Con- 
federacy. 

The  presidential  election  took 
place  in  the  fall  of  1816.  Mr.  Madison  having  declined  to  be  a  candi- 
date for  a  third  term,  the  Democratic  party  nominated  James  Monroe,  of 
Virginia,  for  President,  and  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  of  New  York,  for 
Vice-President,  and  elected  them  by  large  majorities  over  the  Federal 
candidates,  who  were :  For  President,  Rufus  King,  of  New  York ;  for 
Vice-President,  John  Howard,  of  Maryland. 


COAT  OF  ABM8  OF  INDIANA. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 


FHE  ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JAMES  MONROE  AND  JOHN  QUINCT  ADAMS, 

inauguration  of  Mr.  Monroe — His  Tour  through  the  Eastern  States— Admission  of  Mis- 
sissippi  into  the  Union — Troubles  with  the  Indians  —  General  Jackson's  Vigorous 
Measures  against  the  Spaniards  in  Florida — Purchase  of  Florida  by  the  United  States — 
Illinois  becomes  a  State — The  First  Steamship — Maine  admitted  into  the  Union — TI.e 
Slavery  Question — The  Missouri  Compromise — Admission  of  Missouri  as  a  State — The 
Fourth  Census — Re-election  of  Mr.  Monroe — The  Tariff — Protective  Policy  c  f  the  Gov- 
ernment— Recognition  of  the  Spanish  Republics — The  Monroe  Doctrine — Visit  of 
Lafayette  to  the  United  States — Retirement  of  Mr.  Monroe — John  Quincy  Adams 
elected  President — His  Inauguration — Rapid  Improvement  of  the  Country — Increase 
of  Wealth  and  Prosperity — Internal  Improvements — The  Creek  Lands  in  Georgia 
ceded  to  the  United  States — Death  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  John  Adams — The  Anti- 
Masons — The  Tariff  of  1823 — Andrew  Jackson  elected  President  of  the  United  States. 

AMES  MONROE  was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States,  at  Washington,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1817.  He  had 
served  during  the  revolution  in  the  army  of  the  United  States, 
and  had  entered  Congress  soon  after  the  formation  of  the  govern- 
ment as  a  representative  from  Virginia,  and  had  won  great  credit 
by  his  services  in  that  body.  He  had  been  secretary  of  state  during 
the  eight  years  of  Mr.  Madison's  administration,  and  had  greatly  in- 
creased his  fame  by  his  discharge  of  the  diffi- 
cult and  delicate  duties  of  this  position  He 
was  a  man  of  amiable  and  conciliatory  char- 
acter, and  was  popular  with  both  parties.  In 
his  inaugural  address  lie  declared  his  inten- 
tion to  administer  the  government  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  of  Washington,  and 
the  sentiments  of  this  document  were  warmly 
applauded  throughout  the  country  by  Feder- 
alists as  well  as  Democrats.  The  administra- 
tion of  Mr.  Monroe  covered  a  period  gener- 
ally known  in  our  political  history  as  "the 
JAMES  MONROE.  era  of  good  feeling."  Party  lines  were  almost 

blotted  out,  and   the  people  of  the  country 
more   united   than  at  any  previous  or  subsequent   qeriod   in  the 
bupport  of  national  measures. 
646 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MONROE  AND  J.  Q.  ADAMS.  G47 

A  few  months  after  his  inauguration  President  Monroe  made  a  tour 
through  the  Eastern  States,  He  was  received  with  marked  attention 
everywhere,  and  the  Federalist  city  of  Boston  entertained  him  with  the 
cordial  ospitality  which  is  one  of  her  characteristics. 

On  the  10th  of  December,  1817,  the  western  portion  of  the  Territory  of 
Mississippi  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  the  State  of  Mississippi.  T!:t 
eastern  portion  of  the  former  Territory  was  erected  into  the  Territory  01 
Alabama,  for  which  a  government  was  provided  by  Congress. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1817  the  Seminole  Indians,  whose 
lands  lay  within  the  Spanish  province  of  Florida,  began  to  commit 
depredations  along  the  borders  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  Territory. 
They  were  joined  by  the  Creeks,  and  their  operations  coon  became  so  im- 
portant as  to  demand  the  immediate  action  of  the  f  deral  government. 
General  Gaines,  commanding  the  federal  troops  in  Alabama,  attempted  to 
check  the  Indians,  but  his  forces  were  inadequate  to  the  task,  and  he  was 
compelled  to  ask  assistance  of  the 
government.  General  Jackson,  com- 
manding the  southern  department, 
svas  ordered  to  call  out  the  militia 
and  take  the  field  against  the  In- 
dians. He  collected  a  force  of  one 
thousand  mounted  Tennesseeans, 
and  in  March,  1818,  invaded  the 

Indian  country,  and  in  a  few  weeks  laid  it  waste ;  the  villages  and  corn 
fields  were  b.  i-;.ed,  and  the  cattle  captured  or  killed. 

Being  satisfied  tl.at  the  Spaniards  in  Florida  had  incited  the  Indian? 
to  make  v,rr.r  on  the  United  States,  General  Jackson,  as  soon  as  he  had 
punished  the  Indians,  marched  into  Florida  and  seized  St.  Marks,  on 
App'lzdub  bay,  the  only  fortified  town  of  the  Spaniards  in  that  part  of 
Florida.  An  armed  American  vessel,  cruising  off  the  Florida  coast, 
hoisted  the  British  colors,  and  two  prominent  hostile  Creek  chiefs  were 
decoyed  on  board,  and  were  summarily  hanged  by  order  of  Jackson.  In 
one  of  hr  forays  against  the  Indians  Jackson  captured  two  British 
trader  Robert  C,  Ambrister,  or  Ambuster,  and  Alexander  Arbuthnot. 
They  were  accused  of  aiding  the  Indians,  were  tried  and  found  guilty  bj 
a  court-martial,  and  were  promptly  hanged.  The  Spanish  governor  in- 
dignantly protested  against  the  invasion  of  Florida,  but  Jackson,  unmoved 
by  thL  protest,  advanced  in  May  to  Pensacola,  the  seat  of  the  Spanist 
provincial  government,  which  place  was  immediately  surrendered  to  him 
The  Spanish  governor  fled  to  Fort  Barrau  -is,  below  the  town.  Jackson 
attacked  the  fort  and  compelled  it  to  surrender  after  a  brief 


548  HISTORY  Of  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

whereupon  the  governor  continued  his  flight  to  Havana.  The  invasion 
of  Florida  by  Jackson  drew  forth  an  indignant  protest  from  the  Spanish 
government,  but  his  conduct  was  sustained  by  a  decisive  majority  in  both 
Houses  of  Congress.  The  Spanish  government  did  not  press  the  matter, 
as  negotiations  were  soon  entered  upon  which  brought  about  an  amicable 
settlement  of  the  difficulty. 

The  Spanish  kingdom  was  indebted  to  certain  citizens  of  the  United 
States  in  sums  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $5,000,000.  Spain  in- 
structed her  minister  at  Washington  to  conclude  a  treaty  with  the  United 
States  ceding  Florida  to  them  as  an  equivalent  for  these  claims.  The 
treaty  was  arranged  in  1819.  Spain-  ceded  to  the  United  States  all  her 
claims  to  East  and  West  Florida,  and  to  the  territory  claimed  by  her  on 
the  Pacific  coast  north  of  42  degrees  of  north  latitude,  and  the  federal 
government  assumed  the  Spanish  debt  to  the  citizens  of  this  country. 
Two  years  later  this  treaty  was  ratified  by  Spain,  and  on  the  22d  of 
April,  1821,  the  president  formally  announced  the  acquisition  of  Florida 

by  the  United  States.  This  pur- 
chase also  included  the  territory  in 
Oregon  claimed  by  Spain,  and  em- 
braced an  area  of  367,320  square 
miles.  Florida  was  at  once  organ- 
ized as  a  Territory,  and  General 
Jackson  was  appointed  its  first 


COAT  0,  ABM8  0,  ILUNOIS. 


On  the  3d  of  December,  1818,  the  Territory  of  Illinois  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  State. 

The  year  1819  was  marked  by  an  event  of  great  importance  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  Steam  had  been  used  for  some  time  in  the  inland 
navigation  of  the  Union,  but  it  was  not  generally  believed  it  could  be 
applied  to  sea-going  vessels.  The  steamship  "  Savannah,"  built  in  New 
York,  but  owned  in  the  city  from  which  she  was  named,  made  a  success- 
ful voyage  from  New  York  to  Savannah  in  the  early  part  of  1819.  In 
May  of  that  year  she  sailed  from  Savannah  for  Liverpool,  and  reached 
that  port  in  safety.  From  Liverpool  she  subsequently  made  a  voyage  tc 
St.  Petersburg.  She  was  the  first  steam  vessel  that  ever  crossed  the 
Atlantic,  and,  wherever  she  went,  was  an  object  of  the  greatest  interest 
The  question  of  steam  navigation  on  the  ocean  was  thus  satisfactorily 
settled  by  America. 

On  the  14th  of  December,  1819,  Alabama  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
as  a  State,  making  the  total  number  of  States  twenty-two. 

On  the  15th  ot   March,  1820,  Maine,  which   had  formed  a  part  of 


COAT  OF  ARMS  OP  ALABAMA. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MONROE  AND  J.  Q.  ADAMS.  649 

Massachusetts,  but  had  been  ceded  by  that  State  to  the  general  govern- 
ment, was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  The  object  of  the  erection 
of  this  new  State  was  to  offset  the  growing  power  of  the  Southern  States 
by  the  creation  of  a  new  member  of  the  Union  in  New  England.  The 
number  of  the  New  England  States  was  thus  increased  to  six. 

For  some  years  past  the  question  of  African  slavery  in  the  States  had 
been  assuming  an  important  and  alarming  position  in  the  public  mind. 
The  States  of  the  north  and  west  had  gotten  rid  of  such  negro  slaves  as 
they  had  originally  possessed,  and 
had  forbidden  their  citizens  to  own 
or  bring  within  their  limits  for  pur- 
poses of  labor  any  persons  of  this 
class.  The  Southern  States,  on  the 
other  hand,  comprised  a  region  in 
which  slave  labor  was  particularly 
profitable,  and  it  was  believed  by  the 
people  of  this  region  that  the  industry  of  many  parts  of  the  south  could 
not  be  properly  developed  by  white  men,  as  the  climate  was  more  un- 
suited  to  them  than  to  the  negroes.  The  production  of  cotton,  rice, 
sugar,  and  tobacco  depended  on  the  labor  of  the  negro,  and  in  the  States 
where  those  great  staples  were  raised  slavery  was  regarded  as  a  necessity. 
At  the  period  we  are  now  considering  slavery  existed  in  the  States  of 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky.  Being 

regarded  by  these  States  as  neces- 
sary to  their  prosperity,  they  con- 
sidered any  and  all  plans  for  it? 
removal  as  attacks  upon  their  chief 
source  of  wealth. 

In  the  non-slaveholding  States 
the  feeling  that  slavery  was  sinful 
had  been  gradually  gaining  ground, 
and  there  were  many  persons  in  the  south  who  held  the  same  views. 
Certain  religious  bodies  in  the  country  had  distinctly  expressed  their  be- 
lief that  it  was  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  Christianity  to  own  slaves, 
and  memorials  had  been  presented  to  the  legislatures  of  some  of  the 
States,  and  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  praying  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery. 

The  law  for  the  organization  of  the  Northwest  Territory  forbade  the 
admission  of  slavery  into  the  States  to  be  formed  out  of  that  Territory, 
and  thus  secured  them  for  free  labor.  Though  Congress  did  not  hesitate 


COAT   OP  ARMS  OF   MAINE. 


650 


HISTORY  OF  THE   USITED  STATES. 


to  legislate  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  in  this  case,  it  steadily  refused  to 
comply  with  the  demands  of  the  petitions  presented  to  it  praying  it  to 
take  measures  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  The 
existence  of  slavery  within  the  individual  States  was  recognized  and  pro- 
tected by  the  Constitution,  and  Congress  held  that  it  had  no  right  to 
interfere  with  the  domestic  relations  of  those  States  in  which  slavery, 
thus  recognized  and  protected,  was  established. 

In  February,  1819,  the  Territory  of  Missouri,  which  was  formed  out 


COTTON  PLANTATION. 


r"  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  asked  permission  to  form  a  constitu- 
r-':>n  preparatory  to  being  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  When  the 
bill  for  this  purpose  was  presented  to  the  House  of  Representatives  on 
the  13th  of  February,  Mr.  Tallmadge,  of  New  York,  proposed  to  insert 
I  clause  providing  "that  the  further  introduction  of  slavery,  or  involun- 
ary  servitude,  be  prohibited,  except  for  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof 
the  party  thall  have  been  duly  convicted ;  and  that  all  children  bora 


ADMINISTRATIONS   OF  MONROE  AND  J.  Q.  ADAMS.  651 

ill  said  State,  after  the  admission  thereof  into  the  Union,  shall  be  free  at 
the  age  of  twenty-five  years." 

The  announcement  of  this  amendment  produced  a  great  sensation  in 
the  House,  and  throughout  the  country.  It  was  believed  by  the  advo- 
cates of  slavery  that  the  resolutions  of  the  House  of  Representatives  yt 
1790,  in  reply  to  the  first  petition  presented  to  it  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  had  settled  the  question  of  the  powers  of  the  federal  government 
respecting  slavery.  No  effort  had  been  made  to  revive  the  subject  in  the 
admission  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  or  Alabama, 
in  each  of  which  States  negro  slavery  existed.  Many  of  the  most  de- 
termined opponents  of  slavery  believed  that,  under  the  constitution  and 
the  Louisiana  treaty  with  France,  Congress  had  no  right  to  adopt  the 
proposed  restriction  upon  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  State.  Among 
these  were  Mr.  Jefferson,  then  living  in  retirement  at  Monticello,  and 
John  Quincy  Adams,  the  secretary  of  state  in  Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet. 
Both  of  .these  gentlemen  were  sincerely  desirous  of  the  abolition  of 
slavepy.  Mr.  Jefferson  believed  that  the  States  alone  had  power  to  legis- 
late upon  the  subject  within  their  respective  limits.  The  opponents  of 
slavery,  on  the  other  hand,  contended  that  while  Congress  had  no  power 
to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  thirteen  original  States,  it  had  full  power 
to  legislate  concerning  it  in  the  Territories,  which  were  the  common  prop- 
erty of  the  States  north  and  south.  The  advocates  of  slavery  contended 
that,  as  the  treaty  under  which  the  Louisiana  purchase  was  made  con- 
tained a  pledge  to  the  inhabitants  of  that  Territory  that  they  should  enjoy 
"all  the  privileges  of  citizens  of  the  United  States,"  such  a  restriction  as 
that  proposed  by  Mr.  Tallmadge  would  be  a  violation  of  this  pledge. 
They  claimed  also  that  as  slaves  were  property,  and  the  Territories  the 
common  possession  of  the  Spates,  the  citizens  of  the  slavcholding  States 
had  the  right  to  carry  their  property  into  the  Territories ;  and  that  the 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Territories  would  be  to  deprive  the  south  of 
her  share  in  their  enjoyment.  The  anti«-slavery  advocates  replied  to  this, 
that  slave  and  free  labor  could  not  coexist  on  the  same  soil,  and  that  to 
allow  slavery  in  the  Territories  would  be  to  drive  free  labor  out  of  them  • 
and  that  it  would  be  a  great  wrong  to  allow  the  introduction  of  a  few 
hundred  thousand  slaves  at  the  cost  of  driving  millions  of  free  men  from 
the  Territories. 

The  discussion  of  this  question  produced  intense  feeling  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  States,  and  the  sectional  division  of  the  country 
was  drawn  too  deep  to  be  effaced  while  the  cause  of  it  remained.  It  was 
very  clear  to  thinking  men  that  the  feelings  aroused  by  tin's  controversy 
could  not  be  quieted  until  the  institution  of  slavery  should  be  abolished 


652  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

throughout  the  country,  or  should  be  introduced  into  every  new  State 
formed  out  of  the  Territories  remaining  to  the  republic.  The  excitement 
deepened  daily,  and  at  one  time  became  so  intense  as  to  threaten  the 
existence  of  the  Union.  Good  men  of  all  parties  gave  their  best  efforts 
'-jo  the  task  of  effecting  a  settlement  of  the  difficulty,  but  amid  the  storm 
Df  passion  which  was  aroused  by  the  debate  in  Congress  it  was  hard  to 
accomplish  anything. 

The  bill  allowing  the  people  of  Missouri  to  form  a  State  constitution 
passed  the  House  of  Representatives  with  Mr.  Tallmadge's  amendment 
by  a  small  majority.  It  was  defeated  in  the  Senate.  When  Congress 
met  again  in  December,  1819,  the  debate  was  renewed  upon  the  Missouri 
question.  The  House  again  passed  the  bill  forbidding  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  Missouri.  The  Senate  struck  out  Mr.  Tallmadge's  amend- 
ment, and  added  to  the  House  bill,  as  a  substitute  for  it,  a  proviso  offered 
by  Mr.  Thomas,  of  Illinois,  that  slavery  should  not  exist  in  any  part  of 
the  Louisiana  Territory  north  of  36  degrees  and  30  minutes  north  lati- 
tude, and  west  of  the  proposed  State  of  Missouri,  or  in  any  State  to  be 
formed  out  of  this  Territory.  The  House  refused  to  accept  the  Senate's 
amendment,  and  in  order  to  adjust  their  differences  a  committee  of  con- 
ference was  appointed  by  the  two  Houses. 

Maine,  whose  admission  we  have  related,  was  an  applicant  for  admis- 
sion into  the  Union  at  this  time,  and  it  was  contended  by  the  south  that 
it  was  unjust  to  admit  her  without  any  restriction  as  to  her  domestic 
institutions,  and  yet  to  impose  upon  Missouri  a  restriction  which  would 
deprive  a  large  part  of  her  population  of  their  property,  and  close  the 
State  against  emigration  from  the  south.  The  result  of  the  committee 
of  conference  was  that  after  long  and  exciting  debates  the  amendment 
offered  by  Mr.  Thomas,  of  Illinois,  was  accepted.  Maine  was  admitted 
as  a  free  State.  It  was  enacted  by  Congress  that  slavery  should  never 
exist  north  of  the  line  of  36  degrees  30  minutes  north  latitude ;  and  that 
Missouri  should  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  State  upon  the 
adoption  of  a  constitution  by  her  people.  This  was  regarded  as  an 
equitable  settlement  of  the  difficulty,  and  the  measure  is  known  as  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  The  act  for  the  admission  of  Maine  received 
the  president's  approval  on  the  3d  of  March,  1820,  and  the  State  was 
admitted  into  the  Union  under  it  on  the  15th  of  March.  The  separate 
act  in  relation  to  Missouri  was  approved  by  the  president  on  the  8th  of 
March,  1820.  Its  title  shows  its  object.  It  was,  "An  act  to  authorize 
the  people  of  Missouri  Territory  to  form  a  constitution  and  State 
government,  and  for  the  admission  of  such  State  into  the  Union  on  an 
equal  footing  with  the  original  States,  and  to  prohibit  slavery  in  certain 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MONROE  AND  J.  Q.  ADAMS.  663 

Territories."  As  we  shall  see  the  State  of  Missouri  was  not  admitted  into 
the  Union  under  the  famous  Missouri  Compromise. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1820,  the  constitution  adopted  by 
Missouri  was  presented  to  that  body.  It  contained  a  clause  which  pre- 
vented free  people  of  color  from  settling  in  the  State.  "This  clause," 
says  Colonel  Benton,  "  was  adopted  for  the  sake  of  peace — for  the  sake 
of  internal  tranquillity — and  to  prevent  the  agitation  of  the  slave  ques- 
tion." *  It  was  objected  to  in  Congress  by  the  party  that  had  previously 
opposed  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State.  This  party  argued 
that  the  constitution  required  that  the  citizens  of  one  State  should  be  en- 
titled to  the  privileges  of  citizens  in  the  other  States;  and  that  as  some 
of  the  States  recognized  free  people  of  color  as  citizens,  this  provision  of 
the  Missouri  constitution  was  in  open  hostility  to  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  since  it  deprived  the  citizens  of  some  of  the  States  of  their 
rights.  The  friends  of  the  compromise  measure  were  astounded,  as  they 
had  supposed  that  it  had  removed  all  obstacles  to  the  admission  of 
Missouri,  which  had  already  exercised  the  privileges  of  a  State  in  electing 
senators  and  representatives  to  Congress,  and  in  taking  part  in  the  presi- 
dential election  of  1820.  The  subject  was  reopened  in  Congress  in  all 
its  bitterness,  and  the  country  again  plunged  into  profound  agitation. 

At  this  juncture  Henry  Clay  exerted  himself  with  great  energy  to 
bring  about  a  settlement  of  the  dispute.  He  induced  the  House  to  com- 
mit the  matter  to  a  committee  of  thirteen,  of  which  he  was  made  chair- 
man. This  committee  advised  the  admission  of  Missouri  upon  the  con- 
dition that  the  obnoxious  clause  in  her  constitution  should  be  withdrawn 
and  that  her  legislature  should  pass  no  law  violative  of  the  rights  of 
citizens  of  other  States.  Mr.  Clay  supposed  that  as  this  recommendation 
amply  met  the  objection  to  the  admission  of  Missouri,  it  would  remove 
the  last  obstacle  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  object.  To  his  astonish- 
ment it  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  eighty  for  it  and  eighty-three  against 
it.  The  struggle  now  became  more  bitter  than  ever.  The  anti-slavery 
party,  which  had  by  this  time  obtained  a  definite  existence,  were  deter- 
mined that  the  right  of  the  general  government  to  control  the  slavery  ques- 
tion should  be  acknowledged.  The  pro-slavery  party  were  determined 
to  resist  the  exercise  of  that  claim.  Threats  were  freely  indulged  tc  de- 
stroy the  Union  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  States.  Mr.  Clay,  undaunted 
by  his  failure,  renewed  his  patriotic  efforts  to  bring  about  a  settlement  of 
the  dispute,  and  at  length  secured  the  passage  of  measures  substantially 
the  same  as  those  advised  by  his  first  committee.  The  act  of  Congress 
for  this  purpose  was  approved  by  the  president  on  the  2d  of  March,  1821. 

* Benton's  Thirty  Yenrif  View,  vol.  i.,  p.  8. 


654  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  Missouri  legislature  on  the  26th  of  June  expunged  the  obnoxious 
article  from  the  constitution  of  the  State,  and  on  the  10th  of  August  the 
president  issuad  his  proclamation  admitting  Missouri  into  the  Union.* 

The  slavery  question  was  quieted  for  a  time  by  the  admission  of  Mis- 
souri, but  it  was  not  settled.  We  shall  encounter  it  again  and  again  in 
the  remaining  chapters  of  this  work. 

In  1820  the  fourth  census  of  the  United  States  placed  the  population 
of  the  republic  at  9,638,191  souls. 

In  the  fall  of  1820  Mr.  Monroe  and  Governor  Tompkins  were  re- 
elected  president  and  vice-president  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Monroe 
received  at  the  polls  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  every  State  in  the  Union, 
and  every  electoral  vote  but  one,  which  was  one  in  the  college  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  was  cast  for  John  Quincy  Adams.  Mr.  Monroe  entered 
upon  his  second  term  on  the  4th  of  March,  1821. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  slavery  question  was  that  of  the  tariff,  or 
the  imposition  of  a  protective  duty  in  favor  of  home  manufactures.  In 

his  inaugural  address  the  president 
had  recommended  the  imposition  of 
such  a  system  of  duties.  During 
the  war  the  non-intercourse  laws  of 
Congress  and  the  rigid  blockade 
maintained  by  the  British  fleet  en- 
tirely cut  the  United  States  off  from 

COAT  OF  ARMS  OF  MISSOURI.  •     1    •  -11 

commercial  intercourse  with  the  rest 

of  the  world,  and  compelled  the  States  to  depend  upon  their  own  exertions 
for  the  supply  of  their  wants.  During  this  period  numerous  manufacturing 
enterprises  had  sprung  up,  especially  in  New  England,  where  capital  wr,s 
idle,  and  labor  abundant.  At  the  close  of  the  war  the  country  was  flooded 
with  European  goods,  which  were  sold  at  reduced  prices  for  the  especial 
purpose  of  ruining  American  manufactures.  In  their  weak  and  helpless 
condition  the  American  enterprises  could  not  endure  this  competition,  and 

*  "A  general  idea  prevails  very  extensively  that  Missouri  was  admitted  as  a  slave  State 
Jn  1820,  under  an  agreement  with  the  Restrictionists,  or  Centralists,  proposed  by  Mr.  Clay, 
tliat  she  should  be  so  admitted  upon  condition  that  negro  slavery  should  be  forever  pro- 
hibited in  the  public  domain  north  of  36  degrees  30  minutes  north  latitude.  No  great*  r 
error  on  any  important  historical  event  ever  existed.  The  truth  is,  Mr.  Clay  was  not  tl.- 
author  of  the  territorial  line  of  3">  degrees  30  minutes,  incorporated  in  the  act  of  1821, 
nor  was  Missouri  admitted  under  the  provisions  of  that  act.  On  the  contrary,  she  was  ad- 
mitted on  the  10th  of  August,  1821,  by  presidential  proclamation,  upon  the  'Fundamental 
Condition,'  in  substance,  that  the  State  government,  in  all  its  departments,  should  be  sub- 
ject to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  all  the  State  governments  were,  and  are." 
~A  Compendium  of  the  History  of  the  United  State*.  By  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens, 
p.  329. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MONROE  AND  J.  y.  ADAMS.  655 

the  tariff  was  proposed  as  the  only  means  of  saving  them  from  ruin.  The 
first  measure  of  this  kind  was  passed  by  Congress  in  1^16,  and  was  op- 
posed by  the  New  England  States,  which  were  then  largely  engaged  in 
commerce,  and  was  supported  by  the  south.  In  1820  the  tariff  was  re- 
vised. The  New  England  States,  which  had  directed  the  chief  efforts  to 
manufactures  since  1816,  had  felt  the  beneficial  effects  of  protective  duties, 
and  now  became  the  warm  supporters  of  the  tariff.  The  south  being  an 
agricultural  section  had  found  that  its  interests  demanded  free  trade,  had 
changed  its  position  and  resolutely  opposed  the  tariff.  In  spite  of  the 
opposition  to  the  measure,  however,  the  duties  were  increased  in  the  tariff 
of  1820. 

For  some  years  past  Mexico  and  the  States  of  South  America  formerly 
held  by  Spain  as  provinces  had  been  struggling  to  achieve  their  independ- 
ence of  the  mother  country.  Henry  Clay  had  exerted  himself  with  en- 
thusiasm to  obtain  from  Congress  a  recognition  of  their  independence,  but 
such  a  step  had  been  considered  premature.  In  March,  1822,  however, 
his  efforts  were  crowned  with  success,  and  a  bill  was  passed  by  Congress, 
in  accordance  with  the  recommendation  of  the  president,  recognizing  the 
independence  of  Mexico  and  the  South  American  republics,  and  providing 
for  the  establishment  of  diplomatic  relations  with  them.  The  next  year 
President  Monroe  declared  in  a  message  to  Congress  that,  "as  a  principle, 
the  American  continents,  by  the  free  and  independent  position  they  have 
assumed  and  maintained,  are  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  as  subjects 
for  future  colonization  by  any  European  power."  This  claim  that 
America  belongs  to  republicanism,  and  is  not  to  be  the  scene  of  European 
schemes  for  territorial  aggrandizement,  has  since  been  known  as  the 
"  Monroe  doctrine,"  and  has  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  cardinal  points 
of  the  policy  of  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

The  last  year  of  Mr.  Monroe's  administration  was  marked  by  an  event 
of  the  deepest  interest  to  t!_.>  whole  country.  In  1824  the  venerable 
Marquis  de  Lafayette  came  to  the  United  States  at  the  express  invitation 
of  Congress,  to  visit  the  nation  whose  freedom  he  had  helped  to  achieve. 
He  reached  New  York  on  the  13th  of  August,  and  was  received  with 
enthusiasm.  He  travelled  through  all  the  States,  and  was  everywhere  re- 
ceived with  demonstrations  of  respect  and  affection,  and  ho  was  given 
abundant  evidence  in  all  parts  of  the  country  that  the  nation  cherished 
vith  love  and  pride  the  memory  of  the  generous  stranger  who  came  to 
its  aid  in  its  darkest  hour  of  trial.  Returning  to  Washington  during  the 
s  -ssion  of  Congress,  Lafayette  s-x'nt  several  weeks  there.  Congress,  as  a 
t-)!;en  of  the  gratitude  of  the  nu;io:i  for  his  services,  voted  him  a  township 
r/T  land,  and  the  sum  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  frigate 


650 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


\ 

"  Brandywine,"  just  finished,  was  appointed  to  convey  him  back  to 
France — a  delicate  compliment,  as  the  vessel  was  named  after  the  stream 
on  whose  banks  Lafayette  fought  his  first  battle,  and  was  wounded,  in 
the  cause  of  American  independence.  At  the  time  of  his  visit  to  the 
United  States  Lafayette  was  nearly  seventy  years  old. 

In  the  fall  of  1824  the  presidential  election  was  held  amid  great 
political  excitement.  The  "  era  of  good  feeling  "  was  at  an  end,  and 
party  spirit  ran  high.  There  were  four  candidates  in  the  field,  Mr. 
Monroe  having  declined  a  third  term ;  Andrew  Jackson,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  William  H.  Crawford,  and  Henry  Clay.  None  of  these  received 
a  popular  majority,  and  the  election  was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  Congress,  and  resulted  in  the  choice  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  as  President  of  the  United  States.  John  C. 

Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  had  been  chosen 
Vice-President  by  the  popular  vote. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1825,  John  Quincy 
Adams  was  inaugurated  President  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  the  son  of  John 
Adams,  the  second  president  of  the  republic, 
and  was  in  his  fifty-eighth  year.  He  was  a 
man  of  great  natural  ability,  of  strong  per- 
sonal character,  and  of  unbending  integrity. 
He  had  been  carefully  educated,  and  was 
one  of  the  most  learned  men  in  the  Union. 
Apart  from  his  general  education  he  had 
received  a  special  training  in  statesmanship. 
He  had  served  as  minister  to  the  Nether- 
lands, and  in  the  same  capacity  at  the  courts 

of  Portugal,  Prussia,  Russia,  and  England,  where  he  had  maintained  a 
high  reputation.  He  had  represented  the  State  of  Massachusetts  in  the 
Federal  Senate,  and  had  been  secretary  of  state,  in  the  cabinet  of  Mr 
Monroe,  during  the  last  administration.  He  was,  therefore,  thoroughly 
qualified  for  the  duties  of  the  high  office  upon  which  he  now  entered. 
He  called  to  his  cabinet  men  of  marked  ability,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  Henry  Clay,  who  became  secretary  of  state.  The  administration  of 
Mr.  Adams  was  one  of  remarkable  prosperity.  The  country  was  grow- 
ing wealthier  by  the  rapid  increase  of  its  agriculture,  manufactures,  ami 
commerce;  and  abroad  it  commanded  the  respect  of  the  world.  Still 
party  spirit  raged  with  great  violence  during  the  whole  of  this  period. 

The  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  by  Eli  Whitney,  in  1793,  by  which 
the  seed  was  separatee?  from  the  cottoa  had  so  cheapened  the  cost  of  pro- 


JOHN  QXJINCY  ADAMS. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MONROE  AND  J.  Q.  ADAMS.  Qft 

ducing  that  great  staple,  that  it  had  become  the  principal  article  of 
export  from  the  United  States,  and  a  source  of  great  and  growing  wealth 
to  the  whole  country. 

Several  important  undertakings  were  prosecuted  with  vigor,  or  were 
completed  during  Mr.  Adams'  term  of  office.  The  National  Road,  a 
splendidly  constructed  highway,  built  by  the  general  government,  from' 
Cumberland,  Maryland,  across  the  mountains,  was  completed  to  Wheel- 
ing, on  the  Ohio,  in  1820,  and  was  carried  beyond  that  stream  during 
Mr.  Adams'  administration,  the  design  being  to  extend  it  to  the  Missis- 
sippi. It  furnished  a  broad  and  well-built  thoroughfare  between  the 
seaboard  and  the  west,  and  exerted  a  marked  influence  upon  the  internal 
trade  of  the  country.  The  road  from  Cumberland  to  Wheeling  cost 
$1,700,000. 

The  Erie  canal,  extending  from  Buffalo  on  Lake  Erie  to  the  Hudson 
at  Albany,  was  projected  by  De  Witt  Clinton.  The  plan  \vas  at  first 
pronounced  impracticable,  but  Clinton  succeeded  in  inducing  the  State  a*" 
New  York  to  undertake  the  scheme,  and  in  1825  the  great  work  was 
completed,  and  the  waters  of  the  lakes  and  the  Hudson  were  united. 
The  .completion  of  this  canal  secured  to  the  city  of  New  York  the  con- 
trol of  the  western  trade,  and  added  to  its  wealth  and  importance  in  a 
marked  degree. 

Steam  had  been  for  some  years  in  use  as  the  motive  power  in  the  navi- 
gation of  the  rivers  of  the  Union,  and  it  now  began  to  be  applied  to 
purposes  of  land  transportation.  The  first  railroad  in  this  country  was  a 
mere  tramway,  for  the  transportation  of  granite  from  the  quarries  at 
Quincy  to  the  Neponsett  river,  in  Massachusetts,  and  was  constructed  in 
the  year  1826.  This  was  followed  by  the  Mauch  Chunk  railway,  from 
the  coal  mines  to  the  Lehigh  river,  in  Pennsylvania,  in  1827.  These 
were  merely  local  works,  and  of  but  little  importance,  except  in  so  far  as 
they  helped  to  demonstrate  to  the  public  mind  the  possibility  and  the 
usefulness  of  such  enterprises  upon  a  larger  scale.  Charters  for  roads  of 
more  importance  were  soon  obtained  in  several  of  the  States.  In  1828 
work  was  begun  on  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad,  and  in  1829  on  the 
South  Carolina  railroad.  In  the  year  1827  there  were  three  miles  of 
railroad  in  operation  in  the  United  States.  In  1875  the  number  of  miles 
in  operation  is  a  little  over  seventy  thousand. 

For  some  time  previous  to  the  entrance  of  Mr.  Adams  upon  office, 
Georgia  had  been  involved  in  a  dispute  with  the  general  government  and 
with  the  Creek  Indians-  concerning  the  lands  of  the  latter,  which  th? 
United  States  had  agreed  to  purchase  for  the  benefit  of  Georgia.  Twenty- 
five  years  passed  after  the  promise  was  made,  and  the  lands  remained 
42 


658  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

unpurchased  because  the  Indians  Avould  not  sell  them.  A  treaty  was 
finally  made  in  1825  by  which  some  of  the  chiefs  ceded  to  the  general 
government  the  lands  in  question.  The  majority  of  the  Indians  declared 
the  chiefs  had  no  authority  to  enter  into  this  treaty,  and  called  upon  the 
United  States  to  repudiate  it.  It  was  cancelled  by  the  general  govei-n- 
ment,  but  the  State  of  Georgia  determined  to  enforce  it.  The  general 
government  took  the  side  of  the  Indians,  and  for  a  while  it  seemed  that 
an  open  conflict  would  ensue  between  the  State  and  federal  authorities. 
The  matter  was  settled  by  the  Creeks  consenting  to  sell  their  lands  and  to 
accept  new  homes  in  the  west.  The  Indian  lands  were  purchased  by  the 
United  States,  and  the  Creeks  emigrated  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1826,  died,  within  a  few  hours  of  each  other,  two 
ex-presidents  of  the  republic :  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson  ;  the 
latter  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  former  its 
most  efficient  supporter.  Mr.  Adams  died  at  his  home  at  Quincy,  Mas- 
sachusetts, at  the  ripe  old  age  of  ninety  years ;  Mr.  Jeiferson  at  Monti- 
cello,  his  beautiful  Virginian  home,  at  the  age  of  eighty-two.  Both  had 
filled  the  highest  stations  in  the  republic,  and  both  had  lived  to  see  the 
country  they  loved  take  rank  among  the  first  nations  of  the  globe.  They 
died  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  American  independence. 

In  the  year  1826  a  new  party  made  its  appearance  in  our  politics.  A 
man  named  William  Morgan,  residing  in  the  western  part  of  New  York, 
published  a  book  purporting  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  the  order  of  Free- 
masons. He  suddenly  disappeared,  and  it  was  charged  that  he  had  been 
seized  and  murdered  by  the  Freemasons  in  revenge  for  his  exposures. 
The  affair  caused  great  excitement  in  the  Northern  and  some  of  the 
Western  States,  and  gave  rise  to  a  political  party  known  as  the  Anti- 
Masons,  whose  avowed  object  was  the  exclusion  of  Masons  from  office, 
It  acquired  considerable  strength  in  some  of  the  States,  but  in  a  few  year& 
died  out. 

The  tariff  question  now  engaged  the  attention  of  the  country  once 
more.  The  manufacturing  interests  were  still  struggling  against  foreign 
competition,  and  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States 
that  the  general  government  should  protect  them  by  the  imposition  of 
high  duties  upon  products  of  foreign  countries  imported  into  the  Union. 
The  south  was  almost  a  unit  in  its  opposition  to  a  high  tariff.  Being,  as 
we  have  said,  an  agricultural  section,  its  interests  demanded  a  free 
market,  and  it  wished  to  avail  itself  of  the  privilege  of  purchasing  where 
it  could  buy  cheapest.  The  south  and  the  west  were  the  markets  of  the 
east,  and  the  interests  of  that  section  demanded  the  exclusion  of  foreign 
competition  in  supplying  these  markets. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  MONROE  AND  J.  Q.  ADAMS. 


659 


In  July,  1827,  a  convention  of  manufacturers  was  held  at  Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania,  and  a  memorial  was  adopted  praying  Congress  to  increase 
the  duties  on  foreign  goods  to  an  extent  which  \vould  protect  American 
industry.  When  Congress  met  in  December,  1827,  the  protective  policy 
\vtis  the  most  important  topic  of  the  day.  It  was  warmly  discussed  in 
Congress  and  throughout  the  country.  The  interests  of  New  England 
were  championed  by  the  matchless  eloquence  of  Daniel  Webster,  who 
claimed  that  as  the  adoption  of  the  protective  policy  by  the  government 
had  forced  New  England  to  turn  her  energies  to 
manufacturers,  the  government  was  bound  to  pro- 
tect her  against  competition.  The  southern  rep- 
resentatives argued  that  a  protective  tariff  was 
unconstitutional,  and  was  injurious  in  its  operations 
to  the  interests  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States, 
who,  being  producers  of  staples  for  export,  ought  to 
have  liberty  to  purchase  such  articles  as  they  needed 
wherever  they  could  find  them  cheapest.  They  de- 
clared that  "  duties  under  the  protective  policy  were 
not  only  bounties  to  manufacturers,  but  a  heavy  tax 
levied  upon  their  constituents  and  a  great  majority  of  the  consumers  in 
all  the  States,  which  never  went  into  the  public  treasury."  The  tariff 
bill  was  passed  by  the  House  on  the  15th  of  April,  1828,  and  was 
approved  by  the  president  a  little  later.  It  was  termed  by  its  oppo- 
nents the  "Bill  of  Abominations." 

In  the  midst  of  this  excitement  the  presidential  election  occurred.  Mr. 
Adams  was  a  candidate  for  re-election,  but  was  overwhelmingly  defeated 
by  Andrew  Jackson,  of  Tennessee.  John  C.  Calhoun  was  chosen  Vice- 
President.  The  election  of  Jackson  was  regarded  as  a  popular  condem- 
nation of  the  protective  policy  of  the  government. 


DANIEL   WEBSTEB. 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

THE   ADMINISTRATIONS   OF   ANDREW   JACKSON   AND   MARTIN 
VAN    BUREN. 

Character  of  Andrew  Jackson — Indian  Policy  of  this  Administration — The  President 
Vetoes  the  Bill  to  Renew  the  Charter  of  the  United  States  Bank — Debate  between 
llayne  and  Webster — Jackson's  Quarrel  with  Calhoun — D^ath  A  ex-President  Monroe 
—The  Cholera— Black  Hawk's  War— Re-elec  ion  of  President  Jackson— The  Tariff-. 
Action  of  South  Carolina — The  Nullification  Ordinance — Firmness  of  the  President — 
The  Matter  settled  by  Compromise — Patriotism  of  Henry  Clay — The  Removal  of  the 
Deposits — The  Seminole  War  begun — Great  Fire  in  New  York  —  Settlement  of  the 
French  Claims — Arkansas  admitted  into  the  Union — The  National  Debt  Paid — Death 
of  ex- President  Madison — Martin  Van  Buren  elected  President — Michigan  admitted 
into  the  Union — The  Panic  of  1837 — Causes  of  it — Suspension  of  Specie  Payments — 
Great  Distress  throughout  the  Union — The  Sub-Treasury — Repudiation  of  State  Debts 
— The  Canadian  Rebellion — The  President's  Course — The  Seminole  War  ended — The 
Anti-Slavery  Party  —  Resolutions  of  Congress  respecting  Slavery — William  Henry 
Harrison  elected  President — The  Sixth  Census. 

NDREW  JACKSON,  the  seventh  president  of  the  United  States. 
was  inaugurated  at  Washington,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1829. 

President  Jackson  was  in  many  respects  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable men  of  his  day.  He  was  of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  and 
was  born  in  North  Carolina  during  the  controversy  between  the 
colonies  and  Great  Britain,  which  preceded  the  revolution.  He  was  left 
fatherless  at  an  early  age,  and  his  youth  was  passed  amid  the  stirring 
scenes  of  the  war  for  independence.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  began  his 
career  by  taking  part  in  the  fight  at  Hanging  Rock,  under  General 
Sumter.  The  home  of  the  Jacksons  was  broken  up  and  pillaged  by  the 
Tories,  and  the  mother  and  her  two  sons  became  wanderers.  The  sons 
were  shortly  after  made  prisoners  by  the  Tories,  and  the  day  after  his 
capture  Andrew  Jackson  was  ordered  by  a  British  officer  to  clean  his 
boots.  He  indignantly  refused,  and  the  officer  struck  him  with  the  flat 
of  his  sword.  The  boys  were  at  length  exchanged  through  the  exertions 
of  their  mother.  Both  had  contracted  the  small-pox  during  their  cap- 
tivity, and  the  elder  son  soon  died  of  his  disease.  Not  long  afterwards 
Mrs.  Jackson,  with  some  other  ladies,  went  to  Charleston  to  minister  to 
the  wants  of  the  American  prisoners  of  war  confined  there  by  the  British 
660 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND   VAN  BUREN. 


661 


A  fever  was  raging  among  these  unfortunates  at  the  time,  and  Mrs.  Jack- 
son was  soon  numbered  among  its  victims.  Thus,  at  the  age  of  fifteen, 
Andrew  Jackson  was  left  alone  in  the  world  without  a  relative.  Though 
young  in  years,  he  had  been  greatly  matured  in  character  by  his  trials. 
Even  at  this  early  age  he  was  generous  to  a  fault  to  his  friends,  and 
immovable  in  his  resolutions  when  once  formed. 

A  few  years  later  he  removed  to  Tennessee,  then  a  Territory,  and  upon 
the  admission  of  the  State  into  the  Union  was  elected  as  her  first  repre- 
sentative in  Congress.  His  services  during  the  war  of  1812-15  have- 
been  related.  His  brilliant  victory  over  the  British  at  New  Orleans 
made  him  one  of  the  most  noted  men  of  the  day,  and  his  prompt  and 
decisive  measures  against  the  Spaniards  in  Florida  during  Mr.  Monroe's 
administration  greatly  added  to  his  reputation. 

During  the  administration  of  John  Adams  General  Jackson  occupied 
a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and 
gave  a  cordial  support  to  the  principles  of 
Mr.  Jefferson.  Resigning  his  seat  in  the 
Senate  before  the  close  of  his  term,  he 
was  elected  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
supreme  court  of  Tennessee. 

The  election  of  General  Jackson  to  the 
presidency  was  regarded  with  some  anxiety, 
for  though  his  merits  as  a  soldier  were 
conceded,  it  was  feared  by  many  that  his 
known  imperiousness  of  will  and  his  in- 
flexibility of  purpose  would  seriously  dis- 
qualify him  for  the  delicate  duties  of  the 
presidency.  Nature  had  made  him  a  ruler, 

however,  and  his  administration  was  marked  by  the  fearless  energy  that 
characterized  every  act  of  his  life,  and  was  on  the  whole  successful  and 
satisfactory  to  the  great  majority  of  his  countrymen. 

General  Jackson  began  his  administration  by  appointing  a  new  cabinet, 
at  the  head  of  which  he  placed  Martin  Van  Buren,  of  New  York,  as 
secretary  of  state.  Until  now  the  postmaster-general  had  not  been 
regarded  as  a  cabinet  officer.  General  Jackson  now  invited  that  officer 
to  a  seat  in  his  cabinet  and  a  share  in  its  deliberations,  and  his  course  has 
since  been  pursued  by  each  and  all  of  his  successors. 

The  first  important  act  of  the  new  president  was  to  recommend  to 
Congress  the  removal  of  all  the  Indian  tribes  remaining  east  of  the 
Mississippi  to  new  homes  west  of  that  stream.  Such  a  measure,  he  con- 
tended, would  give  to  them  a  broader  range,  and  one  more  suited  to  thei- 


AN  DUE  W   JACKSON. 


662 


OF  THE  UNITEP  STATES. 


wants  and  would  relieve  the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  from  all 
further  apprehension  of  Indian  wars.  This  removal  involved  consider- 
able loss  and  hardship  to  the  Creeks  in  Georgia,  who  had  made  an 
encouraging  advance  in  civilization.  A  bill  was  passed  by  the  Twenty- 
first  Congress  in  May,  1830,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  this  policy  into 
effect  •  but  the  removal  of  the  Indians  was  not  completed  for  some  years 
afterwards. 

In  his  first  annual  message  to  Congress,  in  1829,  the  president  took 
strong  ground  against  the  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the 


STATE-HOUSE,   AT   RALEIGH,   NORTH   CAROLINA. 

United  States,  which  was  about  to  expire.  This  was  a  bold  step,  as  the 
bank  was  the  most  powerful  institution  in  the  United  States,  and  had 
warm  friends  in  every  part  of  the  country.  The  stockholders  of  the 
bank  applied  to  the  Twenty-second  Congress  during  its  first  session, 
which  began  in  December,  1831,  for  a  renewal  of  their  charter,  and  in 
the  late  spring  of  1832  a  bill  renewing'  this  charter  was  passed  by  both 
Houses  of  Congress.  The  president  refused  to  sign  the  bill,  and  returned 
it  to  Congress  with  his  objections.  He  held  that  Congress  had  no  con- 
stitutional power  to  charter  such  a  bank,  and  regarded  it  as  inexpedient 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND  VAN  BUREN.          6G3 

to  continue  its  existence.  An  effort  was  made  by  the  friends  of  the  bill 
to  pass  it  over  the  president's  veto,  but  it  failed  to  obtain  the  necessary 
two-thirds  vote,  and  consequently  did  not  become  a  law.  The  bank  was 
therefore  obliged  to  suspend  its  operations  at  the  expiration  of  its  charter 
in  183G. 

In  1830  Senator  Foot,  of  Connecticut,  submitted  a  resolution  of 
inquiry  to  the  Senate  concerning  the  disposal  of  the  public  lands.  The 
debate  upon  the  resolution  extended  far  beyond  the  subject  embraced  in 
that  document,  and  in  the  course  of  it  Senator  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  of 


STATE-HOUSE,   CONCOKO,    NEW    HAMPSHIRE. 

South  Carolina,  a  brilliant  orator,  declared  that  any  State  had  the  right, 
in  the  exercise  of  its  sovereign  power,  to  declare  null  and  void  any  act  of 
Congress  which  it  should  consider  unconstitutional.  This  was  a  plain 
statement  of  the  doctrine  that  the  Union  was  simply  a  compact  between 
the  States,  from  which  any  of  the  States  could  secede  at  pleasure,  and  it 
was  the  first  time  such  a  sentiment  had  been  expressed  on  the  floor  of 
Congress.  Mr.  Webster,  of  Massachusetts,  replied  to  Mr.  Hay  no,  in  an 
oration  of  .superb  eloquence.  He  denied  the  doctrine  that  the  Union  was 
a  compact  of  sovereign,  independent  States,  from  which  any  one  of  them 


B84 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


could  withdraw  at  pleasure;  and  argued  that  the  constitution  was  the 
work  of  the  people  themselves,  not  as  separate  States,  but  as  members  of 
a  great  nation,  and  was  designed  to  make  the  Union  perpetual ;  that  the 
controversies  between  the  States  and  tlje  general  government  were  to  be 
decided  by  the  supreme  court,  the  tribunal  created  for  that  purpose  by 
the  constitution,  and  not  by  the  States  themselves;  and  that  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  a  State  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  was 
treason.  The  debate  adied  greatly  to  the  fame  of  both  senators,  and  the 
sentiments  of  Mr.  Webster  were  unanimously  re-echoed  by  the  north,  and 


SCENE  IN   THE  MAMMOTH   CAVE,   KENTUCKY. 

by  a  large  majority  at  the  south.  The  effect  of  the  debate  was  to  direct 
the  attention  of  the  people  to  a  study  of  the  principles  of  the  constitution 
Different  views  were  maintained.  The  Northern  and  Western  States 
regarded  the  Union  as  indissoluble,  while  the  Southern  States  held  that 
it  was  a  compact  of  sovereign  States,  and  that  any  State  could  withdraw 
from  the  Union  for  just  cause. 

During  the  session  of  the  Twenty-first  Congress  a  breach  occurred 
between  President  Jackson  and  Mr.  Calhoun,  the  vice-president.  The 
former  wras  told  for  the  first  time  that  Mr.  Calhoun,  while  a  member  of 


ADMiyrSTRATlOSS  Of  JACKSON  AN!    VAX  BUREN.  fc. 

Mr.  Monroe's  cabinet,  had  endeavored  to  prevent  the  government  from 
sustaining  him  in  his  invasion  of  Florida  in  1818.  General  Jackson 
deeply  resented  this,  and  the  breach  between  himself  and  Mr.  Calhoun 
widened  daily.  Shortly  afterwards  Mr.  Calhoun  resigned  the  vice-presi- 
dency, and  was  elected  to  the  Senate  by  the  legislature  of  South  Carolina 
in  1831.  In  the  same  year  Mr.  Clay  was  elected  to  the  Senate  from 
Kentucky. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1831,  ex-President  Monroe  died  in  New  York,  in 
the  74th  year  of  his  age. 

In  June,  1832,  the  Asiatic  cholera  made  its  first  appearance  in  the 
United  States,  and  swept  with  fearful  rapidity  over  the  whole  country. 
Thousands  of  persons  of  all  ages  and  conditions  died  of  it  within  a  few 
mouths,  and  a  feeling  of  general  terror  pervaded  the  country.  Its  prin- 


GENERAL   ATKINSON'S   DEFEAT   OP   BLACK   HAWK. 

clpal  ravages  occurred  in  the  Northern  States  and  in  the  valley  of  th? 
Mississippi. 

In  the  spring  of  1832  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  and  some  other  tribes  of 
Indians,  inhabiting  the  region  now  known  as  Wisconsin,  made  incursions 
against  the  frontier  settlements  of  Illinois.  General  Atkinson  was  sent 
by  the  general  government  with  a  force  of  troops  to  crush  them,  and 
with  the  assistance  of  the  militia,  after  a  series  of  skirmishes,  drove  them 
beyond  the  Mississippi.  Black  Hawk,  a  chief  of  the  Sac  nation,  and  the 
leader  of  the  movement,  was  taken  prisoner.  He  was  kindly  treated,  and 
to  impress  him  with  the  folly  of  attacking  a  great  nation,  he  was  taken 
to  Washington,  and  then  to  the  principal  eastern  cities,  that  he  might  see 
for  himself  the  power  of  the  whites. 

Early  in  1831  General  Jackson  was  nominated  for  a  re-election  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

legislature  of  Pennsylvania.  The  presidential  election 
-•fall  of  1832.  General  Jackson  was  supported  by  the 
^o  party,  and  Mr.  Clay  by  the  Whigs,  for  the  presidency.  The 
Cutest  was  marked  by  intense  bitterness,  for  Jackson's  veto  of  the 
charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  his  other  vetoes  of  public  im- 
provement bills,  and  his  attitude  in  the  "  Nullification "  controversy 
between  the  United  States  and  South  Carolina,  had  created  a  powerful 
opposition  to  him  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  In  spite  of  this  opposition 
he  was  re-elected  by  a  triumphant  majority,  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  of 
New  York,  the  Democratic  nominee,  was  chosen  vice-president. 

In  the  meantime  serious  trouble  had  arisen  between  the  general  gov- 
ernment and  the  State  of  South  Carolina.  During  the  year  1832  the 
tariff  was  revised  by  Congress,  and  that  body,  instead  of  diminishing  the 
duties,  increased  many  of  them.  This  action  gave  great  offence  to  the 
Southern  States,  which  regarded  the  denial  of  free  trade  as  a  great  wrong 
to  them.  They  were  willing  to  submit  to  a  tariff  sufficient  for  a  revenue, 
but  were  utterly  opposed  to  a  protective  tariff  for  the  reasons  we  have 
already  stated.  The  States  of  Virginia,  Georgia,  and  South  Carolina 
were  the  most  energetic  in  their  opposition  to  the  measure,  but  the  first 
two,  upon  its  passage,  submitted  to  it,  hoping  to  carry  out  their  wishes 
by  constitutional  means  at  some  future  time. 

The  State  of  South  Carolina,  holding  the  views  advocated  by  Mr. 
Haync  in  the  Senate,  in  his  debate  with  Mr.  Webster,  resolved  to  "  nul- 
lify "  the  law  within  its  own  limits.  A  convention  of  the  people  of  the 
State  was  held,  which  adopted  a  measure  known  as  the  "  Nullification 
Ordinance."  This  ordinance  declared  that  the  tariff  act  of  1832,  being 
based  upon  the  principle  of  protection,  and  not  upon  the  principle  of 
raising  revenue,  was  unconstitutional,  and  was  therefore  null  and  void. 
Provision  was  made  by  another  clause  for  testing  the  constitutionality  of 
the  law  before  the  courts  of  the  State.  The  State  assumed  the  right  to 
forbid  the  collection  of  the  duties  imposed  by  the  tariff  within  its  limits ; 
and  if  the  general  government  should  resist  the  course  of  the  State  by 
force,  the  State  of  South  Carolina  was  declared  to  be  no  longer  a  member 
of  the  Union.  This  ordinance  was  to  take  effect  on  the  12th  of  February. 
1833,  unless  in  the  meantime  the  general  government  should  abandon  its 
policy  of  protection  and  return  to  a  tariff  for  revenue  only. 

Matters  had  reached  this  state  when  the  presidential  election  occurred 
in  the  fall  of  1832.  The  country  at  large  was  utterly  opposed  to  the 
course  of  South  Carolina,  and  denied  its  right  to  nullify  a  law  of  Con- 
gress, or  to  withdraw  from  the  Union  in  support  of  this  right.  Intense 
excitement  prevailed,  and  the  course  of  the  president  was  watched  with 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND    VAN  BUREN,  OG7 

the  gravest  anxiety.  He  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  protective 
policy ;  but  it  was  generally  believed  that  he  was  firm  in  his  intention  to 
enforce  the  laws,  however  he  might  disapprove  of  them. 

Congress  met  in  December,  1832,  and  in  his  annual  message  President 
Jackson  urged  upon  that  body  a  reduction  of  the  tariff.  The  message 
gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  opponents  of  the  tariff.  A  few  days  later 
the  president  issued  a  proclamation  against  nullification,  moderate  in  lan- 
guage, but  firm  in  tone.  He  expressed  his  opinion  that  the  course  of 
South  Carolina  was  unlawful  and  wrong,  and  intimated  that  he  would 
exert  the  power  intrusted  to  him  to  compel  obedience  to  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  Union.  He  appealed  to  the  people  of  South  Carolina 
not  to  persist  in  the  enforcement  of  their  ordinance,  as  such  a  course  on 
tlicir  part  must  inevitably  bring  them  in  collision  with  the  forces  of  the 
federal  government ;  and  told  them  plainly  that  any  citizen  of  any  of 
the  States  who  should  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States  in  such  a 
conflict  would  be  guilty  of  treason  against  the  United 
States.  Referring  to  the  action  of  the  convention,  he 
said :  "  This  ordinance  is  founded,  not  on  the  inde- 
feasible right  of  resisting  acts  which  are  plainly  un- 
constitutional, and  too  oppressive  to  be  endured ;  but 
on  the  strange  position  that  any  one  State  may  not 
only  declare  an  act  of  Congress  void,  but  prohibit 
its  execution ;  that  they  may  do  this  consistently 
with  the  constitution ;  that  the  true  construction  of 
that  instrument  permits  a  State  to  retain  its  place  JOHN  c.  CALUOUN. 
in  the  Union,  and  yet  be  bound  by  no  other  of 
its  laws  than  those  it  may  choose  to  consider  as  constitutional." 

The  leaders  of  the  South  Carolina  movement  were  Governor  Hayne 
and  John  C.  Calhoun,  then  a  senator  of  the  United  States  from  South 
Carolina.  Governor  Hayne  replied  to  the  president  with  a  counter  proc- 
lamation, in  which  he  warned  the  people  of  the  Strte  against  "  the  dan- 
gerous and  pernicious  doctrines"  of  the  president's  proclamation,  and 
called  upon  them  to  disregard  "those  vain  menaces"  of  military  force, 
and  "  to  be  fully  prepared  to  sustain  the  dignity  and  protect  the  liberties 
of  the  State,  if  need  be,  with  their  lives  and  fortunes."  The  State  pre- 
pared to  maintain  its  position  by  force.  Troops  were  organized,  and 
arms  and  military  stores  were  collected. 

The  president,  on  his  part,  took  measures  promptly  to  enforce  the  law. 
He  ordered  a  large  body  of  troops  to  assemble  at  Charleston,  under 
General  Scott,  and  a  ship  of  war  was  sent  to  that  port  to  assist  the  fed- 
eral officers  in  collecting  the  duties  on  imports.  Civil  war  seemed  for  a 


668  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

time  inevitable.  The  president  was  firmly  resolved  to  compel  the  sub- 
mission of  South  Carolina,  and  to  cause  the  arrest  of  Mr.  Calhoun  and 
the  other  leading  nullifiers,  and  bring  them  to  trial  for  treason.  The 
issue  of  such  a  conflict  could  not  be  doubtful. 

Fortunately  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  trouble  was  effected.  Mr. 
Verplanek,  of  New  York,  a  supporter  of  the  administration,  introduced 
a  bill  into  Congress  for  a  reduction  of  the  tariff,  and  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia sent  Benjamin  Watkins  Leigh,  a  distinguished  citizen,  as  commis- 
sioner to  South  Carolina,  to  urge  her  to  suspend  the  execution  of  her 
ordinance  until  March  4th,  as  there  was  a  probability  that  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  the  difficulty  would  be  arranged  before  that  time.  South 
Carolina  consented  to  be  guided  by  this  appeal. 

Henry  Clay,  Avith  his  usual  patriotic  self-sacrifice,  now  came  forward 
in  the  Senate  with  a  compromise  which  he  hoped  would  put  an  end  to 
the  trouble.     He  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  protective  system,  but  he 
was  prepared  to  sacrifice  it  to  the  welfare  of  the 
country.     He  introduced  a  bill  providing  for  the 
gradual  reduction  in  ten  years  of  all  duties  then 
above  the  revenue  standard.      "One-tenth  of  one- 
half  of  all  the  duties  for  protection  above  that  stan- 
dard was  to  be  taken  off  annually  for  ten  years,  at 
the  end  of  which  period  the  whole  of  the  other  half 
\vas  to  be  taken  off,  and  thereafter  all  duties  were 
to  be  levied  mainly  with  a,  view  to  revenue  and  not 
HENRY  CLAY.         *'or  protection."     This  measure  with  some  modifica- 
tions was  adopted  by  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and 
was  approved  by  the  president  on  the  2d  of  March,  1833.     The  people 
of  South  Carolina  rescinded  their  ''Nullification  Ordinance,"  and  the 
trouble  was  brought  to  an  end.* 

It  was  generally  believed  that  the  Union  had  escaped  from  a  grave 
peril.  The  firmness  of  the  president  received  the  approval  of  the  nation, 
except  in  South  Carolina.  The  action  of  that  State  was  generally  con- 
demned, and  the  result  was  looked  upon  as  a  decided  triumph  of  the 
national  authority. 

*  "  Mr.  Clay,  on  this  occasion,"  says  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  "  had  to  break  with 
his  old  political  friends,  while  he  was  offering  up  the  darling  system  of  his  heart  upon  the 
altar  of  his  country,  \7hatever  else  may  be  said  of  him,  no  one  can  deny  that  Henry  Clay 
was  a  patriot — every  incli  of  him — a  patriot  of  the  highest  standard.  It  was  said  that  when 
he  was  importuned  not  to  take  the  course  he  had  resolved  upon,  for  the  reason  amongst 
others  that  it  would  lessen  his  c 'lances  for  the  presidency,  his  reply  was,  'I  would  rather 
be  right  than  be  president.'  This  showed  the  material  he  \v;is  made  of.  It  was  worthy  a 
Marcellus  or  Cato." — The  War  Between  the  States,  vol.  i.,  p.  433. 


ADMIXISTHATIOXS  OF  JACKSON  A^D    VAN  BUREN.  CC9 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1833,  General  Jackson  entered  upon  his  second 
term  of  office.  The  troubles  which  had  disquieted  the  country  had  been 
satisfactorily  settled,  and  the  president  took  advantage  of  the  peaceful 
condition  of  affairs  to  visit  New  York  and  the  New  England  States. 
He  was  received  everywhere  with  enthusiasm. 

Upon  his  return  to  the  capital,  the  president  took  a  step  which  plunged 
the  country  into  great  excitement  once  more.  The  charter  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  made  that  institution  the  legal  depository  of  the 
funds  of  the  United  States.  The  secretary  of  the  treasury,  with  the 
sanction  of  Congress,  alone  had  authority  to  remove  them.  The  president 
was  of  the  opinion  that  the  public  funds  were  not  safe  in  the  keeping  of 
/he  bank,  and  announced  his  intention  to  remove  them  from  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  and  deposit  them  with  certain  State  banks.  The 
majority  of  the  cabinet  were  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury,  William  J.  Duane,  when  ordered  by  the  president  to 
withdraw  the  funds,  refused  to  obey  him,  as  he  considered  the  president's 
course  "  unnecessary,  unwise,  arbitrary,  and  unjust."  He  was  at  once 
removed  from  his  position  by  President  Jackson,  who  appointed  Roger 
B.  Taney,  of  Maryland,  in  his  place.  Mr.  Taney  issued  an  order  to  the 
collectors,  forbidding  them  to  deposit  the  public  moneys  paid  to  them  in 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  As  for  the  funds  already  in  the  possession 
of  the  bank,  it  was  decided  to  withdraw  them  as  they  were  needed  for  the 
payment  of  the  current  expenses  of  the  government.  This  measure  was 
productive  of  great  financial  distress  throughout  the  Union,  which  con- 
tinued for  some  time. 

The  president's  course  also  produced  open  war  between  himself  and 
the  Senate,  in  which  body  he  was  opposed  by  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Web- 
ster, its  foremost  members.  He  was  defended  by  Ben  ton,  of  Missouri, 
and  Forsyth,  of  Georgia,  but  in  spite  of  their  efforts  a  resolution  declar- 
ing the  president's  course  unconstitutional,  and  severely  censuring  him 
for  it,  was  adopted  by  the  Senate.  The  president  remained  firm,  how- 
ever. He  submitted  an  able  protest  against  the  action  of  the  Senate,  and 
by  the  help  of  the  House  of  Representatives  defeated  the  bank  on  every 
po'nt.  The  Senate  subsequently  recognized  the  propriety  of  the  presi- 
dent's action,  and  of  its  own  motion  expunged  the  resolution  of  censure 
from  its  journal. 

In  pursuance  of  its  policy  towards  the  Indians,  the  government 
attempted  in  1835  to  remove  the  Seminoles  from  Florida  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  They  were  unwilling  to  relinquish  their  lands ;  and  under 
the  leadership  of  their  great  chief,  Osceola,  opposed  a  determined  resist- 
ance to  the  efforts  of  the  general  government.  Major  Dade,  with  one 


670 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


hundred  and  seventeen  men,  was  sent  from  Tampa  bay  to  the  assistance 
of  General  Clinch  at  Fort  Drane,  which  was  threatened  by  the  Indians. 
He  was  attacked  on  the  28th  of  December,  1835,  while  on  the  march, 
and  he  and  all  but  four  of  his  men  were  massacred.  On  the  same  day 
another  blow  was  struck  at  Fort  King,  many  miles  away  from  the  scene 
of  this  massacre.  Mr.  Thompson,  the  Indian  commissioner,  and  a  party 
(if  his  friends,  while  dining  outside  of  the  walls  of  the  fort,  were  attacked 
l.y  a  band  of  Semiuoles  led  by  Osceola  hi  person,  and  killed  and  scalped. 


GREAT   FIRE  IN   NEW  YORK. 

General  Clinch  at  once  took  the  field  against  the  savages,  and  on  the  31st 
of  December  defeated  them  at  "Withlacooche,  ninety  miles  north  of 
Tampa  bay.  In  February,  1836,  General  Gaines  won  an  important 
victory  over  the  savages  near  the  same  place. 

The  Creeks  joined  the  Seminoles  in  May,  1836,  and  the  war  spread 
into  Georgia.  The  former  were  soon  crushed  by  the  United  States  troops, 
and  were  sent  west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  Seminoles  continued  the  war, 
and  as  often  as  they  were  defeated  in  the  open  field  would  take  refuge  in 
the  swamps  and  everglades,  where  it  was  difficult  for  the  whites  to  follow 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND   VAN  BUREN.          671 

them,  and  from  which  they  maintained  a  constant  and  effective  warfare 
upon  their  enemies.  Osceola  was  always  ready  to  make  a  treaty,  and 
never  hesitated  to  break  it.  At  last  he  was  conquered  by  his  own  weapon 
of  deceit.  In  October,  1837,  he  came  into  the  American  camp  under  a 
flag  of  truce.  He  was  at  once  seized,  with  all  his  followers,  by  General 
Jessup,  the  American  commander.  Osceola  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to 
Fort  Moultrie,  in  South  Carolina,  where  he  died  of  a  fever.  The  Avar 
went  on  for  several  years  longer. 

The  winter  of  1834-35  was  one  of  the  coldest  ever  known  in  America. 
The  Chesapeake  bay  was  frozen  from  its  head  to  the  Capes,  and  on  the 
8th  of  February,  1835,  the  mercury  stood  at  eight  degrees  below  zero  as 
far  south  as  Charleston.  On  the  4th  of  January  the  mercury  congealed 
at  Lebanon,  New  York.  On  the  night  of  December  16, 1835,  a  fire  broke 
out  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  in  fourteen  hours  consumed  the 
greater  part  of  the  business  portion 
of  the  city,  and  destroyed  over 
$17,000,000  worth  of  property. 

I:\  the  last  years  of  his  adminis- 
tration President  Jackson  brought 
to  a  successful  close  a  vexatious  dis- 
pute  with  France,  which  had  long 
been  a  source  of  annoyance  to  the 

country.  American  merchants  held  claims  to  the  amount  of  $5,000,000 
against  France  for  the  "  unlawful  seizures,  captures,  and  destruction  of 
vessels  and  cargoes"  during  the  wars  of  Napoleon.  The  government  of 
Louis  Philippe  acknowledged  the  justice  of  these  claims,  and  in  1831  a 
treaty  was  negotiated  between  the  United  States  and  France  for  their 
payment.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  refused  three  times  during  as  many 
years  to  appropriate  the  money  for  the  payment  of  these  claims,  and  in 
1834  President  Jackson  ordered  the  United  States  minister  at  Paris  tc 
demand  his  passports,  and  advised  Congress  to  make  reprisals  on  French 
vessels.  This  vigorous  course  brought  France  to  her  senses,  and  at  this 
juncture  Great  Britain  offered  her  mediation  for  the  settlement  of  the 
difficulty.  The  Chamber  of  Deputies  appropriated  the  necessary  sum, 
and  the  American  claims  were  paid  and  the  matter  settled  to  the  sat  ifac- 
tion  of  all  parties. 

Claims  for  similar  seizures  were  brought  against  Spain,  Naples,  and 
Denmark,  and  were  satisfactorily  settled  through  the  firmness  of  the 
president.  Treaties  of  friendship  and  commerce  were  negotiated  with 
Russia  and  Turkey. 

On  the  15th  of  June,  1836,  Arkansas  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as 
a  State. 


672 


111STUUY   OF  THE   UXlTElJ  STA'l'LS. 


One  of  the  most  important  acts  of  General  Jackson's  administration 
was  the  payment  of  the  national  debt.  He  not  only  left  the  nation  free 
from  debt,  but  handed  over  to  his  successor  a  surplus  of  forty  millions 
of  dollars  in  the  national  treasury. 

On  the  28th  of  June,  1836,  ex-President  James  Madison  died  at 
Montpelier,  his  home,  in  Virginia,  in  the  eighty-sixth  year  of  his  age. 

The  presidential  election  was  held  in  the  fall  of  1836.  General  Jack- 
son having  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  a  third  term,  the  Democratic 

party  supported  Martin  Van  Buren 
for  President,  and  Richard  M, 
Johnson,  of  Kentucky,  for  Vice- 
President.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was 
elected  by  a  large  majority ;  but 
the  electors  having  failed  to  make 
a  choice  of  a  candidate  for  vice- 


COAT  OF  ARMS   OF  MICHIGAN. 


president,  that  task  devolved  upon 
the  Senate,  which  elected  Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson  by  a  majority  of 
seventeen  votes. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1837,  Michigan  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
as  a  State,  making  the  twenty-sixth  mem- 
ber of  the  confederacy.  The  original  thir- 
teen States  had  been  doubled  in  number, 
and  the  Union  was  strong  at  home,  and 
respected  abroad. 

At  the  close  of  his  term  General  Jack- 
son retired  from  public  life,  and  passed  the 
remainder  of  his  days  at  his  beautiful 
home,  near  Nashville,  in  Tennessee,  which 
he  had  named  the  "Hermitage."  He  had 
conducted  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
administrations  in  our  history,  and  one 
of  the  most  successful,  and  had  shown 
himself  to  be  an  earnest,  incorruptible, 
and  self-sacrificing  patriot,  and  a  man  of 
unbending  honesty  and  of  extraordinary  energy  and  inflexibility  of 
purpose. 

Martin  Van  Buren,  the  new  president,  entered  upon  the  duties  of  1m 
office  on  the  4th  of  March,  1837.  He  was  in  his  fifty-fifth  year,  and 
had  occupied  many  distinguished  positions  in  public  life.  He  had  repre- 
sented the  State  of  New  York  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and 
had  been  governor  of  that  State.  He  had  been  minister  to  England,  had 


MARTIN   VAN   BUREN. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND   VAN  BUREN. 


673 


been  made  secretary  of  state  at  the  commencement  of  General  Jackson's 
first  term,  and  had  been  elected  vice-president  of  the  United  States  at 
the  period  of  Jackson's  re-election. 

The  extraordinary  prosperity  which  had  prevailed  throughout  the 
nation  during  the  last  year  of  Jackson's  term  came  to  a  sudden  end 
almost  immediately  after  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  For  some 
time  past  a  reckless  spirit  of  speculation  had  engrossed  the  nation,  and 
had  led  to  excessive  banking,  and  the  issuing  of  paper  money  to  an 
extent  far  beyond  the  necessities  of  the  country.  The  State  banks,  with 
which  the  public  funds  had  been  deposited  by  President  Jackson,  sup- 
posed they  would  be  able  to  control  these  funds  for  an  indefinite  period, 


MILWAUKEE,  WISCONSIN,  IN   1875. 

as  the  revenue  of  the  government  was  largely  in  excess  of  its  expenses; 
and  they  made  loans  freely,  and  upon  not  the  best  securities,  in  all  cases. 
Few  of  the  new  banks  which  sprang  into  existence  had  enough  gold  and 
silver  in  their  vaults  to  redeem  the  notes  with  which  they  flooded  the 
country.  Fictitious  values  prevailed  in  every  department  of  trade,  and 
the  banks  vied  with  each  other  in  affording  the  means  for  the  wildest 
speculations. 

In  the  midst  of  this  excitement  two  acts  of  the  general  government 
brought  matters  to  a  crisis.     The  speculation  mania  had  extended  to  the 
public  lands,  and  in  order  to  restrain  it  within  manageable  bounds  Presi- 
dent Jackson  caused  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  to  issue  an  order  to  the 
43 


674  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

collectors  at  the  local  offices  to  receive  only  gold  and  silver  in  payments 
for  land.  This  order  was  generally  known  as  the  "  Specie  Circular."  In 
the  summer  of  1836  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress  requiring  the  president 
to  distribute  among  the  States  the  funds  on  deposit  in  the  banks.  This 
was  an  unexpected  measure  to  the  banks,  and  forced  them  to  call  in  their 
loans  to  meet  the  withdrawal  of  the  government  funds.  The  operations 
of  the  "Specie  Circular"  at  the  same  time  sent  large  quantities  of  their 
notes  back  to  them  to  be  redeemed  in  coin.  This  complication  of  diffi- 
culties brought  them  at  once  to  the  end  of  their  resources,  and  they  were 
rendered  powerless  to  extend  their  usual  facilities  to  their  customers. 
The  result  was  that  the  business  of  the  country  was  thrown  into  a  state 
of  hopeless  confusion,  and  by  the  spring  of  1837  the  failures  in  New 
York  alone  amounted  to  one  hundred  million  dollars.  All  parts  of  the 
country  were  affected  by  the  financial  troubles,  and  in  New  Orleans  the 
failures  amounted  to  twenty-seven  million  dollars. 

Petitions  were  addressed  to  the  president  from  all  parts  of  the  Union, 
praying  him  to  take  some  steps  to  relieve  the  general  distress,  and  in 
May  a  deputation  of  merchants  and  bankers  from  New  York  waited 
upon  President  Van  Buren,  and  urged  him  to  postpone  the  immediate 
collection  of  duties  for  which  merchants  had  given  bonds,  to  withdraw 
the  treasury  orders  requiring  sums  due  the  United  States  to  be  paid  in 
gold  and  silver,  and  to  convene  Congress  in  extra  session  for  the  purpose 
of  devising  measures  of  relief.  The  president  complied  with  their  request 
to  suspend  the  collection  of  duties  for  which  bonds  had  been  given,  but 
declined  to  take  the  other  steps  asked  of  him.  Within  a  few  days  after 
his  answer  was  known  the  banks  of  New  York  suspended  specie  pay- 
ments, and  their  example  was  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  banks 
throughout  the  Union. 

The  distress  of  the  country  was  very  great.  Hundreds  of  thousands 
of  laborers  were  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  business  of  all  kinds 
was  at  a  standstill.  The  government,  which,  a  few  months  before,  had 
been  out  of  debt,  and  in  possession  of  a  surplus  of  forty  millions,  now 
found  itself  unable  to  provide  funds  for  its  ordinary  expenses.  The 
president  was  compelled  to  summon  an  extra  session  of  Congress,  which 
met  on  the  4th  of  September,  1837.  The  president  in  his  message 
attributed  the  embarrassed  condition  of  the  country  to  the  excessive  issues 
of  bank  notes,  the  great  fire  in  New  York  in  1835,  and  the  reckless 
speculations  of  the  people  for  several  years  past.  He  suggested  no  special 
legislation  for  the  relief  of  these  troubles,  as  he  regarded  such  a  course 
as  beyond  the  constitutional  authority  of  the  general  government.  Indeed 
the  government  could  do  but  little  to  restore  public  confidence ;  that  was 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND   VAN  BUREN. 


675 


the  task  of  the  people  themselves,  and  it  was  not  accomplished  for  several 
years.  To  meet  the  necessities  of  the  government,  and  provide  a  legal 
currency,  Congress,  at  the  recommendation  of  the  president,  issued  treas- 
ury notes  to  the  amount  of  ten  millions  of  dollars.  Another  recom- 
mendation of  the  president  did  not  give  such  general  satisfaction.  The 
president  advised  the  creation  of  au  independent  treasury  for  the  public 
funds,  as  a  means  of  avoiding  the  risks  assumed  by  the  government  in 
depositing  its  funds  in  the  banks.  These  treasuries  were  to  be  located  at 
certain  central  points,  and  the  sub-treasurers  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
president,  and  were  to  give  bonds  for  the  proper  fulfilment  of  their 


EASTON,   PENNSYLVANIA. 

duties.  The  president  believed  that  the  adoption  of  this  measure  would 
withdraw  large  sums  of  money  from  active  circulation  and  so  put  a  stop 
to  speculation.  The  bill  for  the  creation  of  the  independent  treasury 
was  warmly  opposed  in  and  out  of  Congress,  as  it  was  feared  by  many 
that  the  withdrawal  of  so  much  gold  and  silver  from  circulation  would 
seriously  injure  the  business  of  the  country.  Mr.  Calhoun  supported 
the  measure  with  all  his  great  abilities,  and  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster 
opposed  it.  The  measure  failed  at  the  extra  session,  but  became  a  law 


676  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

in  1840.     In  1841  it  was  repealed,  and  in  1846  was  re-enacted.     It  is 
still  in  force,  and  its  wisdom  and  usefulness  are  now  generally  admitted. 

The  spirit  of  speculation  had  extended  to  the  State  governments  as  well 
as  to  private  individuals,  and  State  bonds  had  been  issued  to  the  amount 
of  one  hundred  million  dollars.  The  pretext  for  this  excessive  increase 
of  debt  was  the  necessity  of  raising  funds  to  carry  out  their  system  of  in-, 
ternal  improvements.  The  panic  involved  the  States  in  its  effects,  and 
eight  of  them  found  themselves  unable  in  1838  to  pay  the  interest  on 
their  bonds.  In  course  of  time  they  made  good  their  obligations,  but  the 
State  of  Mississippi  and  the  Territory  of  Florida  not  only  refused  to  pay 
the  interest  on  their  bonds,  but  repudiated  their  debts.  The  sale  of  their 
bonds  had  been  made  principally  in  Europe,  and  their  repudiation  of 
their  debts  aroused  great  indignation  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  brought  disgrace  upon  the  whole  nation.  The  effects  of  this  were 
seen  a  few  years  later,  when  the  United  States  sought  to  negotiate  a 
national  loan  in  Europe.  Not  a  bond  could  be  sold  or  a  dollar  obtained 
there. 

In  1837  a  movement  was  made  by  the  people  of  Canada  to  throw  off 
their  connection  with  Great  Britain,  and  to  establish  their  independence. 
It  aroused  the  sympathies  of  a  large  number  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  and  in  northern  New  York  associations  called  "  Hunters' 
Lodges  "  were  formed  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  Canadian  patriots. 
The  president  of  the  United  States  and  the  governor  of  New  York 
endeavored  to  suppress  these  illegal  associations,  but  without  success. 

A  body  of  seven  hundred  Canadians  and  American  sympathizers  took 
possession  of  Navy  island  in  the  Niagara  river.  The  island  is  a  part  of 
Canada,  and  lies  near  the  shore  of  that  country.  The  force  on  the  island 
employed  the  steamboat  "Caroline"  to  convey  men  and  provisions  from 
the  town  of  Schlosscr  on  the  American  shore  to  the  island.  The  British 
authorities  in  Canada  determined  to  destroy  the  boat.  One  dark  night 
in  December,  1837,  a  detachment  from  Canada  was  sent  to  Navy  island 
for  this  purpose.  Not  finding  the  "  Caroline  "  there,  they  went  over  to 
Schlosser,  where  she  was  moored  at  her  dock.  The  boat  was  captured 
after  a  short  struggle  in  which  one  American  was  killed,  and  was  carried 
out  into  the  stream  and  set  on  fire.  She  drifted  down  to  the  falls,  and 
plunged  over  them  in  a  blaze.  The  British  minister  at  Washington  at 
once  declared  the  responsibility  of  his  government  for  the  capture  of  the 
boat,  and  justified  it  on  the  ground  of  self-defence. 

In  the  meantime  the  president  had  sent  General  Wool  with  a  strong 
force  to  the  Canadian  border  with  orders  to  prevent  any  expedition  from 
leaving  this  country  to  aid  the  Canadians.  He  compelled  the  force  oa 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND  VAN  BUREN.          G77 

Navy  island  to  surrender,  but  the  border  war  continued  until  the  close 
of  1838,  when  it  was  put  down. 

In  1840  the  question  was  to  some  extent  revived.  Alexander  McLeod, 
a  British  subject  residing  in  Canada,  boasted  that  he  had  been  engaged  in 
the  capture  of  the  "Caroline,"  and  had  killed  the  American  who  fell  in 


.RAFTING   LUMBER  IN   MAINE. 

that  conflict.  Shortly  afterwards  he  visited  the  New  York  side  of  the 
river,  and  was  at  once  arrested  upon  a  charge  of  murder  by  the  authori- 
ties of  that  State.  The  British  government  demanded  his  unconditional 
release  on  the  ground  that  he  had  simply  obeyed  the  orders  of  his  gov- 
ernment, which  was  alone  responsible  for  his  act.  The  general  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  also  demanded  the  surrender  of  McLeod  to  the 
Federal  authorities.  The  State  of  New  York,  however,  held  that  the 
offence  with  which  McLeod  was  charged  had  been  committed  on  her 
soil,  and  brought  the  prisoner  to  trial.  As  he  succeeded  in  proving  that 


678  HISTORY  OF  TIIE  UNITED  STATES. 

he  was  not  engaged  in,  or  present  at  the  attack,  he  was  acquitted.  This 
conflict  between  the  federal  and  State  authority  led  to  the  passage  by 
Congress  of  a  law  requiring  similar  offences  to  be  tried  before  the  United 
States  courts. 

In  the  midst  of  the  Canadian  controversy  a  quarrel  sprang  up  between 
the  State  of  Maine  and  the  British  province  of  New  Brunswick,  concern- 
ing the  northeast  boundary  of  the  United  States.  Both  parties  prepared 
for  a  conflict,  but  the  president  sent  General  Scott  to  the  scene  of  danger, 
and  he,  by  his  moderation  and  firmness,  succeeded  in  maintaining  peace 
until  the  matter  could  be  settled  by  treaty. 

The  war  with  the  Seminole  Indians  in  Florida  continued  through  the 


BATTLE  OF  OKEECHOBEE. 


whole  of  this  administration.  The  capture  and  death  of  Osceola,  which 
we  have  related,  though  a  severe  blow  to  his  followers,  did  not  dishearten 

7  O  * 

them.  On  the  25th  of  December,  1838,  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor  in- 
flicted a  severe  defeat  upon  the  Indians  at  Lake  Okeechobee.  The  war 
was  at  length  brought  to  an  end  in  1842,  but  not  until  it  had  lasted  seven 
years,  and  had  cost  many  valuable  lives  and  the  enormous  sum  of  nearly 
forty  million  dollars.  The  Seminoles  were  subdued,  and  were  removed 
from  Florida  to  new  homes  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  did  not  quiet  the  agitation  of  the  slavery 
question.  It  gave  to  the  country  only  a  momentary  respite.  The  Anti- 
slavery  or  Abolition  party  had  now  become  one  of  the  recognized  political 
organizations  of  the  country.  Its  avowed  object  was  the  abolition  of 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  JACKSON  AND  VAN  BUREN.          679 

slavery  in  every  State  in  which  it  existed.  It  was  argued  in  opposition 
to  their  principles  that  the  constitution  recognized  and  protected  slavery 
in  the  States  in  which  it  existed;  but  they  met  this  assertion  bv  the  bold 
declaration  that  they  would  continue  their  agitation  until  they  had  de- 
stroyed either  slavery  or  the  Union.  They  did  not  wish  to  live  under  a 
constitution  which  protected  slavery,  and  which  one  of  their  principal 
leaders  denounced  as  "  a  covenant  with  death,  and  an  agreement  with 
hell."  The  body  embraced  the  extreme  Anti-slavery  men  of  the  north. 
Among  its  adversaries  were  some  of  the  sincerest  opponents  of  slavery, 
who  hoped  to  accomplish  their  ends  by  constitutional  means  and  by  the 
influences  of  a  better  and  more  enlightened  public  opinion,  and  who 
deprecated  and  opposed  the  violence  of  the  extreme  Abolitionists.  The 
leader  of  the  ultra  party  in  Congress  was  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  had 
been  returned  to  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Massachusetts  in 
1831.  Memorials  were  presented  to  Congress  praying  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  gave  rise  to  exciting  debates  in 
that  body,  which  affected  the  whole  country  profoundly,  and  did  much  to 
widen  the  breach  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States.  This 
agitation  continued  through  the  whole  of  Mr.  Van  Buron's  term  of 
office.  Early  in  the  session  of  1838-39,  Mr.  Atherton,  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, offered  a  series  of  resolutions  expressing  the  relations  of  the  general 
government  towards  the  States,  and  dec]aring  the  inability  of  Congress  to 
interfere  with  slavery  in  those  States  in  which  it  already  existed,  or  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  or  the  Territories.  These  resolutions  were 
adopted  by  the  House  by  decisive  majorities,  and  were  regarded  by  Mr. 
Clay  and  by  the  leading  public  men  of  the  country  as  effectually  dis- 
posing of  the  troublesome  question  as  far  as  the  general  government  was 
concerned.  The  resolutions  were  as  follows: 

"Resolved,  That  this  government  is  a  government  of  limited  powers,  and  that  by  the 
institution  of  the  United  States,  Congress  lias  no  jurisdiction  whatever  over  the  institution 
«J  slavery  in  the  several  States  of  the.  confederacy." 

The  vote  upon  this  resolution  stood  :  196  for  it,  and  6  against  it. 

The  second  resolution  was  in  these  words : 

"Re-solved,  That  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and 
the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  and  against  the  removal  of  slaves  from  one  State  tu 
another,  are  a  part  of  a  plan  of  operations  set  on  foot  to  affect  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  thus  indirectly  to  destroy  that  institution  within  their, 
limits." 

On  this  resolution  the  vote  stood :  136  for  it,  and  C5  against  it. 

The  third  resolution  was  in  these  words: 

"Resolved,  That  Congress  has  no  right  to  do  that  indirectly  which  it  cannot  do  directly ; 


680  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

and  that  the  agitation  of  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  or  the  Territo- 
ries, as  a  means,  and  with  a  view,  of  disturbing  or  overthrowing  that  institution  in  the 
several  States,  is  against  the  true  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  constitution,  an  infringement 
of  the  rights  of  the  States  affected,  and  a  breach  of  the  public  faith  upon  which  they 
entered  into  ihe  confederacy." 

The  vote  on  this  resolution  was :  164  in  favor  of  it,  and  40  against  it. 

The  fourth  of  this  series  was  in  these  words: 

"Resolved,  That  the  constitution  rests  on  the  broad  principle  of  equality  among  the 
members  of  this  confederacy,  and  that  Congress,  in  the  exercise  of  its  acknowledged 
powers,  lias  no  right  to  discriminate  between  the  institutions  of  one  portion  of  the  States 
and  another,  with  a  view  of  abolishing  the  one  and  promoting  the  other." 

The  vote  on  this  resolution  was :  174  in  favor  of  it,  and  24  against  it. 

The  fifth  and  last  of  Mr.  Atherton's  resolutions  was  in  these  words : 

"Resolved,  That  all  attempts  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  or  the  Territories,  or  to  prohibit  the  removal  of  slaves  from  Stale  to  State,  or  to 
discriminate  between  the  institutions  of  one  portion  of  the  confederacy  and  another,  with  the 
view  aforesaid,  are  in  violation  of  the  constitution,  destructive  of  the  fundamental  principle 
on  which  the  union  of  these  States  rests,  and  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress;  and  that 
every  petition,  memorial,  resolution,  proposition,  or  pa]  er,  touching  or  relating  in  any  way, 
or  to  any  extent  whatever,  to  slavery,  as  aforesaid,  or  the  abolition  thereof,  shall,  on  the 
presentation  thereof,  without  any  further  action  thereon,  be  laid  upon  the  table,  without 
being  debated,  printed,  or  referred." 

The  vote  on  the  first  branch  of  this  resolution  was,  146  in  favor,  and 
52  against  it;  on  the  second  branch  of  the  resolution  the  vote  stood,  126 
for  it,  and  78  against  it. 

As  we  shall  see,  this  declaration  of  Congress  was  far  from  quieting  the 
agitation  upon  this  troublesome  question.  The  slavery  conflict  had  in 
reality  just  begun. 

In  the  fall  of  1840  the  presidential  election  was  held.  Mr.  Van 
Buren  and  Vice-President  Johnson  were  nominated  for  re-election  by 
the  Democratic  party,  and  the  Whigs  supported  General  William  Henry 
Harrison,  of  Ohio,  for  president,  and  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  for  vice- 
president.  The  financial  distress  of  the  country  had  been  but  slightly 
relieved,  and  was  generally  attributed  by  the  people  to  the  interference 
of  the  government  with  the  currency.  This  feeling  made  the  Democratic 
nominees  exceedingly  unpopular,  and  the  political  campaign,  which  was 
one  of  the  most  exciting  ever  conducted  in  this  country,  resulted  in  the 
election  of  Harrison  and  Tyler  by  overwhelming  majorities. 

In  1840  the  sixth  census  showed  the  population  of  the  United  States 
to  be  17,069,453 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 


THE  ADMINISTRATIONS   OF   WILLIAM   HENRY   HARRISON   AND  JOHtf 

TYLER. 

An  Extra  Session  of  Congress  Summoned — Death  of  President  Harrison — John  Tylei 
becomes  President  of  the  United  States — Meeting  of  Congress — The  Bankrupt  Law — 
President  Tyler  Vetoes  the  Bills  to  Revive  the  United  States  Bank — His  Quarrel  with 
his  Party— The  "Tyler  Whigs"— The  Tariff  of  1842— The  Treaty  of  Washington— The 
United  States  will  not  Tolerate  the  Exercise  of  the  Right  of  Search — Dorr's  Rebellion 
— The  Mormons — Invention  of  the  Electric  Telegraph — Explosion  on  the  "Princeton" 
— Efforts  to  Secure  the  Annexation  of  Texas — Early  History  of  Texas — The  Texan  War 
of  Independence — Battle  of  San  Jacinto — Texan  Independence  Established — Texas 
Applies  fo.  Admission  into  the  Union — Opposition  to  the  Measure — Significance  of  the 
Vote  at  the  Presidential  Election — James  K.  Pulk  Elected  President — Texas  admitted 
into  the  Union — Iowa  and  Florida  become  States. 

i 

X  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  William  Henry  Harrison  was  inaugu- 
rated president  of  the  United  States  at  Washington  in  the  pres- 
ence of  an  immense  concourse  of  citizens  from  all  parts  of  the 
Union.  He  was  in  his  sixty-ninth  year,  and  had  spent  forty 
y°^rs  of  his  life  in  the  public  service.  His  services  during  the 
Indian  hostilities  which  preceded  the  war  of  1312-15,  and  his  exploits 
during  that  war,  have  been  related.  He  had  served  as  governor  of  In- 
diana Territory,  and  had  been  both  a  member 
of  Congress  and  a  senator  of  the  United  States. 
He  was  a  man  of  pure  life  and  earnest  char- 
acter, and  the  certainty  of  a  change  of  policy  in 
the  measures  of  the  federal  government  had 
caused  the  people  of  the  country  to  look  forward 
to  his  administration  with  hope  and  confidence. 
He  began  by  calling  to  seats  in  his  cabinet  men 
of  prominence  and  ability.  At  the  head  of  the 
cabinet  he  placed  Daniel  Webster,  as  secretary 
of  state.  The  president  issued  a  proclamation 
convening  Congress  in  special  session  on  the  WILLIAM  HENRY 
31st  of  May,  1841.  He  was  not  destined'  to  fulfil  the  hopes  of  his  friends, 
however.  He  was  suddenly  seized  with  pneumonia,  and  died  on  the  4th 
of  April,  1841 — just  one  month  after  his  inauguration. 


682 


IISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


It  was  the  first  time  that  a  president  of  the  United  States  had  died  in 
office,  and  a  gloom  was  cast  over  the  nation  by  the  sad  event.  The 
mourning  of  the  people  was  sincere,  for  in  General  Harrison  the  nation 
lost  a  faithful,  upright,  and  able  citizen.  He  had  spent  forty  years  in 
prominent  public  positions,  and  had  discharged  every  duty  confided  to 
him  with  ability  and  integrity,  and  went  to  his  grave  a  poor  man. 
"  Brave  old  Cincinnatua  1  he  left  but  his  plow." 

Upon  the  assembling  of  Congress,  that  body,  "  out  of  consideration  of 

his  expenses  in  removing  to  the  seat  of  government,  and  the  limited 

means  he  had  left  behind,"  appropriated  the  equivalent  of  one  year's 

presidential  salary — twenty-five  thousand  dollars — to  Mrs.  Harrison. 

According  to  the  terms  of  the  constitution,  upon  the  death  of  General 

Harrison,  the  office  of  president  of  the 
United  States  devolved  upon  the  vice-presi- 
dent, John  Tyler,  of  Virginia.  Mr.  Tyler 
was  not  in  the  city  of  Washington  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  his  predecessor,  but  re- 
paired to  that  city  without  loss  of  time,  upon 
being  notified  of  the  need  of  his  presence, 
and  on  the  6th  of  April  took  the  oath  of 
office  before  Judge  Cranch,  chief  justice  of 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Mr.  Tyler  was 
in  his  fifty-second  year,  and  had  served  as 
governor  of  Virginia,  and  as  representative 
and  senator  in  Congress  from  that  State.  On 
the  9th  of  April  President  Tyler  issued  an 
address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in 
which  there  was  no  indication  of  a  departure 
from  the  policy  announced  in  the  inaugural  of  General  Harrison.  He 
retained  the  cabinet  ministers  of  his  predecessors  in  their  respwtive 
positions. 

On  the  31st  of  May  the  Twenty-seventh  Congress  convened  in  extra 
session.  It  was  known  as  the  "  Whig  Congress,"  as  a  large  majority  of 
its  members  were  of  that  party.  Had  this  party  remained  united  tney 
could  have  controlled  the  action  of  Congress  to  suit  themselves,  but  as 
we  shall  see  the  policy  of  the  executive  soon  divided  them.  The  first  not 
of  this  Congress  was  to  repeal  the  sub-treasury  bill  which  had  been  passed 
in  1840.  The  effects  of  the  commercial  crisis  had  involved  thousands 
of  merchants  in  hopeless  bankruptcy,  and  under  the  old  laws  they  had 
no  means  of  recovering  their  lost  position,  as  they  were  crushed  down  by 
their  debts.  Neither  their  creditors  nor  the  country  at  large  derived  any 


JOHN  TYLER. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  HARRISON  AND  TYLER,  683 

benefit  from  this  state  of  affairs,  and  Congress  at  once  passed  a  general 
bankrupt  law  for  the  relief  of  persons  thus  situated.  It  was  highly  bene- 
ficial to  the  country,  and  was  repealed,  in  1843,  when  the  necessity  for  it 
had  ceased  to  exist. 

Efforts  were  made  to  revive  the  Rink  of  the  United  States,  and  a  bil! 
was  passed  establishing  an  institution  known  as  "The  Fiscal  Bank  of  the 
United  States."  Mr.  Tyler,  who  was  a  member  of  the  strict  construe- 
tionist  school,  now  found  himself  at  variance  \vith  a  majority  of  his 
party  in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  As  he  did  not  believe  that  Congress 
could  constitutionally  charter  such  an  institution,  he  vetoed  this  bill. 
The  advocates  of  the  measure  could  not  command  the  requisite  two-third* 


DAVENTORT,  IOWA. 

majority  for  the  passage  of  the  bill  over  the  president's  veto,  and  his 
action  was  sn£tained.  Another  bill  was  passed  by  Congress,  of  a  similar 
character,  establishing  "  The  Fiscal  Corporation  of  the  United  States," 
but  this  also  was  vetoed  by  the  president  for  the  same  reasons.  His  veto 
was  sustained  by  Congress  in  this  instance  also.  The  vetoes  of  these 
measures  were  generally  approved  by  the  strict  constructionists  through- 
out the  Union,  without  reeard  to  party ;  but  they  were  bitterly  denounced 
by  the  majority  of  the  Whigs,  who  charged  the  president  with  having 
violated  the  implied  pledges  upon  which  he  was  elected,  and  with  having 
betrayed  his  party.  The  AVhigs  were  for  the  time  forgetful  of  the  fact 
that  at  the  time  of  his  nomination  to  the  vice-presidency  Mr.  Tyler  was 
known  to  be  opposed  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The  members 


684  HISTORY  OF  THE  UXITED  STATES. 

of  the  cabinet,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  secretary  of  state,  resigned 
their  positions  in  consequence  of  Mr.  Tyler's  course.  Mr.  Webster 
retained  his  position  in  order  to  complete  the  important  negotiations  he 
\vas  at  the  time  conducting  with  England.  The  places  of  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  cabinet  were  filled  by  the  president  with  prominent  members 
of  the  strict  constructionist  school  of  the  Whig  party,  who  sustained  the 
president. 

The  second  session  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Congress  met  in  December, 
1841,  and  continued  its  sittings  until  August,  1842.  It  was  noted  as  the 
longest  session  ever  held  up  to  this  time.  It  found  the  Whig  party 
divided,  and  the  opposing  factions  bitterly  hostile  to  each  other.  The 
majority,  led  by  Mr.  Clay,  opposed  the  administration.  The  minority, 
because  of  their  support  of  the  president,  received  the  name  of  "  Tyler 
Whigs."  The  principal  question  agitated  during  this  session  was  the 
tariff.  According  to  the  compromise  act  of  1833,  the  duties  this  year 
were  to  be  regulated  according  to  a  revenue  standard.  The  majority  in 
Congress,  however,  paid  no  regard  to  the  pledge  given  in  this  compro- 
mise, and  a  new  tariff  bill  was  passed  by  both  Houses  of  Congress,  regu- 
lating the  duties  on  a  strongly  protective  basis,  and  with  the  avowed 
object  of  reviving  the  protective  policy.  It  was  vetoed  by  the  president. 
Another  measure  of  a  similar  though  slightly  modified  character  was 
passed,  and  this  was  vetoed  also.  Congress  then  passed  the  tariff  of  1842, 
in  which  the  principles  of  the  compromise  of  1833  were  altogether  set 
aside,  and  the  duties  made  strictly  protective.  It  required  a  sharp  strug- 
gle in  Congress  to  secure  the  passage  of  this  bill ;  which  received  the 
executive  signatuie  on  the  30th  of  August. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Webster  succeeded  in  bringing  the  negotiations 
with  Great  Britain  to  a  successful  close.  These  negotiations  had  grown 
out  of  the  revolutionary  disturbances  in  Canada,  and  the  controversy 
respecting  the  northeast  boundary  of  the  United  States,  during  the 
administration  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  which  we  have  related.  The  boun- 
dary question  was  of  older  origin  than  the  former  controversy,  and  had 
been  pending  between  the  United  States  and  England  for  fifty  years. 
Mr.  Webster,  immediately  upon  his  entrance  upon  the  office  of  secretary 
of  state,  had,  with  the  approval  of  the  president,  signified  the  desire  of 
.this  country  to  terminate  the  controversy,  and  Lord  Ashburton  had  been 
sont  by  the  British  government  as  special  minister  to  the  United  States, 
with  full  power  to  settle  all  the  controversies  between  the  two  countries. 
The  trontv  of  Washington  was  concluded  in  1842,  and  was  accepted  by 
both  countries  as  a  settlement  of  the  questions  at  issue  between  them. 

By  the  terms  of  this  treaty  the  northeastern  boundary  was  arranged  as 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  HARRISON  AND  TYLER.  685 

it  exists  at  present ;  the  United  States  obtained  the  free  navigation  of  the 
St.  John's  river  to  the  sea ;  and  gained  possession  of  the  important  mili- 
tary position  of  Rouse's  Point,  at  the  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain.  The 
two  countries  mutually  agreed  to  surrender  upon  proper  demand  all 
fugitives  from  justice  escaping  from  the  territory  of  one  into  that  of  the 
other ;  and  to  maintain  a  certain  number  of  ships  of  war  on  the  African 
coast  to  aid  in  suppressing  the  slave  trade. 

When  the  treaty  was  completed  two  subjects  presented  themselves  to 
the  negotiators.  One  of  these  was  the  right  claimed  by  Great  Britain  for 
her  cruisers  to  stop  and  if  necessary  to  search  merchant  vessels  belonging 
to  other  nations  on  the  high  seas ;  the  other  was  the  impressment  of  sea- 
men from  American  merchant  vessels  by  British  cruisers.  Mr.  Webster, 


EVANS VILLE,  JNDIANA. 

in  a  paper  of  great  ability,  addressed  to  the  American  minister  at  London, 
but  intended  for  the  British  foreign  minister,  denied  the  right  of  search, 
and  sustained  his  position  by  arguments  that  were  simply  irrefutable. 
In  a  letter  to  Lord  Ashburton  Mr.  Webster  refused  to  consider  the  im- 
pressment question,  as  the  United  States  could  in  no  case  admit  such  a 
claim  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  and  declared  that  every  case  of  im- 
pressment would  be  considered  an  act  of  hostility  and  would  be  repelled 
,as  such.  He  declared  as  the  unalterable  policy  of  this  country  the  doc- 
trine that  "  Every  merchant  vessel  on  the  high  seas  is  rightfully  con- 
sidered as  a  part  of  the  territory  to  which  it  belongs;"  that  "in  every 
regularly  documented  American  merchant  vessel  the  crew  who  navigate 
it  will  find  their  protection  in  the  flag  which  is  over  them ; "  and  that 
"  the  American  government,  then,  is  prepared  to  say  that  the  practice  of 


686  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

impressing  seameu  from  American  vessels  cannot  hereafter  be  allowed  to 
take  place."  The  tone  of  the  secretary  of  state,  though  firm,  was  cour- 
teous aud  conciliatory,  and  the  negotiations  were  conducted  in  the  same 
spirit  of  conciliation  by  the  British  minister. 

With  this  treaty  the  United  States  formally  took  their  position  as  one 
of  the  great  powers  of  the  world.  The  negotiations  being  completed,  Mr. 
Webster  resigned  his  place  in  the  cabinet  in  May,  1843,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Abel  P.  Upshur,  of  Virginia. 

In  1842  an  insurrection  broke  out  in  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  which 
required  the  intervention  of  the  United  States  for  its  suppression.  It  is 
known  as  the  Dorr  rebellion.  The  old  charter  of  the  colony,  granted  by 
Charles  II.,  in  1663,  had  up  to  this  time  served  as  the  constitution  of  the 
State.  It  was  found  to  be  unsuited  to  the  requirements  of  the  people  in 
their  more  prosperous  condition,  and  an  eifort  was  made  to  change  it. 
Two  parties  were  formed,  one  in  favor  of  the  proposed  changes,  the  other 
opposed  to  them.  Each  party  nominated  its  candidate  for  the  office  of 
governor  and  elected  him.  The  "suffrage  party,"  which  favored  the 
changes,  elected  Thomas  W.  Dorr  governor,  took  up  arms,  and  attacked 
the  State  arsenal  for  the  purpose  of  arming  their  followers.  They  were 
repulsed  by  the  State  militia  assisted  by  the  United  States  troops.  Dorr 
was  arrested,  tried  for  treason,  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life. 
He  was  released  in  1845.  The  opponents  of  the  "  suffrage  party  "  deemed 
it  best  to  yield  to  the  popular  wish,  however,  and  in  November,  1842,  a 
new  constitution,  embracing  the  desired  changes,  was  adopted  by  the 
legislature. 

About  the  same  time  a  series  of  disturbances  occurred  in  the  State  of 
Illinois,  which  were  but  the  forerunners  of  a  more  serious  embarrassment 
to  the  general  government  at  a  later  period.  A  new  religious  sect  had 
sprung  up  some  years  before  in  the  western  part  of  New  York.  They 
called  themselves  Mormons,  and  were  founded  by  a  cunning  impostor 
named  Joseph  Smith,  who  professed  to  have  received  a  new  revelation 
from  God,  written  on  plates  of  gold.  Among  the  articles  of  the  Mormon 
faith  is  one  which  teaches  the  doctrine  of  a  plurality  of  wives.  Feeling 
that  the  east  was  not  favorable  to  their  growth,  the  Mormons  at  an  early 
day  removed  to  the  west.  They  settled  at  first  in  Missouri,  but  so 
exasperated  the  people  of  that  State  by  their  conduct,  that  they  were  soon 
driven  out  of  Missouri. 

Crossing  the  Mississippi,  they  settled  in  Illinois,  and  founded  a  city 
which  they  called  Nauvoo,  and  built  a  temple.  Their  numbers  increased 
rapidly  from  emigration  from  nearly  every  country  in  Europe.  The  new- 
comers were  mainly  persons  of  low  position  and  without  education. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  HARRISON  AND  TYLER. 


687 


Conscious  of  their  strength,  they  raised  troops,  and  set  the  authority  of 
the  State  of  Illinois  at  defiance.  The  State  endeavored  to  reduce  them  to 
obedience,  and  their  conduct,  as  in  Missouri,  turned  the  people  against 
them.  Several  conflicts  ensued  between  the  Mormons  and  the  authorities. 
In  one  of  these  Joe  Smith,  the  prophet,  and  his  brother  were  seized  JUKI 
put  in  jail ;  and  while  lying  there  were  murdered  by  the  mob  in  July, 
1844.  This  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  the1  people  of  Illinois  deter- 
mined to  drive  the  Mormons  across  the  Mississippi.  Nauvoo  was  attacked 
in  1845,  and  the  Mormons  were  compelled  to  leave  the  State.  In  1846 
they  bent  their  steps  westward,  and  after  a  long  and  painful  journey  acrv^sa 
the  plains,  reached  the  valley  of  Salt  Lake,  and  established  a  settlement 
there.  Out  of  this  settlement  grew  the  Territory  of  Utah. 


MADISON,  WISCONSIN. 

In  1844  occurred  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  In  1832  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  a  native  of  Massachusetts, 
invented  the  electric  telegraph.  He  spent  some  years  in  perfecting  his  in- 
vention, and  in  1838  applied  to  Congress  for  a  small  appropriation  to  assist 
him  in  building  a  line  of  wire  to  demonstrate  the  usefulness  of  his  dis- 
covery. He  was  obliged  to  wait  five  years  for  a  favorable  answer,  and  it 
was  not  until  he  had  given  up  all  hope  of  receiving  aid  from  Congres? 
that  that  body,  on  the  last  day  of  the  session  of  1843,  appropriated  the  sum 
of  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  construct  a  telegraph  line  between  Washing- 
ton City  and  Baltimore,  a  distance  of  forty  miles.  The  line  was  completed 


688  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

in  1844,  and  was  successfully  operated  by  Professor  Morse.  This  was  the 
first  line  established  in  the  world.  In  the  thirty-one  years  which  have 
elapsed  since  then  the  use  of  the  telegraph  has  become  general  throughout 
the  civilized  world,  and  in  the  United  States  alone  over  sixty  thousand 
miles  of  telegraph  lines  are  in  operation  at  the  present  time. 

On  the  28th  of  February,  1844,  the  president,  accompanied  by  the 
members  of  his  cabinet  and  a  number  of  distinguished  citizens,  officers  ot 
the  army  and  navy,  and  ladies,  went  on  board  the  new  steam  frigate 
"Princeton,"  lying  in  the  Potomac,  to  witness  the  experimental  firings 
of  a  new  cannon  of  unusual  size  on  board  that  ship,  to  which  the  name 
of  "The  Peacemaker"  had  been  given.  At  one  of  the  discharges  the 
gun  exploded,  causing  the  instant  death  of  Messrs.  Upshur  and  Gilmer, 
the  secretaries  of  state  and  of  the  navy,  and  several  other  spectators. 
This  sad  event  was  greatly  lamented  throughout  the  country.  Judge 
Upshur  was  succeeded  as  secretary  of  state  by  John  C.  Calhoun,  then  a 
senator  from  South  Carolina. 

The  last  years  of  Mr.  Tyler's  administration  were  devoted  to  the  effort 
to  secure  the  annexation  of  the  republic  of  Texas  to  the  United  States. 
The  territory  embraced  within  the  limits  of  Texas  constituted  a  part  of 
the  Spanish- American  possessions,  and  was  generally  regarded  as  a  part 
of  Mexico.  During  the  last  century  a  number  of  forts  had  been  erected 
in  Texas  by  the  Spaniards  as  a  means  of  holding  the  province  against  the 
French,  and  each  fort  was  made  a  missionary  station,  from  which  efforts 
were  made  to  convert  the  Indians,  but  without  success.  The  United 
States  were,  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  inclined  to  regard 
Texas  as  rightfully  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase,  but  this  claim  was 
waived  when  Florida  was.  purchased. 

Early  in  the  present  century  pioneers  from  the  United  States  began  to 
find  their  way  to  Texas,  which  was  then  a  wild  country,  inhabited  only 
by  roving  Indians,  and  the  garrisons  of  the  few  Spanish  forts  within  it« 
limits.  One  of  these  emigrants,  Moses  Austin,  of  Durham,  Connecticut, 
conceived  the  plan  of  colonizing  Texas  with  settlers  from  the  United 
States.  For  this  purpose  he  obtained  from  the  Spanish  government,  in 
1820,  the  grant  of  an  extensive  tract  of  land ;  but  before  he  could  put 
his  plans  in  execution  he  died.  His  son,  Stephen  F.  Austin,  inherited 
the  rights  of  his  father  under  this  grant,  and  went  to  Texas  with  a  number 
of  emigrants  from  this  country,  and  explored  that  region  for  the  purpose 
of  locating  his  grant.  He  selected  as  the  most  desirable  site  for  his 
colony  the  country  between  the  Brazos  and  Colorado  rivers,  and  founded 
a  city,  which  he  named  Austin  in  honor  of  the  originator  of  the  colony, 
to  whom  Texas  owes  its  existence  as  an  American  commonwealth.  Hav- 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  HARRISON  AND  TYLER. 


689 


ing  seen  the  settlers  established  in  their  new  homes,  Mr.  Austin  returned 
to  the  United  States  to  collect  other  emigrants  for  his  colony. 

During  his  absence  Mexico  and  the  other  Spanish  provinces  rose  in 
revolt  against  Spain,  and  succeeded  in  establishing  their  independence. 
Texas,  being  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  Mexican  territory,  shared  the  for- 
tunes of  that  country.  Upon  his  return  to  Texas,  Austin,  in  considera- 
tion of  the  altered  state  of  affairs,  went  to  the  city  of  Mexico  and  obtained 
from  the  Mexican  government  a  confirmation  of  the  grant  made  to  his 
father.  Such  a  confirmation  was  necessary  in  order  to  enable  him  to  give 
the  settlers  valid  titles  to  the  lands  of  his  colony.  Mexico  at  first  exercised 
but  a  nominal  authority  over  the  new  settlements,  and  the  colonists  were 


OLD  FORT  BENTON,  MONTANA. 

allowed  to  live  under  their  own  laws,  subject  to  the  rules  drawn  up  by 
Austin.  In  order  to  encourage  settlements  in  Texas,  the  Mexican  Con- 
gress, on  the  2d  of  May,  1824,  enacted  the  following  law,  declaring, 
"  That  Texas  is  to  be  annexed  to  the  Mexican  province  of  Cohahuila, 
until  it  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  form  a  separate  State,  when  it  is  to 
become  an  independent  State  of  the  Mexican  republic,  equal  to  the  other 
States  of  which  the  same  is  composed,  free,  sovereign,  and  independent 
in  whatever  exclusively  relates  to  its  internal  government  and  adminis- 
tration." 

Encouraged  by  this  decree,  large  numbers  of  Americans  emigrated  to* 
44 


690  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Texas,  and  to  these  were  added  emigrants  from  all  the  countries  of 
Europe.  The  population  grew  rapidly,  new  towns  sprang  up,  and 
Austin's  colony  prospered  in  a  marked  degree,  until  1830,  when  Busta- 
mente  having  made  himself  by  violence  and  intrigue  president  of  the  so- 
called  Mexican  republic,  prohibited  the  emigration  of  foreigners  to  the 
Mexican  territory,  and  issued  a  number  of  decrees  very  oppressive  to  the 
people,  and  in  violation  of  the  constitution  of  1 824.  In  order  to  enforce 
these  measures  in  Texas,  he  occupied  that  province  with  his  troops,  and 
placed  Texas  under  military  rule.  The  Texans  resented  this  interference 
with  their  rights,  and  finally  compelled  the  Mexican  troops  to  withdraw 
from  the  province.  In  1832  another  revolution  in  Mexico  drove  Busta- 
mente  from  power,  and  placed  Santa  Anna  at  the  head  of  affairs  as  presi- 
dent or  dictator. 

Texas  took  no  part  in  the  disturbances  of  Mexico,  but  after  the  acces- 
eion  of  Santa  Anna  to  power,  formed  a  constitution,  and  applied  for 
admission  into  the  Mexican  republic  as  a  State,  in  accordance  with  the 
constitution  of  1 824,  and  the  act  of  the  Mexican  Congress  which  we  have 
quoted.  Stephen  F.  Austin  was  sent  to  the  city  of  Mexico  to  present  the 
petition  of  Texas  for  this  purpose.  He  was  refused  an  answer  to  this 
petition  for  over  a  year,  and  at  last  wrote  to  the  authorities  of  Texas, 
advising  them  to  organize  a  State  government  without  waiting  for  the 
action  of  the  Mexican  Congress.  For  this  recommendation,  which  the 
Mexican  government  regarded  as  treasonable,  Santa  Anna  caused  the 
arrest  of  Austin,  and  kept  him  in  prison  for  over  a  year.  Texas  now 
began  to  manifest  the  most  determined  opposition  to  the  usurpation  of 
Santa  Anna,  and  measures  were  taken  to  maintain  the  rights  of  the 
province  under  the  constitution  of  1824.  Troops  were  organized,  and 
preparations  made  to  resist  the  force  which  it  was  certain  Mexico  would 
send  against  them. 

Santa  Anna  did  not  allow  them  to  remain  long  in  suspense,  but  at  once 
despatched  a  force  under  General  Cos,  to  disarm  the  Texaus.  On  the 
2d  of  October,  1835,  Cos  attacked  the  town  of  Gonzalez,  which  was  held 
by  a  Texan  force,  but  was  repulsed  with  heavy  loss.  A  week  later,  on 
the  9th  of  October,  the  Texans  captured  the  town  of  Goliad,  and  a  little 
later  gained  possession  of  the  mission  house  of  the  Alamo.  Both  places 
were  garrisoned,  and  the  Texan  army,  which  was  under  the  command  of 
Austin,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  succeeded  in  driving  the  Mexicans 
out  of  Texas. 

On  the  12th  of  November,  1835,  a  convention  of  the  people  of  Texas 
met  at  the  city  of  Austin,  and  organized  a  regular  State  government. 
Prominent  among  the  members  was  General  Sam  Houston,  a  settler 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  HARRISON  AND  TYLER. 


691 


from  the  United  States.  Soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  convention  Gen- 
eral Austin  resigned  the  command  of  the  army,  and  was  sent  to  the  United 
States  as  the  commissioner  of  that  State  to  this  government,  and  was 
succeeded  as  commander-in-chief  by  General  Sam  Houston.  Henry 
Smith  was  elected  governor  of  Texas  by  the  people. 

As  soon  as  Santa  Anna  learned  that  his  troops  had  been  driven  out  of 
Texas,  and  that  the  Texans  had  set  up  a  State  government,  he  set  out  for 
that  country  with  an  army  of  seventy-five  hundred  men.  He  issued 
orders  to  his  troops  to  shoot  every  prisoner  taken,  and  intended  to  make 
the  struggle  a  war  of  extermination.  He  arrived  before  the  Alamo  late 
in  February,  1836.  This  fort  was  very  strong,  and  was  held  by  a  force 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  Texans  under  Colonel  Travis.  It  was  besieged 


FOET  ALAMO— SAN   ANTONIO,  TEXAS. 

by  the  whole  Mexican  army,  and  was  subjected  to  a  bombardment  of 
eleven  days.  At  last,  on  the  6th  of  March,  the  garrison  being  worn  out 
wi'h  fatigue,  the  fort  was  carried  by  assault,  and  the  whole  garrison  was 
put  to  the  sword.  Among  the  heroes  who  fell  at  the  Texan  Thermopylae 
was  the  eccentric  but  chivalrous  Colonel  Davy  Crockett  of  Tennessee,  whc< 
had  generously  come  to  aid  the  Texans  in  their  struggle  for  liberty.  The' 
capture  of  the  Alamo  cost  the  Mexicans  a  loss  of  sixteen  hundred  men, 
or  over  eleven  men  for  every  one  of  its  defenders. 

On  the  17th  of  March,  1836,  the  convention  adopted  a  constitution  for 
an  independent  republic,  and  formally  proclaimed  the  independence  of 
Texas.  David  G.  Burnett  was  elected  president  of  the  republic. 


692  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  fort  at  Goliad  was  held  by  a  force  of  three  hundred  and  thirty 
Texans,  under  Colonel  Fanning,  a  native  of  Georgia.  On  the  27th  of 
March  it  was  attacked  by  the  Mexican  army.  The  garrison  maintained 
a  gallant  defence,  but  their  resources  being  exhausted,  and  the  Mexicans 
being  reinforced  during  the  night,  Fanning  decided  to  surrender  his  force, 
if  he  could  obtain  honorable  terms.  He  proposed  to  Santa  Anna  to  lay 
down  his  arms,  and  surrender  the  post  on  condition  that  he  and  his  men 
should  be  allowed  and  assisted  to  return  to  the  United  States.  The  prop- 
osition was  accepted  by  Santa  Anna,  and  the  terms  of  the  surrender  wore 
formally  drawn  up  and  were  signed  by  each  commander.  As  soon  as  the 
surrender  was  made,  however,  and  the  arms  of  the  Texans  were  delivered, 
Santa  Anna,  in  base  violation  of  his  pledge,  caused  Fanning  and  the 
survivors  of  the  garrison,  to  the  number  of  three  hundred  men,  to  be  put 
to  death. 

The  massacres  of  the  Alamo  and  Goliad,  and  the  steady  advance  of 
the  Mexican  army  under  Santa  Anna,  caused  a  feeling  of  profound  alarm 
throughout  the  new  republic.  The  government  was  removed  temporarily 
to  Galveston,  and  General  Houston  retreated  behind  the  San  Jacinto. 
Santa  Anna  pursued  the  Texan  forces,  and  at  length  came  up  with  them 
on  the  banks  of  that  stream.  Houston  had  but  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
men  with  him,  and  these  were  imperfectly  armed,  and  without  discipline. 
With  this  force  he  surprised  the  Mexican  camp,  on  the  21st  of  April, 
and  routed  the  Mexican  army,  inflicting  upon  it  a  loss  of  over  six  hun- 
dred killed,  and  taking  more  than  eight  hundred  prisoners.  Santa  Anna 
himself  was  among  the  prisoners.  Houston  at  once  entered  into  negotia- 
tions with  him  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  Mexican  forces  from  Texas. 
This  was  done  at  once,  and  the  independence  of  Texas  was  achieved. 
Santa  Anna  also  recognized  the  independence  of  the  new  republic,  but 
the  Mexican  Congress  refused  to  confirm  this  act. 

Houston  was  now  the  idol  of  the  Texan  people,  as  the  deliverer  of 
their  country  from  the  hated  Mexicans.  At  the  next  general  election  he 
was  chosen  president  of  the  republic,  and  was  inaugurated  on  the  22d  of 
October,  1836.  General  Mirabeau  B.  Lamar  was  the  third  president  of 
the  republic  of  Texas,  and  entered  upon  his  office  in  1838.  He  was 
succeeded  in  1844  by  Anson  Jones,  the  fourth  president.  The  territory 
of  the  republic  was  sufficiently  large  to  make  five  States  the  size  of  Kew 
York,  and  its  climate  and  soil  were  among  the  most  delightful  and  fertile 
in  the  world.  It  contained  a  population  of  about  two  hundred  thousand, 
and  was  increasing  rapidly  in  inhabitants  and  in  prosperity. 

On  the  3d  of  March,  1837,  the  independence  of  the  republic  of  Texas 
acknowledged  by  the  United  States,  and  in  1839  by  France  and 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  HARRISON  AND   TYLER.  693 

England.  Being  young  and  feeble,  and  being  settled  almost  entirely  by 
Americans,  the  people  of  Texas  at  an  early  day  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  their  besf,  interests  required  them  to  seek  a  union  with  the  United 
States,  and  as  early  as  August,  1837.,  a  proposition  was  submitted  to  Mr. 
Van  Buren  looking  to  such  a  union.  It  was  declined  by  him,  but  the 
question  was  taken  up  by  the  press  and  people  of  the  Union,  and  was 
discussed  with  the  greatest  interest  and  activity.  The  south  was  unani- 
mously in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  as  it  was  a  region  in  which 
slave  labor  would  be  particularly  profitable ;  and  a  strong  party  in  the 
north  opposed  the  annexation  for  the  reason  that  it  would  inevitably 
extend  the  area  of  slavery.  An  additional  argument  against  annexa- 
tion was  that  it  would  involve  a  war  with  Mexico,  which  had  never 
acknowledged  the  independence  of  Texas. 

In  April,  1844,  Texas  formally  applied  for  admission  into  the  United 
States,  and  a  treaty  for  that  purpose  was  negotiated  with  her  by  the 
government  of  this  country.  It  was 
rejected  by  the  Senate. 

In  the  fall  of  1844  the  presidential 
election  took  place.  The  leading 
political  question  of  the  day  was  the 
annexation  of  Texas.  It  was  advo- 
cated by  the  administration  of  Presi- 
dent Tyler  and  by  the  Democratic 
party.  This  party  also  made  the  claim  of  the  United  States  to  Oregon 
one  of  the  leading  issues  of  the  campaign.  Its  candidates  were  James 
K.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  and  George  M.  Dallas,  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
Whig  party  supported  Henry  Clay,  of  Kentucky,  and  Theodore 
Frelinghuysen,  of  New  Jersey,  and  opposed  the  annexation  of  Texas. 

During  this  campaign,  which  was  one  of  unusual  excitement,  the 
Anti-slavery  party  made  its  appearance  for  the  first  time  as  a  distinct 
political  organization,  and  nominated  James  G.  Birney  as  its  candidate 
for  the  presidency. 

The  result  of  the  campaign  was  a  decisive  victory  for  the  Democrats. 
This  success  was  generally  regarded  as  an  emphatic  expression  of  the 
popular  will  respecting  the  Texas  and  Oregon  questions.  Mr.  Birney  did 
not  receive  a  single  electoral  vote,  and  of  the  popular  vote  only  sixty-four 
thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty-three  ballots  were  cast  for  him. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1864,  the  efforts  for  the  annexation 
of  Texas  were  renewed.  A  proposition  was  made  to  receive  Texas  into 
the  Union  by  a  joint  resolution  of  Congress.  A  bill  for  this  purpose 
passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  but  the  Senate  added  an  amend- 


COAT  OF  ARSIS  OF  TEXAS. 


694 


HISTORY  OF  THE   VK1TED  STATES. 


COAT  OP  ARMS  OF  IOWA. 


ment  appointing  commissioners  to  negotiate  with  Mexico  for  the- annexa- 
tion of  Texas,  which  she  still  claimed  as  a  part  of  her  territory.  The 
president  was  authorized  by  a  clause  in  these  resolutions  to  adopt  either 
the  House  or  the  Senate  plan  of  annexation,  and  on  the  2d  of  March, 
1845,  the  resolutions  were  adopted.  Senator  Benton,  of  Missouri,  the 
author  of  the  Senate  plan,  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  matter  would  be 
left  to  Mr.  Polk,  the  president-elect,  to  be  conducted  by  him ;  and  that 
gentleman  had  expressed  his  intention  to  carry  out  the  Senate  plan,  as  he 

hoped    an    amicable    arrangement 
could  be  made  with  Mexico.     Mr. 
Tyler,  however,  determined  not  to 
leave  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  his 
successor,  and  at  once  adopted  the 
plan  proposed  in  the  House  resolu- 
tions, and  on  the  night  of  Sunday, 
March  3d,  a  messenger  was   des- 
patched with  all  speed  to  Texas  to  lay  the  proposition  before  the  authori- 
ties of  that  State.     It  was  accepted  by  them,  and  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1845,  Texas  became  one  of  the  United  States. 

The  area  thus  added  to  the  territory  of  the  Union  comprised  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-seven  thousand  five  hundred  and  four  square  miles.  It 
was  provided  by  the  act  of  admission  that  four  additional  States  might  be 
formed  out  of  the  territory  of  Texas,  when. the  population  should  increase 
to  an  extent  which  should  make  such  a  step  desirable.  Those  States 
lying  north  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line — 36°  30'  north  latitude — 
were  to  be  free  States ;  those  south  of 
that,  line  were  to  be  free  or  slave- 
holding,  "  as  the  people  of  each  State 
asking  admission  may  desire."  To 
Texas  was  reserved  the  right  to  re- 
fuse to  allow  the  division  of  her 
territory. 

On  the   3d  of  March,  1845,  the 
president  approved  an  act  of  Congress  admitting  the  Territories  of  Iowa 
and  Florida  into  the  Union  as  States. 

No  president  has  ever  been  more  unpopular  during  his  administration 
than  Mr.  Tyler.  His  administration  speaks  for  itself,  however,  and  bears 
out  the  truth  of  his  memorable  words :  "  I  appeal  from  the  vituperation 
of  the  present  day  to  the  pen  of  impartial  history,  in  the  full  confidence 
that  neither  my  motives  nor  my  acts  will  bear  the  interpretation  which 
has,  for  sinister  purposes,  been  placed  upon  them." 


COAT   OF  ARMS   OF   FLORIDA. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF  JAMES  K.  POLK — THE  WAR  WITH   MEXICO. 

The  Oregon  Question — Position  of  President  Polk  respecting  it — The  Question  Settled- 
Treaty  for  Settlement  of  Claims  against  Mexico — Mexico  Resents  the  Annexation  of 
Texas — General  Taylor  Ordered  to  Texas — He  Advances  to  the  Rio  Grande — Battles  of 
Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma — The  War  with  Mexico  Begun — Invasion  of  Mexico 
— Occupation  of  Matamoras — Action  of  the  United  States  Government — Taylor  Advances 
into  the  Interior — The  Storming  and  Capture  of  Monterey — The  Armistice— Return  of 
Santa  Anna  to  Mexico — President  Polk  Duped — Santa  Anna  Seizes  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment— General  Wool  Joins  General  Taylor — Tioops  Taken  from  Taylor's  Army — Ad- 
vance of  the  Mexicans — Battle  of  Buena  Vista — Conquest  of  California  by  Fremont 
and  Stockton — Occupation  rf  Santa  Fe~ — New  Mexico  Conquered — Doniphan's  March 
— Occupation  of  Chihuahua — Sailing  of  Scott's  Expedition — Reduction  of  Vera  Cruz — 
Santa  Anna  Collects  a  New  Army — Battle  of  Cerro  Gordo — Occupation  of  Puebla  by 
Scott — Trouble  with  Mr.  Trist — Vigorous  Measures  of  Santa  Anna — Scott  Advances  upon 
the  City  of  Mexico — El  Pefion  Turned — Battles  of  Contreras  and  Churubusco — Capture 
of  Molino  del  Rey — Storming  of  Chapultepec — Capture  of  the  City  of  Mexico — Siege 
of  Puebla  Raised — Flight  of  Santa  Anna — Treaty  of  Peace  Negotiated — Close  of  the 
War — Acquisition  of  California  and  New  Mexico — Discovery  of  Gold  in  California — 
Rapid  Emigration  to  the  Pacific — Death  of  John  Quincy  Adams — The  Wilmot  Proviso 
— Revival  of  the  Slavery  Question — General  Taylor  elected  President. 

HE  inauguration  of  James  K.  Polk,  as  president  of  the  United 
States,  took  place  on  the  4th  of  March,  1845.  He  had  served 
the  country  as  governor  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  and  for  four- 
teen years  had  been  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  Congress  from  that  State,  and  had  been  several  times  chosen 
speaker  of  that  body.  His  cabinet  was  selected  from  the  first  men  of  his 
party.  James  Buchanan  was  secretary  of  state ;  Robert  J.  Walker  was 
secretary  of  the  treasury ;  William  L.  Marcy,  secretary  of  war ;  and  George 
Bancroft,  the  historian,  secretary  of  the  navy. 

Two  important  questions  presented  themselves  to  the  new  administration 
for  settlement :  the  troubles  with  Mexico  growing  out  of  the  annexation 
of  Texas,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  northwestern  boundary  of  the  United 
States. 

The  question  of  the  northwestern  boundary  had  been  left  unsettled  by 
the  treaty  of  Washington  in  1842.  Great  Britain  was  anxious  to  arrange 
the  matter,  and  late  in  the  year  1842  Mr.  Fox,  the  British  minister  at 

696 


696 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Washington,  proposed  to  Mr.  Webster,  then  secretary  of  state,  to  open 
negotiations.  The  British  proposition  was  accepted,  but  nothing  further 
was  done  until  February,  1844,  when  Sir  Richard  Packenham,  the  British 
minister  at  Washington,  proposed  to  take  up  the  question  of  the  Oregon 
boundary  and  settle  it.  Mr.  Upshur,  the  secretary  of  state,  accepted  the 
offer,  but  was  killed  a  few  days  later  by  the  explosion  on  board  the 
"Princeton."  Six  months  later,  Sir  Richard  Packenham  renewed  the 
proposal  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  had  become  secretary  of  state,  and  nego- 
tiations were  entered  upon  in  earnest. 

The  territory  of  Oregon  lay  between  the  forty-second  and  fifty-fourth 
parallels  of  north  latitude,  and  extended  from  the  Rocky  mountains  on 
the  east  to  tho  Pacific  ocean  on  the  west.  This  region  was  originally 
claimed  by  Spain,  by  whose  subjects  it  was  first  discovered.  At  the  ces- 
sion of  Florida,  Spain  ceded  to  the  United  States  all  her  territory  north 

of  the  forty-second  parallel  of  north  lati- 
tude, from  the  headwaters  of  the  Arkansas 
to  the  Pacific.  Mexico,  upon  achieving  her 
independence,  had  acknowledged  by  a  treaty 
with  the  United  States  the  validity  of  this 
boundary.  The  line  of  fifty-four  degrees 
forty  minutes  north  latitude  was  established 
by  treaty  between  the  United  States,  Great 
Britain,  and  Russia  as  the  southern  boun- 
dary of  the  Russian  possessions  in  America. 
The  United  States  claimed  the  entire  re- 
gion of  Oregon  in  virtue  of  the  cession  of 
Spain  in  the  Florida  treaty ;  the  discoveries 
of  Captain  Gray,  of  Boston,  who  circumnavi- 
gated the  globe,  and  in  1792  discovered  to  a 
certain  extent  and  explored  the  Columbia  river;  the  explorations  of 
Lewis  and  Clarke  in  1805  and  1806  of  the  southern  main  branch  of  the 
Columbia,  and  of  the  river  itself  from  the  mouth  of  that  branch  to  the 
sea ;  and  the  settlement  of  Astoria  planted  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
in  1811  by  John  Jacob  Astor,  of  New  York.  Oregon  was  also  claimed 
by  England,  who  also  rested  her  pretensions  on  discovery,  and  on  the 
settlement  made  by  the  Northwest  Company  on  Fraser's  river,  in  1806, 
and  on  another  near  the  headwaters  of  the  north  branch  of  the  Columbia. 
In  1818  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  had  agreed  upon  the 
forty-ninth  degree  of  north  latitude,  as  the  boundary  between  the  United 
States  and  British  America  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  to  the  summit 
of  the  Rocky  mountains.  Mr.  Calhoun  now  opened  the  negotiations  by 


JAMES  K.   POLK. 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  K.  POLK. 


697 


proposing  to  continue  this  line  to  the  Pacific.  The  British  minister  would 
not  consent  to  this,  but  proposed  to  extend  the  forty-ninth  parallel  from 
the  mountains  to  the  north  branch  of  the  Columbia,  and  then  to  make 
the  boundary  follow  that  stream  from  this  point  of  intersection  to  the  sea. 
Mr.  Calhoun  at  once  declined  to  accept  this  boundary,  and  the  further  con- 
sideration of  the  subject  was  postponed  until  Packenham  could  receive 
additional  instructions  from  his  government. 

During  the  presidential  campaign  of  1844  the  Democratic  party  adopted 
as  its  watchword,  "all  of  Oregon  or  none,"  and  the  excitement  upon  the 
question  ran  high.  The  election  of  Mr.  Polk  showed  that  the  American 
people  were  resolved  to  insist  upon  their  claim  to  Oregon,  and  when  the 
new  president  in  his  inaugural  address  took  the  bold  ground  that  the 


PORTLAND,    OREGON,   IN    1875 — FROM   EAST  SIDE  OF   WILLAMETTE. 

American  title  to  "  Oregon  territory  "  "  was  dear  and  indisputable,"  and 
declared  his  intention  to  maintain  it  at  the  cost  of  war  with  England,  the 
matter  assumed  a  serious  aspect,  and  for  a  while  it  seemed  that  party  pas- 
sion would  involve  the  two  countries  in  hostilities.  President  Polk,  upon 
a  calmer  consideration  of  the  subject,  caused  the  secretary  of  state  to 
reopen  the  negotiations  by  proposing  to  Great  Britain  the  forty-ninth 
parallel  of  latitude  as  a  boundary.  The  British  minister  declined  the 
proposition,  and  the  matter  was  dropped. 

According  to  the  treaties  of  1818  and  1828,  the  joint  occupation  of 
Oregon  could  be  terminated  by  either  party  by  giving  the  other  twelve 
months  notice.  The  president  now  proposed  to  give  the  required  notice, 
which  was  done  by  a  resolution  of  Congress.  This  put  an  end  to  the  old 
arrangement,  and  compelled  the  two  countries  to  make  a  new  settlement 


098 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


of  the  difficulty ;  and  this  was  the  object  of  the  president  in  terminating 
the  joint  occupation. 

The  subject  was  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Britisn  Parliament  by  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  who  expressed  his  regret  that  the  last  offer  of  the  United 
States  had  been  declined.  The  British  ministry  decided  at  length  to  re- 
open negotiations,  and  Sir  Richard  Packenham  shortly  after  communicated 
to  Mr.  Buchanan  the  willingness  of  his  government  to  accept  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel  as  a  boundary. 

The  time  at  which  the  joint  occupation  would  terminate  was  rapidly 
drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  president  was  anxious  to  settle  the  matter,  but 
at  the  same  time  was  not  willing  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  accept- 


STREET  IN  OLYMPIA,  WASHINGTON  TERRITORY. 

ing  a  boundary  which  fell  so  far  short  of  the  popular  expectations.  At 
the  suggestion  of  Senator  Benton,  of  Missouri,  he  asked  the  advice  of  the 
Senate  as  to  the  propriety  of  accepting  the  British  offer,  and  pledged  him- 
self to  be  guided  by  its  decision.  The  Senate  advised  him  to  accept  it, 
and  when  the  treaty  was  sent  to  it,  ratified  it  after  a  warm  debate  extend- 
ing over  two  days.  Thus  the  matter  was  brought  to  a  close.  By  the 
treaty,  which  was  concluded  in  1846,  the  forty-ninth  parallel  of  north 
latitude  was  made  the  boundary  between  the  United  States  and  the  Brit- 
ish possessions,  from  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  mountains  to  the  middle 
of  the  channel  between  Vancouver's  island  and  the  mainland,  and  thence 
southerly  through  the  middle  of  the  Straits  of  San  Juan  de  Fuca  to  the 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  K.  POLK.  699 

Pacific.  The  navigation  of  the  Columbia  river  and  its  main  northern 
branch  was  made  free  to  both  parties. 

In  the  meantime  the  Mexican  difficulty  had  been  found  much  harder 
of  settlement.  Mexico  had  never  acknowledged  the  independence  of 
Texas,  and  since  the  defeat  at  San  Jacinto  had  repeatedly  threatened  to 
restore  her  authority  over  the  Texans  by  force  of  arms.  She  warmly 
resented  the  annexation  of  Texas  by  the  United  States,  and  a  few  days 
after  that  event  was  completed,  General  Almonte,  the  Mexican  minister 
at  Washington,  entered  a  formal  protest  against  the  course  of  the  United 
States,  demanded  his  passports  and  left  the  country. 

Some  years  before  this  a  number  of  American  ships  trading  with  Mex- 
ican ports  had  beon  seized  and  plundered  by  the  Mexican  authorities,  who 
also  confiscated  the  property  of  a  number  of  American  residents  in  that 
country.  The  sufferers  by  these  outrages  appealed  for  redress  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  which  had  repeatedly  tried  to  negotiate 
with  Mexico  for  the  collection  of  these  claims,  which  amounted  to  six 
millions  of  dollars.  Mexico  made  several  promises  of  settlement,  but 
failed  to  comply  with  them.  In  1840,  however,  a  new  treaty  was  made 
between  that  country  and  the  United  States,  and  Mexico  pledged  herself 
to  pay  the  American  claims  in  twenty  annual  instalments  of  three  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  each.  Three  of  these  instalments  had  been  paid 
at  the  time  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  ;  but  Mexico  now  refused  to  make 
any  further  payment. 

Mexico  claimed  that  the  limits  of  Texas  properly  ended  at  the  Neuces 
river,  while  the  Texans  insisted  that  their  boundary  was  the  Rio  Grande, 
Thus  the  region  between  these  two  rivers  became  a  debatable  land,  claimed 
by  both  parties,  and  a  source  of  great  and  immediate  danger.  It  was 
evident  that  Mexico  was  about  to  occupy  this  region  with  her  troops,  and 
the  legislature  of  Texas,  alarmed  by  the  threatening  attitude  of  that  coun- 
try, called  upon  the  United  States  government  to  protect  its  territory. 
The  president  at  once  sent  General  Zachary  Taylor  with  a  force  of  fifteen 
hundred  regular  troops,  called  the  "  army  of  occupation,"  to  "  take  posi- 
tion in  the  country  between  the  Neuces  and  the  Rio  Grande,  and  to  repel 
any  invasion  of  the  Texan  territory."  General  Taylor  accordingly  took 
position  at  Corpus  Christi,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Neuces,  in  September, 
1845,  and  remained  there  until  the  spring  of  1846.  At  the  same  time 
a  squadron  of  war  vessels  under  Commodore  Conner  was  despatched  to 
the  Gulf  to  cooperate  with  General  Taylor.  Both  of  these  officers  "  were 
ordered  to  commit  no  act  of  hostility  against  Mexico  unless  she  declared 
war,  or  was  herself  the  aggressor  by  striking  the  first  blow." 

At  the  commencement  of  the  dispute  between  the  two  countries,  Her- 


700  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

rera  was  president  of  Mexico.  Although  diplomatic  communications 
had  ceased  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  he  was  anxious  to  settle 
the  quarrel  by  negotiation,  but  at  the  presidential  election  held  about  this 
time  Herrera  was  defeated,  and  Paredes,  who  was  bitterly  hostile  to  the 
United  States,  was  chosen  president  of  the  Mexican  republic.  Paredes 
openly  avowed  his  determination  to  drive  the  Americans  beyond  the 
Neuces. 

In  February,  1846,  General  Taylor  was  ordered  by  President  Polk  to 
advance  from  the  Neuces  to  a  point  on  the  Kio  Grande,  opposite  the 
Mexican  town  of  Matamoras,  and  establish  there  a  fortified  post,  in  order 
to  check  the  Mexican  forces  which  were  assembling  there  in  large  num- 
bers for  the  purpose  of  invading  Texas.  Taylor  at 'once  set  out,  and 
leaving  the  greater  part  of  his  stores  at  Point  Isabel,  on  the  Gulf,  ad- 
vanced to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  built  a  fort  and  established  a  camp  oppo- 
site and  within  cannon  shot  of  Matamoras.  General  Ampudia,  command- 
ing the  Mexican  forces  at  Matamoras,  immediately  notified  General 
Taylor  that  this  was  an  act  of  war  upon  Mexican  soil,  and  demanded  that 
he  should  "  break  up  his  camp  and  retire  beyond  the  Neuces  "  within 
twenty-four  hours.  Taylor  replied  that  he  was  acting  in  accordance  with 
the  orders  of  his  government,  which  was  alone  responsible  for  his  conduct, 
and  that  he  should  maintain  the  position  he  had  chosen.  He  pushed 
forward  the  work  on  his  fortifications  with  energy,  and  kept  a  close 
watch  upon  the  Mexicans.  Neither  commander  was  willing  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  beginning  the  war,  and  Ampudia,  notwithstanding  his 
threat,  remained  inactive.  His  course  did  not  satisfy  his  government, 
and  he  was  removed,  and  General  Arista  appointed  in  his  place.  Arista 
at  once  began  hostilities  by  interposing  detachments  of  his  army  between 
Taylor's  force  and  his  depot  of  supplies  at  Point  Isabel.  On  the  26th  of 
April  Taylor  sent  a  party  of  sixty  dragoons  under  Captain  Thornton  to 
reconnoitre  the  Mexican  lines.  The  dragoons  were  surprised  with  a  loss 
of  sixteen  killed.  The  remainder  were  made  prisoners,  and  Thornton 
alone  escaped.  This  was  the  first  blood  shed  in  the  war  with  Mexico. 

A  day  or  two  later,  being  informed  by  Captain  Walker,  who  with  his 
Texan  Rangers  was  guarding  the  line  of  comhiunication  with  Point 
Isabel,  that  the  Mexicans  were  threatening  the  latter  place  in  heavy 
force,  General  Taylor  left  Major  Brown  with  three  hundred  men  to  hold 
the  fort,  and  marched  to  Point  Isabel  to  relieve  that  place.  He  agreed 
with  Major  Brown  that  if  the  fort  should  be  attacked  or  hard  pressed,  the 
latter  should  notify  him  of  his  danger  by  firing  heavy  signal  guns  at  cer- 
tain intervals.  He  reached  Point  Isabel,  twenty  miles  distant,  on  the 
2d  of  May  without  meeting  any  opposition  on  the  march. 


THE  WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 


701 


General  Arista,  attributing  Taylor's  withdrawal  to  fear,  determined  to 
capture  the  fortification  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  On  the  3d  of 
May  he  opened  fire  upon  it  from  a  heavy  battery  at  Matamoras,  and  sent 
a  large  force  across  the  Rio  Grande,  which  took  position  in  the  rear  of  the 
fort  and  intrenched  themselves  there.  In  the  face  of  this  double  attack 
£he  little  garrison  defended  themselves  bravely,  but  at  length  Major 
Brown  fell  mortally  wounded.  The  command  devolved  upon  Captain 
Hawkins,  who  now  felt  himself  justified  in  warning  Taylor  of  his  danger, 
and  began  to  fire  the  signal  guns  agreed  upon. 

Taylor  was  joined  at  Point  Isabel  by  a  small  detachment,  and  his  force 


BATTLE  OP   PALO  ALTO. 

was  increased  to  twenty-three  hundred  men.  He  listened  anxiously  for 
the  booming  of  the  signal  guns  from  the  fort  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  at 
length  they  were  heard.  He  knew  that  the  need  of  assistance  must  be 
great,  as  the  little  band  in  the  fort  had  held  out  so  long  without  calling 
for  help,  and  he  at  once  set  out  to  join  them.  He  left  Point  Isabel  on 
the  7th  of  May,  taking  with  him  a  heavy  supply  train.  The  steady  firing 
of  the  signal  guns  from  Fort  Brown  (for  so  the  work  was  afterwards 
named  in  honor  of  its  gallant  commander)  urged  the  army  to  ite  greatest 
exertions. 

On  the  8th  of  May  the  Mexican  army,  six  thousand  strong,  was  dis- 
covered holding  a  strong  position  in  front  of  a  chaparral,  near  the  small 
stream  called  the  Palo  Alto,  intending  to  dispute  the  advance  of  the 
Americans.  Taylor  promptly  made  his  dispositions  to  attack  them.  Hii 


702 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


troops  were  ordered  to  drink  from  the  little  stream  and  to  fill  their  can- 
teens. The  train  was  closed  up,  and  the  line  was  formed  with  Major 
Ringgold's  light  battery  on  the  right,  Duncan's  battery  on  the  left,  and  a 
battery  of  eighteen-pounders  in  the  centre.  The  artillery  was  thrown 
well  in  front  of  the  infantry,  and  the  order  was  given  to  advance.  The 
Mexicans  at  once  opened  fire  with  their  batteries,  but  the  distance  v/as  too 
great  to  accomplish  anything.  The  American  batteries  did  not  reply 
until  they  had  gotten  within  easy  range,  when  they  opened  a  fire  the 
accuracy  and  rapidity  of  which  astonished  the  Mexicans.  Their  lines 
were  broken,  and  they  fell  back,  and  the  Americans  advanced  steadily 


DEATH  OP  MAJOR    RINGGOLD. 


through  the  chaparral,  which  had  been  set  on  fire  by  the  discharge  of 
cannon,  until  a  new  position  within  close  range  was  reached.  Paying  no 
attention  to  the  Mexican  artillery,  the  American  guns  directed  their  fire 
upon  the  enemy's  infantry  and  cavalry,  and  broke  them  again  and  again. 
The  battle  lasted  five  hours  and  ceased  at  nightfall.  It  was  fought 
entirely  by  the  artillery  of  the  two  armies,  and  was  won  by  the  superior 
handling  and  precision  of  the  American  guns.  The  loss  of  the  Mexicans 
was  four  hundred  killed  and  wounded ;  that  of  the  Americans  nine  killed 
and  forty-four  wounded.  Early  in  the  battle  Major  Ringgold  was  mor- 
tally wounded,  and  died  a  little  later.  He  was  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  gifted  officers  of  the  army,  and  to  him  was  chiefly  due  the  precision 


THE  WAR    WITH  MEXICO  703 

*nd  rapidity  of  movement  acquired  by  the  "  flying  artillery "  of  the 
American  army,  which  were  so  successfully  tested  during  this  war. 

The  American  army  encamped  on  the  battle-field,  and  the  next  morning, 
May  9th,  as  the  Mexicans  had  retreated,  leaving  their  dead  unburied, 
resumed  its  advance.  In  the  afternoon  the  Mexicans  were  discovered 
occupying  a  much  stronger  position  than  they  had  held  at  Palo  Alto. 
Their  line  was  formed  behind  a  ravine,  called  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  or  the 
Dry  River  of  Palms.  Their  flanks  were  protected  by  the  thick  chaparral, 
and  their  artillery  was  thrown  forward  beyond  the  ravine  and  protected 
by  an  intrenchment,  and  swept  the  road  by  which  the  Americans  must 
advance.  During  the  night  fresh  troops  had  joined  the  Mexican  army, 
and  had  increased  their  force  to  seven  thousand  men. 

Taylor  formed  his  line  with  his  artillery  in  the  centre.  The  artillery 
was  ordered  to  advance  along  the  road  commanded  by  the  Mexican  bat- 
tery, and  the  infantry  were  directed  to  move  as  rapidly  as  possible 
through  the  chaparral,  and  drive  out  the  Mexican  sharpshooters.  The 
infantry  executed  this  order  in  handsome  style,  but  the  chaparral  was  so 
dense  that  each  man  was  obliged  to  act  for  himself  as  he  forced  his  way 
through  it.  The  Mexican  battery  was  handled  with  great  skill  and  cool- 
ness, and  held  the  centre  in  check  until  some  time  after  the  infantry 
had  forced  their  way  close  to  the  edge  of  the  ravine.  At  this  juncture 
Captain  May  was  ordered  to  charge  the  Mexican  guns,  and  started  down 
the  road  at  a  trot.  As  he  reached  the  position  of  the  American  artillery, 
Lieutenant  Ridgely  suggested  that  May  should  halt  and  allow  him  to 
draw  the  Mexican  fire.  Ridgely  opened  a  rapid  fire  on  the  Mexican 
guns,  which  answered  immediately.  At  the  same  moment  May  dashed 
at  the  Mexican  battery  with  his  dragoons,  and  reached  it  before  the 
cannoneers  could  reload  their  pieces.  They  were  sabred  at  their  guns, 
and  the  battery  was  carried.  Captain  May  himself  made  a  prisoner  of 
General  La  Vega,  as  the  latter  was  in  the  act  of  discharging  one  of  the 
guns.  Leaving  the  battery  to  the  American  infantry  which  now  hurried 
forward  to  secure  it,  the  dragoons  charged  the  Mexican  centre  and  broke 
it.  The  whole  American  line  then  advanced  rapidly ;  the  Mexicans  gave 
way,  and  were  soon  flying  in  utter  confusion  towards  the  Rio  Grande, 
which  they  crossed  in  such  haste  that  many  of  them  were  drowned  in  the 
attempt  to  reach  the  Mexican  shore. 

General  Arista,  the  Mexican  commander,  .fled  alone  from  the  field, 
leaving  all  his  private  and  official  papers  behind  him.  The  Americans 
lost  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  men  killed  and  wounded ;  the  Mexicans 
twelve  hundred.  All  the  Mexican  artillery,  two  thousand  stand  of  arms, 
arid  six  hundred  mules  were  captured  by  the  Americans. 


704  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

General  Taylor  advanced  from  the  battle-field  to  Fort  Brown,  the  gar- 
rison of  which  had  heard  the  distant  roar  of  the  battle,  and  had  seen  the 
flight  of  the  Mexicans  across  the  Rio  Grande. 

The  defeat  of  the  Mexicans  at  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma  had 
greatly  disheartened  them.  They  not  only  abandoned  their  intention  to 
invade  Texas,  but  gave  up  all  hope  of  holding  the  Rio  Grande  frontier. 
On  the  night  of  the  17th  of  May  their  array  evacuated  Matamoras,  and 
retreated  upon  Monterey.  On  the  18th  the  American  army  crossed  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  occupied  Matamoras.  General  Taylor  scrupulously 
respected  the  municipal  laws  of  the  town,  and  protected  the  citizens  in  the 
exercise  of  their  civil  and  religious  privileges.  All  supplies  needed  by 
the  troops  were  purchased  at  a  liberal  price,  and  jo  plundering  or  disorder 
was  allowed  or  attempted. 

In  the  meantime  the  news  of  the  attack  upon  the  dragoons  under  Cap- 
tain Thornton  had  reached  the  United  States,  and  with  it  the  rumor  that 
the  American  army  was  confronted  on  the  Texan  side  of  the  Rio  Grande 
by  a  vastly  superior  force  of  Mexicans,  and  that  its  destruction  was 
almost  certain.  The  president  sent  a  special  message  to  Congress  on  the 
llth  of  May,  in  which  he  informed  that  body  that  "war  existed  by  the 
act  of  Mexico,"  and  called  upon  Congress  to  recognize  the  state  of  war, 
and  to  provide  for  its  support  by  appropriating  the  necesrary  funds,  and 
to  authorize  him  to  call  for  volunteers.  Under  the  impression  that 
the  perilous  situation  of  Taylor's  army  made  instant  action  necessary, 
Congress  appropriated  ten  millions  of  dollars  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
war,  and  authorized  the  president  to  accept  the  services  of  ffty  thousand 
Volunteers.  One-half  of  this  force  was  to  be  mustered  into  the  service; 
the  remainder  held  as  a  reserve.  The  president's  call  was  responded  to 
with  enthusiasm  all  over  the  land,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  *veeks  two 
hundred  thousand  volunteers  offered  their  services.  General  Wool  was 
ordered  to  muster  the  volunteers  accepted  by  the  president  into  the 
service. 

Preparations  were  made  by  the  American  government  to  prorecute  the 
"war  with  vigor.  At  the  suggestion  of  General  Scott  a  comprehensive  plan 
of  operations  was  adopted.  Two  separate  expeditions  were  to  be  organ- 
ized. One,  called  the  "Army  of  the  West,"  was  to  assemble  it  Fort 
Leavenworth,  on  the  Missouri,  to  cross  the  plains  and  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains, and  to  invade  and  conquer  the  northern  provinces  of  Mexico.  A 
powerful  fleet  was  to  be  sent  around  Cape  Horn  to  attack  the  Mexican 
ports  on  the  Pacific  and  cooperate  with  the  Army  of  the  Wer*.  -A 
second  force,  called  the  "Army  of  the  Centre,"  was  to  advance  from 
Texas  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  and,  if  it  waa  thought  best,  was  to  co- 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO. 


705 


operate  with  the  "Army  of  Occupation"  under  General  Taylor.  As  we 
shall  see,  the  plan  was  afterwards  modified,  and  the  advance  upon  the 
Mexican  capital  was  made  from  Yera  Cruz  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Towards  the  last  of  May  the  news  of  the  brilliant  victories  on  the  Rio 
Grande  was  received  at  Washington,  and  was  hailed  with  rejoicings 
throughout  the  Union.  On  the  30th  of  May  Congress  conferred  upon 
General  Taylor  the  rank  of  major-general  by  brevet  as  a  reward  for  his 
Victories. 

On  the  23d  of  May  the  Mexican  Congress  formally  declared  war 
against  the  United  States,  and  the  call  of  the  Mexican  government  for 


ST.  JOSEPH,   MISSOURI. 

volunteers  for  the  defence  of  that  country  was  responded  to  with 
enthusiasm. 

Thanks  to  the  energy  of  General  Wool,  twelve  thousand  volunteers 
were  mustered  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  in  six  weeks.  Nine 
thousand  of  these  were  sent  forward  rapidly  to  reinforce  General  Taylor^ 
and  with  the  remainder  Wool  marched  to  San  Antonio,  in  Texas,  to 
await  further  orders. 

General  Taylor  had  been  delayed  at  Matamoras  for  three  months  by 
the  weakness  ^f  his  force ;  but  as  soon  as  reinforcements  reached  him,  he 
prepared  to  advance  into  the  interior.  His  first  movement  was  directed 
Against  the  city  of  Monterey,  the  capital  of  the  State  of  New  Leon,  where 
the  Mexicans  had  collected  an  army.  His  army  numbered  about  nine 
thousand  men  of  all  arms,  and  of  these  a  little  over  twenty-three  hundred 
men  were  detached  for  garrisons,  leaving  an  active  force  of  six  thousand 
45 


706  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

six  hundred  and  seventy  men.  On  the  20th  of  August  General  Worth's 
division  marched  from  Matamoras,  and  a  fortnight  later  General  Taylor 
set  out  from  the  Rio  Grande  with  the  main  army.  On  the  9th  of  Sep- 
tember the  American  forces  encamped  within  three  miles  of  Monterey, 

Monterey  is  an  old  Spanish  city,  nearly  three  hundred  years  old.  It 
lies  in  a  beautiful  valley,  and  is  about  two  miles  in  length  by  one  mile  in 
breadth.  The  mountains  approach  close  to  it,  and  protect  it  on  all  sides 
but  two.  On  one  of  these  sides  it  is  approached  from  the  northeast  by 
the  road  from  Matamoras,  and  on  the  other  by  a  rocky  gorge  through 
which  runs  the  road  connecting  the  city  witli  Saltillo.  The  city  has  three 
large  plazas  or  public  squares,  and  is  built  like  the  towns  of  old  Spain, 
with  narrow  streets,  and  houses  of  stone  one  story  in  height,  with  strong 
walls  of  masonry  rising  about  three  feet  above  the  flat  roofs.  The  city 
itself  is  enclosed  with  strong  \valls,  intended  for  artillery.  Every  means 
of  defence  had  been  exhausted  by  the  Mexicans.  Forty-two  heavy  cannon 
were  mounted  on  the  city  walls,  the  streets  were  barricaded,  and  the  flat 
roofs  and  stone  walls  of  the  houses  were  arranged  for  infantry.  Each 
house  was  a  separate  fortress.  A  strongly  fortified  building  of  heavy 
Btone,  called  the  Bishop's  palace,  stood  on  the  side  of  a  hill  without  the 
city  walls,  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  city  were  redoubts  held  by  in- 
fantry and  artillery.  The  command  of  Monterey  and  its  defences  was 
held  by  General  Ampudia,  and  the  garrison  consisted  of  ten  thousand 
veteran  troops. 

Ten  days  were  passed  by  the  American  army  in  reconnoitring  the 
town,  its  peculiar  situation  rendering  such  movements  very  difficult.  On 
the  afternoon  of  the  20th  of  September  General  Worth  was  ordered  to 
turn  the  hill  on  which  stood  the  Bishop's  palace,  gain  the  Saltillo  road, 
and  carry  the  works  in  that  direction.  This  movement  was  successfully 
accomplished;  but  in  order  to  gain  the  desired  position  Worth  was 
obliged  to  cut  a  new  road  across  the  mountain.  His  troops  bivouacked 
for  the  night  just  out  of  range  of  the  enemy's  guns.  During  the  night 
the  Americans  built  a  battery  to  command  the  Mexican  citadel. 

On  the  morning  of  the  21st  of  September  the  American  artillery 
opened  fire  upon  Monterey,  and  the  infantry  advanced  to  carry  the  Mexi- 
can works.  The  brigade  of  General  Quitman  carried  a  strong  work  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  town,  and  at  the  same  time  General  Butler,  with  a 
part  of  his  division,  forced  his  way  into  the  town  on  the  right.  While 
these  operations  were  in  progress  General  Worth's  division  seized  the 
8altillo  road,  and  secured  the  enemy's  line  of  retreat.  Several  fortified 
positions  along  the  heights  were  also  carried,  and  their  guns  turned  upoo 
the  Bishop?s  palace. 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO.  707 

During  the  night  9f  the  21st  the  Mexicans  evacuated  the  lower  part 
of  the  city,  but  kept  their  hold  upon  the  citadel  and  the  upper  town, 
from  which  they  maintained  a  vigorous  fire  upon  the  American  positions. 
At  daybreak,  on  the  22d,  Worth's  division,  advancing  in  the  midst  of  a 
fog  and  rain,  carried  the  crest  commanding  the  Bishop's  palace,  and  by 
noon  had  captured  the  palace  itself.  The  guns  of  the  captured  works 
were  now  directed  upon  the  enemy  in  the  city  below. 

The  enemy  had  fortified  the  city  so  thoroughly  that  the  Americans 
were  not  only  forced  to  carry  the  various  barricades  in  succession,  but 
were  compelled  to  break  through  the  walls  of  the  fortified  houses,  and 
advance  from  house  to  house  in  this  way.  One  or  two  field-pieces  were 
drawn  up  to  the  flat  roofs,  and  the  Mexicans  were  driven  from  point  to 
point  during  the  22d  and  23d,  until  they  were  confined  to  the  citadel  and 
plaza.  On  the  night  of  the  23d  General  Ampudia  opened  negotiations, 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  surrendered  the  town  and  garrison  to 
General  Taylor.  The  Mexican  soldiers  were  allowed  to  march  out  with 
the  honors  of  war.  General  Taylor  was  induced  to  grant  this  concession 
by  his  generous  desire  to  spare  the  people  of  the  city  the  sufferings  which 
would  have  been  caused  by  a  prolonged  defence. 

The  Mexican  commander  represented  to  General  Taylor  that  the 
Mexican  government  was  sincerely  anxious  for  peace,  and  that  it  would 
respond  favorably  to  any  fair  propositions  upon  this  subject  that  might 
be  laid  before  it.  In  order  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  such  an  arrange- 
ment of  the  war,  and  influenced  by  the  scarcity  of  provisions — the 
American  army  having  at  the  time  but  ten  days'  rations — Taylor  agreed 
to  a  cessation  of  hostilities  for  eight  weeks,  subject  to  the  consent  of  his 
government.  The  Mexican  army  withdrew  from  Monterey,  and  an 
American  garrison,  under  General  Worth,  as  governor,  occupied  the  city. 
The  main  body  of  Taylor's  army  then  went  into  camp  at  Walnut  Springs, 
three  miles  distant  from  Monterey.  The  Americans  lost  four  hundred 
and  eighty-eight  men,  killed  and  wounded,  in  the  storming  of  Monterey. 
The  Mexican  loss  was  much  greater. 

In  the  meantime  the  government  of  the  United  States  had  been  led 
into  a  terrible  blunder  by  its  desire  to  bring  the  war  to  a  speedy  close. 
Santa  Anna,  who  had  been  driven  out  of  Mexico  by  one  of  the  numer- 
ous revolutions  in  that  country,  was  living  in  exile  at  Havana.  He 
declared  that  if  he  were  allowed  to  return  to  Mexico  he  would  use  his 
influence  in  favor  of  peace,  and  would  secure  a  treaty  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  that  end.  He  was  sure  he  could  carry  out  this  scheme,  and  only 
needed  to  be  sustained  by  the  United  States  government  with  the  sum  of 
three  or  four  millions  of  dollars  to  enable  him  to  get  control  of  the 


708  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Mexican  government.  President  Polk  was  completely  duped  by  the 
"  illustrious  exile,"  and  not  only  urged  Congress  to  appropriate  the  sum 
of  two  millions  of  dollars  to  assist  Santa  Anna,  but  issued  an  order  to 
Commodore  Conner,  commanding  the  American  fleet  in  the  Gulf,  to  per- 
mit Santa  Anna  to  pass  through  his  lines  and  return  to  Mexico.  Santa 
Anna  at  once  availed  himself  of  this  order,  and  landing  at  Vera  Cruz 
hastened  into  the  interior. 

Once  in  Mexico  Santa  Anna  thought  no  more  of  his  promises  to  Presi- 
dent Polk.  He  set  to  work  to  gain  possession  of  the  government,  but 
not  with  a  view  to  making  peace.  He  issued  a  manifesto,  in  which  he 
called  on  his  countrymen  to  rally  under  his  banner  for  the  defence  of  their 
homes  and  country.  He  assured  them  of  his  undying  hatred  of  the 
"perfidious  Yankees,"  pointed  to  the  reverses  of  the  government  of 
Paredes,  and  declared  that  he  alone  could  save  the  country.  His  appeals 
were  successful.  The  Mexican  people  rose  at  his  call,  deposed  Paredes, 
and  elected  Santa  Anna  president.  The  repeated  defeats  of  their  armies 
were  forgotten  in  the  new  enthusiasm  which  Santa  Anna's  presence  and 
proclamations  aroused,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  months  that  leader 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  well-equipped  army  of  twenty  thousand 
men,  which  was  being  steadily  increased  by  the  arrival  of  fresh  recruits. 

In  the  meantime  General  Wool,  with  a  reinforcement  of  three  thousand 
troops,  had  marched  from  San  Antonio  to  join  General  Taylor.  He  had 
reached  Monclova,  about  seventy  miles  from  Monterey,  when  he  heard 
of  the  capture  of  the  latter  place  by  Taylor.  His  route  had  lain  across 
an  uninhabited  and  desert  region,  in  which  the  troops  suffered  greatly  for 
want  of  water.  He  was  directed  by  General  Taylor  to  take  position  in  a 
fertile  district  in  the  province  of  Durango,  where  he  could  obtain  sup- 
plies for  his  own  command  as  well  as  for  the  army  at  Monterey.  General 
Wool  conciliated  the  people  of  the  region  occupied  by  him  by  protecting 
them  in  their  liberties  and  property,  and  paying  fair  prices  for  all  the 
supplies  furnished  by  them.  The  Mexicans  were  far  better  treated  by 
the  conquering  army  than  they  had  been  by  their  own  rulers. 

In  accordance  with  orders  received  from  Washington  General  Taylor 
put  an  end  to  the  armistice  on  the  13th  of  November.  On  the  15th 
General  Worth,  with  seven  hundred  men,  occupied  Saltillo,  the  capital  of 
the  State  of  Coahuila.  Leaving  a  garrison  in  Monterey,  under  General 
Butler,  Taylor  moved  towards  the  coast  to  attack  Tampico.  Upon  reach- 
ing Victoria,  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Tamaulipas,  he  learned  that 
Tampico  had  surrendered  to  the  United  States  squadron,  under  Commo- 
dore Conner,  on  the  14th  of  November.  Victoria  was  occupied  on  the 
29th  of  December.  The  troops  under  General  Wool  were  now  ordered 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO.  709 

to  join  General  Worth  at  Saltillo,  and  General  Taylor  prepared  to  resume 
his  forward  movement  into  the  heart  of  Mexico.  At  this  juncture  his 
offensive  operations  were  suddenly  brought  to  a  close. 

The  plan  of  the  invasion  adopted  by  the  government  of  the  United 
States  had  been  so  far  modified  that  the  "  Army  of  the  Centre/;  under 
General  Winficld  Scott,  was  ordered  to  capture  Vcra  Cruz,  the  principal 
Mexican  port  on  the  Gulf,  and  advance  upon  the  city  of  Mexico  from 
that  point.  Troops  in  sufficient  numbers .  could  not  be  drawn  from  the 
United  States,  and  General  Scott,  as  commander-in-chief,  decided  to  draw 
the  desired  number  of  men  from  Taylor's  army.  The  order  for  the  with- 
drawal of  these  troops  reached  General  Taylor  just  as  he  was  about  to 
resume  active  operations.  Taylor  was  keenly  disappointed  at  being  thus 
condemned  to  inactivity,  but  like  the  true  soldier  that  he  was  at  once 
obeyed  the  orders  sent  him.  Generals  Worth  and  Quitman  with  their 
divisions,  and  the  greater  portion  of  the  volunteers  who  had  come  out 
with  General  Wool,  were  at  once  despatched  to  the  Gulf  coast  to  join  the 
expedition  against  Vera  Cruz.  The  withdrawal  of  these  troops  left 
General  Taylor  with  a  very  small  force.  During  the  menth  of  January 
and  the  early  part  of  February,  1847,  reinforcements  from  the  United 
States  increased  his  army  to  about  six  thousand  men.  A  portion  of  these 
was  placed  in  garrison  at  Monterey  and  Saltillo,  leaving  General  Taylor 
about  forty-seven  hundred  effective  troops,  of  whom  but  six  hundred 
were  regulars. 

Early  in  January,  1847,  General  Scott  sent  Lieutenant  Richey  with 
an  escort  of  cavalry  to  convey  a  despatch  to  General  Taylor.  Lieutenant 
Richey  was  killed  by  the  Mexicans  on  the  way,  and  his  despatches  were 
forwarded  to  Santa  Anna,  who  learned  from  them  the  American  plan  for 
the  invasion  of  Mexico.  He  at  once  resolved  upon  his  own  course. 
Relying  upon  the  strength  of  Vera  Cruz  to  hold  Scott's  army  in  check, 
he  determined  to  attack  General  Taylor  at  once,  and  crush  him.  By  the 
most  energetic  and  despotic  measures  he  silenced  the  opposition  which 
prevailed  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  obtained  both  men  and  money  for 
his  attempt.  On  the  26th  of  January  he  began  his  march  upon  Saltillo 
with  twenty-three  thousand  well-armed  and  equipped  men,  and  twenty 
pieces  of  artillery. 

The  Mexican  army  had  reached  San  Louis  Potosi,  about  sixty  miles 
south  of  Saltillo,  when  General  Wool,  commanding  at  the  latter  place, 
learned  of  their  approach.  He  at  once  notified  General  Taylor,  who 
advanced  with  his  whole  effective  force  from  Monterey  to  Saltillo.  As 
the  enemy  continued  to  approach,  Taylor  left  his  stores  at  Saltillo,  and 
moved  rapidly  to  Agua  Nueva,  eighteen  miles  beyond  Saltillo,  on  the 


710  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

road  to  San  Louis  Potosi.  His  design  was  to  secure  the  southern  end  of 
the  pass  through  the  Sierra  Nevada.  With  this  pass  in  the  possession  of 
'.he  Americans  the  Mexican  army  would  be  compelled  to  fight  at  once,  as 
the  country  in  their  rear  was  incapable  of  supplying  them  with  provi- 
sions. The  reports  of  the  reconnoitring  parties  made  it  evident  that  the 
Mexican  force  was  vastly  superior  to  that  of  the  Americans,  and  General 
Taylor  also  learned  that  a  strong  body  of  Mexican  cavalry,  under  Gen- 
eral Minon,  was  some  distance  to  the  left  of  his  position,  which  could  be 
turned.  A  daring  reconnoissance  was  made  by  Major  M'Culloch,  of  the 
Texan  Rangers.  He  entered  the  Mexican  camp,  passed  through  it,  and 
obtained  accurate  information  of  their  numbers,  and  regained  his  own 
.lines  in  safety. 

Upon  receipt  of  M'Culloch's  intelligence,  and  the  report  of  the  effort 
of  the  Mexican  cavalry  to  turn  his  left,  General  Taylor  fell  back  from 
Agua  Nueva  to  a  new  position,  eleven  miles  higher  up  the  valley,  on  the 
21st  of  February. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  American  army  was  made  in  good  time.  Santa 
Anna  had  sent  Minon  with  the  cavalry  to  gain  the  rear  of  Taylor's 
army,  and  at  the  same  time  endeavored,  by  a  forced  march  of  fifty  miles, 
to  surprise  General  Taylor  at  Agua  Nueva.  Upon  arriving  in  front  of 
that  place,  he  found  to  his  astonishment  and  disappointment  that  Taylor 
had  abandoned  his  position.  Interpreting  this  movement  as  a  flight,  the 
Mexican  commander  pushed  on  in  pursuit  of  his  adversary,  and  came  up 
with  him  on  the  rooming  of  the  22d  of  February. 

The  position  chosen  by  General  Taylor  was  at  the  north  end  of  the 
valley  known  as  Las  Angosturas,  or  the  Narrows,  and  near  the  hacienda 
or  plantation  known  as  Buena  Vista,  from  which  latter  place  the  battle 
took  its  name.  It  was  one  of  great  strength.  Its  flanks  were  protected 
by  the  mountains  which  rose  abruptly  from  the  defile,  and  -the  ground  in 
front  was  broken  by  numerous  ravines  and  gullies.  The  American  forces 
were  disposed  so  as  to  secure  every  advantage  afforded  by  the  nature  of 
the  ground,  and  the  road  through  the  pass — the  key  to  the  whole  position 
— was  swept  by  the  fire  of  the  artillery.  The  troops  were  in  high  spirits, 
It  was  "Washington's  birthday,  and  this  incident  was  generally  com- 
mented upon  as  a  good  omen. 

About  noon  a  Mexican  officer  brought  a  note  to  General  Taylor,  in 
which  Santa  Anna  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  American  army.  This 
demand  was  refused,  and  skirmishing  at  once  began.  During  the  after- 
noon Santa  Anna  sent  a  force  under  General  Ampudia  to  ascend  the 
mountains  and  turn  the  American  left.  This  brought  on  severe  skirmish- 
ing in  this  quarter,  but  nothing  definite  was  accomplished  during  the 


THE   WAR   WITH  MEXICO.  711 

afternoon.  Late  in  the  afternoon  the  Mexican  cavalry  under  General 
Minon,  which  had  passed  the  mountains,  appeared  in  the  plains  north  of 
Saltillo.  Minon  was  ordered  to  halt  in  the  position  he  had  gained  and 
await  the  result  of  the  battle  of  the  next  day  at  Buena  Vista.  His 
.appearance  caused  great  anxiety  to  General  Taylor,  who  hastened  to 
Saltillo  with  reinforcements  after  nightfall,  as  he  feared  Minon  would 
seek  to  capture  that  place. 

During  the  night  of  the  22d  Santa  Anna  reinforced  the  column  under 
Ampudia,  and  opened  the  battle  at  daybreak  on  the  23d  of  February,  by 
endeavoring  to  turn  the  American  left.  A  little  later  he  opened  fire  from 
his  artillery,  and  moved  forward  three  powerful  columns  of  attack  against 
the  American  centre.  The  movement  of  the  column  of  Ampudia  was 
successful,  the  left  of  the  American  line  was  completely  turned,  but  the 
attack  upon  the  centre  was  repulsed  by  the  splendid  fire  of  the  American 
batteries. 

At  this  moment  General  Taylor  arrived  upon  the  field  from  Saltillo, 
bringing  with  him  May's  dragoons,  several  companies  of  Mississippi 
riflemen,  and  a  portion  of  the  Arkansas  cavalry,  embracing  every  man 
that  could  be  spared  from  Saltillo.  He  had  come  at  a  critical  moment, 
for  the  turning  of  his  left  flank  by  Ampudia  had  neutralized  the  natural 
advantage  of  the  position.  Many  of  the  troops  were  in  full  retreat  upon 
Buena  Vista,  and  nothing  but  the  courage  and  constancy  of  those  who 
yet  remained  firm  could  save  the  day.  By  great  exertions  Colonel 
Jefferson  Davis  rallied  the  greater  part  of  his  own  regiment — the  Missis- 
sippi rifles — and  a  part  of  the  Second  Indiana,  and  by  a  rapid  advance 
drove  back  a  strong  Mexican  column  in  his  front.  He  had  scarcely 
accomplished  this  when  he  was  assailed  by  a  body  of  one  thousand 
splendid  Mexican  lancers.  Davis  quickly  formed  his  own  men  and  the 
Second  and  Third  Indiana  in  the  shape  of  the  letter  V,  with  the  opening 
towards  the  enemy,  and  posted  Sherman's  battery  on  his  left.  The  line 
thus  formed  awaited  in  silence  the  approach  of  the  Mexican  cavalry, 
which  came  on  at  a  gallop.  As  they  drew  near  the  opening  of  this 
terrible  V  the  Mexicans,  who  had  expected  the  Americans  to  fire,  when 
they  intended  to  dash  in  upon  them  before  the  men  could  reload,  were 
astonished  at  the  silence  with  which  they  were  received,  and  slackened 
their  pace  until  they  came  to  a  walk  within  eighty  yards  of  the  opening 
of  the  angle.  In  an  instant  Davis  gave  the  command,  and  his  men  took 
deliberate- aim.  Then  a  volley  flashed  from  the  rifles  and  swept  away  the 
head  of  the  Mexican  column.  The  next  moment  Sherman's  guns 
opened  upon  the  cavalry  with  grape  and  canister.  Under  this  combined 
fire  horses  and  lancers  fell  in  great  numbers,  forming  a  barricade  ovei 


712 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


which  the  enemy  could  not  pass,  and  the  Mexicans,  seized  with  a  panic, 
wheeled  about  and  fled  in  confusion. 

While  this  attack  was  in  progress  the  Mexicans  sent  a  body  of  cavalry 
under  Torrejon  to  seize  the  plantation  of  Buena  Vista.  Torrejon  made 
his  attack  with  vigor,  but  was  driven  back  by  the  Kentucky  and 
Arkansas  volunteers,  assisted  by  Colonel  May's  dragoons.  Colonel 
Yell,  of  the  Arkansas  regiment,  was  killed  and  Torrejou  was  wounded  in 
this  part  of  the  engagement. 

During  all  this  while  a  steady  cannonade  had  been  in  progress  along 
the  centre  of  the  American  line.  The  Mexicans  endeavored  to  silence 
the  American  batteries,  but  without  success. 

Santa  Anna  now  sent  a  strong  force  to  pass  around  the  American  left 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  MEXICAN  RIGHT  WING  AT  BUENA  VISTA. 

and  gain  the  rear  of  Taylor's  line ;  and  this  force  was  joined  by  a  part 
of  Torrejon's  command,  which  was  retreating  from  Buena  Vista.  The 
movement  was  detected  by  Colonel  May,  who  met  it  with  his  cavalry 
and  several  companies  of  Illinois  and  Indiana  volunteers.  General 
Taylor  sent  to  his  assistance  all  the  cavalry  he  could  spare  and  Bragg's 
battery.  The  retreat  of  the  Mexicans,  who  had  passed  beyond  the 
American  left,  Avas  cut  off,  and  they  were  driven  in  confusion  to  the  base 
of  the  mountain,  while  Bragg's  guns  showered  canister  upon  them  and 
increased  the  panic  which  had  set  in  among  them.  It  seemed  that  the 
whole  Mexican  column,  numbering  five  thousand  men,  must  surrender 


THE   WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 


713 


or  be  exterminated.  In  this  emergency  the  Mexican  commander  raised 
the  white  flag,  and  asked  for  a  parley,  professing  to  have  a  message  from 
Santa  Anna  to  General  Taylor,  and  the  American  guns  ceased  firing. 
Before  the  trick  *,vas  discovered  the  Mexican  right  escaped  under  the 
cover  of  the  flag  of  truce  by  passing  along  the  base  of  the  mountain  to  a 
point  from  which  they  rejoined  their  main  army. 

Santa  Anna  now  brought  up  his  reserves,  and  late  in  the  afternoon 
made  a  determined  attack  upon  the  American  right,  which  had  been 
greatly  weakened  to  assist  the  troops  engaged  in  repelling  the  attack 
on  the  left.  The  Mexican  column,  twelve  thousand  strong,  easily 
drove  back  the  few  scattered  volunteers  that  disputed  their  advance, 


GENEllAJL,   TAYLOU   THANKING   CAPTAIN   BRAGG   AT   BUENA   VISTA. 

and  captured  O'Brien's  battery,  which  was  without  infantry  support,  but 
not  until  every  man  had  been  killed  or  wounded.  Washington's  guns 
now  opened  upon  the  enemy,  and  succeeded  in  holding  their  cavalry  in 
check  for  a  moment.  The  Mexican  infantry  pushed  on,  firing  as  they 
advanced,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  crisis  of  the  battle  was  at  hand. 
The  battle  had  been  going  on  for  eight  hours,  and  the  American  troops 
\vere  greatly  exhausted  by  the  unusual  exertions  they  had  been  subjected 
to;  while  the  Mexican  column,  consisting  mainly  of  their  reserves,  was 
fresh,  and  four  times  as  strong  as  the  whole  American  army.  Keenly 
alive  to  his  danger  Taylor  exerted  himself  in  every  possible  way  to  bring 
up  his  scattered  regiments  in  time  to  save  the  position.  The  flying 
rtillery  of  Captain  Bragg  was  the  first  to  reach  the  field.  There  was 


714  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

not  an  infantry  soldier  near  to  support  him,  and  the  salvation  of  the  armj 
depended  upon  Bragg's  efforts.  He  unlimbered  his  guns  within  a  few 
yards  of  the  rapidly  advancing  Mexicans,  and  poured  in  discharge  after 
discharge  with  a  rapidity  which  seemed  wonderful.  The  Mexican 
advance  was  checked,  and  Sherman  now  came  up  and  opened  fire  from 
his  guns  upon  them.  Washington's  battery  a  little  later  joined  in  the 
fire.  The  Mississippi  and  Indiana  volunteers  now  reached  the  field, 
and  made  a  spirited  attack  upon  the  enemy's  right  flank.  Under  thia 
terrible  fire  the  Mexicans  wavered  for  a  few  moments,  and  then  broke  in 
confusion  and  fled  from  the  field. 

The  Mexicans  made  no  further  attack  during  the  day,  and  that  night 
Santa  Anna,  abandoning  his  wounded,  and  leaving  his  dead  unburied, 
retreated  rapidly  towards  Agua  Nueva.  The  American  loss  in  the  battle 

of  Buena  Vista  was  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  killed,  and  four  hundred  and  fifty-six 
wounded.  That  of  the  Mexicans  was  over 
two  thousand  killed  and  wounded,  including 
many  officers  of  high  rank.  Taylor  followed 
the  Mexican  army  on  the  24th  as  far  as 
Agua  Nueva,  and  collecting  their  wounded, 
removed  them  to  Saltillo,  where  they  were 
attended  by  the  American  surgeons. 

The  victory  of  Buena  Vista  was  decisive 
FKEMONT.  of  the  war.     It  saved  the  valley  of  the  Rio 

Grande  from  invasion  by  a  victorious  Mexican 

army,  and  enabled  the  expedition  of  General  Scott  against  Vera  Cruz 
to  proceed  without  delay  to  the  accomplishment  of  its  objects.  It  also 
greatly  disheartened  the  Mexican  people,  and  during  the  remainder 
of  the  year  Taylor's  army  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  hold  the  country 
it  occupied. 

General  Taylor  remained  at  Agua  Nueva  until  he  was  satisfied  that  no 
further  trouble  was  to  be  apprehended  from  the  Mexican  army,  and  then 
returned  by  easy  stages  to  his  camp  at  Walnut  Springs,  near  Monterey, 
which  he  reached  by  the  last  of  March.  In  the  summer  of  1847,  leaving 
General  Wool  in  command  of  the  army,  General  Taylor  returned  to  the 
United  States,  where  he  was  received  with  distinguished  honor. 

While  these  events  were  going  on  in  Mexico  Captain  John  C.  Fremont, 
of  the  United  States  army,  had  been  engaged  in  prosecuting  the  discoveries 
in  the  Rocky  mountain  region,  which  he  had  begun  in  1843,  in  which 
year  he  had  explored  the  valley  known  as  the  Great  Basin,  the  region 
of  tlie  Great  Salt  lake,  and  the  valleys  of  the  Sacramento  and  San 


THE  WAR    WITH  MEXICO. 


715 


Joaquin,  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  May,  1845,  Fremont  set  out  on  his 
third  expedition,  and  passed  the  winter  in  the  valley  of  the  San  Joaquin, 
then  Mexican  territory.  In  May,  1846,  he  received  orders  from  Wash- 
ington to  move  into  California  and  counteract  any  foreign  scheme  for 
securing  that  Territory,  and  to  conciliate  the  good-will  of  the  inhabitants 
toward  the  United  States.  Fremont  had  but  sixty  men  with  him,  but 
he  at  once  moved  into  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento.  The  Mexican 


POINT  ARENA  LIGHTHOUSE — COAST  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

inhabitants  were  seriously  considering  at  this  time  whether  they  should 
massacre  the  American  settlers,  or  whether,  in  the  event  of  a  war  between 
Mexico  and  the  United  States,  they  should  place  California  under  the 
protection  of  Great  Britain.  Fremont  was  informed  of  these  plots,  and, 
though  no  war  existed  as  yet  between  the  two  republics,  he  also  learned 
that  the  Mexican  General  De  Castro  was  advancing  to  drive  him  out  of 
California.  The  American  settlers  nocked  to  Fremont's  camp,  with  their 
arms  and  horses,  and  he  soon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  considerable 


716.  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

force.  He  was  thus  enabled  to  repulse  De  Castro's  attack,  and,  after  a 
few  conflicts,  to  drive  him  from  Upper  California.  By  July,  1846,  the 
Mexican  authority  was  entirely  overthrown  in  Upper  California,  and  the 
flag  of  independence  was  raised  by  the  settlers. 

The  American  squadron  in  the  Pacific  was  commanded  by  Commodore 
SI  oat,  who  was  ordered  by  the  secretary  of  the  navy  to  seize  the  port  of 
San  Francisco  as  soon  as  he  was  reliably  informed  of  the  existence  of  war 
between  the  two  countries,  and  to  occupy  or  blockade  such  other  Mexican 
ports  as  his  force  would  permit.  In  the  early  summer  of  1846  the 
American  squadron  was  lying  at  Mazatlan.  A  British  squadron  under 
Admiral  Seymour  also  lay  in  the  har.bor,  and  the  American  commodore 
became  convinced  that  the  British  admiral  was  watching  him  for  the 
purpose  of  interfering  with  his  designs  upon  California.  He  therefore 
resolved  to  get  rid  of  him,  and  put  to  sea  and  sailed  to  the  westward,  as 
if  making  for  the  Sandwich  islands.  The  British  fleet  followed  him 
promptly,  but  in  the  night  the  commodore  tacked  and  sailed  up  the  coast 
to  Monterey,  while  the  British  continued  their  course  to  the  islands. 
Sloat  was  coldly  received  at  Monterey  by  the  authorities.  Hearing  of 
the  action  of  Fremont  and  the  American  settlers,  the  commodore  a  few 
days  later  took  possession  of  the  town,  and  sent  a  courier  to  Fremont, 
who  at  once  joined  him  with  his  mounted  men.  California  was  now 
taken  possession  of  in  the  name  of  the  United  States. 

About  the  middle  of  July  Commodore  Stockton  arrived  in  the  harbor, 
and  succeeded  Commodore  Sloat,  who  returned  home,  in  the  command 
of  the  squadron.  The  next  day  Admiral  Seymour  arrived  at  Monterey. 
He  saw  he  was  too  late,  and  quietly  submitted  to  what  he  could  not  pre- 
vent, though  he  was  greatly  astonished  to  find  the  town  in  possession  of 
the  American  forces.  On  the  17th  of  August  Fremont  and  Stockton 
occupied  Los  Angeles,  the  capital  of  Upper  California. 

In  June,  1846,  General  Kearney,  with  the  "Army  of  the  West,"  num- 
bering eighteen  hundred  men,  marched  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  on  the 
Missouri,  across  the  plains  to  Santa  Fe',  the  capital  of  the  Mexican  prov- 
ince of  New  Mexico.  After  a  march  of  nearly  one  thousand  miles,  he 
occupied  Santa  F^  on  the  18th  of  August.  Leaving  a  garrison  at  Santa 
F£,  Kearney  pushed  on  towards  California,  intending  to  conquer  that 
province  also ;  but  upon  reaching  the  Gila  river,  he  was  met  by  the 
famous  hunter  Kit  Carson,  who  informed  him  of  the  conquest  of  Cali- 
fornia by  Fremont  and  Stockton.  Kearney  thereupon  sent  two  com- 
panies of  dragoons  under  Major  Sumner  back  to  Santa  Fe',  and  with  the 
remainder  continued  his  march  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

Upon  leaving  Santa  Fd,  Kearney  had  instructed  Colonel  Doniphan  k. 


THE  WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 


717 


Invade  the  country  of  the  Navajoo  Indians  and  compel  them  to  make 
peace  with  the  Americans.  Doniphan  set  out  in  November,  1846,  and 
crossing  the  mountains,  which  were  covered  with  snow,  succeeded  in 
making  n  treaty  with  the  Navajoes,  by  which  they  agreed  to  refrain  from 
hostilities  against  the  people  of  New  Mexico.  He  then  marched  to  the 
southeast  to  meet  General  "Wool  at  Chihuahua. 

The  inhabitants  of  New  Mexico,  encouraged  by  the  absence  of  Doni- 
phan with  so  large  a  force,  rose  in  revolt  against  the  American  forces, 
and  murdered  the  American  governor  of  the  territory  and  several  other 
officials  on  the  14th  of  January,  1847.  Colonel  Sterling  Price,  com- 
manding the  troops  at  Santa  Y6,  at  once  marched  against  the  insurgents, 


SOUTHWEST  FROM  SANTA  FE. 

defeated  them  in  two  engagements,  though  they  greatly  outnumbered  nis 
force,  and  suppressed  the  rebellion.  The  insurgents  obtained  peace  only 
by  surrendering  their  leaders,  several  of  whom  were  hanged  by  the 
Americans. 

Colonel  Douiphan,  in  the  meantime,  had  continued  his  march.  His 
route  lay  through  a  barren  region  destitute  of  water  or  grass  called  the 
Jornado  del  Muerto — "  The  Journey  of  Death."  He  pressed  forward 
with  firmness  through  this  terrible  region,  his  men  and  animals  suffering 
greatly  on  the  march,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  December  entered  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande.  With  a  force  of  eight  hundred  and  fifty-six 
men  he  defeated  over  twelve  hundred  Mexicans  at  Brazito,  on  the  2Gth 


718 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


of  December,  1846,  and  inflicted  upon  them  a  loss  of  nearly  two  hundred 
men ;  losing  only  seven  men  himself.  On  tho  28th  he  occupied  El  Paso, 
and  there  waited  until  his  artillery  could  join  him  from  Santa  Fe.  It 
arrived  in  the  course  of  a  month,  and  on  the  8th  of  February  he  resumed 
his  march  to  Chihuahua.  On  the  28th  he  encountered  and  defeated  a 
Mexican  force  of  over  fifteen  hundred  men  with  ten  pieces  of  artillery,  at 
a  pass  of  the  Sacramento  river,  a  tributary  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The 
Mexicans  lost  over  three  hundred  killed  and  a  number  wounded.  The 
Americans  lost  two  killed  and  several  wounded.  The  Mexicans  were 


EAST  SIDE  OF   PLAZA — SANTA   FE. 

completely  routed,  and  left  their  artillery  and  all  their  train  in  the  hands 
of  the  Americans. 

On  the  1st  of  March,  1847,  Doniphan  entered  Chihuahua,  and  raising 
the  American  flag  on  the  citadel,  took  possession  of  the  province  in 
the  name  of  the  United  States.  Chihuahua  was  one  of  the  largest  cities 
in  Mexico,  and  contained  nearly  thirty  thousand  inhabitants.  Doni- 
phan's  force  was  less  than  one  thousand  men.  He  had  expected  to  find 
General  Wool  here,  and  failing  to  meet  him  was  in  utter  ignorance  of 
the  positions  of  the  American  forces.  His  own  position,  in  the  midst  of 
a  hostile  population,  was  perilous  indeed,  but  by  his  firm  and  just 


720  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

measures  he  conciliated  the  inhabitants.  He  remained  at  Chihuahua  for 
six  weeks  vainly  expecting  the  arrival  of  General  Wool,  and  on  the  27th 
of  April  evacuated  that  place,  and  set  out  for  Saltillo,  three  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  distant.  He  reached  that  place  on  the  22d  of  May.  Remain- 
ing there  but  three  days,  he  continued  his  march  to  Monterey,  from 
which  he  proceeded  to  Matamoras.  The  enlistments  of  his  men  being 
over,  they  were  transported  to  New  Orleans,  and  there  mustered  out  of 
the  service. 

Thus  ended  the  most  remarkable  expedition  on  record.  In  less  than 
one  year  a  corps  of  volunteers,  unused  to  the  hardships  of  war,  had 
marched  over  snow-covered  mountains  and  across  burning  deserts,  a  dis- 
tance of  over  five  thousand  miles,  over  three  thousand  of  which  lay 
through  an  unknown  and  hostile  country,  abounding  in  enemies  who 
might  have  crushed  them  at  any  moment  had  they  rallied  in  sufficient 
force. 

In  the  meantime  there  had  been  new  truUiAcs  in  California.  In 
August,  1847,  Commodore  Stockton  appointed  Captain  Fremont  military 
commandant  of  California,  and  soon  after  sailed  from  San  Francisco  to 
Monterey,  from  which  place  he  continued  his  voyage  to  San  Diego. 
Soon  after  the  departure  of  the  fleet,  Fremont  learned  of  a  conspiracy  to 
overthrow  his  government.  By  a  forced  march  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  he  surprised  and  captured  the  insurgent  leader,  Don  J.  Pico.  A 
court-martial  sentenced  him  to  death,  but  Fremont  wisely  spared  his  life, 
and  Pico,  in  gratitude  for  this  clemency,  gave  him  his  powerful  aid  in  hia 
efforts  to  tranquillize  the  country. 

General  Kearney  had  continued  his  march  from  New  Mexico,  encoun- 
tering great  difficulties  along  the  rout^e,  and  suffering  considerably  from 
the  repeated  attacks  of  superior  parties  of  the  enemy.  In  December, 
1847,  he  reached  San  Pasqual,  where  he  was  obliged  to  halt.  His  situa- 
tion was  desperate  indeed ;  his  provisions  were  exhausted ;  his  horses  had 
died  on  the  march ;  his  mules  were  disabled ;  a  large  number  of  his  men 
were  sick ;  and  his  camp  was  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  who  held  every 
road  by  which  he  could  escape.  In  this  situation  three  men — Kit  Car- 
son,  Lieutenant  Beales  of  the  navy,  and  an  Indian  whose  name  is  unfor- 
innately  unknown — volunteered  to  make  their  way  through  the  enemy's 
lines  to  San  Diego,  thirty  miles  distant,  and  inform  Commodore  Stockton 
of  Kearney's  need  of  assistance.  They  succeeded  in  reaching  San  Diego, 
and  the  commodore  promptly  sent  reinforcements  to  Kearney,  which 
enabled  him  to  drive  off  the  enemy  and  reach  San  Diego  in  safety. 

Commodore  Stockton  now  directed  his  attention  to  suppressing  the  insur- 
rection of  the  Mexican  inhabitants  of  California,  who  had  gotten  posses- 


722  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

sion  of  Los  Angeles.  Driven  to  extremities  they  surrendered  the  town 
on  condition  that  the  Americans  should  respect  the  rights  and  property 
of  the  citizens. 

Commodore  Stockton  having  been  relieved  of  his  civil  functions  by 
orders  from  Washington,  General  Kearney  claimed  the  governorship  of 
the  territory  by  virtue  of  his  rank.  Fremont  refused  to  recognize  his 
authority,  and  was  brought  to  trial  before  a  court-martial,  which  found 
him  guilty  of  disobedience  of  orders  and  mutiny,  and  sentenced  him  to 
be  dismissed  from  the  service.  The  sentence  was  remitted  by  the  presi- 
dent on  account  of  Fremont's  meritorious  and  valuable  services,  but 
Fremont  refused  to  accept  the  clemency  of  the  president,  and  thus  admit 


SACRAMENTO,   CALIFORNIA,   IN   1875. 

the  justice  of  the  sentence  of  the  court,  and  resigned  his  commissioa 
General  Kearney  remained  in  California  as  governor  of  that  territory. 

The  expedition  under  General  Scott  sailed  from  New  Orleans  late  ic 
November,  1846,  and  rendezvoused  at  the  island  of  Lobos,  about  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  north  of  Vera  Cruz.  The  plan  of  opera- 
tions for  this  army  was  very  simple — to  capture  Vera  Cruz  and  march 
to  the  city  of  Mexico  by  the  most  direct  route.  At  length  everything 
being  in  readiness,  the  expedition  sailed  from  Lobos  island,  and  on  the 
morning  of  the  9th  of  March,  1847,  the  army,  thirteen  thousand  strong, 
landed  without  opposition  at  a  point  selected  by  General  Scott  and  Com- 
modore Conner  a  few  days  before.  The  city  and  vicinity  had  beec 
thoroughly  reconnoitred,  and  the  troops  were  at  once  marched  to  the 
positions  assigned  them  by  the  commander-in-chief. 

Vera  Cruz  is  the  principal  seaport  of  Mexico,  and  contained  at  th* 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO  723 

time  of  the  siege  about  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.  It  was  strongly 
fortified  on  the  land  side,  and  towards  the  Gulf  was  defended  by  the 
Castle  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  the  strongest  fortress  in  America,  with  the 
exception  of  Quebec. 

On  the  10th  of  March  the  investment  of  the  city  was  begun  by  General 
Worth,  and  the  American  lines  were  definitely  established  around  the4 
city  for  a  distance  of  six  miles.  During  the  day,  and  for  several  days 
thereafter,  bodies  of  Mexicans  attempted  to  harass  the  besiegers,  and  a 
steady  fire  was  maintained  upon  them  by  the  guns  of  the  castle  and  the 
city  as  they  worked  at  their  batteries.  The  American  works  being  com- 
pleted, and  their  guns  in  position,  General  Scott  summoned  the  city  of 
Vera  Cruz  to  surrender,  stipulating  that  no  batteries  should  be  placed  in  the 
city  to  attack  the  castle  unless  the  city  should  be  fired  upon  by  that  work. 
The  demand  was  refused  by  General  Morales,  who  commanded  both  the 
city  and  the  castle,  and  at  4  o'clock  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  22d  of  March,  the  Ameri- 
can batteries  opened  fire  upon  the  town. 
The  bombardment  was  continued  for  five 
days,  and  the  fleet  joined  in  the  attack  upon 
the  castle.  The  city  suffered  terribly ;  a 
number  of  the  inhabitants  were  killed,  and 
many  buildings  were  set  on  fire  by  the 
shells.  On  the  27th  the  city  and  castle 
surrendered,  and  were  promptly  occupied 
by  the  Americans.  Over  five  thousand 

prisoners  and  five  hundred  pieces  of  artil-       GENEBAL  WINFIEXD  SCOOT. 
lery  fell  .into  the   hands   of  the  victors. 

The  garrison  were  required  to  march  out,  lay  down  their  arms,  and  were 
then  dismissed  upon  their  parole.  The  inhabitants  were  protected  in 
their  civil  and  religious  rights.  The  surrender  was  completed  on  the 
morning  of  the  29th. 

Having  secured  the  city  and  the  castle,  General  Scott  placed  a  strong 
garrison  in  each,  and  appointed  General  Worth  governor  of  Vera  Cruz. 
He  then  prepared  to  march  upon  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  on  the  8th  of 
April  the  advance  division,  under  General  Twiggs,  set  out  from  Vera 
Cruz  towards  Jalapa.  Deducting  the  force  left  to  garrison  Vera  Cruz, 
Scott's  whole  army  amounted  to  but  eighty-five  hundred  men. 

Santa  Anna  had  not  found  the  consequences  to  himself  of  the  battle  of 
Buena  Vista  as  bad  as  he  had  expected.  He  had  succeeded  in  persuad- 
ing his  countrymen  that  he  had  not  been  defeated  in  that  battle,  but  had 
simply  retreated  for  want  of  provisions,  and  they  had  agreed  to  give  him 


724 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


another  trial.  He  had  pledged  himself  to  prevent  the  advance  of  the 
Americans  to  the  capital,  in  the  event  of  the  fall  of  Vera  Cruz,  and  with 
the  aid  of  those  of  his  countrymen  who  were  willing  to  support  him  had 
quelled  an  insurrection  at  the  capital,  and  had  strengthened  his  power  to 
a  greater  degree  than  ever.  With  a  force  of  twelve  thousand  men  he 
had  taken  position  at  Cerro  Gordo,  a  mountain  pass  at  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  Cordilleras,  to  hold  the  American  army  in  check,  and  had  fortified 
his  position  with  great  skill  and  care. 

General  Twiggs  halted  before  the  Mexican  position  to  await  the  arrival 
of  General  Scott,  who  soon  joined  him  with  the  main  army.  The  Mexi- 
can lines  were  carefully  reconnoitred,  and  on  the  18th  of  April  General 


BATTLE  OF  CEKRO  GOKDO. 


Scott,  avoiding  a  direct  attack,  turned  the  enemy's  left,  seized  the  heights 
commanding  their  position,  and  drove  them  from  their  works  with  a  loss 
of  three  thousand  prisoners  and  forty-three  pieces  of  artillery.  Santa 
Anna  mounted  a  mule,  taken  from  his  carriage,  and  fled,  leaving  the 
carriage  and  his  private  papers  in  the  hands  of  the  Americans.  Besides 
their  prisoners,  the  Mexicans  lost  over  one  thousand  men  in  killed  and 
wounded.  Scott's  loss  was  four  hundred  and  thirty-one  killed  and 
wounded. 

The  brilliant  victory  of  Cerro  Gordo  opened  the  way  for  the  American 
army  to  Jalapa,  which  was  occupied  on  the  19th  of  April.  Continuing 
his  advance,  General  Scott  captured  the  strong  fortress  of  Perote,  situated 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO. 


725 


on  a  peak  of  the  Eastern  Cordilleras,  which  was  abandoned  almost  with- 
out a  blow  by  its  defenders,  on  the  22d  of  April.  On  the  15th  of  May 
Puebla,  the  second  city  of  Mexico,  containing  eighty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants, was  occupied.  General  Scott  established  his  head-quarters  at  Puebla, 
and  awaited  reinforcements.  The  terms  of  the  volunteers  would  expire 
in  June,  and  they  refused  to  re-enlist,  as  they  were  afraid  to  encounter 
the  yellow  fever,  the  scourge  of  the  Mexican  climate,  the  season  for  which 
was  close  at  hand.  They  were  returned  to  the  United  States,  and  Gen- 
eral Scott  was  forced  to  spend  three  months  at  Puebla  in  inactivity.  The 
force  he  had  with  him  was  greatly  weakened  by  sickness,  and  eighteen 
hundred  men  were  in  the  hospitals  of  Puebla  alone. 


AMERICAN  AKMY  ENTERING  PUEBLA. 


While  at  Puebla,  General  Scott  was  ordered  by  the  secretary  of  war 
to  collect  duties  on  merchandise  entering  the  Mexican  ports,  and  to  apply 
the  money  thus  obtained  to  the  needs  of  the  army.  He  was  also  ordered 
to  levy  contributions  upon  the  Mexican  people  for  the  use  of  the  troops. 
He  refused  to  obey  this  order,  declaring  that  the  country  through  which 
he  was  moving  was  too  poor  to  warrant  impressments,  and  that  such  a 
measure  would  exasperate  the  Mexicans  and  cause  them  to  refuse  to 
supply  the  army  at  all.  "Not  a  ration  for  man  or  horse,"  he  said, 
"  would  be  brought  in  except  by  the  bayonet,  which  would  oblige  the 
troops  to  spread  themselves  out  many  leagues  to  the  right  and  left  in  search 


726  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  subsistence,  and  stop  all  military  operations."  He  continued  to  buy 
provisions  for  his  army  at  the  regular  prices  of  the  country,  and  by  so 
doing  greatly  allayed  the  bitterness  of  feeling  with  which  the  Mexicans 
regarded  the  Americans. 

Another  annoyance  to  which  the  commander-in-chief  was  subjected 
arose  from  the  ill-advised  action  of  Mr.  N.  P.  Trist,  who  had  been  sent 
out  to  Mexico  in  the  quality  of  peace  commissioner.  Soon  after  the 
capture  of  Vera  Cruz,  General  Scott  had  suggested  to  the  president  the 
propriety  of  sending  out  commissioners  to  his  head-quarters,  who  should 
be  empowered  to  treat  for  peace  when  a  suitable  occasion  should  offer  it- 
self. The  president  selected  for  this  purpose  Mr.  N.  P.  Trist,  who  had 
been  United  States  consul  at  Havana,  and  who  was  acquainted  with  the 
Spanish  language — a  singular  selection.  Mr.  Trist  was  furnished  with 
the  draft  of  a  treaty  carefully  prepared  in  the  state  department  at  Wash- 
ington, and  was  intrusted  with  i  despatch  from  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  secre- 
tary of  state,  to  the  Mexican  minister  of  foreign  relations.  He  was 
instructed  to  communicate  confidentially  to  General  Scott  and  Commodore 
Perry  both  the  treaty  and  his  instructions.  General  Scott  was  informed 
of  Trist's  mission  by  the  secretary  of  Avar,  and  was  directed  to  suspend 
military  operations  until  further  orders,  unless  attacked. 

Mr.  Trist  reached  Vera  Cruz  in  due  time,,  but  instead  of  explaining 
his  mission,  as  directed,  to  General  Scott,  he  sent  a  note  to  the  com- 
mander-in-chief from  Vera  Cruz,  enclosing  the  letter  of  the  secretary  of 
war,  and  the  sealed  despatch  to  the  Mexican  minister,  which  he  requested 
the  general  to  forward  to  its  destination.  The  letter  of  the  secretary  of 
war  could  not  be  understood  by  General  Scott  without  the  explanations 
Mr.  Trist  was  directed  to  give,  but  failed  to  make.  General  Scott  very 
properly  resented  the  conduct  of  Trist  as  an  attempt  to  degrade  him  by 
making  him  subordinate  to  that  personage,  and  in  his  reply  to  him  de- 
clared that  the  suspension  of  hostilities  belonged  to  the  commander  in 
the  field  and  not  to  the  secretary  of  war  a,  thousand  miles  away.  Trist 
thereupon  wrote  to  General  Scott,  giving  a  full  explanation  of  his  mis- 
sion, but  did  so  in  disrespectful  terms.  In  conclusion  he  claimed  to  be 
the  aid-de-camp  of  the  president,  and  as  such  to  possess  the  right  to  issue 
orders  to  the  commander-in-chief.  Scott  referred  the  matter  to  the  gov- 
ernment at  Washington,  maintaining  in  the  meantime  his  independence 
of  action  as  commanding  general.  In  due  time  explanations  came  from 
Washington  satisfactory  to  the  general ;  and  Mr.  Trist  was  sharply  repri- 
manded by  the  secretary  of  state  "  for  his  presuming  to  command  the 
general -in-chief." 

After  his  defeat  at  Cerro  Gordo,  Santa  Anna   repaired   to  Orizaba, 


THE   WAR  ^WITH  MEXICO. 

where  he  organized  a  number  of  guerrilla  bands  to  attack  the  American 
trains  on  the  road  between  Vera  Cruz  and  Scott's  army.  He  then  re- 
turned to  the  city  of  Mexico,  where  he  was  coldly  received. by  the  people. 
The  affairs  of  the  Mexican  nation  were  in  the  most  hopeless  confusion, 
and  the  people  were  utterly  disheartened.  Their  army  on  which  they 
had  depended  for  the  defence  of  the  road  to  the  capital  had  been  routed 
at  Cerro  Gordo,  and  there  was  no  force  in  existence  with  which  to  stay 
the  advance  of  the  victorious  Americans.  Had  General  Scott  been  able 
to  advance  upon  Mexico  immediately  after  his  occupation  of  Puebla,  the 
city  would  have  fallen  at  once,  and  the  war  have  been  brought  to  an 
immediate  close.  A  number  of  leaders  contested  the  supremacy  at  the 
capital,  and  the  quarrels  of  these  factions  paralyzed  the  efforts  of  the 
government.  The  most  capable  of  these  leaders  was  Santa  Anna,  and 
his  strong  qualities  naturally  attracted  to  him  the  largest  following.  By 
his  extraordinary  energy  he  suppressed  the  opposition  to  him,  secured  the 
money  he  needed  by  forced  loans  from  the  people,  and  raised  an  army  of 
twenty-five  thousand  men  and  sixty  pieces  of  artillery,  and  fortified  the 
city  of  Mexico.  The  three  months'  enforced  delay  of  General  Scott's 
army  at  Puebla  gave  him  time  to  carry  out  these  measures,  and  he  en- 
deavored to  gain  still  further  advantages  by  opening  negotiations  secretly 
with  Mr.  Trist,  and  pretending  to  be  anxious  for  peace.  He  declared 
that  he  needed  money  to  enable  him  to  act  with  freedom  in  arranging  a 
treaty,  and  succeeded  in  getting  about  ten  thousand  dollars  from  the 
secret  service  fund  at  the  disposal  of  General  Scott;  but  his  designs  were 
soon  detected  by  the  American  commander,  and  the  supply  of  money 
was  discontinued. 

Reinforcements  from  the  United  States  arrived  at  Puebla  in  July,  and 
on  the  7th  of  August  General  Scott  resumed  his  advance  011  the  city  of 
Mexico,  with  a  force  increased  to  ten  thousand  men.  The  route  lay 
through  a  beautiful  upland  country,  abounding  in  water,  and  rich  in  the 
most  picturesque  scenery.  The  troops  pressed  on  with  enthusiasm,  and  on 
the  10th  of  August  the  summit  of  the  Cordilleras  was  passed,  and  then 
almost  from  the  very  spot  from  which,  more  than  three  centuries  before, 
the  followers  of  Cortez  looked  down  upon  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas. 
the  American  army  beheld  the  beautiful  valley  of  Mexico  stretching  out 
for  miles  before  them,  with  the  city  of  Mexico  lying  in  the  midst,  encir- 
cled by  the  strong  works  that  had  been  erected  for  its  defence. 

The  passes  on  the  direct  road  to  the  city  had  been  well  fortified  and 
garrisoned  by  the  Mexicans,  but  the  country  upon  the  flanks  had  been 
left  unprotected,  because  Santa  Anna  deemed  it  utterly  impossible  for 
any  troops  to  pass  over  it  and  turn  his  position.  El  Pefion,  the  must 


728  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

formidable  of  these  defences,  was  reconnoitred  by  the  engineers,  who  re- 
ported that  it  would  cost  at  least  three  thousand  lives  to  carry  it.  Scott 
thereupon  determined  to  turn  El  Pefion,  instead  of  attacking  it.  The  city 
and  its  defences  were  carefully  reconnoitred,  and  it  was  discovered  that  the 
works  on  the  south  and  west  were  weaker  than  those  at  any  other  points. 
General  Scott  now  moved  to  the  left,  passed  El  Pefion  on  the  south,  and 
by  the  aid  of  a  corps  of  skilful  engineers  moved  his  army  across  ravines 
and  chasms  which  the  Mexican  commander  had  pronounced  impassable, 
and  had  left  unguarded.  General  Twiggs  led  the  advance,  and  halted 
and  encamped  at  Chalco,  on  the  lake  of  the  same  name.  Worth  followed, 
and,  passing  Twiggs,  encamped  at  the  town  of  San  Augustin,  eight  miles 
from  the  capital. 

As  soon  as  Santa  Anna  found  that  the  Americans  had  turned  El 
Pefion,  and  had  advanced  to  the  south  side  of  the  city,  he  left  that  fortress 
and  took  position  in  the  strong  fort  of  San  Antonio,  which  lay  directly  in 
front  of  Worth's  new  position.  Northwest  of  San  Antonio,  and  four 
miles  from  the  city,  lay  the  little  village  of  Churubusco,  which  had  been 
strongly  fortified  by  the  Mexicans.  A  little  to  the  west  of  San  Augustin 
was  the  fortified  camp  of  Contreras,  with  a  garrison  of  about  six  thousand 
men.  In  the  rear,  between  the  camp  and  the  city,  was  a  reserve  force  of 
twelve  thousand  men.  The  whole  number  of  Mexicans  manning  these 
defences  was  about  thirty -five  thousand,  with  at  least  one  hundred  pieces 
of  artillery  of  various  sizes. 

General  Scott  lost  no  time  in  moving  against  the  enemy's  works. 
General  Persifer  F.  Smith  was  ordered  to  attack  the  entrenched  camp  at 
Contreras,  while  Shields  and  Pierce  should  move  between  the  camp  and 
Santa  Anna  at  San  Antonio,  and  prevent  him  from  going  to  the  assistance 
of  the  force  at  Contreras.  At  three  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  August 
20th,  in  the  midst  of  a  cold  rain,  Smith  began  his  march,  his  men  hold- 
ing on  to  each  other,  to  avoid  being  separated  in  the  darkness.  He  made 
his  attack  at  sunrise,  and  in  fifteen  minutes  had  possession  of  the  camp. 
He  took  three  thousand  prisoners  and  thirty-three  pieces  of  cannon. 

The  camp  at  Contreras  having  fallen,  General  Scott  attacked  the  forti- 
fied village  of  Churubusco  an  hour  or  two  later,  and  carried  it  after  a 
desperate  struggle  of  several  hours.  General  Worth's  division  stormed 
and  carried  the  strong  fort  of  San  Antonio,  and  General  Twiggs  cap- 
tured another  important  work.  The  Mexicans  outnumbered  their  as- 
sailants three  to  one,  and  fought  bravely.  Their  efforts  were  in  vain, 
however,  and  late  in  the  afternoon  they  were  driven  from  their  defences, 
and  pursued  by  the  American  cavalry  to  the  gates  of  the  city. 

These  two  victories  had  been  won   over  a  force  of  thirty  thousand 


THE  WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 


Mexicans  by  less  than  ten  thousand  Americans,  and  a  loss  of  four  thou- 
sand killed  and  wounded  and  three  thousand  prisoners  had  been  inflicted 
upon  the  Mexican  army.  The  American  loss  was  eleven  hundred  men. 

Santa  Anna  retreated  within  the  city,  and  on  the  21st  of  August  the 
American  army  advanced  to  within  three  miles  of  the  city  of  Mexico.  Ou 
the  same  day  Santa  Anna  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  General  Scott,  asking  for 
a  suspension  of  hostilities,  in  order  to  arrange  the  terms  of  a  peace.  The 
request  was  granted,  and  Mr.  Trist  was  despatched  to  the  city,  and  began 
negotiations  with  the  Mexican  commissioners.  After  protracted  delays, 
designed  to  erain  time,  the  Mexican  commissioners  declined  the  American 

O  O  ' 


STORMING  OF  CHAPULTEPEC. 

conditions,  and  proposed  others  which  they  knew  would  not  be  accepted. 
Thoroughly  disgusted,  Mr.  Trist  returned  to  the  American  camp,  and 
brought  with  him  the  intelligence  that  Santa  Anna  had  violated  the 
armistice  by  using  the  time  accorded  him  by  it  in  strengthening  hip  de- 
fences. Indignant  at  such  treachery,  General  Scott  at  once  resumed  his 
advance  upon  the  city. 

The  Mexican  capital  was  still  defended  by  two  powerful  works.  One 
of  these  was  Molino  del  Key,  "  The  King's  Mill,"  a  foundry,  where  it 
was  said  the  church  bells  were  being  cast  into  cannon;  the  other  was  the 
strong  castle  of  Chapultepec.  General  Scott  resolved  to  make  his  first 
attack  upon  Molino  del  Key,  which  was  held  by  fourteen  thousand 


730  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Mexicans.     It  was  stormed  and  carried  on  the  8th  of  September,  after  3 
severe  contest  by  Worth's  division,  four  thousand  strong.     This  was  re- 
garded as  the  hardest  won  victory  of  the  war.     The  Mexicans  were  nearly 
four  times  as  numerous  as  the  Americans,  and  their  position  was  one  of 
very  great  strength.     The  Americans  fought  principally  with  their  rifles 
and  muskets,  their  artillery  being  of  but  little  use  to  them,  owing  to 
nature  of  the  position.     Their  loss  was  seven  hundred  and  eighty-sev 
killed  and  wounded — nearly  one-fourth  of  the  force  engaged. 

The  castle  of  Chapultepec  stood  on  a  steep  and  lofty  hill,  and  could 
not  be  turned.  If  won  at  all,  it  must  be  by  a  direct  assault.  On  the 
12th  of  September  the  American  artillery  opened  fire  upon  it,  and  re- 
duced it  almost  to  ruins.  On  the  morning  of  the  13th  a  determined 
assault  was  made  by  the  Americans,  and  the  castle  was  carried  after  a 
sharp  struggle. 

The  fugitives  from  Chapultepec  retreated  to  the  city  by  the  causeway 
leading  to  the  Bel  ,n  gate,  closely  followed  by  Quitman's  division. 
Worth's  division  was  m  Ved  forward  to  attack  the  San  Cosmo  gate, 
while  Quitman  assailed  t  e  Belen  gate.  The  defences  of  the  causeways 
were  taken  in  sujcession,  and  by  nightfall  the  Belen  and  San  Cosmo 
gates  were  in  possession  of  the  Americans  after  a  hard  fight  for  them. 
The  troops  slept  on  the  ground  they  had  won. 

During  .he  night  of  the  13th  Santa  Anna,  with  the  remains  of  his 
army,  retreated  from  the  city,  leaving  the  authorities  to  make  the  best 
terms  they  could  with  the  conquerors.  The  city  officials  presented  them- 
selves before  General  Scott  before  daybreak,  and  proposed  terms  of 
capitulation.  The  general  replied  that  the  city  was  already  in  his  power, 
and  that  he  would  enter  it  on  his  own  terms.  The  next  day,  Septembei 
14th,  184  ,  the  American  army  entered  the  city  of  Mexico,  occupied  the 
grand  square,  and  hoisted  the  stars  and  stripes  over  the  government 
buildings. 

Santa  Anna  retreated  with  four  or  five  thousand  men  from  the  capital 
to  the  vicinity  of  Puebla,  which  was  besieged  by  a  Mexican  force.  The 
city  contained  eighteen  hundred  sick  Americans,  and  was  held  by  a 
garrison  of  five  hundred  men  under  Colonel  Childs.  This  little  force 
held  out  bravely  until  the  arrival  of  a  brigade  from  Vera  Cruz,  under 
General  Lane,  on  its  way  to  reinforce  General  Scott.  Lane  drove  off 
Santa  Anna's  army,  and  relieved  Puebla  on  the  8th  of  October.  Ten 
&tyd  later  Santa  Anna  was  reported  to  be  collecting  another  force  at 
Ali.v^i.  Lane  set  out  immediately  for  that  place,  reached  it  by  a  forced 
irarch,  and  dispersed  the  Mexicans  beyond  all  hope  of  reunion. 

Immediately  after  the  capture  of  tho  city  of  Mexico  Santa  Anna  resigned 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO. 


731 


the  presidency  of  the  republic  in  favor  of  Senor  Pefia  y  Pefia,  president 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Justice,  but  retained  his  position  as  coramander- 
in-chief  of  the  army.  The  fall  of  the  city  was  followed  by  the  inaugu- 
ration of  a  new  government,  one  of  the  first  acts  of  which  was  to  dismiss 
Santa  Anna  from  the  command  of  the  army.  He  at  once  left  the  coun- 
try, and  fled  to  the  West  Indies. 

The  Mexican  government  was  removed  to  the  city  of  Queretaro,  and 
a  new  congress  was  elected,  which  began  its  sessions  in  that  city.  Nego- 
tiations for  peace  had  been  opened  in  the  meantime,  and  the  meetings  ol* 
the  Mexican  commissioners  and  Mr.  Trist  Avere  held  at  the  town  of  Gua- 
daloupe  Hidalgo,  where,  on  the  2d  of  February,  1848,  a  treaty  of  peace 


CAPTURE   OF   THE   HELEN   GATE. 


was  signed  by  Nicholas  P.  Trist,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  and 
Senors  Couto,  Atristain  and  Cuevas,  on  the  part  of  Mexico.  Though 
Mr.  Trist's  powers  had  been  withdrawn  by  President  Polk  some  time 
before,  he  ventured  to  continue  his  authority  on  the  ground  that  rue 
opportunity  for  bringing  the  war  to  a  close  was  too  favorable  to  be  lost. 
The  commissioners  appointed  by  the  president  to  supersede  him  reached 
Mexico  a  little  later,  but  found  the  treaty  signed  and  sealed.  It  was 
forwarded  to  Washington,  and  was  laid  by  the  president  before  the 
Senate,  which  body  after  a  brief  discussion  ratified  it.  On  the  4th  of 
July,  1848,  President  Polk  issued  a  proclamation  announcing  the  return 
of  peace. 


732 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  the  Rio  Grande  was  accepted  by  Mexico  as 
the  western  boundary  of  the  United  States  and  of  Texas,  and  that  republic 
ceded  to  the  United  States  the  provinces  of  New  Mexico  and  Upper  Cali- 
fornia. For  this  immense  territory  the  government  of  the  United  States 
agreed  to  pay  to  Mexico  the  sum  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  and  to 
assume  the  debts  due  by  Mexico  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  amount- 
ing to  the  sum  of  three  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars. 

The  treaty  having  been  ratified,  the  American  forces  were  promptly 
withdrawn  from  Mexico. 

By  the  cession  of  California  and  New  Mexico,  regions  as  yet  unknown, 


HYDRAULIC   MINING. 


a  territory  four  times  as  large  as  France  was  added  to  the  dominions  of 
the  United  States.  California  bordered  the  Pacific  coast  for  about  six 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  extended  inland  for  about  the  same  dis- 
tance. It  embraced  an  area  of  about  450,000  square  miles,  comprising 
what  is  now  known  as  California,  Nevada,  Arizona,  Utah,  and  parts  of 
Colorado  and  New  Mexico.  At  the  close  of  the  war  it  contained  about 
15,000  inhabitants. 

In  February,  1848,  occurred  an  event  destined   to  change  the  whole 
history  of  the   Pacific  coast.     A  laborer  on  the  plantation  of  Captain 


THE   WAR    WITH  MEXICO.  733 

Sutter,  situated  in  Coloma  county,  California,  on  a  branch  01  the  Sacra- 
mento river,  while  working  on  a  mill  race,  discovered  gold  in  the  sands 
of  the  little  stream.  The  precious  metal  was  soon  found  to  be  in  abund- 
ance in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  news  spread  rapidly.  It  reached  the 
United  States  sflbout  the  time  of  the  ratification  of  the  treaty,  and  pro- 
duced the  most  intense  excitement.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  thou- 
sands of  emigrants  were  on  their  way  to  California  to  dig  gold.  Some 
went  in  steamers  and  sailing  vessels  around  Cape  Horn ;  some  crossed  the 
isthmus  of  Panama,  and  worked  their  way  up  the  Pacific  coast ;  and 
»thers,  and  by  far  the  greater  number,  undertook  the  long  and  dangerous 
journey  across  the  plains  and  the  Rocky  mountains,  travelling  generally 
hi  caravans.  In  a  short  time  multitudes  came  flocking  from  every  coua- 


THE  EMIGRANTS'  CAMP  ox  THE  PLAINS  EN  ROUTE  TO  CALIFORNIA. 

try  in  Europe  to  join  the  throng  in  search  of  the  precious  metal.  Sau 
Francisco  was  the  central  point  of  this  vast  emigration,  and  that  place 
soon  grew  from  a  village  of  a  few  miserable  huts  to  a  city  of  over  fifteen 
thousand  inhabitants.  Within  two  years  after  the  discovery  of  gold  the 
population  of  California  had  increased  to  nearly  100,000;  two  years 
later,  in  1852,  it  numbered  264,000. 

The  influence  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  was  not  limited  to 
this  country.  It  gave  an  impetus  to  the  commerce  and  industry  of  the 
whole  world. 

On  the  21st  of  February,  1848,  ex-President  John  Qnincy  Adams, 


734  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  Congress,  was  stricken 
with  paralysis  in  his  seat  in  the  House.  He  was  carried  into  the  speaker's 
room,  where  he  died  two  days  later,  at  the  age  of  eighty. 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1848,  Wisconsin  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as 
a  State,  making  the  thirtieth  member  of  the  confederacy. 

Before  the  return  of  peace  with  Mexico  the  slavery  question  had  been 
revived  in  the  United  States,  and  had  been  the  cause  of  an  agitation  full 
of  trouble  to  both  sections.  On  the  8th  of  August,  1846,  President  Poik 
sent  a  message  to  Congress  asking  an  appropriation  of  three  millions  of 
dollars  to  enable  him  to  negotiate  a  treaty  of  peace  with  Mexico,  based 
upon  the  policy  of  obtaining  a  cession  of  territory  outside  the  existing 
limits  of  Texas.  During  the  debate  upon  a  bill  to  grant  this  appropria- 
tion, Mr.  David  Wilmot,  a  representative  from  Pennsylvania,  made  the 
following  amendment,  known  as  the  "  Wilmot  Proviso : "  "  Provided, 
That  there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  any  ter- 
ritory which  shall  hereafter  be  acquired,  or  be  annexed  to  the  United 

States,  otherwise  than  in  the  pun- 
ishment of  crimes,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  con- 
victed :  Provided  always,  That  any 
person  escaping  into  the  same,  from 
whom  labor  or  service  is  lawfully 
claimed  in  any  one  of  the  United 

COAT  OF  ARMS  OF  WISCONSIN.  _,  ,  „         .    .  , 

btates,   such    fugitive    may    be 

lawfully  reclaimed  and  conveyed  out  of  said  territory  to  the  person 
claiming  his  or  her  labor  or  service."  This  amendment  took  no  notice 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line,  and  was  opposed  with  great  warmth 
by  the  southern  members,  who  declared  it  an  attempt  to  rob  the 
Southern  States  in  advance  of  their  fair  share  of  the  territory  that 
might  be  won  by  the  joint  efforts  of  the  States.  The  bill  failed  in  the 
Senate;  but  the  announcement  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso  reopened  the 
slavery  question  in  all  its  bitterness,  and  plunged  the  country  into  a 
state  of  profound  excitement. 

The  agitation  was  renewed  in  January,  1847,  when  a  bill  for  the  or- 
ganization of  a  territorial  government  for  Oregon  was  reported  to  the 
House  with  the  Wilmot  Proviso  incorporated  in  it.  Mr.  Burt,  of  South 
Carolina,  moved  to  amend  the  bill  by  inserting  before  the  restrictive 
clause  the  words :  "  Inasmuch  as  the  whole  of  said  territory  lies  north  of 
36°  30'  north  latitude."  This  was  an  effort  to  apply  to  the  Oregon  bill 
the  principles  of  the  Missouri  Compromise ;  but  the  friends  of  the  restric- 
tion rejected  the  amendment.  The  bill  passed  the  House,  but  was  de- 


THE   WAR   WITH  MEXICO. 


735 


feated  in  the  Senate.  During  the  next  session  the  measure  was  revived> 
and  a  territorial  government  was  organized  for  Oregon  with  an  unqualified 
restriction  upon  slavery. 

In  the  fall  of  1848  the  presidential  election  occurred.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  supported  Senator  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  for  the  presi- 
dency, and  General  William  O.  Butler,  of  Kentucky,  for  the  vice-presi* 
dency.  The  Whig  party  nominated  General  Zachary  Taylor,  of 
Louisiana,  for  the  presidency,  and  Millard  Fillmore,  of  New  York,  for 
the  vice-presidency.  The  Anti-slavery  or  Free  Soil  party  put  in  nomi- 
nation for  the  presidency  Martin  Van  Buren,  of  New  York,  and  for  the 
vice-presidency  Charles  Francis  Adams,  of  Massachusetts.  In  the  elec- 
tion which  followed  the  political  campaign,  the  candidates  of  the  Whig 
party  were  elected  by  decisive  majorities.  The  Free  Soil  party  failed  to 
receive  a  single  electoral  vote,  but  out  of  the  popular  vote  of  nearly  three 
millions,  nearly  three  hundred  thousand  ballots  were  cast  for  its  candi- 
dates, showing  a  remarkable  gain  in  strength  in  the  past  fom  years. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

UiiB  ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  ZACHARY  TAYLOB  AXD  MIL  LARD  FILLMORE. 

Character  of  General  Taylor — Department  of  the  Interior — Death  of  ex-President  Polk — 
The  Slavery  Agitation — Views  of  Clay  and  Webster — California  ask?  admission  into  the 
Union — Message  of  President  Taylor — The  Omnibus  Bill — Effort?  of  Henry  Clay — A 
Memorable  Debate — Webster's  "  Great  Union  Speech  " — Death  of  John  C.  Calhoun — 
Death  of  President  Taylor — Millard  Fillmore  becomes  President — Passage  of  the  Coin- 
promise  Measures  of  1850 — Death  of  Henry  Clay — Dissatisfaction  with  the  Compromise 
— The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  Nullified  by  the  Northern  States — The  Nashville  Convention 
—Organization  of  Utah  Territory — The  Seventh  Census — The  Expedition  of  Lopea 
against  Cuba — The  Search  for  Sir  John  Franklin — The  Grinnel  Expedition — Dr.  Kane's 
Voyages — Inauguration  of  Cheap  Postage — Laying  the  Corner-stone  of  the  new  Capitol 
— Death  of  Daniel  Webster — Arrival  of  Kossuth — The  President  Rejects  the  Tripartite 
Treaty — Franklin  Pierce  elected  President — Death  of  William  E.  King. 

I HE  4th  of  March,  1849,  fell  on  Sunday,  and  the  inauguration  of 
General  Taylor  as  president  of  the  United  States  took  place  on 

Monday,  March  5th. 

The  new  president  was  a  native  of  Virginia,  but  had  removed 

with  his  parents  to  Kentucky  at  an  early  age,  and  had  grown  up 
to  manhood  on  the  frontiers  of  that  State.  In  1808,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
four,  he  was  commissioned  a  lieutenant  in  the  army  by  President  Jefferson, 
and  had  spent  forty  years  in  the  military  service  of  the  countiy.  His 
exploits  in  the  Florida  war  and  the  war  with  Mexico  have  been  related. 
His  brilliant  victories  in  Mexico  had  made  him  the  most  popular  man  in 
the  United  States,  and  had  won  him  the  high  office  of  the  presidency  at 
the  hands  of  his  grateful  fellow-citizens.  He  \vas  without  political  expe- 
rience, but  he  was  a  man  of  pure  and  stainless  integrity,  of  great  firmness, 
a  sincere  patriot,  and  possessed  of  strong  good  sense.  He  had  received  a 
majority  of  the  electoral  votes  of  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  States, 
and  was  free  from  party  or  sectional  ties  of  any  kind.  His  inaugural 
address  was  brief,  and  was  confined  to  a  statement  of  general  principles. 
His  cabinet  was  composed  of  the  leaders  of  the  Whig  party,  with  John 
M.  Clayton,  of  Delaware,  as  secretary  of  state.  The  last  Congress  had 
created  a  new  executive  department — that  of  the  interior — to  relieve  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  of  a  part  of  his  duties,  and  President  Taylor  was 
called  upon  to  appoint  the  first  secretary  of  the  interior,  which  he  did  in 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  TAYLOR  AND  FiLLMORE.  737 

the  person  of  Thomas  Ewing,  of  Ohio.  The  new  department  was  charged 
with  the  management  of  the  public  lands,  the  Indian  tribe*,  and  the 
issuing  of  patents  to  inventors. 

A  few  months  after  the  opening  of  President  Taylor's  administration, 
ex-President  Polk  died  at  his  home  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  on  the  15th 
of  June,  1849,  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age. 

Since  the  announcement  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  the  agitation  of  the 
slavery  question  had  been  incessant,  and  had  increased  instead  of  dimin- 
ishing with  each  succeeding  year.  It  was  one  of  the  chief  topics  of  dis- 
cussion in  the  newspaper  press  of  the  country,  and  entered  largely  into 
every  political  controversy,  however  local  or  insignificant  in  its  nature. 
The  opponents  of  slavery  regarded  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  thft 
Mexican  war  as  efforts  to  extend  that  institution,  and  were  resolved  to 
put  an  end  to  its  existence  at  any  cost.  The 
advocates  of  slavery  claimed  that  the  South- 
ern States  had  an  equal  right  to  the  com- 
mon property  of  the  States,  and  were  entitled 
to  protection  for  their  slaves  in  any  of  the 
Territories  then  owned  by  the  States  or  that 
might  afterwards  be  acquired  by  them. 
The  Missouri  Compromise  forbade  the  exist- 
ence of  slavery  north  o$Pthe  line  of  36°  30' 
north  latitude,  and  left  the  inhabitants  south 
of  that  line  free  to  decide  upon  their  own 
institutions.  The  Anti-slavery  party  was 
resolved  that  slavery  should  be  excluded 

,,  ,,  .  .       ,„  ,,       .  ,  ZACHARY  TATLOR. 

irom  the  territory  acquired  from  Mexico,  and 

in  the  Wilmot  Proviso  struck  their  first  blow  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  purpose.  We  have  seen  that  they  succeeded  in  prohibiting  slavery, 
by  a  special  act  of  Congress,  in  Oregon,  although  the  terms  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  would  have  excluded  the  institution  from  that  Territory. 
Their  object  was  fully  understood  by  the  southern  people,  and  was  bit 
terly  resented  by  them.  The  agitation  of  the  subject  aroused  a  storm  of 
passion  throughout  the  country,  and  produced  a  very  bitter  feeling 
between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States.  In  his  last  message  to  Con- 
gress President  Polk  had  recommended  that  the  line  of  36°  30'  north 
latitude  be  extended  to  the  Pacific,  and  thus  leave  it  to  the  people  south 
of  that  line  to  decide  whether  they  would  have  slavery  or  not.  This 
proposition  was  acceptable  to  the  south  ;  but  it  was  rejected  by  the  Anti- 
slavery  party.  The  Missouri  Compromise  line  had  been  limited  to  tlif 
Louisiana  purchase,  which  was  entirely  slavehokling,  and  had  made  mort 
47 


738  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

than  one-half  of  it  free.  To  extend  the  line  to  the  Pacific  would  be  tc 
give  the  south  a  chance  to  establish  slavery  in  territory  which  was  free 
at  the  time  of  ite  acquisition  by  the  United  States.  The  north  would  not 
listen  to  such  a  proposition. 

During  the  last  session  of  Congress  in  Mr.  Folk's  administration,  an 
effort  had  been  made  to  establish  territorial  governments  for  Utah  and 
New  Mexico,  but  had  failed  in  consequence  of  the  inability  of  Congress 
to  agree  upon  the  question  of  slavery  in  these  Territories.  In  the  debate 
in  the  Senate  upon  these  measures,  Mr.  Callioun  and  Mr.  Webster  took 
an  active  part,  and  each  presented  in  a  masterly  manner  the  views  of  the 
section  he  represented  upon  this  great  question.  Mr.  Caihoun,  speaking 
for  the  south,  argued  that  the  constitution  recognized  slavery;  that  as  it 
was  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  it  was  superior  to  any  territorial  law  or 
act  of  Congress  abolishing  slavery ;  and  that  the  constitution  clearly  and 
unequivocally  established  and  protected  slavery  in  the  Territories. 

Mr.. Webster,  speaking  for  the  north,  declared  that  the  constitution 
was  designed  for  the  government  of  the  States,  and  not  for  the  Terri- 
tories. Congress,  he  said,  had  the  right  to  govern  the  Territories 
independently  of  the  constitution,  and  he  maintained  that  it  often  exer- 
cised this  right  contrary  to  the  constitution,  as  it  did  things  in  the  Terri- 
tories which  it  could  not  do  in  the  States.  He  added :  "  When  new 
territory  has  been  acquired  it  has  always  been  subject  to  the  laws  of 
Congress — to  such  laws  as  Congress  thought  proper  to  pass  for  its  imme- 
diate government  and  preparatory  state  in  which  it  was  to  remain  until 
it  was  ready  to  come  into  the  Union  as  one  of  the  family  of  States."  He 
quoted  in  support  of  his  position  the  clause  of  the  constitution  which 
declares  that  the  "  constitution  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  which 
shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  ....  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land." 

Congress  having  failed  to  make  any  provision  for  territorial  govern- 
ments for  Utah  and  New  Mexico,  those  Territories  were  left  in  a  condi- 
tion of  anarchy.  One  of  the  first  duties  devolving  upon  the  new  admin- 
istration was  the  alleviation  of  this  evil  until  it  could  be  definitely  settled 
by  Congress.  President  Taylor  instructed  the  federal  officers  in  those 
Territories  to  encourage  the  people  to  organize  temporary  governments 
for  themselves. 

California  in  the  meantime  had  grown  with  such  rapidity,  and  had 
experienced  so  much  trouble  from  its  sudden  increase  of  population  and 
the  lack  of  a  definite  government,  that  its  leading  citizens  determined  to 
seek  admission  into  the  Union.  In  the  autumn  of  1849  a  convention  of 
the  people  was  held,  a  constitution  formed,  and  a  State  government 


739 


740  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

organized  The  action  of  the  convention  was  promptly  ratified  by  the 
people.  Upon  the  assembly  of  the  Thirty-first  Congress  in  the  winter  of 
1849,  California  applied  for  admission  into  the  UniOii  as  a  State,  with 
i  constitution  forbidding  slavery  within  her  limits. 

The  organization  of  the  Thirty-first  Congress  was  delayed  for  three 
weeks.  Parties  were  about  even'y  divided,  and  sixty  ballots  were  taken 
before  a  speaker  could  be  chosea.  The  choice  at  last  fell  upon  Howell 
Cobb  of  Georgia,  who  was  elected  by  a  plurality.  Partisan  bitterness  ran 
high  during  this  struggle. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  House  President  Taylor  sent  in  his  first 
and  only  message.  He  recognized  the  danger  with  which  the  sectional 
controversy  threatened  the  country,  expressed  his  views  of  the  situation 
in  moderate  terms,  and  intimated  that  he  should  faithfully  discharge  his 
duties  to  the  whole  country.  He  recommended  the  admission  of  California 
with  the  constitution  she  had  chosen ;  and  advised  that  Utah  and  New 
Mexico  should  be  organized  as  Territories,  with  liberty  to  decide  the 
question  of  slavery  for  themselves  when  they  were  ready  to  enter  the 
Union  as  States.  A  dispute  having  arisen  between  Texas  and  New 
Mexico  concerning  the  proper  boundary  between  them,  the  president 
recommended  that  it  should  be  settled  by  the  courts  of  the  United  States, 

The  other  questions  which  demanded  immediate  settlement  were  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  demand  of  the  Southern  States  for  a 
more  faithful  execution  of  the  provision  of  the  constitution  which  required 
the  arrest  and  return  of  fugitive  slaves. 

The  south  opposed  the  admission  of  California  with  a  free  constitution, 
and  the  north  demanded  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  and  the  Northern  States  were  unwilling  to  allow  their  officers 
to  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  within  their  limits.  The  excite- 
ment became  intense,  and  threats  to  dissolve  the  Union  of  the  States 
were  freely  indulged  in  by  the  extremists  of  both  the  north  and  the 
south. 

On  the  29th  of  January,  1850,  Henry  Clay  introduced  into  the  Senate 
a  series  of  resolutions  designed  to  settle  all  the  points  in  dispute  by  a 
general  compromise.  The  resolutions  were  referred  to  a  committee  of 
thirteen,  of  which  Mr.  Clay  was  made  chairman.  In  due  time  the  com- 
mittee reported  a  bill  known  as  the  "Omnibus  Bill "  from  its  embracing 
in  one  measure  all  Mr.  Clay's  propositions.  It  provided  for  the  admission 
of  California  as  a  free  State ;  the  organization  of  the  Territories  of  Utah 
and  New  Mexico,  without  reference  to  slavery ;  the  adjustment  of  the 
boundary  between  Texas  and  New  Mexico  by  paying  to  the  former  (en 
millions  of  dollars;  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  TAYLOR  AND  FILLMORE.  74] 

Columbia ;  and  the  enactment  by  Congress  of  a  more  stringent  and  effective 
law  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves. 

The  Omnibus  bill  was  warmly  opposed  in  Congress  and  in  the  country 
at  large.  The  debate  in  the  Senate  brought  out  the  views  of  the  leadir'g 
statesmen  of  the  country..  Senator  Jefferson  Davis  declared  the  bill  in  no 
sense  a  compromise,  because  it  was  unequal  iu  its  provisions.  The  south 
he  declared  gained  nothing  by  the  measure,  as  the  constitution  already 
required  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves.  He  proposed,  therefore,  that  the 
Missouri  Compromise  line  should  be  extended  to  the  Pacific,  "  with  the 
specific  recognition  of  the  right  to  hold  slaves  in  the  territory  below  that 
line." 

Mr.  Clay  replied  to  this  that  "  no  earthly  power  could  induce  him  to 
vote  for  a  specific  measure  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  where  it  had  not 
existed,  either  north  or  south  of  that  line.  .  .  I  am  unwilling  that  the 
posterity  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  California  and  of  New  Mexico 
should  reproach  us  for  doing  just  what  we  reproach  Great  Britain  for 
doing  to  us.  „  .  ,  If  the  citizens  of  those  Territories  come  here  with 
constitutions  establishing  slavery,  I  am  for  admitting  them  into  the  Union; 
but  then  it  will  be  their  own  work  and  not  ours,  and  their  posterity  will 
have  to  reproach  them  and  not  us." 

Mr.  Calhoun  was  too  ill  to  take  part  in  the  debate  in  person,  but  he 
prepared  a  speech  of  great  ability  which  was  read  for  him  in  the  Senate 
by  Senator  Mason  of  Virginia.  He  declared  that  the  Union  could  l>e 
preserved  only  by  maintaining  an  equal  number  of  free  and  slave  States, 
in  order  that  the  representation  of  the  two  sections  of  the  country  might 

fiqual  in  the  Senate. 

Mr.  Webster  also  took  part  in  the  debate,  and  on  this  occasion  delivered 
what  is  known  as  his  "  great  Union  speech  of  the  7th  of  March,"  which 
occupied  three  days  in  its  delivery.  He  expressed  substantially  the  same 
views  as  those  advocated  by  Mr.  Clay.  He  opposed  restriction  of  slavery 
in  the  Territories,  and  declared  he  would  vote  against  the  Wilraot  Proviso. 
His  speech  created  a  profound  sensation  throughout  the  country,  and  did 
much  to  secure  the  final  acceptance  of  the  compromise  measures. 

En  the  midst  of  this  discussion  John  C.  Calhoun  died,  on  the  3 1st  of 
March,  1850.  He  had  entered  Congress  in  1811,  and  had  been  in  pubJic 
life  from  that  time  until  the  day  of  his  death.  He  had  filled  many  high 
offices,  both  State  and  national,  and  had  discharged  the  duties  of  each  and 
all  with  disinterested  fidelity  and  admitted  ability.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  statesmen  this  country  has  ever  produced,  and  was  the  acknowledged 
leader  of  the  south  in  the  sectional  controversy  with  the  north.  Ilia 
character  was  above  reproach,  and  he  was  a  sincere  and  disinterested 


'V-  *s*5*n^^>Kicr|*Hr 

- 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  TAYLOR  AND       LLMORE. 


743 


patriot.  His  death  was  generally  lamented  throughout  the  country,  and 
his  political  adversaries  joined  heartily  in  the  tributes  of  the  nation  to  his 
many  virtues  and  great  abilities. 

A  few  months  later  President  Taylor  was  suddenly  stricken  down  with 
a  fever,  which  in  a  few  days  terminated  fatally.  He  died  on  the  9th  of 
July,  1850,  amid  the  grief  of  the  whole  country,  which  felt  that  it  had 
lost  a  faithful  and  upright  chief  magistrate.  Thougli  the  successful 
candidate  of  one  political  party,  his  administration  had  received  the 
earnest  support  of  the  best  men  of  the  country  without  regard  to  party, 
and  his  death  was  a  national  calamity.  He  had  held  office  only  sixteen 
months,  but  had  shown  himself  equal  to  his  difficult  and  delicate  position. 
He  was  sixty-six  years  old  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

By  the  terms  of  the  constitution  the  office  of  president  devolved  upon 
Millard  Fillmore,  vice-president  of  the  United  States.  On  the  10th  of 
July  he  took  the  oath  of  office  before  Chief 
Justice  Cranch  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  at  once  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  new 
position. 

Mr.  Fillmore  was  a  native  of  New  York, 
and  was  born  in  that  State  in  the  year  1800. 
He  had  served  his  State  in  Congress,  and  as 
governor,  and  was  personally  one  of  the  most 
popular  of  the  Presidents.  The  cabinet  of 
General  Taylor  resigned  their  offices  immedi- 
ately after  his  death,  and  the  new  president 
filled  their  places  by  appointing  a  new  cabinet 
with  Daniel  Webster  at  its  head  as  secretary 

of  state.  Mr.  Fillmore  was  in  active  sympathy  with  Mr.  Clay  in  his 
efforts  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  compromise  measures,  as  he  deemed 
them  the  best  adjustment  of  the  trouble  possible  under  the  circumstances. 

The  compromise  measures  were  warmly  debated  in  Congress,  the  sessions 
of  which  extended  through  the  summer  into  the  latter  part  of  September. 
The  bill  was  then  taken  up  and  passed,  article  by  article,  by  the  House 
of  Representatives,  it  having  previously  passed  the  Senate.  The  bill  at 
once  received  the  executive  approval,  and  became  a  law. 

The  clause  admitting  California  into  the  Union  as  a  State  was  adopted 
on  the  9th  of  September,  1850. 

The  course  of  Mr.  Clay  in  securing  the  passage  of  the  compromise 
measures  of  1850  was  justly  regarded  as  the  crowning  glory  of  his  life. 
It  won  for  him  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  whole  country  without 
regard  to  party,  and  the  man  who  "  had  rather  be  right  than  be  president " 


MILLARD   FILLMORE. 


744  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

had  the  proud  satisfaction  of  seeing  all  the  faults  and  mistakes  of  his 
earlier  years  forgotten  in  the  confidence  and  gratitude  with  which  his 
countrymen  regarded  him.  He  ceased  now  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
questions  of  the  day,  for  it  was  fitting  that  his  life  should  close  with  this 
great  service  to  his  country.  His  health  failed  rapidly,  but  he  continued 
to  hold  his  seat  in  the  Senate  until  the  29th  of  June,  1852,  when  he  died 
at  the  age  of  seventy-five  years.  Honors  were  showered  upon  his  memory 
in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  and  he  was  laid  to  his  rest  amid  a  nation's 
unaffected  mourning. 

There  were  still  many  extremists  both  north  and  south,  to  whom  the 
compromise  measures  failed  to  give  satisfaction.  The  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  was  bitterly  denounced  by  the  Anti-slavery  party  in  the  north.  As 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  had  decided  that  the  justices  of 
the  peace  in  the  respective  States  could  not  be  called  upon  to  execute  the 
law  for  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves,  a  clause  was  inserted  in  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850,  providing  for  the  appointment  of  United 

States  oonmiiseioners,  before  whom 
such  cases  cculd  be  tried.  The 
Northern  States  succes.jively  enacted 
laws  for  the  nullification  the  pro- 
visions of  this  law.  All  their  jails 
and  other  State  buildings  were 
refused  to  the  federal  officers  for  the 
securing  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  all 
State,  county,  and  city  officers  were  forbidden  to  arrest  or  assist  in  arrest- 
ing or  detaining  any  fugitive  slave.  In  many  of  the  States  severe  punish- 
ments were  denounced  against  masters  coming  within  their  limits  to  claim 
their  slaves,  and  such  fugitives  entering  these  States  were  declared  free. 
These  laws  were  denounced  by  the  slaveholding  States  as  violative  of  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  gave  rise  to  great  bitterness  of  feel- 
ing towards  the  north.  It  was  maintained  that  these  laws  were  direct 
evidence  of  the  intention  of  the  northern  people  to  rob  the  south  of  its 
property  in  negro  slaves. 

The  extremists  of  the  south  were  equally  dissatisfied  with  the  compro- 
mise, 'ihcy  declared  that  the  South  had  sacrificed  everything  and  gained 
nothing  by  it,  and  boldly  avowed  their  intention  to  bring  about  the  seces- 
sion of  the  Southern  States  from  the  Union.  In  the  summer  of  1350  a 
southern  convention  was  held  at  Nashville,  Tennessee.  Its  real  end  was 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  for  that  purpose  it  urged  the  Southern 
States  to  appoint  delegates  to  a  "  Southern  Congress."  The  legislatures 
of  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi  alone  responded  to  this  invitation,  but 


COAT  OF   ARMS  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  TAYLOR  AND  FILLMORE. 


the  great  mass  of  the  southern  people  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  appeals  of 
the  disuuionists,  and  the  convention  failed  to  accomplish  its  object. 

In  the  inauguration  of  a  territorial  government  for  Utah,  the  Mormons, 
whose  settlement  in  that  Territory  while  it  was  yet  a  possession  of  Mexico 
we  have  related,  endeavored  to  frame  their  own  government,  and  gave  to 
the  Territory  the  name  of  Deseret,  which  they  declared  was  a  word  of  their 
peculiar  language  meaning  "The  Land  of  the  Honey  Bee."  President 
Fillmore  set  aside  this  name  and  carried  out  the  act  of  Congress  by  which 
the  Territory  received  its  present  name.  Brigham  Young,  the  Mormoc 
leader  or  prophet,  was  appointed  governor  of  the  Territory. 

In  1850  the  seventh  census  showed 
the  population  of  the  United  States 
to  be  23,191,876  souls. 

In  the  early  part  of  President 
Taylor's  administration,  General 
Lopez,  a  Spaniard,  began  to  enlist 
men  in  the  United  States  ostensibly 
for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  people 
of  the  island  of  Cuba  to  throw  off 
their  allegiance  to  Spain  and  estab- 
lish their  independence,  but  really 
for  the  purpose  of  driving  out  the 
Spaniards  and  securing  the  annexa- 
tion of  Cuba  to  the  United  States. 
He  succeeded  in  inducing  a  number 
of  adventurous  persons  to  join  him. 

President  Taylor,  upon  learning  of  the  movement,  issued  a  procla- 
mation forbidding  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  engage  in  it.  In 
spite  of  this  warning,  Lopez  collected  a  force  of  six  hundred  men, 
and  eluding  the  vigilance  of  the  United  States  officers,  sailed  for  Cuba. 
He  landed  at  Cardenas,  but  received  so  little  encouragement  that  the 
party  sailed  for  Key  West.  In  1851,  Lopez  again  entered  Cuba,  this 
time  at  the  head  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  men.  His  party  was  captured 
almost  immediately,  and  he  and  a  number  of  his  men  were  put  to  death 
by  the  Spanish  authorities  at  Havana. 

In  May,  1850,  an  expedition  of  a  different  character  sailed  from  the 
United  States.  The  fate  of  Sir  John  Frtmklin,  who  sailed  from  England 
in  1845,  in  search  of  the  northwest  passage,  had  long  enlisted  the  sym- 
pathy of  humane  and  generous  souls.  It  was  thought  that  the  daring 
navigator  might  be  confined  to  the  Arctic  regions  by  the  loas  of  his  ships, 
and  that  a  well-executed  search  might  either  result  in  the  discovery  and 


f 


BRIGHAM   YOUNG. 


746  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

relief  of  Franklin  or  settle  the  question  as  to  his  fate.  Mr.  Henry 
Grinnell,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  New  York,  fitted  out  an  expedition  at 
his  own  expense,  and  placing  it  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  De 
Haven,  of  the  United  States  navy,  despatched  it  to  the  Arctic  regions  to 
search  for  Franklin  and  his  men,  in  May,  1850.  De  Haven  was  accom- 
,panied  by  Dr.  E.  K.  Kane,  in  the  capacity  of  surgeon  and  naturalist. 
After  a  year's  absence  the  vessels  returned,  the  search  having  been  unsuc- 
cessful. The  general  government  despatched  another  expedition  in  1851 
on  the  same  errand,  and  placed  it  under  command  of  Dr.  Kane.  This 
expedition  was  absent  four  years,  and  the  government,  becoming  appre- 
hensive of  its  fate,  sent  two  vessels  to  search  for  Kane  and  his  companions. 
They  were  found  at  the  isle  of  Disco,  in  Greenland,  having  been  forced  to 
abandon  their  vessel  in  the  ice.  Nothing  was  learned  by  Dr.  Kane  con- 
cerning the  fate  of  Sir  John  Franklin  ;  but  the  expedition  resulted  in  the 
discovery  of  the  open  Polar  Sea.* 

In  the  early  part  of  1851  Congress  reduced  the  postage  on  prepaid 
letters  to  three  cents  to  all  parts  of  the  United  'States,  prepayment  being 
made  by  means  of  stamps  provided  by  the  government.  The  result  was 
a  rapid  and  immense  increase  of  the  postal  revenue  of  the  country. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1851,  the  corner-stone  of  the  extension  of  the  capi- 
tol  at  Washington  was  laid  by  President  Fillmore  with  appropriate  cere- 
monies. The  orator  of  the  day  was  Daniel  Webster.  His  address  was 
one  of  his  best  efforts,  but  was  delivered  under  great  disadvantages.  His 
health  had  been  failing  for  some  time  past,  and  his  weakness  was  so  great 
that  he  could  speak  only  with  difficulty. 

This  oration  was  one  of  the  last  public  acts  of  the  great  statesman.  On 
the  24th  of  October,  1852,  he  died  at  his  home  at  Marsh  field,  Massachu- 
setts, aged  seventy  years,  and  in  him  perished  the  first  statesman  of 
America.  He  was  large  and  stout  in  frame,  of  swarthy  complexion,  and 
slow  and  heavy  in  movement — a  man  of  noble  and  commanding  appear- 
ance. His  intellect  was  cast  in  the  same  gigantic  mould  as  his  body. 
His  language  was  simple  and  chaste,  and  his  arguments  irresistible. 
His  patriotism  knew  no  sectional  limits.  "I  am  as  ready,"  he  once 
said,  "to  fight  and  to  fall  for  the  constitutional  rights  of  Vir- 
ginia as  I  am  for  those  of  Massachusetts."  Alexander  H.  Stephens 

has  said  of  him :  "  He  was  too  great  a  man  and  had  too  great  an  in- 

» . 

*  Nothing  definite  was  learned  of  the  fate  of  Sir  John  Franklin  until  1859,  when  the 
steamer  "Fox,"  despatched  by  Lady  Franklin,  made  the  melancholy  discovery  that 
Sir  John  Franklin  died  on  the  llth  of  June,  1847,  and  in  1848  the  "Erebus"  and 
"Terror"  were  abandoned  in  the  ice  The  survivors  of  these  disasters,  one  hundred  and 
five  in  number,  died  one  by  one  from  cold  and  exhaustion  on  King  William's  island. 


ADMINISTRATIONS  OF  TAYLOR  AND  FILLMORK  747 

tellect  not  to  see  the  truth  when  it  was  presented,  and  he  was  too 
honest  and  too  patriotic  a  man  not  to  proclaim  the  truth  when  he  saw  it, 
even  to  an  unwilling  people.  In  this  quality  of  moral  greatness  1  often 
thought  Mr.  Webster  had  the  advantage  of  his  great  contemporaries, 
Messrs.  Clay  and  Calhoun.  Not  that  I  would  be  understood  as  saying 
that  they  were  not  men  of  great  moral  courage,  for  both  of  them  showed 
this  high  quality  \:\  many  instances,  but  they  never  gave  the  world  such 
striking  exhibitions  of  it  as  he  did.  .  .  .  Webster  .  .  .  often  passed  this 
ordeal,  and  that  he  passed  it  with  unflinching  firmness  is  one  of  the 
grandest  features  in  the  general  grandeur  of  his  character.  Even  his 
detractors  have  been  constrained  to  render  him  unwilling  homage  in  this 
respect."  *  His  memory  was  honored  by  appropriate  demonstrations  in 
all  parts  of  the  country,  and  it  is  said  that  the  popular  tributes  on  this 
occasion  were  equalled  only  by  those  of  the  nation  at  the  death  of 
Washington. 

In  December,  1851,  Louis  Kossuth,  the  chief  of  the  Hungarian  insur- 
rection of  1848,  visited  the  United  States.  His  avowed  object  was  to 
promote  the  cause  of  his  countrymen,  and  he  made  frequent  addresses  in 
various  parts  of  the  Union,  which  were  listened  to  by  vast  multitudes 
who  were  charmed  with  his  eloquence.  He  visited  Washington,  and 
was  granted  a  public  reception  by  Congress.  Tin;  Austrian  minister  at 
Washington,  the  Chevalier  Hulseman,  protested  against  this  reception,  and 
his  protest  being  unheeded,  he  withdrew  from  Washington  for  a  while. 

The  attempt  of  Lopez  upon  Cuba  had  greatly  alarmed  Spain  for  the 
safety  of  that  island.  England  and  France,  sympathizing  with  her,  and 
anxious  to  render  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  by  the  United  States  impos- 
sible, proposed  to  the  American  government  to  join  them  in  a  "tripartite 
treaty,"  in  which  each  should  disclaim  any  intention  to  seize  that  island, 
and  should  guarantee  Spain  in  her  possession  of  it.  In  December,  1852, 
Edward  Everett,  who  had  succeeded  Mr.  Webster  as  secretary  of  state, 
by  the  direction  of  the  president,  replied  to  the  proposition  of  England 
and  France,  declining  to  accept  it.  "The  President,"  he  said,  "does  not 
covet  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  for  the  United  States,"  but  "  could  not  see 
with  indifference  that  island  fall  into  the  possession  of  any  European  gov- 
ernment than  Spain."  He  stated  that  the  situation  of  the  island  rendered 
it  peculiarly  interesting  to  this  country  by  reason  of  its  proximity  to  our 
coast,  and  its  commanding  the  approach  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  The  European  powers  were  thus  given  to 
understand  that  the  United  States  would  not  tolerate  their  interference  in 
a  question  purely  American. 

*  T/ie  War  Between  the  States,  vol.  i.,  pp.  405,  406. 


748 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


The  year  1852  was  marked  by  intense  excitement  consequent  on  the 
political  campaign  which  terminated  in  the  fall  in  the  presidential  elec- 
tion. The  Democratic  party  made  a  strong  and  successful  effort  to  re- 
cover its  lost  power,  and  nominated  Franklin  Pierce,  of  New  Hampshire, 
for  president,  and  William  R.  King,  of  Alabama,  for  vice-president.  The 
Whig  party  nominated  General  Winfield  Scott  for  president,  and  William 
A..  Graham,  of  North  Carolina,  for  vice-president.  The  Anti-slavery 
party  put  in  nomination  John  P.  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire,  and  George 
W.  Julian,  of  Indiana.  The  election  resulted  in  the  choice  of  the  candi- 
dates of  the  Democratic  party  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  The  Anti- 
slavery  party  on  this  occasion  polled  but  1 55,825  votes,  or  a  little  more 
than  half  of  the  strength  it  had  shown  at  the  previous  election. 

Mr.  King,  the  vice-president  elect,  did  not  long  survive  his  triumph. 
His  health  had  been  delicate  for  many  years,  and  he  was  obliged  to  pass 
the  winter  succeeding  the  election  in  Cuba.  Being  unable  to  return 
home,  he  took  the  oath  of  office  before  the  American  consul,  at  Havana, 
on  the  4th  of  March,  1 853.  He  then  returned  to  the  Uniter1  States,  and 
jied  at  his  home  in  Alabama  on  the  18th  of  April,  1853. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   FRANKLIN   PIERCE. 

Dispute  with  Mexico — The  Gadsden  Purchase — Surveys  for  a  Pacific  Railway — The 
Japan  Expedition — Treaty  with  Japan — The  Koszta  Affair — The  "  Black  Warrior  " 
seized  by  the  Cuban  Officials — The  "Ostend  Conference" — Dismissal  of  the  British 
Minister — The  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill — History  of  the  Bill — Its  Passage  by  Congress — 
History  of  the  Struggle  in  Kansas — Conflict  between  the  Pro-Slavery  and  Free  Soil 
Settlers — Lawrence  Sacked — Civil  War — The  Presidential  Campaign  of  1856 — Jamea 
Buchanan  elected  President  of  the  United  States — Rapid  increase  of  the  Republican 
Party. 

[RESIDENT  PIERCE  took  the  oath  of  office  at  the  capitol  at 
Washington  on  the  4th  of  March,  1853,  in  the  presence  of  an 
immense  throng.  He  was  in  his  forty-ninth  year,  and  had  won 
an  enviable  name  by  his  previous  services  to  the  country.  He 
was  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  and  had  represented  that 
State  for  four  years  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress,  and  for  nearly  a  full 
term  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  had  also  served  with  dis- 
tinction during  the  Mexican  war  as  briga- 
dier-general. He  placed  William  L.  Marcy, 
of  New  York,  at  the  head  of  his  cabinet  as 
secretary  of  state. 

The  first  question  of  importance  the  new 
president  was  called  upon  to  settle  grew  out 
of  a  dispute  with  Mexico  concerning  the 
boundary  between  that  country  and  the  Ter- 
ritory of  New  Mexico.  At  the  time  of  the 
treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo  the  maps  were 
so  imperfect  that  the  boundary  line  had  not 
been  drawn  with  sufficient  exactness.  Both 
countries  claimed  the  Mesilla  valley,  which 
was  said  to  be  very  fertile,  but  which  was 
more  important  to  the  United  States  as  affording  what  was  generally  re- 
garded as  the  most  practicable  route  to  California.  Santa  Anna  was  now 
president  of  the  Mexican  republic  again,  and  sent  a  force  of  Mexican 
troops  to  occupy  the  region  in  dispute.  The  matter  was  settled  by  nego- 

749 


K  PIERCE. 


750  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tiation,  however,  and  the  United  States  obtained  the  Mesilla  valley  and 
the  free  navigation  of  the  Gulf  of  California  and  of  the  Colorado  to  the 
American  frontier.  For  these  concessions  the  federal  government  paid 
Mexico  the  sum  of  ten  millions  of  dollars.  The  district  thus  acquired 
was  known  as  the  "  Gadsden  Purchase,"  and  was  subsequently  erected 
into  the  Territory  of  Arizona. 

The  necessity  of  more  rapid  and  certain  communication  with  Californ  a 
had  brought  the  nation  to  regard  a  railway  between  the  Mississippi  anc^ 
the  Pacific  as  a  necessity,  and  as  such  an  undertaking  was  considered  be- 
yond the  resources  (fa  private  corporation,  it  was  believed  that  it  should 
be  built  by  the  general  government,  or  at  least  that  the  general  govern- 
ment should  bear  a  part  of  the  expense.  The  year  1853  witnessed  the 
first  steps  towards  the  construction  of  this  great  work.  Two  expeditions 
were  despatched  under  the  orders  of  the  war  department  to  explore  the 
best  routes  for  a  Pacific  railway. 

The  acquisition  of  California  brought  the  United  States  into  new  rela- 
tions with  the  nations  of  the  eastern  world,  as  it  secured  for  them  a  base 
upon  the  Pacific  from  which  a  direct  trade  could  be  conducted  with  China 
and  Japan.  The  empire  of  Japan,  however,  was  closed  to  foreigners,  and 
it  was  very  desirable  to  open  commercial  relations  with  it.  Towards  the 
close  of  Mr.  Fillmore's  term  of  office,  Commodore  Perry,  a  brother  of  the 
hero  of  Lake  Erie,  was  despatched  to  China  with  a  fleet  of  seven  war 
steamers  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with  the  Japanese  government.  He  arrived 
in  the  bay  of  Jeddo  in  the  summer  of  1853.  The  natives  were  greatly 
astonished  at  the  appearance  of  his  steamers,  the  first  that  had  ever  been 
seen  in  those  waters,  and  at  his  boldness  in  venturing  into  their  harbors. 
The  Japanese  officials  ordered  him  to  depart,  but  he  refused,  and  insisted 
on  seeing  the  emperor,  and  making  known  to  him  the  object  of  his 
friendly  visit.  They  at  length  decided  to  lay  the  matter  before  the 
emperor,  who  consented  to  grant  an  interview  to  the  commodore,  and 
named  the  14th  of  July  for  that  purpose.  On  the  day  appointed  the 
commodore  landed,  accompanied  by  a  strong  body  of  marines.  He  was 
received  with  great  ceremony  by  the  Japanese,  and  delivered  the  presi- 
dent's letter,  to  which  an  answer  was  promised.  The  answer  of  the 
emperor  was  submitted  to  him  several  months  later,  and  was  favorable. 
A  treaty  was  concluded  between  the  United  States  and  Japan,  by  which 
the  former  were  allowed  to  trade  in  two  specified  ports — Simodi  and 
Hokadadi.  American  citizens  were  permitted  to  reside  at  these  ports,  and 
consuls  were  accepted  for  them.  Thus  the  United  States  had  the  honor 
of  being  the  first  to  open  the  rich  markets  of  the  island  empire  to  the 
commerce  of  the  civilized  world.  Since  then  the  relations  between  the 


THE  ADXISISTKATIOy  OF  FEASKLIX  PIERCE.  751 

two  countries  have  steadily  grown  more  cordial,  and  Japan  has  shown  a 
remarkable  rapidity  and  facility  for  adopting  the  civilization  of  the 
west. 

In  July,  1853,  occurred  an  event  which  did  much  to  increase  the  re- 
spect for  our  navy  among  the  powers  of  the  world.  Martin  Koszta,  a 
Hungarian,  who  had  taken  the  preliminary  steps  to  be  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  happening  to  be  in  Smyrna,  in  Asia  Minor,  on  business,  wae 
seized  as  a  rebel  and  a  refugee  by  order  of  the  Austrian  consul-general, 
and  taken  on  board  an  Austrian  brig.  The  United  States  sloop-of-war 
"St.  Louis,"  Captain  Ingraham,  was  lying  in  the  harbor  at  the  time, 
and  Ingrahaui  was  appealed  to  for  protection  for  Koszta.  He  at  once 
demanded  his  release  as  an  American  citizen.  The  demand  was  refused 
by  the  authorities,  and  Ingraham  at  once  called  his  crew  to  quarters  and 
threatened  to  fire  upon  the  Austrian  ship  if  Koszta  was  not  immediately 
released.  The  Austrians  at  once  surrendered  their  prisoner,  and  he  was 
placed  in  custody  of  the  French  consul  to  await  the  action  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States.  The  matter  was  settled  by  negotiation  be- 
tween this  country  and  Austria,  and  Koszta  was  released.  Austria 
addressed  to  the  government  at  Washington  a  remonstrance  against  the 
conduct  of  Captain  Ingraham,  but  his  course  was  warmly  applauded  by 
his  countrymen  and  by  disinterested  persons  in  Europe. 

In  February,  1854,  the  American  merchant  steamer  "  Black  Warrior" 
was  seized  by  the  Spanish  authorities  at  Havana,  on  the  pretext  that  she 
had  evaded  or  violated  some  uncertain  revenue  law,  and  the  ship  and  her 
cargo  were  declared  confiscated.  This  action  of  the  Havana  officials  was 
regarded  in  the  United  States  as  unjust,  and  aroused  a  great  deal  of  feel- 
ing against  the  Spaniards,  and  gave  a  sudden  impetus  to  the  national 
sentiment  in  favor  of  the  acquisition  of  Cuba.  The  affair  of  the  "Black 
Warrior"  was  satisfactorily  settled  by  the  Spanish  government. 

While  the  feeling  aroused  by  the  affair  was  at  its  height  a  conference 
of  some  of  the  American  ministers  in  Europe,  including  Mr.  Buchanan, 
minister  to  England,  Mr.  Mason,  minister  to  France,  and  Mr.  Soule, 
minister  to  Spain,  and  some  others,  was  held  at  Ostend,  in  Belgium,  and 
a  circular  was  adopted  recommending  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  by  the 
United  States.  This  measure  attracted  much  attention,  and  elieiuxl  con- 
siderable European  criticism  of  the  alleged  ambitious  designs  of  the  United 
States.  Mr.  Soule*,  on  his  return  to  Madrid,  was  stopped  at  Calais  by 
order  of  the  emperor  of  the  French,  who  had  personal  reasons  for  dis- 
liking him.  The  emperor,  however,  reconsidered  his  action,  and  allowed 
Soule  to  pass  through  France  to  the  Spanish  frontier. 

In  1855  Great  Britain,  France,  Sardinia,  and  Turkey  being  engaged  in 


752  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

a  war  with  Russia,  the  agents  of  the  British  government  undertook  to 
enlist  recruits  for  their  army  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  in 
defiance  of  the  neutrality  laws  of  this  country.  The  matter  being  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  United  States  government,  it  was  found  that  the 
British  minister  at  Washington  and  the  British  consuls  in  some  of  the 
principal  cities  of  the  Union  had  encouraged,  if  they  had  not  authorized, 
these  enlistments.  The  government  of  the  United  States  thereupon  called 
the  attention  of  Great  Britain  to  the  conduct  of  her  minister,  and  requested 
her  to  recall  him.  The  queen  declined  to  comply  with  this  request,  and 
the  minister  and  the  consuls  were  promptly  dismissed  by  the  president. 
The  matter  caused  considerable  irritation  in  England  for  a  while,  but  the 
good  sense  of  the  English  people  at  length  perceived  the  propriety  of 
the  course  of  the  American  government,  and  cordial  relations  were 
re-established  between  the  two  countries. 

The  most  important  measure  of  Mr.  Pieree's  administration  was  the 
bill  to  organize  the  Territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska.  The  region 
embraced  in  these  Territories  formed  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase, 
and  extended  from  the  borders  of  Missouri,  Iowa,  and  Minnesota  to  the 
summit  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  from  the  parallel  of  36°  30'  north 
latitude  to  the  border  of  British  America.  The  whole  region  by  the 
terms  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  had  been  secured  to  free  labor  by  the 
exclusion  of  slavery.  Until  the  year  1850  this  vast  area  was  called  by 
the  general  and  somewhat  indefinite  name  of  the  "  Platte  Country,"  from 
the  Platte  river,  which  flows  through  it.  Little  was  known  concerning 
it  save  that  it  was  a  region  of  great  fertility.  It  was  mainly  occupied  by 
the  reservations  of  the  Indian  tribes,  which  had  been  removed  from  the 
other  States  to  make  way  for  the  whites.  Across  it  swept  the  grand 
trails  of  the  overland  route  to  Utah  and  the  Pacific.  The  people  of  the 
New  England  States  were  very  anxious  that  the  Indian  reservations 
which  covered  the  eastern  part  should  be  bought  up  by  the  general  gov- 
ernment and  the  country  thrown  open  to  emigration.  Petitions  to  this 
effect  were  presented  to  the  Thirty-second  Congress,  but  no  action  was 
taken  upon  them  until  December,  1852,  when  Mr.  Hall,  of  Missouri, 
introduced  a  bill  into  the  House  to  organize  the  "  Territory  of  Platte." 
It  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Territories,  which  in  February, 
1853,  reported  a  bill  organizing  the  "Territory  of  Nebraska."  The  bill 
was  opposed  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  the  full  strength  of  the 
south,  and  in  the  Senate  the  only  southern  senators  who  voted  for  it  were 
those  from  Missouri.  The  Missouri  Compromise,  as  has  been  stated, 
secured  the  entire  Nebraska  region  to  free  labor;  but  notwithstanding 
this  the  southern  members  of  Congress  were  resolved  to  oppose  the 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FRANKLIN  PIERCE.  75,') 

organization  of  a  new  free  Territory,  and  to  endeavor  to  obtain  a  footLn» 
for  slavery  in  at  least  a  part  of  it. 

The  matter  was  revived  in  the  Senate  on  the  16th  of  January,  185), 
by  Senator  Dixon,  of  Kentucky,  who  gave  notice  that  whenever  the 
Nebraska  bill  should  be  called  up  Me  would  move  the  following  amend- 
ment: "That  so  much  of  the  eighth  section  of  an  act  approved  March 
6,  1820,  entitled  'An  act  to  authorize  the  people  of  the  Missouri 
Territory  to  form  a  constitution  and  State  government,  and  for  the  admis- 
sion of  such  State  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original 
States,  and  to  prohibit  slavery  in  certain  Territories,'  as  declares  '  That, 
in  all  the  territory  ceded  by  France  to  the  United  States,  under  the  name 
of  Louisiana,  which  lies  north  of  36°  30'  north  latitude,  slavery  and 
involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than  in  the  .punishment  of  crimes 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  be  forever  pro- 
hibited,' shall  not  be  so  construed  as  to  apply  to  the  Territory  contemplated 
by  this  act,  or  to  any  other  Territory  of  the  United  States ;  but  that  the 
citizens  of  the  several  States  or  Territories  shall  be  at  liberty  to  take  and 
hold  their  slaves  within  any  of  the  Territories  or  States  to  be  formed 
therefrom,  as  if  the  said  act,  entitled  as  aforesaid,  had  never  been 
passed." 

The  announcement  of  this  amendment  startled  the  country  as  much  as 
the  Wilmot  Proviso  had  done  years  before,  and  produced  much  angry 
excitement.  It  was  a  clear  repudiation  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
which  it  did  not  even  seek  to  repeal. 

Senator  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,, 
on  the  23d  of  January,  1854,  reported  a  bill  which  provided  for  tl:e 
organization  of  the  Platte  country  into  two  Territories.  The  southern 
portion,  which  lay  directly  west  of  Missouri,  stretching  to  the  Rocky 
mountains  on  the  west,  and  extending  from  the  thirty-seventh  to  the 
fortieth  parallel  of  north  latitude,  was  to  be  organized  into  a  distinct  Ter- 
ritory to  be  called  Kansas.  The  remainder  was  to  be  called  Nebraska, 
having  the  line  of  43°  30'  for  its  northern  boundary.  Senator  Douglas, 
in  an  evil  hour  for  the  country,  incorporated  in  the  bill  the  main  fea- 
tures of  Mr.  Dixon's  amendment.  The  bill  contained  the  following 
provisions : 

"SECTION  21.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That,  in  order  to  avoid  mis- 
construction, it  is  hereby  declared  to  be  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of 
this  act,  so  far  as  the  question  of  slavery  is  concerned,  to  carry  into  prac- 
tical operation  the  following  propositions  and  principles,  established  by 
the  compromise  measures  of  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty,  to 

wit: 

48 


754  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

"First.  That  all  questions  pertaining  to  slavery  in  the  Territories, 
and  in  the  new  States  to  be  formed  therefrom,  are  to  be  left  to  the 
decision  of  the  people  residing  therein,  through  their  appropriate  represent- 
atives. 

"Second.  That  all  cases  involving  title  to  slaves,  and  questions  of  per- 
sonal freedom,  are  referred  to  the  adjudication  of  the  local  tribunals,  with 
the  right  of  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

"Third.  That  the  provisions  of  the  constitution  and  laws  01  the 
United  States,  in  respect  to  fugitives  from  service,  are  to  be  carried  into 
faithful  execution  in  all  the  '  organized  Territories/  the  same  as  in  the 
States." 

The  section  of  the  bill  which  prescribed  the  qualifications  and  mode 
of  election  of  a  delegate  from  each  of  the  Territories  was  as  follows : 
"The  constitution,  and  all  laws  of  the  United  States  which  are  not, 
locally  inapplicable,  shall  have  the  same  force  and  effect  within  the  said 
Territory  as  elsewhere  in  the  United  States,  except  the  section  of  the  act 
preparatory  to  the  admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union,  approved  March 
6,  1820,  which  was  superseded  by  the  principles  of  the  legislation  of 
1850,  commonly  called  il*>  compromise  measures,  and  is  declared 
inoperative." 

Mr.  Dixon  declared  that  the  oill,  as  reported  by  Senator  Douglas,  met 
with  his  hearty  approval,  and  that  he  vould  support  it  with  all  his  ability. 
The  debate  on  the  bill  began  in  the  Senate  on  the  24th  of  January,  and 
continued  through  several  weeks.  It  was  conducted  with  great  ability  on 
both  sides,  and  engaged  the  earnest  attention  of  the  whole  country.  The 
Free  Soil  senators  unanimously  opposed  the  bill,  which  they  denounced 
as  a  violation  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  by  which  the  faith  of  the 
nation  was  pledged  to  the  settlement  then  effected.  The  southern 
senators  supported  it  with  equal  unanimity,  as  they  held  that  the  Missouri 
Compromise  had  been  superseded  by  the  compromise  of  1850. 

On  the  6th  of  February  Mr.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  moved  to  strike  out  so 
much  of  the  bill  as  declared  the  Missouri  Compromise  "  superseded  "  by 
the  compromise  of  1850,  but  the  motion  was  defeated.  AVhereupon  Mr, 
Douglas,  on  the  15th  of  February,  moved  to  strike  out  the  clause  objected 
to  by  Mr.  Chase,  and  insert  the  following : 

"  Which  being  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of  non-intervention  by 
Congress  with  slavery  in  the  States  and  Territories,  as  recognized  by  the 
legislation  of  1850  (commonly  called  the  compromise  measures),  is 
hereby  declared  inoperative  and  void  ;  it  being  the  true  intent  and  mean- 
ing of  this  act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  tc. 
exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FRANKLIN  PIERCE.  755 

and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States." 

Mr.  Douglas'  amendment  was  at  once  adopted,  and  seemed  fair  enough 
on  its  face.  Mr.  Chase  exposed  the  hollowness  of  it  by  proposing  to  add 
to  it  the  following  clause,  which  was  promptly  voted  down :  "  Under 
which  the  people  of  the  Territories,  through  their  appropriate  representa- 
tives, may,  if  they  see  fit,  prohibit  the  existence  of  slavery  therein." 

The  bill  was  adopted  by  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  thirty-seven  yeas  to 
fourteen  nays,  and  by  the  House  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  thirteen 
yeas  to  one  hundred  nays,  and  on  the  31st  of  May,  1854,  received  the 
approval  of  the  president  and  became  a  law. 

The  whole  country  engaged  warmly  in  the  discussion  aroused  by  the 
reopening  of  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  Territories.  The  north 
resented  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  in  the  south  a  large 
and  respectable  party  sincerely  regretted  the  repeal  of  that  settlement. 
By  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  the  Thirty-third  Congress 
assumed  a  grave  responsibility,  and  opened  the  door  to  a  bloody  and 
bitter  conflict  in  the  Territories  between  slavery  and  free  labor.  The 
events  now  to  be  related  were  the  logical  consequences  of  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise. 

A  few  months  before  the  final  vote  upon  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  the 
general  government  succeeded  in  purchasing  the  Indian  reservations  in 
those  Territories,  and  removed  the  Indian  tribes  to  new  homes  farther 
west.  This  action  at  once  threw  Kansas  and  Nebraska  open  to  white 
settlers,  and  measures  were  set  on  foot  in  the  New  England  States  to 
encourage  emigration  thither.  Kansas  being  a  more  fertile  country  than 
Nebraska  naturally  attracted  the  greater  number  of  settlers.  Before 
anything  could  be  done  by  the  Free  Soil  men  the  people  living  on  the 
border  of  Missouri  passed  over  into  Kansas,  and  selecting  the  best  lands, 
put  their  mark  upon  them,  hoping  in  this  way  to  establish  a  pre-emption 
claim  to  them.  Their  object  was  to  organize  and  hold  the  Territory  in 
the  interest  of  slavery,  but  very  few  of  them  removed  to  Kansas,  or  had 
any  wish  to  do  so. 

In  the  meantime  societies  had  been  formed  in  the  New  England  States 
for  the  promotion  of  emigration  to  Kansas.  As  the  Pro-slavery  settlers 
had  come  into  the  Territory  so  slowly,  and  in  such  small  numbers,  it 
seemed  certain  that  the  northern  people  could  secure  Kansas  to  free  labor 
by  sending  out  settlers  to  occupy  the  Territory  in  good  faith.  The  Pro- 
slavery  party  in  Missouri  determined  to  prevent  this.  In  July,  1854,  a 
meeting  was  held  at  Wostport  in  that  State,  at  which  it  was  resolved  that 
the  persons  taking  part  in  the  meeting  would,  "  whenever  called  ti}K)n  by 


756 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


any  of  the  citizens  of  Kansas  Territory,  hold  'themselves'  in  readiness 
together  to  resist  and  remove  any  and  all  emigrants  who  go  there  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Northern  Emigrant  Aid  Societies." 

The  first  party  sent  out  by  the  New  England  Aid  Societies  reached  a 
point  on  the  Kaw  river,  in  Kansas,  about  the  middle  of  July.  There 
they  pitched  their  tents  and  began  the  building  of  a  town,  which  they 
named  Lawrence,  in  honor  of  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  of  Boston.  By  the 
last  of  the  month  they  were  joined  by  seventy  more  emigrants,  and  the 
work  of  founding  their  town  was  pushed  forward  with  energy.  There 
was  not  a  drone  in  the  little  community.  They  were  all  honest,  intelli' 


F1KST  HOTEL  IN  LAWRENCE. 

gent,  God-fearing  men  and  women,  and  they  meant  to  succeed  in  the 
undertaking  they  had  begun.  They  were  in  legal  and  peaceable  pos- 
session of  their  settlement,  and  thus  far  had  molested  or  wronged 
no  one. 

They  were  not  to  live  in  peace,  however.  Before  they  had  finished 
building  their  houses,  they  were  startled  by  the  announcement  that  two 
hundred  and  fifty  armed  Missourians  had  encamped  within  a  short  dis- 
tance of  them  for  the  purpose  of  driving  them  out  of  the  Territory. 
The  next  morning  the  Missourians  sent  them  a  formal  notice  that  "the 
Abolitionists  must  leave  the  Territory,  never  more  to  return  to  it."  They 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


757 


declared  their  desire  to  avoid  bloodshed;  but  notified  the  settlers  that 
they  must  be  ready  to  leave  the  Territory,  with  all  their  effects,  at  one 
o'clock  that  day.  This  the  settlers  refused  to  do,  and  prepared  to  defend 
their  homes.  The  messengers  of  the  Missourians  found  them  drilling 
behind  their  tents,  and  reported  this  fact  to  their  leaders.  The  firm  but 
quiet  attitude  of  the  people  of  Lawrence  had  a  happy  effect.  The  Mis- 
sourians made  no  effort  to  carry  out  their  threat,  but  broke  up  their  camp 


THE  PEOPLE  OF   LAWRENCE   DETERMINED  TO  RESIST. 

that  night,  and  withdrew  across  the  border,  leaving  the  settlers  in  peace. 
Meanwhile  the  town  of  Lawrence  grew  and  prospered,  and  the  Xew 
England  Societies  continuing  to^end  other  emigrants  into  the  Territory 
other  towns  were  founded.  Settlers  from  the  Southern  States  came  into 
the  Territory  very  slowly. 

The  general  government  threw  its  influence"  as  far  as  possible  in  favor 
of  the  Pro-slavery  party,  in  the  organization  of  the  Territory,  by  appoint- 


758  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

ing  a  majority  of  the  territorial  officers  from  the  slaveholding  States. 
A.  H.  lieeder  was  appointed  governor  by  President  Pierce.  He  endeav- 
ored to  execute  the  laws  faithfully,  and  ordered  an  election  for  members 
of  a  territorial  legislature,  to  be  held  on  the  30th  of  March,  1855.  On 
that  day  large  numbers  of  armed  Missourians  crossed  the  border,  and, 
taking  possession  of  the  polling-places  in  Kansas,  succeeded  in  returning 
a  Pro-slavery  legislature. 

Six  districts  at  once  forwarded  protests  to  the  governor  against  the 
elections,  showing  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  that  they  had  been  con- 
trolled by  citizens  of  Missouri.  The  governor,  who  was  anxious  to  do 
justice  to  all  parties,  ordered  a  new  election  in  these  districts,  each  of 
which,  with  the  exception  of  Lecompton,  returned  a  Free  Soil  delegate. 
The  new  delegates,  however,  were  refused  their  seats  upon  the  assembling 
of  the  legislature,  and  the  successful  candidates  at  the  original  election 
were  admitted. 

The  governor  had  summoned  the  legislature  to  meet  at  Pawnee  City, 
on  the  Kansas  river,  a  town  nearly  one  hundred  miles  distant  from  the 
border,  and  supposed  to  be  far  enough  away  to  be  free  from  intimidation 
by  the  Missourians;  but  the  legislature,  immediately  upon  assembling, 
adjourned  to  Shawnee  Mission,  on  the  Missouri  border.  The  resolution 
for  this  purpose  was  vetoed  by  the  governor,  but  was  passed  over  his 
veto  and  was  at  once  carried  into  effect.  Upon  reassembling  at  Shawnee 
Mission  the  legislature  proceeded  to  adopt  the  laws  of  Missouri  as  the 
laws  of  Kansas,  and  to  frame  a  series  of  statutes  designedly  cruel  and 
oppressive.  These  laws  were  vetoed  by  Governor  Eeeder,  who  was  re- 
moved by  the  president.  Wilson  Shannon,  of  Ohio,  was  then  appointed 
governor  of  Kansas. 

In  the  meantime  the  Free  Soil  settlers  had  increased  so  rapidly  that 
they  at  length  largely  outnumbered  the  Pro-slavery  settlers.  They  now 
felt  themselves  strong  enough  to  resist  the  outrages  of  the  Missourians, 
and  accordingly,  on  the  5th  of  September,  1855,  held  a  convention,  in 
which  they  distinctly  repudiated  the  government  that  had  been  forced 
upon  them  by  men  who  were  not  residents  of  the  Territory.  They  an- 
nounced their  intention  not  to  take  part  in  the  election  of  a  delegate  to 
Congress,  which  the  territorial  authorities  had  ordered  to  be  held  on  the 
1st  of  October,  and  called  upon  the  actual  residents  of  the  Territory  toi 
send  delegates  to  a  convention  to  meet  at  Topeka  on  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember. This  convention  organized  an  executive  committee  for  the 
Territory,  and  ordered  an  election  to  be  held  for  the  purpose  of  choosing 
a  delegate  to  Congress.  Governor  Reeder  was  nominated  and  elected  to 
Congress.  On  the  23d  of  October  the  convention  adopted  a  Free  State 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 

constitution,  and  forwarded  it  to  Congress  with  a  petition  for  the  admis- 
sion of  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  State. 

The  struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  Territory  now  passed  out  of  the 
area  of  politics.  As  we  have  said,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise opened  the  way  for,  and  was  the  direct  cause  of,  the  conflict 
between  the  Free  and  Pro-slavery  settlers  of  Kansas.  The  outrages  of 
the  Pro-slavery  men  had  forced  the  Free-Soilers  into  an  attitude  of 
direct  and  uncompromising  resistance;  and  after  the  action  of  the  latter, 
at  Topeka,  the  struggle  which  had  hitherto  been  comparatively  bloodless 
changed  its  character  and  became  an  open  and  sanguinary  war  between 
the  two  parties.  In  this  struggle  the  Pro-slavery  men  were  the 
aggressors.  Bands  of  young  men,  armed  and  regularly  organized  into 
companies  and  regiments,  came  into  the  Territory  from  South  Carolina, 
Georgia  and  the  extreme  Southern  States,  with  the  avowed  design  of 
making  Kansas  a  slaveholding  State  at  all  hazards.  On  the  morning  of 
May  21st,  1856,  under  the  pretext  of  aiding  the  United  States  marshal 
to  serve  certain  processes  upon  citizens  of  Lawrence,  they  captured  that 
town,  sacked  it,  burned  several  houses  and  inflicted  a  loss  upon  it 
amounting  to  $150,000.  From  this  time  the  war  went  on  in  a  series  of 
desultory  but  bloody  encounters,  some  of  which  assumed  the  proportions 
of  battles. 

In  the  summer  of  1856  Governor  Shannon  was  removed,  and  John  W. 
Geary,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  appointed  in  his  place.  He  exerted  him- 
self honestly  to  restore  peace  and  execute  the  laws,  and  ordered  "all 
bodies  of  men  combined,  armed  and  equipped  with  munitions  of  war, 
without  authority  of  the  government,  instantly  to  disband  and  quit  the 
Territory."  In  obedience  to  this  order  the  Free  Soil  companies  nearly 
all  disbanded,  but  the  Pro-slavery  party  paid  scarcely  any  attention  to  it. 
They  concentrated  a  force  of  two  thousand  men  and  advanced  upon 
Lawrence  to  attack  it.  Governor  Geary  at  once  placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  United  States  dragoons  stationed  in  the  Territory,  and  by  a 
rapid  march  threw  himself  with  these  troops  between  the  town  of  Law- 
rence and  the  hostile  force,  and  prevented  another  conflict. 

Matters  hacl  reached  this  stage  when  the  presidential  campaign  opened 
in  1856.  The  struggle  in  the  Territories  had  greatly  weakened  the 
Democratic  party,  and  had  given  rise  to  a  new  party  which  called  itself 
Republican,  and  which  was  based  upon  an  avowed  hostility  to  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery.  A  third  party,  called  the  American,  or  Know 
Nothing,  also  took  part  in  the  campaign,  and  was  based  upon  the  doc- 
trine that  the  political  offices  of  the  country  should  be  held  only  by 
persons  of  American  birth.  The  Democratic  party  nominated  James 


760  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  for  the  presidency,  and  John  C.  Brecken- 
ridge,  of  Kentucky,  for  the  vice-presidency.  The  Republican  nominee 
for  the  presidency  was  John  C.  Fremont,  of  California ;  for  the  vice- 
presidency  William  L.  Dayton,  of  New  Jersey.  The  American  party 
supported  Millard  Fillmore,  of  New  York,  for  the  presidency,  and 
Andrew  J.  Donelson,  of  Tennessee,  for  the  vice-presidency.  The  Whig 
party  had  been  broken  to  pieces  by  its  defeat  in  1852,  and  had  now 
entirely  disappeared. 

The  canvass  was  unusually  excited.  Slavery  was  the  principal  ques- 
tion in  dispute.  Party  ties  had  little  influence  upon  men.  The  sentiment 
of  the  nation  at  large  had  been  outraged  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  thousands  of  Democrats,  desiring  to  rebuke  their  party 
for  its  course  in  bringing  about  this  repeal,  united  with  the  Republican 
party,  which  declared  as  its  leading  principle  that  it  was  "  both  the  right 
and  the  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  in  the  Territories  those  twin  relics 
of  barbarism — polygamy  and  slavery." 

The  elections  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  James  Buchanan,  the  candi- 
date of  the  Democratic  party.  Mr.  Buchanan  received  174  electoral 
votes  to  114  cast  for  Fremont.  Though  a  majority  of  the  American 
people  sustained  the  action  of  the  Democratic  party,  the  significant  fact 
remained  that  1,341,264  of  the  voters  of  the  country  had  recorded  their 
condemnation  of  it  by  casting  their  votes  for  Fremont  and  Dayton. 


CHAPTER   XL. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN. 

Inauguration  of  Mr.  Buchanan— The  Mormon  Kebellion— The  Financial  Crisis  of  1857— 
Laying  of  the  Atlantic  Telegraphic  Cable — Minnesota  admitted  into  the  Union — Th* 
San  Juan  Affair — Admission  of  Oregon  into  the  Union — The  Kansas  question — The 
Lecompton  Constitution — Its  defeat — The  Wyandotte  Constitution — Admission  of  Kan- 
sas into  the  Union — The  John  Brown  Eaid — Prompt  action  of  the  Government — Brown 
and  his  Companions  surrendered  to  the  State  of  Virginia — Their  Trial  and  Execution — 
Presidential  Campaign  of  1860 — Rupture  of  the  Democratic  party — Abraham  Lincoln 
elected  President  of  the  United  States — Secession  of  South  Carolina — Reasons  for  this 

'  Act — Secession  of  the  other  Cotton  States — Major  Anderson  occupies  Fort  Sumter— 
Trying  position  of  the  General  Government — Course  of  Mr.  Buchanan — The  "  Star  of 
the  "West"  fired  upon  by  the  South  Carolina  Batteries — Organization  of  the  Confederate 
States  of  America. — Jefferson  Davia  elected  President  of  the  Southern  Republic — The 
Peace  Congress — Its  Failure. 

AMES  BUCHANAN,  the  fifteenth  President  of  the  United 
States,  was  inaugurated  at  Washington  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1857.  He  was  in  his  sixty-sixth  year,  and  was  a  statesman 
of  great  accomplishments  and  ripe  experience.  He  was  born  in 
Pennsylvania,  in  1791,  and  was  by  profession  a  lawyer.  He 
had  served  his  State  in  Congress  as  a  representative  and  a  senator,  had 
been  minister  to  Russia  under  President  Jackson,  and  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  cabinet  of  President  Polk  as  secretary  of  state.  During  the 
four  years  previous  to  his  election  to  the  presidency  he  had  resided 
aoroad  as  the  minister  of  the  United  States  to  Great  Britain,  and  in  that 
capacity  had  greatly  added  to  his  reputation  as  a  statesman.  He  avowed 
the  object  of  his  administration  to  be  "to  destroy  any  sectional  party, 
whether  North  or  South,  and  to  restore,  if  possible,  that  national  frater- 
nal feeling  between  the  different  States  that  had  existed  during  the  early 
days  of  the  republic."  The  intense  sectional  feeling  which  the  discussion 
of  the  slavery  question  had  aroused  had  alarmed  patriotic  men  in  all 
parts  of  the  Union,  and  it  was  earnestly  hoped  that  Mr.  Buchanan's  ad- 
ministration would  be  able  to  effect  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  quarrel. 
Mr.  Buchanan  selected  his  cabinet  from  the  leading  men  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  and  placed  at  its  head  as  secretary  of  state  Lewis  Case, 
of  Michigan. 

761 


762.  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

We  have  in  a  previous  portion  of  this  work  noticed  the  rise  and 
growth  of  the  Mormon  sect,  and  their  settlement  in  the  region  of  tht 
Great  Salt  lake,  then  a  part  of  the  Mexican  republic.  They  were  not  at 
all  pleased  with  their  transfer  to  the  United  States  by  the  cession  of  the 
territory  occupied  by  them  by  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo.  Their 
object  in  emigrating  to  Utah  had  been  to  place  themselves  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  United  States,  where  they  could  enjoy  without  molestation 
their  religious  practices,  and  especially  the  gross  and  immoral  institution 
of  polygamy,  to  which  they  were  attached  as  the  foundation  of  their 
faith.  They  were  not  disturbed  by  the  Mexican  government,  which  was 
indeed  scarcely  aware  of  their  existence,  and  thus  unnoticed  devoted 
their  energies  to  building  up  the  country  they  had  occupied.  Their 
missionaries  were  sent  into  the  various  countries  of  Europe,  and  converts 

were  made  with  extraordinary  success,  and 
rapidity.  They  built  up  a  thriving  town 
on  the  borders  of  the  great  lake,  to  whieh 
they  gave  the  name  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
founded  other  towns  in  various  parts  of  the 
Territory.  By  the  year  1850  the  population 
of  the  Territory  had  increased  to  11,380. 
Being  on  the  highway  to  California,  the 
greater  part  of  the  overland  traffic  and 
travel  to  the  Pacific  passed  through  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  was  a  source  of  considerable 
profit  to  the  Mormons. 

JAMES  BUCHANAN.  In  185°  the  Territory  of  Utah  was  or- 

ganized, and  Brigham  Young,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Joe  Smith  as  the  prophet  or  leader  of  the  Mormons,  was 
appointed  by  President  Fillmore  governor  of  the  Territory.  His  ap- 
pointment was  renewed  by  President  Pierce,  and  the  Mormons  were  left 
during  these  two  administrations  to  manage  their  affairs  very  much  in 
their  own  way.  Relying  upon  the  immense  distance  which  separated 
them  from  the  States,  they  paid  but  little  regard  to  the  authority  of  the 
United  States,  and  finally  ventured  openly  to  resist  the  officers  of  the 
general  government,  and  expelled  the  federal  judge  from  the  Territory. 
President  Buchanan  thereupon  removed  Brigham  Young  from  his  office, 
of  governor,  and  appointed  a  Mr.  Gumming  his  successor.  The  Mor- 
mons having  declared  that  the  new  governor  should  not  enter  the 
Territory,  General  Harney  was  ordered  to  accompany  him  with  a  large 
body  of  troops  and  compel  the  submission  of  the  people  of  Utah  to  the 
authority  of  the  federal  government. 


7Uo 


764 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


Under  the  leadership  of  Brigham  Young  the  Mormons  took  up  arms 
and  prepared  to  dispute  the  entrance  of  the  troops  into  the  Territory. 
They  declared  that  their  settlement  and  civilization  of  Utah  had  given 
them  the  sole  right  to  the  Territory,  and  that  they  owed  no  allegiance  to 
the  United  States.  Their  resistance  was  so  formidable  that  the  force 
under  General  Harney  was  largely  increased,  and  the  command  was 
conferred  upon  Brigadier-General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  who  was 
considered  the  most  efficient  officer  in  the  service.  General  Johnston 
joined  his  troops  at  Fort  Bridger,  about  one  hundred  miles  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  in  September,  1857.  The  Mormons  in  heavy  force  occupied 


SALT  LAKE  CITY  (FEOM  THE  NORTH). 

the  passes  leading  to  the  valley  of  the  Great  Salt  lake.  The  season  waa 
so  far  advanced  at  the  time  of  his  arrival  that  General  Johnston 
concluded  to  pass  the  winter  at  Fort  Bridger.  The  Mormons  were 
very  active  during  the  winter  in  cutting  off  the  trains  of  the  federal 
troops. 

It  was  General  Johnston's  intention  to  move  upon  Salt  Lake  City  im- 
mediately upon  the  opening  of  the  spring,  but  before  that  season  arrived 
the  matter  was  settled  through  the  efforts  of  a  Mr.  Kane,  of  Philadelphia 
He  was  sent  out  to  Salt  Lake  City  by  the  government,  and  succeeded  in 
inducing  the  Mormons  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  submit.  Governor 


THE  ADMINISTRATION    OF  JAMES  BUOHANAN.  755 

Gumming  and  the  federal  officers  then  entered  Salt  Lake  City  and 
assumed  the  offices  to  which  they  had  been  appointed,  and  a  force  of 
federal  troops  was  encamped  near  the  city  to  render  them  such  assistance 
as  should  be  found  necessary.  President  Buchanan  then  issued  a  procla- 
mation granting  a  free  pardon  "to  all,  for  the  seditions  and  treasons  by 
them  committed." 

In  the  fall  of  1857  the  general  business  of  the  country  was  thrown 
into  confusion  by  a  sudden  financial  panic,  which  seriously  embarrassed 
all  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises  and  caused  general  distress. 
On  the  26th  of  September  the  banks  of  Philadelphia  suspended  specie 
payments ;  and  their  example  was  followed  by  the  banks  of  New  York 
on  the  13th  of  October,  and  by  those  of  Boston  on  the  14th.  The 


BRIGHAM  YOUNft'S  RESIDENCES,  SALT   LAKE   CITY. 

failures  in  the  United  States  for  the  year  ending  December  6th,  1857, 
are  said  to  have  reached  the  enormous  aggregate  of  $291,750,000.  The 
Western  States  suffered  in  a  marked  degree  from  the  effects  of  this 
"  crisis ; "  but  the  south  was  comparatively  unharmed  by  it.  Various 
causes  were  assigned  for  the  panic,  the  principal  of  which  were  the  large 
speculations  in  western  lands  and  a  heavy  fall  in  the  value  of  railway 
stocks.  The  New  York  banks  resumed  specie  payments  on  the  12th 
of  December,  1857 ;  the  Boston  banks  on  the  14th  of  December  of  that 
year; -and  those  of  Philadelphia  in  April,  1858.  Specie  payments  were 
gradually  resumed  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  but  the  depression  of 
business  continued  until  during  the  course  of  the  year  1859. 

In  1858  occurred  an  event  second  only  in  importance  to  the  invention 
of  the  electric  telegraph.     For  some  years  it  had  been  believed  possible  to 


7G6  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

connect  tfce  chores  of  Europe  with  those  of  America  by  means  of  a  sub- 
marine telegraphic  cable  across  the  Atlantic.  In  1857  an  unsuccessful 
effort  was  made  by  a  company  of  American  and  English  capitalists  to 
accomplish  this  object.  The  attempt  was  renewed  in  1858.  Two  war 
steamers  were  furnished  for  the  work  of  laying  the  cable — the  "  Niagara  "  by 
I  the  United  States,  and  the  "Agamemnon"  by  Great  Britain.  The  two 
vessels  met  in  mid  ocean,  and  sailed  each  to  its  own  country,  paying  out 
the  cable  as  they  proceeded  on  their  way.  On  the  5th  of  August,  1858, 
the  "  Niagara  "  entered  Trinity  bay,  in  Newfoundland,  and  made  fast  her 
end  of  the  cable  to  the  shore,  and  on  the  same  day  the  "Agamemnon  "  reached 
Valentia  bay  in  Ireland,  having  successfully  accomplished  her  part  of  the 
work.  The  great  work  was  thus  ended,  and  on  the  16th  of  August  a 
message  was  received  through  the  wires  from  the  queen  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  addressed  to  the  president  of  the  United  States,  who  at  once 
returned  a  suitable  reply.  Other  messages  were  exchanged  between  the 
two  continents,  and  the  practicability  of  the  scheme  was  fully  demonstrated. 
On  the  first  of  September  the  laying  of  the  cable  was  celebrated  with 

imposing  ceremonies  in  New  York, 
and  rejoicings  were  held  in  other 
cities.  The  hopes  aroused  by  the 
successful  accomplishment  of  the 
great  enterprise  were  soon  disap- 
pointed, for  after  a  short  time  the 
wires  ceased  to  work,  and  no  effort 

COAT   OF  ARMS   OF   MINNESOTA.  -  - 

could  re-establish  the  communica- 
tion between  the  two  ends  of  the  line.  The  feasibility  of  the  undertaking 
had  been  practically  demonstrated,  however,  and  the  determined  men  who 
had  carried  it  through  to  success  were  convinced  that  a  new  effort  would 
be  attended  with  more  satisfactory  results. 

On  the  llth  of  May,  1858,  the  Territory  of  Minnesota  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  State. 

In  the  autumn  of  1859  a  dispute  arose  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  as  to  the  ownership  of  the  large  island  of  San  Juan  lying 
in  the  strait  which  separates  Vancouver's  island  from  the  territory  of  the 
United  States.  General  Harney,  commanding  the  American  troops  in 
the  northwest,  took  possession  of  the  island.  Governor  Douglass  of 
British  Columbia  protested  against  this  occupation,  and  for  a  while  4here 
was  danger  that  the  two  parties  would  come  to  blows.  The  general 
government  despatched  General  Scott  to  the  scene  of  the  controversy.  anO 
he  succeeded  in  bringing  about  an  adjustment  of  the  quarrel. 

On  the  14th  of  February,  1859,  Oregon  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
«$  a  State,  the  Territory  of  Washington  being  separated  from  it. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  767 

During  the  whole  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  administration  the  question  of 
«Mvery  in  the  Territories  continued  to  engross  the  attention  of  the  people. 
The  struggle  in  Kansas  went  on  with  increased  bitterness.  In  the  sum- 
:uer  of  1857  an  election  was  ordered  by  the  legislature  of  Kansas  for 
delegates  to  a  convention  for  the  purpose  of  framing  a  constitution,  and 
care  was  taken  to  arrange  the  matter  so  that  a  majority  of  Pro-slavery 
delegates  should  be  chosen.  For  this  reason,  and  others  of  equal  force, 
the  Free  Soil  men  refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  election,  which  conse- 
quently resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  Pro-slavery  convention.  The  Free 
Soil  party  thereupon  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
relating  the  wrongs  they  had  suffered,  and  were  still  enduring. 

Governor  Geary  now  resigned  his  position,  and  President  Buchanan 
appointed,  as  governor  of  Kansas,  Robert  J.  Walker,  a  man  of  great 
eminence  and  ability,  who  was  in  sentiment  opposed  to  slavery.  Mr. 
Walker  sincerely  desired  to  effect  a  settlement  of  the  quarrel,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  the  Free  Soil  party  to  vote  at  the  coming  election  for 
members  of  the  territorial  legislature  and  a  delegate  to  Congress.  They 
did  so,  and  a  fair  election  was  held, 
which  resulted  in  the  choice  of  the 

Free  Soil  candidates  by  overwhelm-  ig|Bg^6'' A^^  Y'- 
ing  majorities. 

In  the  autumn  of  1857  the  conven- 
tion elected,  as  we  have  seen,  assem- 
bled at  Lecompton,  and  framed  a 

£,  .  .  _.    .        .  COAT  OF   ARMS  OF  OREGON. 

btate  constitution,     inis  instrument 

contained  a  clause  adopting  slavery,  and  the  convention  sub'mitted  this 
clause  only  to  the  people  of  the  Territory  for  ratification  or  rejection  at 
the  polls.  The  remainder  of  the  constitution  was  withheld  from  the 
popular  vote.  The  convention  also  ordered  that  all  whose  votes  were 
challenged  at  the  polls  should  be  required  "  to  take  an  oath  to  support 
the  constitution  if  adopted,"  before  being  allowed  to  deposit  their  ballot. 
The  Free  State  men  refused  to  take  part  in  the  vote  on  the  ratification 
of  this  constitution,  and  consequently  all  the  votes  cast  were  in  favor  of 
it.  It  was  declared  adopted,  and  was  sent  to  Congress  for  the  approval 
of  that  body. 

The  discussion  of  the  Lecompton  constitution  in  Congress  was  marked 
by  great  bitterness.  It  was  supported  by  the  Democratic  party  and  the 
administration,  and  was  opposed  with  determination  by  the  Republicans. 
The  latter  took  the  strong  ground  that  the  Lecompton  constitution  was 
not  the  work  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  but  of  a  mere  faction,  and  was 
distasteful  to  the  majority  of  the  citizens  of  that  Territory,  wiio  were 


768  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

opposed  to  slavery.  Finally,  on  the  30th  of  April,  1858,  a  bill  war 
passed  to  submit  the  Leeompton  constitution  to  the  people  of  Kansas. 
This  bill  declared  that  if  they  ratified  the  constitution,  they  should  be 
given  certain  public  lands  for  State  purposes;  but  that  if  they  failed  to 
ratify  it,  Kansas  should  not  be  permitted  to  enter  the  Union  until  it  had  a 
population  of  ninety-three  thousand.  With  these  strange  conditions,  the 
constitution  was  submitted  to  the  people  of  Kansas  on  the  2d  of  August, 

1858,  and  was  rejected  by  them  by  a  vote  of  eleven  thousand  three  hun- 
dred against  it,  to  seventeen  hundred  and  eighty-eight  votes  in  its  favor. 

In  January,  1859,  the  civil  strife  having  subsided  in  the  Territory,  and 
the  Free  Soil  men  having  a  majority  in  the  legislature,  a  convention  was 
summoned  at  Wyandotte.  It  met  in  July,  and  adopted  a  free  State 
constitution,  which  was  submitted  to  the  people  and  ratified  by  a  large 
majority.  The  "  Wyandotte  Constitution  "  was  then  laid  before  Congress, 
and  a  bill  admitting  Kansas  into  the  Union  as  a  State  was  passed  by  the 
lower  House  early  in  1860.  The  Senate  however  failed  to  act  upon  the 
bill.  At  the  next  session  the  measure  was  revived,  and  on  the  30th  of 

January,  1861,  the  opposition  of  the 
south  having  ceased  by  reason  of  the 
withdrawal  of  a  large  number  of 
the  southern  representatives  and 
senators  from  Congress,  Kansas  was 
admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  free 
State. 

On  the  night  of  the  16th  of  October, 

1859,  John  Brown,  who  had  acquired  a  considerable  notoriety  as  the  leader 
of  a  Free  Soil  company  during  the  war  in  Kansas,  entered  the  State  of 
Virginia,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  with  a  party  of  twenty-one  companions,  and 
seized  the  United  States  arsenal  at  that  place.     He  then  sent  out  parties 
to  arrest  the  leading  citizens  of  the  vicinity,  as  hostages,  and  to  induce  the 
negro  slaves  to  join  him,  his  avowed  object  being  to  put  an  end  to  slavery 
in  Virginia  by  exciting  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves.     Several  citizens 
were  kidnapped  by  these  parties,  but  the  slaves  refused  to  join  Brown,  or 
to  take  any  part  in  the  insurrection.     At  daylight  on  the  17th  of  October 
the  alarm  was  given,  and  during  the  morning  the  militia  of  the  surround- 
ing country  was  ordered  under  arms  to  put  down  the  outbreak.     Brown's 
force  was  unknown,  and  was  greatly  exaggerated. 

The  news  of  the  seizure  of  the  arsenal  was  telegraphed  to  Washington. 
and  the  government  decided  to  recover  it  at  once  and  confine  the  trouble 
to  the  spot  on  which  it  had  originated.  General  Scott  was  absent  from 
the  capital  at  the  time,  and  the  president  and  secretary  of  war  summoned 


COAT  OF   ARMS  OF   KANSAS. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  759 

Colonel  Robert  E.  Lee,  a  distinguished  officer  of  the  army,  to  consult  with 
them  as  to  the  best  course  to  pursue.  The  interview  resulted  in  the 
despatching  of  a  battalion  of  marines  to  Harper's  Ferry,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Colonel  Lee.  Orders  were  telegraphed  to  that  point  to  suspend 
%11  operations  there  until  Colonel  Lee's  arrival.  He  reached  HarjK-i-'. 
Ferry  on  the  night  of  the  17th. 

In  the  meantime,  upon  the  appearance  of  the  militia,  Brown  and  his 
companions  retreated  to  the  fire-engine  house  in  the  arsenal  yard.  Thi> 
•vvu.s  a  strong  stone  building,  and  they  barricaded  the  doors,  and  during 
the  day  maintained  a  desultory  fire  upon  the  town.  They  had  taken 
Colonel  Washington,  Mr.  Dangerfield,  and  the  other  citizens  kidnapped 
by  them,  into  the  engine  house  with  them,  where  they  held  them,  in  the 
hope  that  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen  would  prevent  the  troops  from 
firing  upon  them. 

As  soon  as  Colonel  Lee  arrived  at  Harper's  Ferry,  he  proceeded  to 
surround  the  engine  house  with  the  marines  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
Brown  and  his  men,  and  deferred  his  attack  upon  them  until  the  next 
morning,  lest  in  a  night  assault  some  of  the  captive  citizens  might  be 
injured.  At  daylight  on  the  18th,  wishing,  if  possible,  to  accomplish  the 
object  in  view  without  bloodshed,  Colonel  Lee  sent  his  aid,  Lieutenant 
J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  to  demand  the  surrender  of  the  insurgents,  promising  to 
protect  them  from  violence  at  the  hands  of  the  citizens,  and  to  hold  them 
subject  to  the  orders  of  the  president.  Brown  refused  the  terms  offered, 
and  demanded  to  be  permitted  to  march  out  with  his  men  and  prisoners, 
with  the  arms  of  the  former,  to  be  allowed  to  proceed,  without  being 
followed,  to  a  point  at  a  certain  distance  from  Harper's  Ferry,  where  he 
would  free  his  prisoners.  He  was  then  willing  that  the  troops  should 
pursue  him,  and  to  fight  if  he  could  not  escape.  This  proposition  was 
inadmissible,  but  as  a  last  resort,  Colonel  Lee  directed  Lieutenant  Stuart 
to  remonstrate  with  the  insurgents  upon  the  folly  of  their  course.  This 
duty  Stuart  performed,  remaining  before  the  engine  house  until  his  per- 
sonal danger  compelled  him  to  withdraw. 

Finding  that  nothing  but  force  would  avail,  Colonel  Lee  gave  the  order 
for  the  assault,  and  the  marines  made  a  dash  at  the  engine  house,  broke 
in  the  doors,  and  captured  its  inmates.  Several  of  the  insurgents  wore 
killed  and  wounded,  Brown  himself  being  desperately  hurt.  The  marim-.- 
lost  one  man  killed,  and  one  wounded.  Fortunately  none  of  the  citizens- 
captured  by  Brown  were  injured. 

Colonel  Lee  took  care  to  protect  his  prisoners,  and  there  is  little  doubt- 
that  but  for  his  precautions  in  their  behalf  they  would  have  been  shot 
down   by   the   excited   civilians.     He   telegraphed   to  Washington   for* 
49 


770  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

instructions,  and  was  directed  to  deliver  the  prisoners  to  Mr.  Ould,  the 
attorney  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  who  was  ordered  by  the  govern- 
ment to  take  charge  of  them  and  bring  them  to  trial.  As  soon  as  Mr, 
Ould  arrived  Colonel  Lee  turned  over  the  prisoners  to  him,  and  being 
satisfied  that  the  danger  was  over,  went  back  to  Washington. 

As  Brown  and  his  companions  had  committed  their  chief  crime  against 
the  United  States,  by  seizing  the  federal  arsenal  and  resisting  the  troops 
sent  to  reduce  them  to  submission,  it  seemed  proper  that  they  should  be 
tried  for  their  offences  by  the  general  government.  The  attempt  to 
excite  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves,  however,  was  a  crime  against  the 
laws  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  the  governor  of  that  State  demanded 
of  the  federal  authorities  the  surrender  of  Brown  and  his  fellow-prisoners 
for  trial  by  the  State  courts.  The  demand  was  complied  with,  and  the 
prisoners  were  arraigned  in  the  court  of  the  county  of  Jefferson,  the 
county  in  which  their  offence  was  committed.  They  were  given  a  fair 
trial,  and  were  defended  by  able  counsel  from  the  free  States,  who  came 
to  Charlestown  for  that  purpose.  Brown  frankly  confessed  that  his  object 
was  to  produce  an  insurrection  among  the  slaves,  and  then  carry  them  off 
to  the  free  States.  The  prisoners  were  found  guilty  of  treason,  murder, 
and  an  attempt  to  excite  insurrection,  and  wera  sentenced  to  be  hanged. 
Brown  was  executed  at  Charlestown  on  the  2d  of  December,  1859,  and  six 
of  his  companions,  met  the  same  fate  a  few  weeks  later. 

During  his  trial  Brown  steadily  denied  that  he  had  been  aided  OP 
encouraged  by  any  persons  in  the  north.  His  denial  was  generally 
doubted  at  the  time,  and  it  is  now  known  that  he  was  assisted  with  monej 
and  advice  by  some  of  the  most  respectable  leaders  of  the  extreme  Anti- 
slavery  party,  and  that  several  persons  high  in  position  knew  of  the  designs 
of  Brown,  but  failed  to  warn  either  the  general  government  or  the  State 
of  Virginia  of  the  intended  attack.* 

The  execution  of  Brown  and  his  companions  drew  upon  the  south  a 
storm  of  furious  denunciation  from  the  Anti-slavery  men.  Brown  was 
regarded  as  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  the  day  of  his  execution 
was  observed  in  many  of  the  towns  of  the  Northern  States  by  the  tolling 
of  bells,  prayer  in  the  churches,  the  firing  of  minute-guns,  and  other 
public  demonstrations  of  sorrow  and  respect.  The  conservative  class  in 
the  north,  however,  and  in  this  number  were  included  some  of  the  firmest 
opponents  of  slavery,  sincerely  deplored  Brown's  course,  and  acknowledged 
his  punishment  as  merited.  Brown  was  a  man  of  many  good  qualities, 

*Mr.  F.  U.  Sanborn,  one  of  Brown's  confederates,  in  a  series  of  papers  published  in  Tfn 
Atlantic  Monthly  (vol.  xxxv.)  gives  the  details  of  this  conspiracy,  together  with  manj 
interesting  incidents  connected  with  it,  which  sustain  the  view  of  the  case  presented  above 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  771 

but  the  undertaking  in  which  he  met  his  fate  was  criminal  in  the  extreme. 
Not  even  the  intention  of  rescuing  the  slaves  of  Virginia  from  their 
bondage  can  excuse  him  for  seeking  to  excite  a  servile  war,  in  which  mur- 
der and  violence  would  have  been  inevitable,  and  in  which  the  aged  and 

'  O 

the  helpless,  the  defenceless  women  and  children,  would  have  been  the 
chief  sufferers. 

The  effect  of  Brown's  attempt  upon  the  southern  people  was  most 
unfortunate.  They  regarded  it  as  unanswerable  evidence  of  the  intention 
of  the  people  of  the  north  to  make  war  upon  them  under  the  cover  of  the' 
Union.  Regarding  this  view  of  the  case  as  true,  they  came  to  listen  with 
more  favor  to  the  arguments  of  the  extreme  class  which  openly  favored  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  which  asserted  that  the  only  safety  of  the 
south  lay  in  pursuing  such  a  course.  The  John  Brown  raid  was  the  most 
powerful  argument  that  had  ever  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  dis- 
unionists,  and  in  the  alarm  and  excitement  produced  by  that  event  the 
southern  people  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  great  mass  of  the  northern 
people  sincerely  deplored  and  condemned  the  action  of  Brown  and  his 
supporters.  The  voice  of  reason  was  drowned  in  the  storm  of  passionate 
excitement  which  swept  over  the  land,  and  the  extremists  on  both  sides 
were  able  to  prosecute  their  unpatriotic  work  to  gret.t  advantage. 

While  the  excitement  was  at  its  height  the  presidential  campaign  opened 
in  tlie  spring  of  1860.  The  slavery  question  was  the  chief  issue  in  this 
struggle.  The  convention  of  the  Democratic  party  met  at  Charleston,  in 
April,  but  being  unable  to  effect  an  organization  adjourned  to  Baltimore, 
and  reassembled  in  that  city  in  June.  The  extreme  southern  delegates 
were  resolved  that  the  convention  should  be  committed  to  the  protection 
of  slavery  in  the  Territories  by  Congress,  and  failing  to  control  it  with- 
drew from  it  in  a  body,  and  organized  a  separate  convention,  which  they 
declared  represented  the  Democratic  party,  but  which,  in  reality,  as  the 
vote  subsequently  proved,  represented  but  a  minority  of  that  party.  The 
new  convention  was  joined  by  a  number  of  delegates  from  the  northern 
and  western  states. 

The  original  convention,  after  the  withdrawal  of  these  delegates,  nomi- 
nated for  the  presidency  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  and  for  the  vice- 
presidency  Herschell  V.  Johnson,  of  Georgia.  It  then  proceeded  to 
adopt  the  platform  put  forward  by  the  entire  party  four  years  before  at 
Cincinnati,  upon  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  with  this  additional 
declaration:  "That  as  differences  of  opinion  exist  in  the  Democratic 
party  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  powers  of  a  territorial  legislature, 
and  as  to  the  powers  and  duties  of  Congress  under  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  over  the  institution  of  slavery  within  the  Territories,  .  . 


772  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

the  party  will  abide  by  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  on  the  questions  of  constitutional  law." 

The  "  Seceders'  Convention,"  as  it  was  commonly  called,  also  adopted 
the  Cincinnati  platform,  and  pledged  themselves  to  non-interference  by 
Congress  with  slavery  in  the  Territories  or  the  District  of  Columbia 
This  party  held  to  the  doctrine  that  the  constitution  recognized  slavery 
as  existing  in  the  Territories,  and  sanctioned  and  protected  it  there,  and 
that  neither  Congress  nor  the  people  of  the  Territories  could  frame  any 
law  against  slavery  until  the  admission  of  such  Territories  into  the  Union 
as  States.  The  regular  convention  held  that  Congress  had  no  right  to 
interfere  with  slavery  in  the  Territories,  to  legislate  either  for  or  against 
it ;  that  the  regulation  of  that  question  belonged  entirely  to  the  people  of 
the  respective  Territories  acting  through  their  legislatures.  This  doctrine 
was  popularly  known  as  "  Squatter  Sovereignty,"  and  was  credited  to 
Mr.  Douglas.  The  "  Seceders'  Convention  "  put  forward  as  its  candidate 
for  the  presidency  John  C.  Breckenridge,  of  Kentucky,  and  for  the  vice- 
presidency  Joseph  Lane,  of  Oregon. 

The  Republican  party  took  issue  with  both  wings  of  the  Democratic 
party.  Its  convention  was  held  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  and  its  candidates 
were,  for  president  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  and  for  vice-president 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  of  Maine.  The  platform  of  principles  adopted  by  the 
Chicago  Convention  declared  that  "the  maintenance  of  the  principle? 
promulgated  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  embodied  in  the 
federal  constitution  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of  our  republican 
institutions.  .  .  .  That  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights.  ..  .  .  That  the  federal 
constitution,  the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  union  of  the  States  must  and 
shall  be  preserved."  The  platform  also  declared  that  the  rights  of  the 
States  should  be  maintained  inviolate,  "especially  the  right  of  each  State 
to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions  according  to  its  own 
judgment  exclusively."  It  asserted  "  that  the  normal  condition  of  all 
the  territory  of  the  United  States  is  that  of  freedom,"  and  denied  the 
right  or  "authority  of  Congress,  of  a  territorial  legislature,  or  of  indi- 
viduals, to  give  legal  existence  to  slavery  in  any  Territory  of  the  United 
States." 

A  fourth  party,  known  as  the  "  Constitutional  Union  Party,"  pro- 
claimed as  its  platform  the  following  vague  sentence :  "  The  constitution 
of  the  country,  the  union  of  the  States,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws/' 
The  convention  of  this  party  met  at  Baltimore,  and  nominated  for  the 
presidency  John  Bell,  of  Tennessee,  and  for  the  vice-presidency  Edward 
Everett,  of  Massachusetts. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  773 

The  contest  between  these  parties  was  bitter  beyond  all  precedent.  When 
the  election  took  place  in  November,  the  result  was  as  follows: 

Popular  vote  for  Lincoln,  .  .  .  1,866,452 

"     Douglas,     ....       1,375,167 
"     Breckenridge,     .  .  .  847,953 

"     Bell,  ....  590,631 

The  electoral  vote  stood  as  follows :  For  Lincoln,  180 ;  for  Breckenridge, 
72 ;  for  Bell,  39  ;  for  Douglas,  12. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  thus  elected  by  a  plurality  of  the  popular  vote,  which 
secured  for  him  the  electoral  votes  of  eighteen  States.  These  States  were 
entirely  north  of  the  sectional  line,  and  he  received  not  a  single  electoral 
vote  from  a  Southern  State.  The  States  which  cast  their  electoral  votes 
for  Breckenridge,  Bell,  and  Douglas,  were  entirely  slaveholding.  The 
division  thus  made  was  alarming.  It  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
the  republic  that  a  president  had  been  elected  by  the  votes  of  a  single 
section  of  the  Union. 

The  state  in  which  the  presidential  election  left  the  country  was  most 
alarming.  The  excitement  was  higher  than  it  had  been  before  the  strug- 
gle at  the  polls.  The  Gulf  States  had  declared  at  an  early  period  of  the 
political  campaign  that  they  would  withdraw  from  the  Union  in  the  event 
of  the  election  of  a  Republican  president.  The  people  of  the  south  gen- 
erally regarded  the  result  of  the  election  as  an  evidence  of  the  determina- 
tion of  the  Northern  States  to  use  the  power  of  the  federal  government 
to  destroy  the  institution  of  slavery.  The  disunion  leaders  exerted  them- 
selves to  deepen  this  conviction,  and  to  arouse  the  fears  of  the  south.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Republican  leaders  took  little  pains  to  allay  the  ex- 
citement by  declaring  their  intentions  to  execute  faithfully  the  constitution 
and  laws  of  the  Union.  Their  declarations  of  fidelity  to  the  Union  were 
abundant,  and  were  generally  accompanied  by  equally  plain  assertions 
of  their  determination  to  oppose  by  force  the  withdrawal  of  the  Southern 
States — declarations  which  were  ill-suited  to  calm  the  fears  of  the  south, 
or  to  encourage  the  party  in  that  section  which  desired  a  perpetuation  of 
the  Union.  A  statesman  of  the  Henry  Clay  school  was  needed  at  this 
crisis  of  our  country's  history  as  he  had  never  been  needed  before;  but, 
alas!  statesmanship  of  any  kind  was  painfully  wanting. 

As  soon  as  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  definitely  ascertained,  the 
legislature  of  South  Carolina  summoned  a  sovereign  convention  of  the 
people  of  that  State,  which  met  on  the  17th  of  December,  1860.  This 
convention  adopted  an  ordinance  of  secession  on  the  20th  of  December, 
and  declared  the  State  no  longer  a  member  of  the  Union.  The  reasons 
assigned  for  this  action  were  thus  stated  by  the  convention : 


774  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  S1ATES. 

"An  increasing  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  non-slaveholding  States  to 
the  institution  of  slavery  lias  led  to  a  disregard  of  their  obligations,  and 
the  laws  of  the  general  government  have  ceased  to  effect  the  objects  of  the 
constitution.  The  States  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois 
Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa,  have  enacted  laws  which  eithei  • 
nullify  the  acts  of  Congress  or  render  useless  any  attempt  to  execute 
i,hem.  In  many  of  these  States  the  fugitive  is  discharged  from  the  ser- 
vice or  labor  claimed,  and  in  none  of  them  has  the  State  government  com- 
plied with  the  stipulations  made  In  the  constitution.  .  .  .  Thus  the 
constitutional  compact  has  been  deliberately  broken  and  disregarded  by 
these  non-slaveholding  States,  and  the  consequence  follows  that  South 
Carolina  is  released  from  her  obligation. 

•  ••*•  •*  •• 

"  We  affirm  that  these  ends  for  which  this  government  was  instituted 
have  been  defeated,  and  the  government  itself  has  been  made  destructive 
of  them  by  the  action  of  non-slaveholding  States.  Those  States  have 
assumed  the  right  of  deciding  upon  the  propriety  of  our  domestic  institu- 
tions; and  have  denied  the  rights  of  property  established  in  fifteen  of  the 
States  and  recognized  by  ihe  constitution ;  they  have  denounced  as  sinful 
the  institution  of  slavery ;  they  have  permitted  the  open  establishment 
among  them  of  societies  whose  avowed  object  ie  to  disturb  the  peace  and 
to  eloigne  the  property  of  citizens  of  other  States.  They  have  encouraged 
uud  assisted  thousands  of  our  slaves  to  leave  their  homes ;  and  those  who 
remain  have  been  incited  by  emissaries,  books,  and  pictures  to  servile 
insurrection. 

"  For  twenty-five  years  this  agitation  has  been  steadily  increasing,  until 
it  has  now  secured  to  its  aid  the  power  of  the  common  government. 
Observing  the  /  rms  of  the  constitution,  a  sectional  party  has  found 
withiu  that  article  establishing  the  executive  department  the  means  of 
subverting  the  constitution  itself.  A  geographical  line  has  been  drawn 
across  the  Union,  and  all  the  States  north  of  that  line  have  united  in  the 
election  of  a  man  to  the  high  office  of  president  of  the  United  States  whose 
opinions  and  purposes  are  hostile  to  slavery.  He  is  to  be  intrusted  with 
the  administration  of  the  common  government  because  he  has  declared 
that  that  '  government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave,  half  free.' 
and  that  the  public  mind  must  rest  in  the  belief  that  slavery  is  in  the 
ixnirse  of  ultimate  extinction. 

"This  sectional  combination  for  the  subversion  of  the  constitution  has 
been  aided  in  some  of  the  States  by  elevating  to  citizenship  persons  who. 
by  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,  are  incapable  of  becoming  citizens ;  and 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN.  775 

their  votes  have  been  used  to  inaugurate  a  new  policy,  hostile  to  the 
tsouth,  and  destructive  of  its  peace  and  safety. 

"On  the  4th  of  March  next  this  party  will  take  possession  of  the  gov- 
ernment. It  has  announced  that  the  south  shall  be  excluded  from  the 
common  territory;  that  the  judicial  tribunals  shall  be  made  sectional,  ami 
that  a  war  must  be  waged  against  slavery  until  it  shall  cease  throughout 
'Jie  United  States. 

"  The  guarantees  of  the  constitution  will  then  no  longer  exist ;  the 
equal  rights  of  the  States  will  be  lost.  The  slaveholding  States  will  no 
longer  have  the  power  of  self-government  or  self-protection,  and  the 
federal  government  will  become  their  enemy." 

These  reasons  were  substantially  the  same  as  those  avowed  by  the  other 
Southern  States  in  support  of  their  action,  and  therefore  we  have  quoted 
them  at  length. 

The  example  of  South  Carolina  was  followed  by  the  other  States  of  the 
far  south,  which  summoned  conventions  and  adopted  ordinances  of  seces- 
sion. Mississippi  withdrew  from  the  Union  on  the  9th  of  January,  1861 ; 
Florida  on  the  10th  of  January ;  Alabama  on  the  llth  of  January ;  Geor- 
gia on  the  19th  of  January;  Louisiana  on  the  26th  of  January;  and 
Texas  ou  the  1st  of  February.  The  forts,  arsenals,  and  other  public 
property  of  the  United  States  within  the  limits  of  these  States  were  seized 
by  the  authorities  of  the  States  in  which  they  were  situated,  and  were 
held  by  their  troops,  with  the  exception  of  Forts  Moultrie  and  Sumter,  in 
Charleston  harbor,  and  Fort  Pickens,  at  Pensacola. 

Fort  Moultrie  was  occupied  by  Major  Robert  Anderson,  of  the  United 
States  army,  with  a  garrison  of  eighty  men.  Becoming  alarmed  at  the 
rapid  concentration  of  troops  in  Charleston,  Major  Anderson  evacuated 
the  fort  on  the  night  of  December  25th,  1860,  and  threw  himself  with 
his  command  into  Fort  Sumter,  which  was  built  in  the  bay  at  some  dis- 
tance from  either  shore.  The  State  troops  at  once  occupied  Fort  Moul- 
trie, and  began  to  erect  batteries  of  heavy  guns  at  different  points  along 
the  harbor  for  the  reduction  of  Fort  Sumter. 

Fort  Pickens  was  held  by  a  garrison  under  Lieutenant  Slemmer.  The 
State  of  Florida  occupied  the  navy  yard  at  Pensacola  and  the  other  forts 
in  that  harbor  with  her  troops. 

The  property  of  the  general  government  seized  by  the  seceded  States 
amounted  to  over  twenty  millions  of  dollars  in  value. 

The  position  of  the  general  government  was  one  of  great  difficulty.  The 
president  was  called  upon  either  to  recognize  the  lawfulness  of  the  acts  of  the 
seceded  States,  and  thus  to  join  in  the  work  of  dissolving  the  Union,  or  to 
maintain  the  authority  of  the  federal  government,  and  compel  the  submission 


776 

of  the  Southern  States  to  the  constitution  and  law.s  of  the  land.  The 
government  was  almost  powerless  to  enforce  its  authority.  The  army, 
but  sixteen  thousand  strong,  \vas  stationed  upon  the  remote  frontier,  and 
the  available  vessels  of  the  navy  were  nearly  all  absent  on  foreign  ser- 
vice. Many  of  the  most  prominent  federal  officials,  including  several  of 
the  cabinet  ministers,  were  in  open  sympathy  with  the  seceded  States. 
The  president's  position  was  unquestionably  embarrassing,  but  he  made 
no  use  of  the  means  at  his  command.  General  Scotc,  the  veteran  com- 
mander of  the  army,  believed  that  prompt  action  on  the  part  of  the  gen- 
eral government  would  confine  the  evil  to  the  six  cotton  States,  and  urged 
the  president  to  act  with  vigor.  Mr.  Buchanan  was  sorely  perplexed, 
aud  seemed  chiefly  anxious  to  postpone  all  definite  action  until  the  inau- 


THE  CAPITOL  AT  MONTGOMERY,  ALABAMA,  PLACE  OF   MEETING   OF   THE   FIRST 
CONFEDERATE    CONGRESS. 

guration  of  his  successor.  He  was  in  favor  of  conceding  everything  out 
separate  independence  to  the  south,  failing  to  perceive  that  the  leaders  of 
the  secession  movement  would  accept  nothing  but  separation  ;  and  by  his 
timidity  lost  the  advantages  which  the  government  would  have  gained  by 
a  bold,  firm  course. 

As  Major  Anderson  was  short  of  supplies  and  needed  reinforcements, 
the  steamship  "  Star  of  the  West "  was  despatched  by  the  government  to 
Charleston  with  provisions  and  a  detachment  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men  to  his  assistance.  She  readied  Charleston  on  the  9ih  of  January, 
1861,  and  attempted  to  enter  the  harbor,  but  was  fired  upon  by  the  South 
Carolina  batteries,  and  turned  back. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JAMES  BUCHANAN. 


7/7 


The  president  was  urged  by  the  friends  of  the  south  to  order  Major 
Anderson  to  evacuate  Fort  Sumter  and  return  to  Fort  Moultrie,  but  re- 
fused to  do  so.  South  Carolina  then  offered  to  purchase  Fort  Sumter 
from  the  general  government  for  its  full  value,  but  the  president  refused 
to  make  the  sale. 

Immediately  upon  their  withdrawal  from  the  Union  the  six  seceded 
States  began  to  concert  measures  for  their  common  protection.  Delegates 
were  elected  to  a  convention  which  met  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  on  the, 
4th  of  February,  1861,  to  devise  a  plan  for  this  purpose.  The  conven- 
tion at  once  proceeded  to  organize  a  new  republic,  for  which  they  adopted 
the  name  of  The  Confederate  States  of  America.  On  the  8th  of  February, 
a  provisional  constitution  having  been  adopted,  the  convention  elected 
Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  president,  and  Alexander  II.  Stephens,  of 
Georgia,  vice-president  of  the  Confederate 
States.  The  action  of  the  convention  was 
sustained  by  all  the  States  comprising  the 
new  confederacy,  and  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment at  once  entered  upon  its  duties. 

Jefferson  Davis  was  a  native  of  Ken- 
tucky, and  was  born  on  the  3d  of  June, 
1808.  His  father  had  removed  to  Mis- 
sissippi during  his  early  childhood,  and  he 
had  grown  up  to  manhood  in  that  State. 
He  was  educated  at  the  West  Point  Mili- 
tary Academy,  from  which  he  was  grad- 
ated in  1828,  and  passed  the  next  seven 
years  of  his  life  in  the  army.  He 

served  with  distinction  during  the  Black  Hawk  war  and  against  the 
Indian  tribes  on  the  frontier.  Entering  into  politics  after  his  withdrawal 
from  the  army,  he  was  soon  sent  to  represent  his  State  in  Congress,  in 
which  body  he  served  until  the  commencement  of  the  Mexican  war. 
During  that  struggle  he  commanded  the  Mississippi  Rifles,  and  distin- 
guished himself  greatly  in  the  battles  of  General  Taylor's  army,  and 
especially  at  Buena  Vista. 

Upon  his  return  home  he  was  chosen  to  represent  Mississippi  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States.  Upon  the  inauguration  of  President  Pierce 
he  accepted  a  seat  in  the  cabinet  as  secretary  of  war.  Returning  to  the 
Senate  after  the  close  of  Mr.  Pierce's  administration,  he  remained  in  that 
body  until  the  secession  of  Mississippi,  when  he  resigned  his  seat  and  re- 
turned home.  He  was  now  in  his  fifty-third  year,  and  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  public  men  in  America.  His  election  was  gen- 


JEFFERSOK  DAVIS. 


778 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


erally  looked  upon  in  the  south  as  a  concession  to  the  more  conservative 
portion  of  the  southern  people,  for  he  had  not  been  considered  as  one  of 
the  original  or  most  ultra  secession  leaders. 

The  conservative  elements  of  both  sections  made  great  efforts  to  bring 
about  a  reconciliation.  The  State  of  Virginia  called  upon  all  the  States 
to  send  delegates  to  an  informal  peace  congress  to  meet  in  Washington. 
This  body  assembled  in  February.  Twenty  States  were  represented  in 

it — thirteen  northern  and  seven  southern — 
and  the  venerable  ex-President  Tyler  was 
chosen  to  preside  over  its  deliberations. 
Various  plans  of  settlement  were  proposed, 
and  a  committee,  consisting  of  one  member 
from  each  State,  was  appointed  to  prepare 
a  plan"  upon  which  the  congress  could  unite. 
In  due  time  it  made  its  report  to  the  con- 
gress, and  after  a  careful  and  elaborate 
discussion  the  resolutions  were  adopted, 
and  were  ordered  to  be  laid  before  the  rival 
governments.  The  congress  then  ad- 
journed. The  plan  proposed  by  this  body 
pleased  neither  side.  The  Southern  States 

were  not  satisfied  with  the  guarantees  it  offered  for  the  protection  of  their 
rights  in  the  matter  of  slavery ;  and  the  Northern  States  were  unwilling 
to  sanction  a  more  rigid  enforcement  of  the  constitutional  provision  for 
the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves.  The  effort  to  close  the  breach  between 
the  States  only  served  to  widen  it. 

Matters  were  in  this  unhappy  and  excited  condition  when  the  admin- 
istration of  Mr.  Buchanan  came  to  a  close.  After  the  inauguration  of  his 
successor,  he  retired  to  his  home  at  Wheatland,  near  Lancaster,  Penn- 
sylvania. 


A.   H.   STEPHENS. 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION  OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN — THE   CIVIL  WAK. 

Inauguration  of  President  Lincoln — His  History — The  Confederate  Commissioners  a< 
Washington — Attack  upon  Fort  Sumter  by  the  Confederates — The  President  call?  foi 
Troops — Response  of  the  North  and  West — Secession  of  the  Bonier  States — Opening 
Events  of  the  War  in  Virginia — Withdrawal  of  West  Virginia — Admitted  into  the 
Union  as  a  separate  State — Meeting  of  Congress — The  West  Virginia  Campaign — Bat- 
tle of  Bull  Run — The  War  in  Missouri — Kentucky  Occupied — T;ie  Blockade — Capture 
of  Port  Royal — The  "  Trent "  Affair— Insurrection  in  East  Tennessee — State  of  Affairs  at 
the  Opening  of  the  Year  1862 — Edwin  M.  Stanton  made  Secretary  of  War — Capture  of 
Forts  Henry  and  Donelson — The  Confederates  fall  back  from  Kentucky — Battle  of 
Shiloh — Capture  of  Island  No.  10 — Evacuation  of  Corinth — Capture  of  Memphis — 
Bragg's  Kentucky  Campaign — His  Retreat  into  Tennessee — Battles  of  luka  and  Corinth 
— Battle  of  Murfreesboro',  or  Stone  River — Grant's  Campaign  against  Vicksburg — Its 
Failure — The  War  beyond  the  Mississippi — Battle  of  Pea  Ridge-j-Capture  of  Roanoke 
Island — Capture  of  New  Orleans — Surrender  of  Fort  Pulaski — The  War  in  Virginia — 
Johnston's  Retreat  from  Centreville — Battle  between  the  "  Monitor"  and  "  Virginia" — The 
Move  to  the  Peninsula — Johnston  Retreats  to  the  Chickahorainy — Battle  of  Seven  Pines 
— Jackson's  Successes  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia — The  Seve/>  Days'  Battles  before  Rich- 
mond— Battle  of  Cedar  Mountain  —  Defeat  of  General  Pope's  Army — Lee  Invades 
Maryland — Capture  of  Harper's  Ferry — Battles  of  South  Mountain  and  Antietam— 
Retreat  of  Lee  into  Virginia — McClellan  Removed — Battle  of  Fredericksburg. 

BRAHAM  LINCOLN,  the  sixteenth  president  of  the  United 
States,  was  inaugurated  at  Washington  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1861.  As  it  was  feared  that  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  pre- 
vent the  inauguration,  the  city  w*is  held  by  a  strong  body  of 
regular  troops,  under  General  Scott,  and  the  president-elect  was 
escorted  from  his  hotel  to  the  capitol  by  a  military  force.  No  effort  was 
made  to  interfere  with  the  ceremonies,  and  the  inauguration  passed  off 
quietly. 

The  new  president  was  in  his  fifty-third  year,  and  was  a  native  of 
Kentucky.  When  he  was  but  eight  years  old  his  father  removed  to 
Indiana,  and  the  boyhood  of  the  future  pr-.ident  was  spent  in  hard- labor 
upon  the  farm.  Until  he  reached  manhood  he  continued  to  lead  this 
life,  and  during  this  entire  period  attended  school  for  only  a  year.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-one  he  removed  to  Illinois,  where  he  began  life  as  a 
storekeeper,  Being  anxious  to  rise  above  his  humble  position,  he  deter- 
mined to  study  law.  He  was  too  poor  to  buy  the  necessary  books,  auJ 

779 


780 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


so  borrowed  them  from  a  neighboring  lawyer,  read  them  at  night, 
and  returned  them  in  the  morning.  His  genial  character,  great  good 
nature,. and  love  of  humor,  won  him  the  friendship  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  resided,  and  they  elected  him  to  the  lower  house  of  the  legisla- 
ture of  Illinois.  He  now  abandoned  his  mercantile  pursuits,  and  began 
,  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  was  subsequently  elected  a  representative  to 
Congress  from  the  Springfield  district.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the 
politics  of  his  State,  and  in  1858  was  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 
party  for  United  States  senator.  In  this  capacity  he  engaged  in  a  series 
of  debates  in  various  parts  of  the  State  with  Senator  Douglas,  the  Demo- 
cratic candidate  for  re-election  to  the  same  position.  This  debate  was 
remarkable  for  its  brilliancy  and  intellectual  vigor,  and  brought  him 
prominently  before  the  whole  country,  and  opened  the  way  to  his  nomina- 
tion for  the  presidency.  In  person  he  was  tall  and  ungainly,  and  in  man- 
ner he  was  rough  and  awkward,  little  versed  in  the 
refinements  of  society.  He  was  a  man,  however, 
of  great  natural  vigor  of  intellect,  and  was  pos- 
sessed of  a  fund  of  strong  common  sense,  which 
enabled  him  to  see  at  a  glance  through  the 
shams  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  and  to  pur- 
sue his  own  aims  with  singleness  of  heart  and 
directness  of  purpose.  He  had  sprung  from  the 
ranks  of  the  people,  and  he  was  never  false  to 
them.  He  was  a  simple,  unaffected,  kind-hearted 
man;  anxious  to  do  his  duty  to  the  whole 
country ;  domestic  in  his  tastes  and  habits ;  and 
incorruptible  in  every  relation  of  life.  He  was 

fond  of"  humor,  and  overflowed  with  it;  finding  in  his  "little  stories" 
the  only  relaxation  he  ever  sought  from  the  heavy  cares  of  the  trying 
position  upon  which  he  was  now  entering.  He  selected  his  cabinet  from 
the  leading  men  of  the  Republican  party,  and  placed  William  H.  Seward, 
of  New  York,  at  its  head  as  secretary  of  state. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  sincerely  anxious  to  avoid  everything  which  might 
precipitate  the  civil  strife;  but  at  the  same  time  was  determined  to  main- 
tain the  authority  of  the  general  government  over  the  seceded  States.  In 
his  inaugural  address  he  declared  his  purpose  to  collect  the  public  reve- 
nues at  the  ports  of  the  seceded  States,  and  to  "hold,  occupy,  and 
possess 
States. 
Sumter  and  Fort  Pickens  were  still  held  by  the  federal  forces. 

The  Confederate  government  was  convinced  that  war  was  inevitable ; 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


"  the  forts,  arsenals,  and  other  public  property  seized  by  those 
At  the  time  of  his  entrance  upon  the  duties  of  his  office  Fort 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


781 


and  since  its  inauguration  had  been  preparing  for  the  coming  struggle 
Nearly  all  the  officers  of  the  array  and  navy  of  the  United  States,  wh« 
were  natives  of  the  seceded  States,  resigned  their  commissions  in  the  ol<? 
service,  and  were  given  similar  positions  in  the  army  of  the  Confederate 
States.  The  forces  collected  at  Charleston  and  Pensacola  were  reinforced 


ARRIVAL  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  AT  THE  CAPITOL. 

!by  troops  from  other  States,  and  the  command  at  the  former  place  wa§ 
conferred  upon  General  Pierre  G.  T.  Beauregard,  and  at  the  latter  upon 
General  Braxton  Bragg,  both  of  whom  had  been  distinguished  officers  of 
the  old  army. 

Just  before  the  close  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  term  of  office  the  Confederate 
government  despatched  John  Forsyth,  of  Alabama,  Martin  J.  Crawford, 


782 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


of  Georgia,  and  A.  B.  Roman,  of  Louisiana,  to  Washington  as  commis- 
sioners to  endeavor  to  effect  a  peaceable  adjustment  of  the  matters  at  issue- 
between  the  two  governments,  and  to  treat  for  an  equitable  division  of 
the  public  property  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Buchanan  refused  to 
receive  the  commissioners  in  their  official  capacity,  and  after  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  new  administration  they  addressed  a  note  to  Mr.  Seward,  the 
new  secretary  of  state,  setting  forth  the  objects  of  their  mission,  and 
soliciting  an  official  interview  with  the  president.  Mr.  Seward  declined 
to  receive  them  in  their  official  capacity,  but  answered  them  verbally 
through  Mr.  Justice  John  A.  Campbell,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  that  he  was  in  favor  of  a  peaceful  settlement  of  the  diffi- 
culty, and  that  the  troops  would  be  withdrawn  from  Fort  Sumter  in  less 
than  ten  days.  Mr.  Seward's  object  appears  to  have  been  to  deceive  the 


STATE-HOUSE,   SPRINGFIELD,   ILLINOIS. 

commissioners,  and  lull  their  suspicions,  in  order  to  gain  time  for  the 
preparations  which  had  been  determined  upon  for  the  relief  of  Fort 
Sumter. 

In  the  meantime,  the  government  having  resolved  to  reinforce  and 
provision  Fort  Sumter  at  all  hazards,  every  nerve  was  strained  to  carry 
out  this  design  before  it  should  become  known  to  the  Confederates.  Ac 
expedition  consisting  of  seven  ships,  carrying  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  guns  and  twenty-four  hundred  men,  was  prepared  at  New  York  and 
Norfolk.  The  southern  commissioners,  whose  suspicions  had  been  allayed 
by  Mr.  Seward's  message,  were  alarmed  by  the  rumors  of  these  prepara- 
tions, which  they  suspected  were  for  the  relief  of  Fort  Sumter.  They 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  733 

waited  upon  Judge  Campbell  to  ask  an  explanation,  and  that  gentleman, 
on  the  7th  of  April,  addressed  a  note  to  Mr.  Seward  asking  if  the  assur- 
ances he  had  given  were  well  or  ill  founded.  Mr.  Seward  replied  as 
follows :  "  Faith  as  to  Sumter  fully  kept ;  wait  and  see." 

In  the  meantime  the  expedition  had  sailed  from  New  York  and  Nor 
folk,  and  was  on  its  way  to  Charleston  harbor.  On  the  8th  of  April, 
1861,  Governor  Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  was  notified  by  the  general 
government  of  its  intention  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter  at  all  hazards,  and  of 
the  sailing  of  the  fleet  for  that  purpose.  Governor  Pickens  at  once 
informed  General  Beauregard  of  this  notification,  and  the  news  was 
telegraphed  by  him  to  the  Confederate  government  at  Montgomery. 

The  Confederate  secretary  of  war  thereupon  ordered  General  Beaure- 
gard to  demand  the  immediate  surrender  of  Fort  Sumter;  "and  if  this 
should  be  refused  to  proceed  to  reduce  it."  On  the  llth  of  April  Gen- 
eral Beauregard  demanded  of  Major  Anderson  the  surrender  of  the  fort. 


FORT  SUMTER. 


The  demand  vvas  refused  in  writing ;  but  Major  Anderson  added  verbally 
to  the  messenger,  "  I  will  await  the  first  shot,  and  if  you  do  not  batter  us 
to  pieces,  we  will  be  starved  out  in  a  few  days."  Beauregard  telegraphed 
this  remark  with  Anderson's  reply  to  his  government,  and  was  answered, 
"  Do  not  desire  needlessly  to  bombard  Fort  Sumter.  If  Major  Anderson 
will  state  the  time  at  which,  as  indicated  by  himself,  he  will  evacuate,  and 
agree  that,  in  the  meantime,  he  will  not  use  his  guns  against  us  unless 
ours  should  be  employed  against  Fort  Sumter,  you  are  authorized  thus 
to  avoid  the  effusion  of  blood.  If  this  or  its  equivalent  be  refused,  reduce 
the  fort,  as  your  judgment  decides  most  practicable."  The  federal 
fleet  was  on  its  way  to  Charleston,  and  if  the  attack  of  the  Confederates, 
was  to  be  made  at  all,  no  time  was  to  be  lost.  General  Beauregard, 
therefore,  gave  Major  Anderson  warning  that  he  should  open  fire  upon 
Fort  Sumter  at  half-past  four  o'clock  the  next  morning. 
At  the  designated  hour  on  the  morning  of  April  12th,  the  Confederate 


784  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

batteries  opened  fire  upon  Fort  Sumter,  which  replied  to  them  with  spirit. 
The  bombardment  lasted  over  thirty-two  hours,  and  the  fort  was  greatly 
damaged,  and  many  of  the  guns  were  dismounted.  The  fleet  arrived  off 
the  harbor  during  the  bombardment,  but  remained  in  the  offing,  and  took 
no  part  in  the  engagement.  Not  a  single  life  was  lost  in  this  memorable 
,battle.  Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  13th,  Major  Anderson  agreed  to 
capitulate,  and  the  firing  ceased.  The  victors  granted  liberal  terms  tc 
Anderson  and  his  men,  whose  heroism  had  aroused  their  warmest  admi- 
ration; and  on  the  morning  of  Sunday,  April  14th,  the  fort  was  surren- 
dered to  the  Confederate  forces,  and  Major  Anderson  and  the  garrison 
embarked  in  one  of  the  vessels  of  the  fleet,  which  at  once  sailed  for  New 
York. 

The  attack  upon  Fort  Sumter  put  an  end  to  the  last  hope  of  peace, 
and  aroused  the  most  intense  excitement  in  both  sections  of  the  country. 
On  the  15th  of  April  President  Lincoln  issued  a  proclamation  calling 
upon  the  States  to  furnish  seventy-five  thousand  troops  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  rebellion,  and  convening  Congress  in  extra  session  on  the  4th 
of  July.  The  Northern  and  Western  States  responded  with  enthusiasm 
to  the  president's  call  for  troops,  and  at  once  began  to  forward  their 
quotas  to  the  points  designated  by  the  war  department. 

The  enthusiasm  in  the  south  was  fully  equal  to  that  of  the  north.  The 
Confederate  government  issued  a  call  for  volunteers  to  repel  the  threat- 
ened invasion  of  the  federal  forces,  and  it  was  responded  to  with  alacrity. 

Until  now  the  States  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennes- 
see, Kentucky,  Arkansas  and  Missouri,  generally  known  as  the  Border 
States,  had  remained  in  the  Union,  hoping  to  be  able  to  effect  a  peaceable 
settlement  of  the  quarrel.  Their  sympathies  were  with  the  Southern 
States,  and  it  was  generally  believed  that  in  the  event  of  war  they  would 
cast  their  lots  with  those  States.  Each  of  these  States  was  included  in  the 
call  of  President  Lincoln  for  troops.  The  governors  of  most  of  them  re- 
plied by  refusing  to  furnish  the  quotas  required  of  them,  and  by  de- 
nouncing the  president's  demand  as  illegal.  Conventions  of  the  people 
were  held,  and  all  but  Maryland,  Kentucky  and  Missouri  withdrew  from 
the  Union.  The  secession  of  Virginia  took  place  on  the  17th  of  April ; 
that  of  Arkansas  on  the  6th  of  May ;  that  of  North  Carolina  on  the  20th 
of  May;  and  that  of  Tennessee  on  the  8th  of  June.  These  States  subse- 
quently ratified  the  constitution  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  became 
members  of  the  new  republic.  Kentucky  and  Missouri  remained  neutral. 

The  passage  of  the  act  of  secession  by  the  Virginia  convention  was 
kept  secret  for  a  day  or  two  in  order  to  give  the  authorities  of  that  State 
an  opportunity  to  seize  the  United  States  arsenal  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


785 


the  navy  yard  at  Portsmouth.  The  officer  in  command  of  the  arsenal, 
upon  hearing  of  the  approach  of  a  force  of  Virginia  troops,  destroyed  a 
number  of  the  muskets  stored  there,  set  fire  to  the  buildings,  and  re- 
treated into  Pennsylvania.  The  Virginians  extinguished  the  flames  and 
sacured  a  large  quantity  of  arms  and  equipments  and  the  valuable  ma- 
chinery for  the  manufacture  of  arms.  The  commandant  of  the  navy  yard 
at  Portsmouth,  upon  the  approach  of  the  Virginians,  made  no  attempt  to 
defend  his  post,  but  spiked  the  cannon,  burned  or  sunk  the  war  vessels 
lying  in  the  harbor,  set  fire  to  the  buildings,  and  retreated  with  two  war 


HARPER'S  FERRY. 

steamers.  The  navy  yard  was  at  once  occupied  by  the  Virginians,  who 
secured  nearly  two  thousand  pieces  of  cannon,  and  an  immense  quantity 
of  stores  and  munitions  of  all  kinds.  The  governors  of  the  seceded. 
Border  States  issued  calls  for  volunteers  immediately  upon  the  withdrawal 
of  their  States.  Men  came  forward  in  such  large  numbers  that  arms 
could  not  be  provided  for  all  of  them.  The  prominent  points  of  danger 
in  Virginia  were  occupied  and  fortified  by  the  State  troops ;  but  the  con- 
trol of  the  military  affairs  in  all  the  Border  States  soon  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  Confederate  government. 

As  it  was  certain  that  the  first  operations  of  the  war  would  take  plnco 
upon  the  borders  of  Virginia,  the  city  of  Richmond  was  made  the  capital 
60 


786  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  the  Confederate  States,  and  on  the  21st  x>f  May  the  Confederate  gov- 
ernment was  removed  to  that  city. 

The  western  part  of  the  State  of  Virginia  refused  to  join  the  remainder 
of  the  State  in  its  withdrawal  from  the  Union.  On  the  llth  of  June, 

1861,  the  people  of  the  western  counties  met  in  convention  at  Wheeling, 
declared  their  independence  of  the  old  State,  organized  a  State  govern- 
ment, and  proclaimed  their  intention  to  remain  faithful  to  the  Union. 
The  action  of  this  convention  was  sustained  by  the  federal  government, 
and  on  the  26th  of  November,  1861,  another  convention  met  at  Wheeling, 
and  adopted  a  constitution  for  the  new  State  of  West  Virginia.     This 
constitution  was  ratified  by  the  people  at  the  polls  on  the  3d  of  May, 

1862,  and  application  was  made  for  the  admission  of  West  Virginia  into 
the  Union  as  a  State,  which  was  accomplished  by  act  of  Congress  on  the 
20th  of  June,  1863. 

In  the  meantime  the  federal  government  set  to  work  with  energy  to 
prepare  for  the  struggle  before  it.  The  call  of  President  Lincoln  for 
troops  had  been  answered  by  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers.  On 

the  17th  of  April,  two  days  after  the 
president's  proclamation,  the  Sixth 
Massachusetts  regiment  left  Boston 
for  Washington.  In  passing  through 
Baltimore  it  was  attacked  by  a  crowd 
of  citizens  who  sympathized  with 
the  south,  and  three  soldiers  were 
killed  and  eight  wounded.  Severn! 
citizens  were  killed  and  wounded.  The  regiment  reached  Washington 
the  same  day,  and  was  soon  joined  by  other  troops  from  the  Northern 
States.  In  a  short  time  the  force  at  the  capital  was  sufficient  to  put  an 
end  to  all  fears  for  its  safety.  Alexandria  and  the  Virginia  shore  oppo- 
site Washington  were  seized  and  fortified.  Baltimore  was  occupied  by  a 
force  under  General  Butler,  and  the  communications  of  Washington  with 
the  north  and  west  were  made  sure.  On  the  19th  of  April  the  president 
issued  a  proclamation  declaring  all  the  southern  ports  in  a  state  of  block- 
ade ;  and  on  the  3d  of  May  he  put  forth  another  proclamation  ordering 
the  regular  army  of  the  United  States  to  be  increased  to  sixty-four  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  forty-eight  men,  and  the  navy  to  eighteen  thou- 
sand seamen.  On  the  10th  of  May  he  issued  a  fourth  proclamation, 
suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  certain  localities,  and  authority  to 
suspend  this  privilege  was  conferred  upon  the  commanders  of  military 
departments  soon  afterward. 

Under  the  instructions  of  the  government  these  commanders  now  pro- 


COAT   OF   ABM8   OF    WEST   VIRGINIA. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR,  737 

ceeded  to  arrest  great  numbers  of  persons  in  various  parts  of  the  country 
who  were  suspected  of  sympathizing  with  the  south.  They  were  im- 
prisoned at  the  military  posts,  and  were  denied  trial  by  the  civil  courts. 
John  Merryman,  a  citizen  of  Maryland,  was  one  of  the  persons  so  ar- 
rested. His  friends  applied  for  redress  to  the  chief-justice  of  the  United 
States,  who  held  the  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus  act  by  the  president 
to  be  unconstitutional,  and  ordered  the  discharge  of  the  prisoner.  The 
government  paid  no  attention  to  this  decision,  and  held  the  prisoner  in 
confinement.  A  little  later  the  legislature  of  Maryland,  which  was 
strongly  southern  in  its  sympathies,  was  prevented  from  meeting  by  the 
sudden  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  a  large  number  of  its  members  by 
order  of  the  secretary  of  war. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1861,  Congress  convened  in  extra  session  at 
Washington,  in  accordance  with  the  president's  proclamation.  This  body 
proceeded  to  give  to  the  government  a  prompt  and  effectual  support. 
Resolutions  were  introduced  to  legalize  the  extraordinary  acts  of  the  pres- 
ident in  setting  aside  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  in  ordering  the  arbitrary 
arrest  and  confinement  of  citizens,  and  in  assuming  certain  other  powers 
which  belonged  to  Congress.  Congress  refused  to  throw  over  these  acts, 
however  necessary,  the  sanction  of  the  law ;  but  in  view  of  the  necessity 
of  prompt  and  vigorous  action  on  the  part  of  the  president  excused  his 
acts  on  the  distinct  ground  of  the  "  necessities  of  war."  Measures  were 
adopted  without  delay  for  putting  in  the  field  an  army  of  five  hundred 
and  twenty-five  thousand  men,  and  for  equipping  a  powerful  navy ;  and 
the  sum  of  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  was  appropriated  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  During  this  session  Congress  also  adopted  a 
solemn  resolution  declaring  "  that  this  war  is  not  prosecuted  on  our  part 
in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  nor  for  any  purpose  of  conquest  or  subjuga- 
tion, nor  for  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights  or 
established  institutions  of  those  [the  seceded]  States ;  but  to  defend  and 
maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  constitution  and  all  laws  made  in  pursu- 
ance thereof,  and  to  preserve  the  Union  with  all  the  dignity,  equality  and 
rights  of  the  several  States  unimpaired ;  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are 
accomplished  the  war  ought  to  cease." 

In  the  meantime  the  Confederates  had  collected  troops  at  important 
points  to  resist  the  advance  of  the  federal  troops  into  Virginia.  A  force 
under  Brigadier-General  Garnett  was  stationed  in  West  Virginia  to  covet 
the  approaches  from  that  direction ;  Harper's  Ferry,  which  commanded 
the  entrance  into  the  valley  of  Virginia,  was  held  by  an  army  of  seven 
thousand  or  eight  thousand  men,  under  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  ;  a 
much  larger  force,  under  General  Beauregard,  took  position  near  Manas- 

v- 


788 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


sas  Junction,  about  thirty  miles  from  Washington  ;  and  a  column  of  several 
thousand  men,  under  General  John  B.  Magruder,  was  stationed  at  York- 
town,  on  the  peninsula  between  the  York  and  James  rivers,  to  cover 
Richmond  from  the  direction  of  Fortress  Monroe  at  the  mouth  of  Hamp- 
ton Roads,  which  was  still  held  by  the  federal  troops.  Norfolk  was  also 
held  by  a  strong  force.  With  the  exception  of  that  occupied  by  General 
Garnett's  command,  all  these  positions  were  carefully  fortified. 

The  Union  army  at  Fortress  Monroe  numbered  about  twelve  thousand 
men,  and  was  commanded  by  General  B.  F.  Butler.  Early  in  June, 
Magruder  moved  a  force  of  eighteen  hundred  men  and  several  pieces  of 
artillery  from  Yorktown,  and  took  position  at  Bethel  Church,  about  half 


STATE  HOUSE,   COLUMBUS,   OHIO. 

way  between  Yorktown  and  Hampton.  On  the  10th  of  June  he  was 
attacked  by  a  force  of  four  thousand  troops  under  General  Pierce,  of 
Massachusetts,  but  succeeded  in  repulsing  the  attack  and  maintaining  his 
position. 

In  the  opposite  quarter  of  the  State,  the  Union  forces  were  more  suc- 
cessful. In  order  to  prevent  the  Confederates  from  overrunning  West 
Virginia,  a  strong  body  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  troops  under  General 
George  B.  McClellan  was  sent  into  that  region.  McClellan  set  to  work 
at  once  to  drive  the  Confederates  out  of  West  Virginia,  and  on  the  3d  of 
June  a  portion  of  his  command  under  General  Kelley  defeated  General 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  739 

Garnett  at  Philippi.  McClellan  now  advanced  against  the  main  body  of 
Garnett's  forces.  On  the  llth  of  July  he  attacked  the  command  of 
Colonel  Pegram  at  Rich  Mountain,  and  defeated  it.  This  defeat  com- 
pelled General  Garnett  to  fall  back  towards  the  valley  of  Virginia.  He 
was  pursued  by  McClellan  and  overtaken  at  Carrick's  ford,  on  the  Cheat 
river.  In  the  battle  which  ensued  here  Garnett  was  killed,  and  the 
remnant  of  his  command  was  driven  beyond  the  mountains. 

The  United  States  had  assembled  a  considerable  army  of  volunteers 
and  regulars  at  Washington  under  Major-Geiieral  Irwin  McDowell.  On 
the  24th  of  May  Alexandria,  on  the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac,  nine 
miles  below  Washington,  was  seized  by  a  detachment  from  this  army. 
Its  commander,  Colonel  Ellsworth,  was  killed  by  a  citizen.  Strong  de- 
fences were  erected  on  the  Virginia  shore  between  Washington  and  Alex- 
andria, and  the  army  was  encamped  within  these  lines.  Two  mouths 
were  passed  in  organizing  and  disciplining  this  force,  and  in  the  meantime 
the  people  of  the  Northern  and  Western  States  became  impatient  of  the 
delay,  and  demanded  an  immediate  advance  upon  the  southern  army  and 
Richmond. 

Preparatory  to  his  own  advance  General  McDowell  sent  General  Pat- 
terson with  twenty  thousand  men  to  cross  the  Potomac  at  Williamsport, 
and  prevent  General  Johnston  from  leaving  the  valley  and  joining  Beau- 
regard  at  Manassas.  Upon  the  arrival  of  Patterson  on  the  upper  Poto- 
mac, General  Johnston  evacuated  Harper's  Ferry  and  took  position  at 
Winchester.  Patterson  made  a  considerable  show  of  force  in  the  valley, 
but  refrained  from  attacking  Johnston,  although  the  latter  sought  to  in- 
duce him  to  do  so.  He  took  position  about  nine  miles  from  Winchester, 
and  remained  inactive  there. 

In  the  meantime  the  preparations  for  the  advance  of  McDowell's  army 
were  completed,  and  on  the  17th  of  July  he  began  his  march  from  the 
Potomac  towards  Bull  Run,  on  the  banks  of  which  the  Confederates  were 
posted.  His  army  numbered  over  fifty  thousand  men,  and  forty-nine 
pieces  of  artillery.  As  soon  as  the  advance  of  this  army  was  known  to 
him,  General  Beauregard  informed  General  Johnston  of  it,  and  begged 
him  to  come  to  his  assistance.  Johnston  skilfully  eluded  Patterson's' 
army,  and  hastened  to  Bull  Run,  arriving  there  with  a  part  of  his  com- 
mand in  time  to  take  part  in  the  battle. 

The  Confederate  army  had  taken  position  behind  Bull  Run,  and  in 
advance  of  Manassas  Junction.  Including  the  force  brought  by  General 
Johnston,  who  assumed  the  chief  command  by  virtue  of  his  rank,  it 
consisted  of  thirty -one  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-one  men  and 
fifty-five  guns. 


f90  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

On  the  18th  of  July  General  McDowell  attempted  to  force  a  passage 
cf  Bull  Run  at  Blackburn's  ford,  but  was  repulsed.  On  the  morning  of 
the  21st,  the  Union  army  advanced  in  force,  and  endeavored  to  turn  the 
left  of  the  southern  line.  An  obstinately-contested  battle  ensued,  which 
lasted  from  sunrise  until  nearly  sunset.  It  resulted  in  the  total  defeat  of 
the  federal  army,  which  was  driven  back  in  utter  rout  upon  Alexandria 
and  "Washington,  with  a  loss  of  between  four  and  five  thousand  men  in 
killed,  wounded  and  prisoners,  and  twenty-eight  pieces  of  artillery. 

For  a  while  the  eifects  of  this  disaster  upon  the  federal  army  were  so 
great  that  Washington  was  almost  defenceless;  but  the  Confederates 
made  no  effort  to  follow  up  their  victory.  They  were  almost  as  badly 
demoralized  by  their  success  as  the  Union  army  by  its  defeat. 

Recovering  from  the  dismay  of  its  first  great  reverse,  the  government 
went  to  work  with  vigor  to  repair  the  disaster.  The  levy  of  five  hun- 
dred thousand  men  ordered  by  Congress  was 
raised  promptly  and  without  difficulty,  so  eager 
was  the  desire  of  the  people  to  wipe  out  the  dis- 
grace of  Bull  Run.  At  his  own  request  General 
Scott,  whose  bodily  infirmities  were  so  great  as  to 
render  him  unable  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his 
position,  was  relieved  of  the  command  of  the 
army.  Major-General  George  B.  McClellan  was 
given  the  chief  command  of  the  armies  of  the 
GEN.  p.  G.  T.  BEAUREGARD.  Union,  and  ordered  to  take  charge  of  the  force 
assembling  before  Washington,  which  was  named 

the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  He  devoted  himself  with  success  to  the  task 
of  organizing  and  disciplining  the  recruits  which  cams  pouring  in  during 
the  fall  and  winter. 

The  remainder  of  the  year  1861  passed  away  quietly  on  the  Potomac, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  battle  of  Leesburg.  Colonel  Baker  with 
a  force  of  two  thousand  men  was  sent  by  General  Stone  to  cross  the 
Potomac  at  Edward's  ferry,  and  drive  back  the  Confederate  force  under 
General  Evans  from  its  position  near  Leesburg.  He  made  his  attack  on 
the  21st  of  October,  but  was  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  eight  hundred 
killed  and  wounded,  being  himself  among  the  slain.  The  Confederate 
army  held  its  position  at  Centreville  through  the  fall  and  winter,  and  at 
one  time  its  outposts  were  pushed  forward  within  view  of  the  city  of 
Washington. 

In  the  fall  of  1861  an  army  often  thousand  men  was  sent  by  the  Con- 
federate government  into  the  valley  of  Virginia  to  prevent  its  occupation 
by  the  federal  forces.  The  command  of  these  troops  was  conferred  upon 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  791 

General  T.  J.  Jackson,  whose  conspicuous  gallantry  at  Bull  Run  had  won 
him  the  sobriquet  of  "  Stonewall  Jackson,"  by  which  he  was  afterwards 
known  by  both  armies.  He  established  his  head-quarters  at  Winchester. 

In  the  meantime  the  war  had  been  going  on  in  western  Virginia, 
'  After  the  transfer  of  General  McClellan  to  Washington  the  command  of 
the  Union  forces  passed  to  Brigadier-General  Rosecranz,  an  able  officer. 
He  had  several  indecisive  encounters  with  the  commands  of  Generals 
Floyd  and  Wise  in  the  region  of  the  Gauley  and  New  rivers.  General 
Robert  E.  Lee  was  sent  by  the  Confederate  government  to  assume  the 
chief  command  in  the  west.  He  attacked  the  brigade  of  General  Rey- 
nolds at  Cheat  mountain  on  the  14th  of  September,  but  was  repulsed  and 
obliged  to  retreat.  On  the  4th  of  October  General  Reynolds  attacked  a 
Confederate  force  under  General  Henry  R.  Jackson  on  the  Greeubrier 
river,  but  was  repulsed. 

The  State  of  Missouri  took  no  part  in  the  secession  movements  of  the 
spring  of  1861.  Her  people  were  divided ;  a  large  party  sympathized 
with  the  south ;  but  a  still  larger  party  was  determined  that  the  State 
should  remain  in  the  Union.  These  parties  soon  came  in  conflict.  The 
governor  and  leading  officials  of  the  State  were  in  favor  of  secession,  and 
used  all  their  influence  to  bring  about  the  withdrawal  of  Missouri  from 
the  Union.  A  camp  of  the  State  militia  was  formed  near  St.  Louis,  and 
was  called  Camp  Jackson  in  honor  of  the  governor.  It  was  known  that 
the  force  assembled  at  this  camp  was  intended  to  serve  as  a  nucleus 
around  which  an  army  hostile  to  the  federal  government  might  assemble. 
By  extraordinary  exertions  Colonel  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  a  member  of 
Congress  from  St.  Louis,  and  Captain  Nathaniel  Lyon,  commanding  the 
troops  at  the  Jefferson  barracks,  near  St.  Louis,  succeeded  in  collecting  a 
force  of  five  regiments  of  Union  volunteers.  On  the  10th  of  May,  1861, 
Lyon  with  these  five  regiments  suddenly  surrounded  Camp  Jackson,  and 
compelled  General  Frost,  the  commanding  officer,  to  surrender  his  whole 
force,  camp  and  equipments.  By  this  prompt  action  the  State  forces  were 
prevented  from  carrying  out  their  plan  for  seizing  the  United  States 
arsenal  at  St.  Louis,  which  contained  sixty  thousand  stand  of  arms  of  the 
latest  patterns,  and  a  number  of  cannon,  and  a  large  quantity  of  ammuni- 
tion. For  this  decisive  action  Captain  Lyon  was  commissioned  a  briga- 
dier-general by  the  president. 

Satisfied  that  the  desire  of  the  southern  party  in  Missouri  to  remain 
neutral  was  but  a  pretext  to  gain  time  to  arm  the  State  for  a  union  with 
the  Confederates,  President  Lincoln  determined  to  compel  all  the  State 
forces  not  in  the  federal  service  to  disband.  An  interview  was  held  at 
St.  Louis  on  the  llth  of  June  between  Governor  Jackson  and  General 


792 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


793 


GEN.   STERLING  PlilCE. 


Lyon,  now  commanding  the  federal  troops  in  Missouri.  Governor  Jack- 
son demanded  that  no  United  States  forces  should  be  quartered  in  or 
marched  through  Missouri.  General  Lyon  refused  to  comply  with  this 
demand,  and  insisted  that  the  State  forces  should  be  disbanded,  pledging 
himself  to  respect  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  State.  At  the  close  of 
the  interview  the  governor  returned  to  Jeffersou  City,  the  capital  of  the1 
State,  and  the  next  day,  the  12th,  issued  his  proc- 
lamation calling  fifty  thousand  of  the  State 
militia'  into  active  service  for  the  purpose  of 
driving  the  federal  troops  from  the  State,  and 
protecting  the  "  lives,  liberty  and  property  of  the 
citizens."  General  Lyon  at  once  marched  upon 
Jefferson  City,  and  occupied  it  on  the  15th,  the 
governor  and  his  supporters  having  retired  to  the 
interior  of  the  State.  On  the  17th  Lyon  pro- 
ceeded to  Booneville  and  defeated  the  State  troops 
stationed  there  under  General  Price. 

The  southwestern  part  of  Missouri  is  rich  in  deposits  of  lead,  and  val- 
uable mines  of  this  mineral  are  worked  there.  The  State  authorities 
were  anxious  to  hold  this  region,  as  it  was  of  the  highest  importance  to 
them  to  obtain  the  use  of  these  mines  to  supply  their  army  with  lead.  A 
column  of  federal  troops  under  General  Sigel  was  sent  by  General  Lyon 
to  intercept  the  retreat  of  the  State  troops.  On  the  5th  of  July  Sigel 
attacked  the  State  troops  under  Governor  Jackson 
at  Carthage,  but  was  repulsed. 

The  next  day,  July  6th,  Governor  Jackson  wag 
joined  at  Carthage  by  General  Sterling  Price,  of 
:  the   Missouri   State   Guard,  and   General    Ben 
McCulloch,  of  the  Confederate  army,  with  sev- 
eral thousand  men.     The  command  of  the  whole 
force  was  conferred  upon  General  McCulloch, 
.  SIGEL.  who  had  been   ordered   by  his  government  to 
advance   into   Missouri.      The  southern   army, 

according  to  General  McCulloch's  statement,  numbered  fifty-three  hun- 
dred infantry,  six  thousand  mounted  men,  and  fifteen  pieces  of  artillery. 
It  advanced  rapidly  into  the  interior  of  the  State,  and  on  the  9th  of 
August  reached  Wilson's  creek,  near  Springfield.  General  Lyon  had 
taken  position  there  with  a  force  somewhat  smaller  than  that  of  the  Con- 
federates. On  the  morning  of  the  10th  he  attacked  the  southern  army. 
The  battle  lasted  six  hours,  and  was  hotly  contested.  General  Lyon  was 
killed  at  the  head  of  his  troops  while  endeavoring  to  turn  the  left  flank 


794  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

of  the  Confederates,  and  his  army  was  forced  back.     His  body  was  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates,  who  treated  it  with  becoming  respect. 

Springfield  was  occupied  by  the  Confederates  the  day  after  the  battle  t 
but  McCulloch  and  Price  being  unable  to  agree  upon  the  plan  of  the 
campaign,  they  soon  withdrew  to  the  Arkansas  border.  The  Union 
army  after  the  battle  withdrew  to  Holla,  near  the  centre  of  the  State. 

A  few  weeks  later  General  Price  with  a  force  of  over  five  thousand 
Confederates  laid  siege  to  Lexington,  on  the  Missouri  river,  which  was 
held  by  about  three  thousand  men  under  Colonel  Mulligan.  After  a 
gallant  defence  Mulligan  was  forced  to  surrender  on  the  20th  of  Sep- 
tember. 

Major-General  John  C.  Fremont  was  now  appointed  by  President  Lin- 
coln to  take  command  of  the  western  army.     He  forced  Price's  command 
back  into  the  southwestern  part  of  the  State.     Arriving  near  Springfield, 
Fremont  prepared  to  bring  the  Confederates  to  a  decisive  engagement,  but 
on  the  2d  of  November  was  removed  from  his  com- 
mand.    He  was  succeeded  by  General  Hunter,  who 
abandoned  the  pursuit,  and  fell  back  to  St.  Louis.  On 
the  18th  of  November  Hunter  was  superseded  by 
Major-General  Halleck,  who  by  a  rapid  advance 
drove  Price  once  more  towards  the  Arkansas  border. 
This    movement  closed  the  campaign  of  1861  in 
Missouri.    The  Union  army  had  not  only  saved  the 
State  to  the  Union,  but  had  confined  the  Confed- 
erates to  the  Arkansas  border. 

In  the  meantime  Governor  Jackson  had  summoned  the  legislature  of 
Missouri  to  meet  at  Neosho.  It  assembled  at  that  place  in  October, 
passed  an  ordinance  of  secession,  and  elected  delegates  and  senators  to  the 
Confederate  Congress.  Though  this  action  was  merely  formal,  and  re- 
ceived the  support  of  but  a  small  part  of  the  people  of  Missouri,  it  was 
recognized  as  valid  by  the  Confederate  government,  and  Missouri  was 
proclaimed  one  of  the  Confederate  States. 

The  governor  and  State  authorities  of  Kentucky  attempted  at  the  out- 
set of  the  war  to  hold  the  position  of  armed  neutrality  between  the  par- 
ties to  the  contest;  but  as  in  the  case  of  Missouri,  this  effort  failed. 
Neither  the  federal  government  nor  that  of  the  Southern  Confederacy 
could,  in  the  nature  of  things,  respect  this  neutrality.  The  federal  troops 
were  poured  into  Kentucky,  and  the  Confederates  seized  Columbus,  on 
the  Mississippi,  Bowling  Green,  in  the  -centre  of  the  State,  and  other 
positions  in  the  western  part.  The  southern  party  in  Kentucky,  within 
the  protection  of  the  Confederate  lines,  organized  a  provisional  g3rarn- 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


795 


ment  for  the  State,  sent  senators  and  representatives  to  the  Congress  at 
Richmond,  which  formally  recognized  Kentucky  as  one  of  the  Confederate 
States. 

The  force  at  Columbus  was  commanded  by  General  Polk  of  the  Con- 
federate army.  At  Belmont,  on  the  Missouri  shore  of  the  river,  imnu  - 
diately  opposite  Columbus,  a  body  of  Confederate  troops  was  stationed. 
On  the  7th  of  November,  General  U.  S.  Grant  having  descended  the 
Mississippi  from  Cairo,  attacked  the  force  at  Belmont  with  his  command 
of  three  thousand  men.  After  a  sharp  struggle  he  was  repulsed,  and 
forced  to  retreat  to  Cairo. 

At  the  outset  of  the  war  the  Confederates  occupied  the  principal  ports 
of  the  south,  and  a  number  of  prominent  points  on  the  Atlantic  coast. 


STATE  HOUSE,   INDIANAPOLIS,   INDIANA. 

These  were  fortified  by  them  as  well  as  the  means  at  hand  would  permit 
The  general  government  resolved  to  capture  these  as  rapidly  as  possible, 
as  their  reduction  was  necessary  in  order  to  render  the  blockade  of  the 
southern  coast  effectual.  The  first  expedition  was  despatched  from 
Fortress  Monroe  in  August,  1861,  under  Commodore  Stringham  and 
General  Butler,  and  was  directed  against  the  Confederate  works  r.t 
Hatteras  inlet,  which  commanded  the  entrance  to  Albemarle  and  Pamlico 
sounds.  These  works  were  captured  on  the  29th  of  August. 

The  great  extent  of  the  coast  to  be  blockaded  by  the  navy  made  it 
necessary  that  a  good  harbor  at  some  central  point  should  be  secured, 
where  supplies  could  be  stored  for  the  fleet,  and  where  vessels  could  refill 
without  returning  to  the  northern  ports.  Port  Royal  Harbor  i>i  South 


796 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL   POLK. 


Carolina  was  selected  as  the  best  place  for  this  purpose.  It  was  defended  by 
Fort  Walker  on  Hilton  Head  and  Fort  Beauregard  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  harbor.  A  powerful  naval  and  military  expedition  under  Commodore 
Dupont  and  General  Thomas  W.  Sherman  attacked  these  works  on  the 
7th  of  November,  and  reduced  them  after  a  terrible  bombardment  by  the 
fleet.  Port  Royal  was  at  once  occupied  by  the  expedition,  and  during 

the  war  was  the  principal  depot  on  the  southern 
coast  for  the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  Union. 

It  was  not  possible,  however,  to  render  the 
blockade  effective.  Great  efforts  were  made  to 
increase  the  number  of  vessels  employed  in  this 
duty,  but  the  Confederates  succeeded  in  eluding 
the  Union  cruisers  almost  at  pleasure,  and  a 
steady  communication  was  maintained  between 
the  southern  ports  and  England  by  way  of  the 
West  Indies.  A  number  of  armed  vessels  in 
the  service  of  the  confederacy  succeeded  in 
getting  to  sea.  By  the  close  of  the  year  they 

had  inflicted  severe  damage  upon  the  commerce  of  the  Northern  States, 
and  had  almost  driven  the  foreign  trade  of  the  United  States  from  the 
ocean. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  war  the  southern  government  was  encour- 
aged to  hope  that  the  governments  of  England  and  France  would  recognize 
the  independence  of  the  Confederate  States,  and 
in  the  fall  of  1861,  James  M.  Mason  of  Virginia 
and  John  Slidell  of  Louisiana  were  ordered  to 
proceed  to  Europe,  as  commissioners  from  the 
Confederate  States,  to  secure  this  recognition. 
They  sailed  from  Charleston  on  the  12th  of 
October,  and  reached  Cuba  in  safety.  There 
they  took  passage  for  England  on  board  the 
British  mail-steamer  "  Trent."  Hearing  of 
this,  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United  States  war- 
Bteamer  "San  Jacinto,"  overhauled  the  "Trent" 
upon  the  high  seas,  boarded  her,  and  seized  the 

two  commissioners  and  their  secretaries  and  sailed  with  them  to  Boston 
harbor,  where  they  were  imprisoned  in  one  of  the  forts. 

The  "  Trent"  in  the  meantime  proceeded  on  her  voyage,  and  upon  reaching 
England  her  commander  informed  the  British  government  of  the  outrage 
that  had  been  committed  upon  its  flag.  The  English  government  at  once 
demanded  of  President  Lincoln  the  immediate  and  unconditional  release 


JAMES   M.   MASON. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  797 

of  the  Confederate  commissioners  and  satisfaction  for  the  insult  to  its  flag. 
It  was  understood  that  France  was  prepared  to  sustain  England  in  her 
demands.  The  Federal  government  disavowed  the  action  of  Captain 
\Vilkes  in  seizing  the  commissioners,  and  those  gentlemen  were  released 
and  allowed  to  continue  their  voyage.  They  reached  England  in  due 
time.  Mr.  Mason  proceeded  to  London  and  Mr.  Slidell  to  France. 
Neither  the  English  nor  the  French  governments  would  receive  the 
commissioners  officially.  It  was  understood  that  the  United  States  would 
regard  the  interference  of  either  in  the  American  quarrel  as  a  cause  of  war, 
and  neither  power  cared  to  join  in  the  struggle. 

Tennessee  seceded  from  the  Union,  as  we  have  related,  in  the  spring  of 
1861.  The  western  and  central  portions  of  the  State  were  unanimously 
in  favor  of  joining  the  Southern  States  and  gave  a  hearty  support  to  the 
confederacy  during  the  war,  but  East  Tennessee,  inhabited  by  a  race  of 
hardy  mountaineers,  was  devoted  to  tho  Union, 
and  was  unwilling  to  leave  it.  In  the  autumn 
of  1861  the  East  Tennesseeans  took  up  arms 
against  the  Confederate  government,  and  began 
to  destroy  the  railway  bridges  in  that  part  of 
the  State.  This  movement  was  full  of  danger 
to  the  confederacy,  as  the  principal  line  of  com- 
munication between  Virginia  and  the  Missis- 
sippi passed  through  East  Tennessee.  A  con- 
siderable force  of  Confederate  troops  was  sent 
into  East  Tennessee  to  hold  the  people  In  sub-  JOHK  SMDEIX. 

jeetion  and  protect  the  railroads,  but  throughout 

the  war  the  hostility  of  the  people  of  this  region  was  a  constant  source  of 
langer  and  of  weakness  to  the  Confederates. 

When  the  year  1862  opened,  the  war  had  assumed  colossal  proportions. 
The  military  operations  extended  almost  across  the  continent,  and  engaged 
a  number  of  powerful  armies,  and  a  formidable  navy.  The  call  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  for  troops  had  been  cheerfully  responded  to,  and  the  opening 
of  the  year  found  the  United  States  provided  with  a  force  of  over  half  a 
million  of  men,  splendidly  armed  and  equipped,  and  supplied  with  every- 
thing necessary  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  The  north  had 
profited  by  its  first  reverses,  and  was  resolved  that  its  next  effort,  whi<  li 
was  to  be  made  at  the  opening  of  the  season  for  active  operations,  should 
find  it  thoroughly  prepared  for  the  task  it  had  undertaken.  A  cordial 
support  was  given  to  the  measures  of  the  government  by  the  people.  Its 
wants  were  supplied  by  means  of  a  heavy  loan  which  was  readily  negoti- 
ated with  the  capitalists  of  the  Eastern  States.  From  the  moment  that 


798  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  despondency  caused  by  the  reverse  at  Bull  Run  had  subsided  suffi- 
ciently to  enable  the  people  of  the  loyal  States  to  face  the  situation  calmly, 
every  one  saw  that  the  work  of  preparation  must  all  be  done  over  from 
the  beginning,  and  it  was  done  bravely  and  thoroughly.  During  the  fall 
and  winter  the  army  was  rapidly  increased ;  vessels  were  purchased  and 
built  for  the  navy. 

The  southern  armies,  on  the  other  hand,  had  grown  steadily  weaker. 
The  first  successes  of  the  Confederate  troops  had  greatly  demoralized  the 
southern  people.  Volunteering  soon  ceased  almost  entirely.  Even  the 
heaviest  bounties  failed  to  bring  recruits.  There  was  a  widespread 
delusion  throughout  the  south  that  the  war  was  practically  ended.  The 
measures  of  the  Confederate  Congress  steadily  thinned,  instead  of  filling 
up  the  ranks  of  the  southern  armies,  and  when  the  new  year  dawned  there 
was  grave  reason  to  fear  that  the  spring  campaign  would  find  the  south 
without  an  adequate  army  unless  more  vigorous  measures  were  resorted  to. 
It  was  exceedingly  doubtful  whether  the  troops  already  in  the  service 
would  renew  their  enlistments,  which  expired  in  the  spring  of  1862. 
During  the  winter  the  Southern  Congress  adopted  a  law  granting  a  fur- 
lough and  a  heavy  bounty  to  every  soldier  who  would  re-enlist  for  the 
war.  The  furlough  was  to  be  granted  during  the  winter ;  the  bounty  to 
be  paid  at  a  later  period.  Many  of  those  who  went  home  on  these  fur- 
loughs did  so  with  the  intention  of  remaining  there ;  and  the  practical 
effect  of  the  measure  was  to  diminish  the  strength  of  the  Confederate 
armies.  At  length  the  Confederate  Congress  was  driven  by  the  neces- 
sities of  the  situation  to  adopt  a  most  stringent  and  sweeping  measure. 
On  the  16th  of  April,  1862,  a  conscription  act  was  passed,  giving  to  the 
president  of  the  confederacy  the  power  to  call  into  the  military  service  the 
entire  male  population  of  the  various  States  between  the  ages  of  eighteen 
and  thirty-five  years.  In  September,  1862,  a  second  act  was  passed 
extending  the  conscript  age  to  forty-five  years.  The  measure  was 
acquiesced  in  by  the  southern  people,  but  was  never  popular  with  them. 
It  served  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  intended,  however,  and  enabled 
t'.ie  Confederate  government  to  collect  a  force  of  several  hundred  thousand 
men  in  the  spring  of  1862,  and  thus  to  fill  up  the  ranks  of  its  armies  in 
the  field,  and  to  retain  the  regiments  already  in  the  service. 

When  the  spring  opened,  General  Halleck,  whose  head-quarters  were  at 
St.  Louis,  held  Missouri  against  the  Confederates  with  a  powerful  army. 
General  Buell,  with  a  considerable  force,  was  stationed  in  central  Kentucky, 
In  his  front  an  inferior  force  of  Confederates,  under  General  Albert  Sidney 
Johnston,  held  Bowling  Green  and  covered  Nashville  and  the  Tennessee 
and  Cumberland  rivers.  They  also  held  Columbus  and  other  prominent 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  799 

points  on  the  Mississippi.  The  army  of  the  Potomac,  under  General 
McClellan,  lay  along  the  Potomac,  confronting  the  Confederate  army  of 
Northern  Virginia,  which  held  Centreville.  A  considerable  force  was 
collected  at  Fortress  Monroe ;  and  an  army  of  about  ten  thousand  Con- 
federates, under  Magruder,  held  a  strongly  fortified  line  extending  from 
Yorktown  across  the  peninsula  to  the  James  river.  In  addition  to  these 
forces,  the  Federal  government  had  collected  a  powerful  flotilla  of  steamers 
and  gunboats  at  Cairo,  the  junction  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  to 
assist  in  the  operations  of  the  western  armies.  The  capture  of  New  Orleans 
had  been  resolved  upon,  and  a  combined  naval  and  military  expedition 
under  Commodore  Farragut  and  General  Butler  was  assembled  for  that 
purpose ;  and  another  expedition  was  organized  in  the  Chesapeake  for  the 
reduction  of  Roanoke  island  and  the  forts  on  the  North  Carolina  coast. 

Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  new  year,  Mr.  Cameron,  whose  adminis- 
tration of  the  war  department  had  failed  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  country, 
\vas  removed  by  President  Lincoln,  and  sent  to  Russia  as  minister  from 
the  United  States.  The  president  on  the  13th  of  January  appointed' 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  of  Ohio,  secretary  of  war.  The  new  secretary  was 
confessedly  one  of  the  ablest  men  in  America,  and  his  accession  to  the 
control  of  the  war  department  infused  new  life  into  the  military  prepara- 
tions of  the  government.  During  the  remainder  of  the  war  he  occupied 
this  position,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  his  vigorous  administra- 
tion of  his  department  was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  final  success  of 
the  Union  arms. 

Active  operations  were  resumed  earlier  in  the  west  than  in  the  east. 
On  the  19th  of  January  General  George  H.  Thomas  drove  the  Confeder- 
ates under  General  Zollicoffer  from  Mill  Spring  in  Kentucky.  The 
defeated  force  had  held  the  right  of  the  Confederate  line  in  Kentucky, 
the  centre  of  which  was  at  Bowling  Green,  and  the  left  at  Columbus,  and 
its  reverse  was  a  serious  disaster  to  the  Confederates. 

The  department  of  General  Halleck  embraced  Kentucky  in  addition  to 
the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi.  In  order  to  hold  the  Cumberland 
and  Tennessee  rivers,  which  afforded  water  communication  far  back  into 
the  country  in  the  rear  of  their  line,  the  Confederates  had  built  a  work, 
known  as  Fort  Henry,  on  the  Tennessee,  a  little  south  of  the  Kentucky 
border,  and  another  and  a  stronger  work,  known  as  Fort  Donelson,  on 
the  Cumberland  and  a  little  below  Nashville.  At  the  solicitation  of 
Brigadier-General  U.  S.  Grant,  commanding  at  Cairo,  General  Halleck 
determined  to  capture  these  forts,  and  so  break  the  Confederate  line,  and 
compel  their  army  to  fall  back  from  Kentucky.  Fort  Henry  was  to  be 
first  attacked.  The  fleet  of  gunboats  under  Commodore  Foote  and  Grant's 

A  * 


800  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

troops  from  Cairo  were  sent  against  Fort  Henry,  which  was  captured  on 
the  6th  of  February  after  a  severe  bombardment  by  the  gunboats  which 
had  ascended  the  Tennessee.  The  garrison  escaped  to  Fort  Donelson, 
twelve  miles  distant  across  the  country. 

The  loss  of  Fort  Henry  compelled  the  Confederates  to  evacuate  all  their 
positions  in  Kentucky.  General  Beauregard  fell  back  from  Columbus  to 
Corinth,  Mississippi,  and  General  Sidney  Johnston  slowly  retired  from 
Bowling  Green  upon  Nashville,  followed  by  General  Buell  with  a  vastly 
superior  force. 

After  the  capture  of  Fort  Henry  the  gunboats  returned  to  Cairo,  and, 
taking  on  board  supplies  and  reinforcements  for  the  army,  ascended  the 
Ohio  and  entered  the  Cumberland,  up  which  they  passed  to  Fort  Donel- 
son.   Grant  in  the  meantime  marched  across  the  country  from  Fort  Henry 
to  Fort  Donelson,  and  invested  the  latter  work.     The  roads  were  so 
difficult  that  although  the  distance  between  the  two  forts  was  but  twelve 
miles,  Grant  spent  six  days  in  marching  it.    This 
delay  gave  General  Johnston  an  opportunity  to 
reinforce  Fort  Donelson.     He  halted  at  Nash- 
ville with  his  main  army  to  await  the  result  of 
Grant's  attack  on  the  fort.     The  gunboats  did 
not  join  Grant  until  the  14th  of  February,  and 
the  investment  was  not  begun  until  their  arrival. 
Fort  Donelson  was  a  stronger  work  than  Fort 
Henry,  and  was  held  by  a  force  of  about  thirteen 
ADMIRAL  FOOTE.         thousand  men,  commanded  by  General  John  B. 
Floyd.     On  the  14th  of  February  the  gunboats 

opened  fire  upon  the  fort,  and  at  the  same  time  the  army  of  General  Grant, 
reinforced  to  about  thirty  thousand  men,  began  to  occupy  the  positions 
assigned  it  in  the  investment.  The  operations  of  the  14th  ended  with  the 
repulse  of  the  fleet,  Commodore  Foote  being  severely  wounded  in  the 
engagement.  Satisfied  of  his  inability  to  hold  the  fort  against  the  over- 
whelming force  of  the  Federal  army,  General  Floyd  resolved  to  cut  his 
way  through,  and  retreat  upon  Nashville.  On  the  15th  he  made  a  gallant 
attempt  to  break  through  Grant's  lines,  but  was  driven  back,  and  a  por- 
tion of  the  southern  intrenchments  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Union 
array.  On  the  night  of  the  15th  a  council  of  war  was  held  by  the  Con- 
federate commanders.  It  was  evident  that  escape  was  impossible  and  a 
surrender  inevitable.  General  Floyd  refused  to  surrender,  and  retreated 
from  the  fort  with  a  considerable  force  of  infantry  and  cavalry,  with  which 
he  succeeded  in  reaching  Nashville.  General  Pillow,  who  was  left  by 
Floyd  in  command,  turned  over  the  command  to  General  Buckner,  the 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


801 


next  in  rank,  and  joined  Floyd  in  his  flight.  Being  unable  to  offer 
further  resistance,  General  Buckner,  on  the  morning  of  the  16th,  surren- 
dered the  fort  and  his  troops  unconditionally  to  the  Federal  army. 

The  capture  of  Fort  Donelson  was  by  far  the  most  important  success 
that  had  yet  been  won  by  the  Union  armies,  and  was  hailed  with  rejoic- 
ings throughout  the  north  and  west.  By  this  capture  over  five  thousand 
prisoners,  besides  the  Confederate  wounded,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Union  forces.  The  Confederates  also  lost  heavily  in  killed  and  wounded. 

General  Johnston,  upon  learning  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Donelson,  fell  back 
from  Nashville  to  Murfreesboro',  from  which  place  he  subsequently  con- 
tinued his  retreat  across  the  State,  and  eventually  joined  General  Beaure- 


NASHVTLLE,  TENNESSEE. 

gard,  who  had  taken  position  at  Corinth,  at  the  junction  of  two  important 
railway  lines  on  the  northern  border  of  Mississippi.  Beau  regard,  in 
falling  back  from  Columbus,  had  left  a  force  at  Island  No.  10,  which  had 
been  strongly  fortified,  to  hold  the  Mississippi  against  the  efforts  of  the 
Federal  fleet  and  army  to  obtain  the  control  of  the  river. 

Nashville  was  occupied  by  the  army  of  General  Buell,  and  Grant's 
army  was  moved  up  the  Tennessee  as  far  as  Pittsburg  Landing.  General 
Buell  was  ordered  to  march  across  the  country  from  Nashville  to  the 
Tennessee,  to  unite  his  forces  with  Grant's,  and  attack  the  Confederates 
at  Corinth. 

General  Johnston,  the  Confederate  commander,  had  feared  this  comvn- 
51 


802  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

tration,  which  would  make  the  Federal  power  in  this  quarter  irresistible, 
and  had  determined  to  attack  Grant's  army  and  crush  it  before  Buell 
could  arrive,  after  which  he  would  be  free  to  engage  Bucll.     His  plan 
was  ably  conceived,  but  his  march  was  delayed  by  the  fearful  state  of  the 
roads,  and  he  did  not  arrive  opposite  the  Federal  position  until  two  days 
after  the  time  fixed  for  his  attack.    Grant  was  encamped  at  Shiloh  Church, 
near   Pittsburg    Landing,   with   the   Tennessee 
river  in  his  rear.     On  the  morning  of  Sunday, 
April  6th,  his  army  was  suddenly  attacked  by 
Johnston,  and  was  driven  steadily  from  its  origi- 
nal position  to  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee,  where 
it  was  sheltered  by  the  fire  of  the  gunboats.    The 
battle  was  stubbornly  contested,  and  the  losses  on 
both  sides  were  very  heavy.     Late  in  the  after- 
noon General  Johnston  was  mortally  wounded, 
and  died  soon  afterwards.    The  command  passed 
GEN.  ALBERT  s.  JOHNSTON,  to  General  Beauregard,  who  failed  to  follow  up 
his  advantage.     During  the  night  the  army  of 

General  Buell  arrived,  and  reinforced  Grant.  On  the  morning  of  the  7th, 
Grant  attacked  the  Confederates  and  after  a  sharp  fight  drove  them  back. 
They  retreated  slowly,  and  returned  to  Corinth. 

\Vhiletheseoperationswere  in  progress,  the  gunboats  under  Commodore 
Foote  and  a  strong  force  of  western  troops  under  General  Pope  laid  siege 
to  Island  No.  10,  on  the  Mississippi.    After  a 
bombardment  of  twenty-three  days,  the  Confed- 
erate works  were  captured,  together  with   five 
thousand  prisoners,  on  the  morning  of  the  7th  of 
April,  the  day  on  which  Beauregard  was  driven 
back  from  Shiloh.     The  Confederates  still  held 
Fort  Pillow,  a  strong  work  a  short  distance  above 
Memphis.    If  this  could  be  captured,  the  Federal 
forces  would  obtain  the  control  of  the  river  as  far 
south  as  Yicksburg.     General  Pope  was  anxious 
to  move  against  it  at  once,  but  his  army  was  ordered     MAJ.-GEN.  D.  c.  BUELL. 
to  join  General  Halleck.    Commodore  Foote  being 

disabled  by  his  wound  received  at  Fort  Donelson  was  succeeded  by 
Captain  Davis,  who  descended  the  river  and  took  position  above  Fort 
Pillow. 

General  Halleck  now  repaired  to  the  Tennessee,  and  took  command  of 
the  Union  armies  there,  amounting  to  more  than  one  hundred  thousand 
men.  He  moved  forward  leisurely  towards  Corinth,  and  laid  siege  to 


THE  CIVIL   WAR. 


803 


thnt  place.  Beauregard,  seeing  that  it  was  impossible  to  hold  Corinth 
against  this  greatly  superior  force,  evacuated  it  on  the  night  of  the  29th 
of  May,  and  retreated  to  Tupelo,  Mississippi.  The  next  day  General 
Halleck  occupied  Corinth.  The  loss  of  Corinth  compelled  the  evacuation 
of  Fort  Pillow,  which  was  abandoned  by  the  Confederates  on  the  4th  of 
June.  On  the  6th  the  Union  gunboats  descended  the  river  to  Memphis 
and  defeated  the  Confederate  flotilla  above  that  city.  Memphis  at  once 
surrendered,  and  was  occupied  by  the  Union  forces.  All  West  Kentucky 
and  West  Tennessee  were  now  under  the  control  of  the  Union  armies, 
which  now  occupied  a  line  extending  from  Memphis,  through  Corinth, 
almost  to  Chattanooga. 

The  Confederates  still  held  East  Tennessee  in  heavy  force.     Shortly 


MEMPHIS,  TENNESSEE. 

after  the  evacuation  of  Corinth  General  Beauregard  was  removed  from 
his  command,  and  was  succeeded  by  General  Braxton  Bragg.  Bragg  was 
strongly  reinforced,  and  it  was  determined  to  make  a  bold  effort  to  drive 
back  the  Federal  advance  and  regain  West  Tennessee  and,  if  possible, 
Kentucky.  Bragg's  army  was  concentrated  at  Chattanooga,  and  General 
Ivirby  Smith  at  Knoxville  was  strongly  reinforced.  Smith  was  to  move 
from  Knoxville,  while  Bragg  was  to  advance  from  Chattanooga,  and  the 
two  armies  were  to  unite  in  the  centre  of  the  State  of  Kentucky.  Their 
combined  forces  amounted  to  over  fifty  thousand  men,  and  it  was  hoped 
that  this  movement  would  compel  the  Federal  army  to  abandon  its  advance, 


804 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


and  fall  back  into  Kentucky  to  protect  that  State  and  Ohio  from  the 
Confederates.  Then  by  a  decisive  victory  Bragg  expected  to  be  able  to 
overrun  and  hold  Kentucky  and  even  to  invade  Ohio. 

The  division  of  General  Smith  moved  forward  about  the  middle  of 
August,  and  on  the  30th  of  August  defeated  a  Union  force  under  General 
Manson  at  Richmond,  Kentucky,  inflicting  upon  it  a  loss  of  six  thousand 
men.  Smith  then  occupied  Lexington  and  Frank- 
fort, and  advanced  towards  Cincinnati ;  but  ascer- 
taining that  a  strong  force  was  assembling  at  that 
city,  under  General  Lewis  Y/allacc,  he  fell  back 
to  Frankfort,  where  he  joined  General  Bragg  on 
the  4th  of  October. 

Bragg  had  begun  his  march  as  soon  as  Kirby 
Smith  had  gotten  fairly  started.  His  objective 
point  was  Louisville,  and  he  hoped  to  be  able  to 
elude  the  army  of  General  Buell  which  was  at 
MAJ.-GEN.  H.  w.  HAI/LECK.  Nashville,  and  by  a  rapid  advance  seize  Louisville 
before  BuelPs  arrival.  By  the  1 7th  of  September 

lie  was  at  Munfordsville,  Kentucky,  which  he  captured  after  several  slight 
encounters,  taking  forty-five  hundred  prisoners.  Buell  in  the  meantime 
had  divined  Bragg's  purpose,  and  had  set  out  from  Nashville  for  the  Ohio 
by  forced  marches.  He  reached  Louisville  before  the  arrival  of  the 
Confederates,  and  being  heavily  reinforced  advanced  to  attack  Bragg,  who 
had  turned  aside  and  occupied  Frankfort  on  the 
4th  of  October.  Bragg  fell  back  slowly,  ravaging 
the  country  along  his  route;  and  was  followed 
by  Buell  with  equal  deliberation.  On  the  8th  of 
October  an  indecisive  battle  was  fought  between 
the  two  armies  at  Perryville.  After  this  conflict, 
in  which  both  sides  lost  heavily,  Buell  refrained 
from  attacking  Bragg  again,  and  the  latter  con- 
tinued his  retreat  leisurely  into  Tennessee,  taking 
with  him  a  wagon  train  forty  miles  in  length, 
loaded  with  plunder  captured  in  Kentucky. 

During  this  campaign  the  Federal  army  under 
General  Grant  had  held  its  line  in  West   Tennessee,  extending  fror 
Corinth  to  Memphis.     A  Confederate  army  under  Generals  Price  ar 
Van  Dorn  was  assembled  in  Mississippi  in  front  of  the  Union  position. 
Grant,  who  was  now  in  command  of  the  Federal  forces  in  West  Tennessee 
(Halleck  having  been  summoned  to  Washington  as  commanding  General), 
ordered  General  Rosecrans  to  his  assistance.     Upon  the  arrival  of  this 


GENERAL  B.  BRAGG. 


S06 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


commander  with  his  troops,  Grant  advanced  upon  Price  at  luka,  and 
defeated  him  on  the  19th  of  September.  He  then  repaired  to  Jackson, 
Tennessee,  leaving  Rosecrans  with  nineteen  thousand  men  to  hold  Corinth 
against  the  Confederates. 

After  his  defeat  at  luka  Price  was  joined  by  Van  Dorn,  whose  troops 
brought  the  strength  of  the  Confederate  army  to  eighteen  thousand  men. 
They  at  once  advanced  upon  Corinth,  and  on  the  4th  of  October  attacked 
that  place.  The  battle  which  ensued  was  noted  for  the  obstinacy  with 
which  it  was  contested  by  both  sides.  The  Confederates  were  defeated 


LANDING   AT   LOUISVILLE,  KENTUCKY. 

with  a  loss  of  about  three  thousand  killed  and  wounded,  and  were  pursued 
for  about  thirty  miles  southward.  The  Union  loss  was  about  five  hundred 
and  eighteen  killed,  wounded,  and  missing. 

The  Federal  government  was  greatly  dissatisfied  with  BuelPs  failure 
io  intercept  Bragg,  and  upon  his  arrival  at  Nashville  he  was  removed 
from  the  command  of  his  army,  which  was  conferred  upon  General  Rose- 
crans, as  a  reward  for  his  victory  at  Corinth.  Bragg  had  taken  position 
near  Murfreesboro',  about  thirty  miles  distant  from  Nashville,  and  Rosc- 
crans,  towards  the  last  of  December,  moved  upon  that  place  to  attack 


THE  CIVIL   WAR. 


807 


him.  Bragg  had  at  the  same  time  completed  his  preparations  to  resume 
the  offensive,  and  had  begun  his-  advance  upon  Nashville,  and  the  two 
armies  encountered  each  other  at  Stone  river,  near  Murfreesboro',  on  the 
31st  of  December.  They  were  about  equal  in  strength,  each  numbering 
about  forty  thousand  men.  The  battle  was  fiercely  disputed,  but  at  night- 
fall Rosecraus  was  driven  back  with  heavy  loss,  and  Bragg  telegraphed 
to  Richmond  news  of  a  great  victory.  Rosecrans,  however,  had  merely 
fallen  back  to  a  new  and  stronger  position.  On  the  2d  of  January,  1863, 
Bragg  renewed  his  attack,  but  was  repulsed  with  terrible  slaughter.  On 
the  3d  a  heavy  rain  fell  and  prevented  all  military  operations,  and  that 
night  Bragg  retreated  from  the  field.  He  retired  in  good  order  to  Tulla- 
homa,  about  thirty  miles  from  Murfreesboro'.  The  losses  on  both  sides 
in  this  battle  were  heavy,  ranging  from  ten  thousand  to  twelve  thousand 
men  in  each  army. 

The  Confederates,  having  lost  the  upper 
and  lower  Mississippi,  had  fortified  Vicks- 
burg  and  Port  Hudson,  in  order  to  main- 
tain their  hold  upon  that  stream,  and  to 
keep  open  their  communications  with  the 
country  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Vicks- 
burg  had  been  made  a  post  of  extraordinary 
strength,  and  was  garrisoned  by  a  consider- 
able force  of  Confederate  troops.  Towards 
the  last  of  the  year  General  Grant  deter- 
mined to  undertake  an  expedition  against  it.  MAJOE-GENEEAL  w.  EOSECEANS. 
He  sent  General  Sherman,  with  forty  thou- 
sand men,  and  a  fleet  of  gunboats,  under  Commodore  Porter,  to 
descend  the  Mississippi  and  attack  the  southern  works  above  the 
city;  and  advanced  southward  from  Corinth  with  the  main  army  by 
land.  Grant  had  accomplished  fully  half  the  distance  when  a  strong 
body  of  Confederate  cavalry,  under  General  Van  Dorn,  made  a  dash  into 
his  rear,  and  on  the  20th  of  December  captured  Holly  Springs,  Grant's 
principal  depot  of  supplies.  This  movement  compelled  Grant  to  abandon 
his  advance  upon  Vicksburg,  and  to  fall  back  and  re-establish  his  com- 
munications with  his  base.  Sherman,  ignorant  of  this  disaster,  left 
Memphis  on  the  20th  of  December,  and  a  few  days  later  landed  his 
troops  on  the  banks  of  the  Yazoo,  from  which  he  advanced  upon  the 
Confederate  works  at  Chickasaw  bayou,  on  the  north  of  Vicksburg.  On 
the  29th  of  December  he  made  a  spirited  attack  upon  them,  but  was 
repulsed.  He  withdrew  his  troops  to  the  boats,  and  retired  to  Young's 
Point,  on  the  Louisiana  shore,  a  short  distance  above  Vicksburg. 


808 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


The  Confederates  were  driven  out  of  Missouri  at  the  close  of  1861, 
we  have  seen,  and  retired  into  Arkansas.  General  Van  Dorn  was  now 
sent  by  the  Confederate  government  to  take  command  of  the  forces  of 
Price  and  McCulloch,  which  numbered  about  sixteen  thousand  men.  He 
reached  the  head-quarters  of  this  force  on  the  3d  of  March,  1862.  Th_« 
Federal  army,  under  General  Curtis,  with  General  Sigel  as  his  second  in 
command,  had  taken  position  on  the  heights  of  Pea  Ridge,  around  Sugar 
creek,  in  the  northwestern  part  of  Arkansas.  It  numbered  about  eleven 
thousand  men.  On  the  7th  of  March  Van  Dorn  attacked  the  Unioif 
army  in  this  position,  and  after  a  bloody  fight,  which  lasted  for  about 
seven  or  eight  hours,  drove  it  back.  Curtis  took  up  a  new  position  dur- 


LITTLE   ROCK,   ARKANSAS. 

ing  the  night,  and  the  next  morning  the  Confederates  renewed  the  attack, 
and  were  repulsed.  After  the  battle  of  Shiloh  the  troops  of  Price  and 
Van  Dorn  were  withdrawn  across  the  Mississippi  to  reinforce  General 
Beauregard  at  Corinth.  We  have  seen  them  bearing  the  brunt  of  the 
campaign  in  northern  Mississippi  against  Grant's  army.  Towards  the 
close  of  the  summer,  it  being  necessary  to  make  a  vigorous  effort  to  hold 
the  trans-Mississippi  region  against  the  efforts  of  the  Union  forces,  the 
Confederate  government  sent  Lieutenant-General  Holmes  to  take  com- 
mand of  it.  The  operations  in  this  region  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year  were  of  an  unimportant  character. 

The  plan  of  the  Federal  government  for  seizing  the  prominent  points 
on  the  coast  wag  carried  forward  with  great  energy  during  the  year  1862. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  809 

Between  Albemarle  and  Pamlico  sounds,  on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina, 
lies  Roanoke  island,  famous  as  the  scene  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  unfor- 
tunate attempts  to  colonize  America,  and  commanding  the  entrance  to 
Albemarle  sound.  The  possession  of  this  island  by  the  Federal  forces 
would  give  them  the  command  of  the  rivers  entering  into  the  sounds, 
place  the  rear  defences  of  Norfolk  at  their  mercy,  and  afford  them  a  safe 
base  from  which  to  attack  the  towns  on  the  North  Carolina  coast.  The 
Federal  government  having  determined  to  obtain  possession  of  Roanoke 
island,  a  powerful  expedition  against  it  was  fitted  out  early  in  the  year, 
under  the  command  of  Major-General  Ambrose  E.  Burnside.  The 
expedition  sailed  from  Hampton  Roads  on  the  llth  of  January,  1862, 
and  after  narrowly  escaping  being  scattered  by  a  severe  storrn  passed 
through  Hatteras  inlet,  and  anchored  in  Pamlico  sound  on  the  28th.  On 
the  6th  of  February  the  fleet  took  position  off  Roanoke  island,  and  on 
the  7th  opened  fire  upon  the  Confederate  works.  Under  the  cover  of 
this  fire  a  force  of  over  ten  thousand  troops  was  landed  upon  the  island. 
On  the  8th  General  Burnside  attacked  the  Confederate  intrenchments 
and  carried  them  after  a  sharp  contest.  The  entire  Confederate  force, 
numbering  about  twenty-five  hundred  men,  fell  into  his  hands  as 
prisoners  of  war.  On  the  10th  the  Confederate  squadron  in  Albemarle 
sound  was  attacked  and  destroyed,  or  captured. 

Having  established  himself  firmly  on  Roanoke  island,  General  Burn- 
side  prepared  to  reduce  the  towns  along  the  coast  of  North  Carolina. 
On  the  14th  of  March  Newberne  surrendered  to  him,  and  on  the  25th 
of  April  Fort  Macon,  at  the  entrance  of  Beaufort  harbor,  one  of  the 
strongest  works  on  the  coast,  capitulated. 

Some  important  successes  were  won  on  the  coast  of  Florida  during  the 
spring  of  this  year.  An  expedition  from  Port  Royal  captured  Fernan- 
dina  and  Fort  Clinch  on  the  28th  of  February,  and  a  little  later  Jack- 
sonville, on  the  St.  John's  river,  and  St.  Augustine  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  Federal  troops.  Brunswick  and  Darien,  important  places  on  the 
coast  of  Georgia,  were  captured  about  the  same  time. 

The  most  important  naval  expedition  of  the  year  was  that  which 
resulted  in  the  capture  of  New  Orleans.  The  Federal  government  had 
recognized  from  the  first  the  importance  of  regaining  possession  of  the 
Mississippi,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  a  large  fleet  of  gunboats  had  been  pre- 
pared on  the  upper  waters  of  that  stream  to  co-operate  with  the  army  i:i 
its  efforts  to  capture  the  fortified  posts  along  the  river.  All  these  efforts, 
however,  were  useless,  as  long  as  the  Confederates  n-taiix-d  possession  of 
the  lower  river  or  of  the  important  city  of  New  Orleans,  the  commer- 
cial metropolis  of  the  south.  It  was  resolved  at  an  early  period  of  the 


810 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


struggle  to  wrest  New  Orleans  from  the  Confederates,  and  a  fleet  of  forty- 
five  vessels  of  war  and  mortar-boats  was  assembled  for  this  purpose,  and 
placed  under  command  of  Commodore  Farragut,  an  able  and  experienced 
officer.  To  the  fleet  was  added  a  force  of  fifteen  thousand  troops,  under 
General  B.  F.  Butler.  The  expedition  rendezvoused  at  Ship  island, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  early  part  of  March. 

About  twenty  miles  above  the  head  of  the  passes  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  about  seventy  miles  below  New  Orleans,  the  entrance  to  the  river  is 
defended  by  two  strong  works — Fort  Jackson  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
stream,  and  Fort  St.  Philip  on  the  left — both  built  before  the  war.  The 
Confederates  had  further  strengthened  their  position  by  stretching  six 
heavy  chains,  supported  on  a  series  of  dismasted  schooners,  across  the 
river,  from  shore  to  shore,  to  prevent  the  passage  of  ships.  Early  in 
April  the  fleet  sailed  from  Ship  island,  leaving  the  troops  there  to  await 

the  result  of  its  operations,  and  entering 
the  Mississippi  took  position  below  the 
forts.  On  the  18th  the  bombardment  of 
the  forts  was  begun  by  the  ships  and  the 
mortar-boats,  and  was  continued  with 
great  vigor  until  the  24th.  The  results  of 
this  bombardment  were  most  discourag- 
ing, and  Farragut  became  convinced  that 
the  forts  could  not  be  reduced  by  the  fire 
of  the  fleet.  He  therefore  determined  to 
pass  them  with  his  vessels  and  so  neu- 
tral ize  them. 

The  chain    and    raft   barricade   across 
the    river  had    been   broken  by  a  severe 

storm,  and  Farragut  sent  a  party  to  enlarge  the  gap  made  in  it,  so 
as  to  admit  the  passage  of  the  fleet.  This  task  was  accomplished  with 
great  gallantry.  At  three  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  April, 
the  fleet  got  under  headway  and  began  to  ascend  the  river,  the  commo- 
dore in  his  flag-ship,  the  "  Hartford,"  leading  the  way.  The  fleet  con- 
sisted of  seventeen  vessels,  carrying  two  hundred  and  ninety-four  guns. 
As  the  vessels  came  abreast  of  the  forts  the  Confederates  opened  a  heavy 
fire  upon  them,  to  which  they  responded  with  vigor.  The  forts  were 
passed  in  safety  at  length,  and  a  short  distance  above  them  Farragut 
encountered  the  Confederate  fleet,  consisting  of  sixteen  vessels,  but  eight 
of  which  were  armed.  Two  of  these  were  iron-clads,  however.  A  des- 
perate battle  ensued,  which  resulted  in  the  total  destruction  of  the 
southern  fleet.  When  the  sun  rose  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  the  forts 


ADMIRAL   FARRAGUT. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


811 


had  been  passed,  and  the  resistance  of  the  Confederate  vessels  had  been 
overcome. 

There  was  nothing  now  between  the  Federal  fleet  and  New  Orleans, 
and  Farragut,  ascending  the  river  slowly  and  cautiously,  anchored  in  the 
stream,  in  front  of  the  city,  on  the  morning  of  the  25th.  He  at  once 
demanded  the  capitulation  of  New  Orleans,  which  had  been  evacuated  by 
the  Confederate  troops  on  the  previous  day,  and  the  city  was  surrendered 


VIEW   IN   ST.   CHARLES   STREET,   NEW   ORLEANS. 

to  him  by  the  municipal  authorities.  On  the  28th  Forts  Jackson  and  St. 
Philip  surrendered  to  Captain  Porter,  the  commander  of  the  mortar 
fleet.  New  Orleans  being  taken  word  was  sent  to  General  Butler,  at 
Ship  island,  to  hasten  forward  with  his  troops  to  occupy  it.  He  arrived 
on  the  1st  of  May,  and  at  once  took  possession  of  the  city.  Baton 
Rouge,  the  capital  of  Louisiana,  was  occupied  by  the  Federal  forces,  and 
Frrragnt  pushed  on  up  the  river,  and,  passing  the  Confederate  batteries  at 


612  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Grand  Gulf  and  Vicksburg,  joined  the  fleet  of  Commodore  Davis  at 
Memphis. 

The  capture  of  New  Orleans  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  south.  It 
deprived  the  confederacy  of  the  largest  and  wealthiest  city  within  its 
limits,  and  wrested  from  it  the  whole  of  the  lower  Mississippi. 

Another  success  was  gained  by  the  Union  arms  on  the  southern  coast. 
An  expedition  from  Port  Royal,  under  General  Hunter,  laid  siege  to 
Fort  Pulaski,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  river.  This  fort  was  con- 
structed by  the  Federal  government  previous  to  the  war,  and  constituted 
one  of  the  principal  defences  of  the  city  of  Savannah.  On  the  llth  of 
April,  after  a  bombardment  of  fifteen  days,  it  surrendered  to  General 
Hunter.  Its  capture  closed  the  Savannah  river  to  the  entrance  of  the 
class  of  vessels  known  as  blockade  runners,  and  deprived  the  south  of 
the  use  of  one  of  its  principal  ports. 

The  events  of  this  year  in  Virginia  were  of  the  highest  importance. 
The  army  of  the  Potomac,  nearly  two  hun- 
dred thousand  strong,  was  ready  for  active 
operations  with  the  early  spring.  General 
McClellan  was  anxious  to  avail  himself  of  the 
superior  naval  strength  of  the  United  States 
to  transport  his  army  to  a  point  on  the  Chesa- 
peake bay,  from  which  it  could  easily  interpose 
between  the  Confederate  army,  under  General 
Johnston,  and  Richmond.  Suspecting  such  a 
MAJOR-GENERAL  B.  F.  BUTLER,  design  on  the  part  of  McClellan  Johnston 

abandoned  his  position  at  Centreville  on  the 

8th  of  March,  and  fell  back  to  the  Rapnahannock,  and  a  little  later 
moved  back  still  farther  to  the  line  of  the  Rapidan.  McClellan  advanced 
to  Centreville  as  soon  as  informed  of  Johnston's  withdrawal,  but  was  too 
late  to  interfere  with  the  movements  of  the  Confederate  army. 

Simultaneous  with  Johnston's  withdrawal  from  Centreville  occurred  an 
incident  which  forms  one  of  the  most  striking  episodes  of  the  war,  and 
led  to  results  of  world-wide  importance.  Upon  the  evacuation  of  the 
Norfolk  navy  yard  by  the  Federal  forces,  at  the  outset  of  the  war,  the 
splendid  steam  frigate  "Merrimac"  was  scuttled  and  sunk.  Th is  vessel 
was  subsequently  raised  by  the  Confederates,  and  rebuilt  by  them.  Her 
upper  deck  was  removed,  and  she  was  covered  with  a  slanting  roof.  Both 
the  roof  and  her  sides  were  heavily  plated  with  iron,  and  a  long,  stout 
bow  was  fitted  to  her  to  enable  her  to  act  as  a  ram.  She  was  then  armed 
with  ten  heavy  guns,  and  named  the  "Virginia."  Thus  prepared  she 
was  the  most  powerful  vessel  afloat. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  g!3 

As  soon  as  the  "Virginia"  was  ready  for  service  the  Confederate 
authorities  determined  to  test  her  efficiency  by  attempting  to  destroy  the 
Federal  fleet  in  Hampton  Roads.  On  the  8th  of  March  the  "Virginia," 
accompanied  by  two  small  vessels,  left  Norfolk  and  steamed  down  the 
Elizabeth  river  into  Hampton  Roads.  Her  appearance  took  the  Federal 
fleet  by  surprise,  and  a  heavy  fire  was  concentrated  upon  her  from  the 
fleet  and  the  batteries  on  shore  at  Newport's  News,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
James  river.  Shot  and  shell  flew  harmlessly  from  her  iron  sides,  and, 
firing  slowly  as  she  advanced,  she  aimed  straight  for  the  sloop  of  war 
"Cumberland" — the  most  formidable  vessel  of  her  class  in  the  navy — 
and  sunk  her  with  a  blow  of  her  iron  prow.  The  frigate  "  Congress," 
lying  near  by,  was  chased  into  shoal  water  and  compelled  to  surrender, 
after  which  she  was  set  on  fire.  The  ram  then  endeavored  to  inflict  a. 
similar  fate  upon  the  frigate  "  Minnesota,"  but  that  vessel  escaped  into 
water  too  shallow  for  the  iron-clad  to  ven- 
ture into.  At  sunset  the  "Virginia"  drew 
off,  and  returned  to  the  Elizabeth  river. 
She  had  destroyed  two  of  the  finest  vessels 
in  the  Federal  navy,  and  inflicted  upon  her 
adversaries  a  loss  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
officers  and  men.  She  was  herself  unin- 
jured, and  had  but  two  men  killed  and 
eight  wounded. 

The  success  of  the  "Virginia"  struck 
terror  to  the  fleet  in  Hampton  Roads,  and 
it  was  by  no  means  certain  that  the  vic- 
torious  vessel    would   not   the   next  day      MAJ.-GEN.  GEO.  B.  M'CLELLAN. 
either  attack  Fortress  Monroe,  or  pass  by  it 

and  ascend  the  Chesapeake,  in  which  case  both  Washington  and  Baltimore 
would  be  at  her  mercy.  During  the  night,  however,  a  most  unlooked-for 
assistance  arrived.  The  "  Monitor,"  an  iron-clad  vessel  of  a  new  plan, 
invented  by  Captain  John  Ericsson,  entered  Hampton  Roads  on  her  trial 
trip  from  New  York.  Upon  learning  the  state  of  affairs  her  commander, 
Lieutenant  Worden,  determined  to  engage  the  "Virginia"  the  next  day. 
On  the  morning  of  the  9th  the  "Virginia"  again  steamed  out  of  the  Eliza  • 
beth  river  into  Hampton  Roads.  The  "  Monitor,"  though  her  inferior 
in  size,  and  carrying  but  a  single  gun,  at  once  moved  forward  to  moot 
her.  An  engagement  of  several  hours'  duration  ensued,  in  which  both 
vessels  were  fought  with  great  gallantry ;  and  at  the  end  of  this  time  the 
"Virginia"  drew  off,  and  returned  to  Norfolk  severely  injured.  The 
j^rival  of  the  "  Monitor"  was  most  fortunate.  It  saved  the  Federal  fleet  i: 


R14  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Hampton  Roads  from  total  destruction,  and  prevented  the  "Virginia" 
from  extending  her  ravages  to  the  ports  of  the  Union.  The  battle 
between  the  "Monitor"  and  the  "Virginia"  will  ever  be  famous  as  the 
first  engagement  between  iron-clad  vessels.  It  inaugurated  a  new  era  in 
naval  warfare.  In  spite  of  the  result  of  the  battle,  however,  the  prasenoe 
»f  the  "Virginia"  at  Norfolk  deterred  the  Federal  forces  from  risking  an 
ittack  on  that  place,  and  prevented  them  from  making  any  effort  to  ascend 
the  James  river  with  their  fleet. 

In  the  meantime  the  army  of  General  McClellan  had  returned  to  its 
position  near  Alexandria,  after  the  retreat  of  the  Confederates  to  the 
Rapidan.  General  MoClellan  now  proposed  to  move  the  bulkof  his  army 
to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  to  advance  from  that  point  upon  Richmond  by 
way  of  the  peninsula  between  the  York  and  James  rivers.  About  seventy- 
five  thousand  men  were  left  on  the  Potomac  to  cover  Washington,  and 
the  remainder,  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  in  number,  were 
transported  by  water  to  Fortress  Monroe.  This  movement  was  accom- 
plished by  the  2d  of  April.  On  the  4th  the  army  of  the  Potomac  began 
its  march  towards  the  lines  of  Yorktown,  which  were  held  by  about 
eleven  thousand  five  hundred  men,  under  General  Magruder.  The  Con- 
federate commander  had  passed  the  first  year  of  the  war  in  fortifying  his 
position,  and  had  constructed  a  series  of  powerful  works  which  enabled 
him,  with  his  small  force,  to  hold  McClellan's  whole  army  in  check.  On 
the  5th  and  6th  of  April  McClellan  made  repeated  attempts  to  force  the 
southern  lines,  and  failing  in  these  decided  to  lay  siege  to  them.  The 
time  thus  gained  by  Magruder  enabled  General  Johnston  to  move  his 
army  from  the  Rapidan  to  the  peninsula.  It  was  in  position  on  the  lines 
of  Yorktown  by  the  17th  of  April,  making  the  force  opposed  to  McClel- 
lan about  fifty-eight  thousand  strong.  The  Confederates  did  not  expect 
to  hold  their  position  on  the  peninsula,  but  from  the  first  intended  to 
move  back  nearer  to  Richmond,  and  occupy  the  line  of  the  Chickahominy. 
When  their  preparations  were  completed  they  fell  back  from  the  lines  of 
Yorktown,  on  the  night  of  the  3d  of  May,  just  as  McClellan  was  about 
to  begin  his  bombardment  of  their  position. 

The  Federal  army  discovered  the  retreat  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of 
May,  and  moved  forward  promptly  in  the  hope  of  intercepting  the 
southern  army.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th  the  advanced  forces  attacked 
the  rear-guard  of  Johnston's  army  at  Williamsburg.  The  Confederate 
commander  held  his  ground  until  his  trains  had  gotten  off  in  safety,  and 
then  resumed  his  retreat,  and  reached  the  Chickahominy  about  the  10th 
of  May  without  further  molestation  from  the  Union  forces.  General 
McClellan,  following  leisurely,  took  position  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Chickahominy,  with  the  river  between  the  two  armies. 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  815 

In  accordance  with  General  McClellan's  urgent  request,  President 
Tjincoln  decided  to  order  the  force  left  to  cover  Washington  to  join  the 
array  of  the  Potomac,  before  Richmond,  by  way  of  Fredericksburg. 
With  his  force  thus  augmented  the  Union  commander  had  no  doubt  of 
his  ability  to  capture  Richmond.  Alive  to  this  danger  General  Johnston 
directed  General  Jackson,  who  had  been  left  to  hold  the  valley  of  Vir- 
ginia, to  manoeuvre  his  army  so  as  to  threaten  Washington,  and  compel 
the  Federal  government  to  retain  the  force  intended  for  McClellan  for  the 
defence  of  Washington.  While  awaiting  the  arrival  of  this  force 
McClellan  threw  his  left  wing  across  the  Chickahominy,  and  lodged  if  in 
a  position  nearer  to  Richmond.  The  Federal  lines  now  extended  from 
Bottom's  Bridge,  on  the  Chickahominy,  to  Mechanics ville,  north  of  that 
stream. 

The  evacuation  of  the  peninsula  compelled  the  Confederates  to  abandon 
Norfolk  also.  They  withdrew  their  troops  from  that  city  on  the  9th  of 
May,  and  sent  them  to  reinforce  General  Johnston.  On  the  10th  Norfolk 
and  Portsmouth  were  occupied  by  the  Federal  forces  under  General  Wool. 
Bafore  leaving  the  Confederates  had  set  fire  to  the  navy  yard,  which  was 
destroyed.  The  iron-clad  steamer  "  Virginia  "  was  taken  into  the  James 
river,  and  on  the  llth  was  abandoned  and  blown  up.  The  loss  of  this 
steamer,  which  could  have  held  the  James  against  the  whole  Union  fleet, 
left  the  river  open  to  within  eight  miles  of  Richmond.  The  gunboats,  in- 
cluding the  "  Monitor,"  were  sent  up  to  try  to  force  their  way  to  Richmond, 
but  on  the  15th  of  May  were  driven  back  by  a  battery  of  heavy  guns 
located  on  the  heights  at  Drewry's  bluff,  eight  miles  below  Richmond. 
They  were  badly  injured  by  the  plunging  fire  of  the  Confederates.  The 
river  was  securely  obstructed  at  this  point  to  prevent  a  passage  of  the 
batteries  by  the  Federal  fleet. 

Having  been  heavily  reinforced,  General  Johnston  determined  to  attack 
McClellan's  exposed  left  wing,  and  on  the  31st  of  May  fell  upon  it  at 
Seven  Pines,  and  drove  it  back  with  heavy  loss.  General  Johnston  was 
severely  wounded  towards  the  close  of  the  day,  and  was  unable  to  carry 
out  the  plan  upon  which  he  had  begun  the  battle.  The  next  day  there 
was  heavy  skirmishing  until  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  but 
nothing  of  a  more  serious  nature  was  attempted  by  either  side.  General 
McClellan,  warned  by  the  narrow  escape  of  his  left  wing,  now  proceeded 
to  fortify  his  position  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Chickahominy. 

While  these  events  were  in  progress  on  the  Chickahominy,  General 
Jackson  carried  out  with  brilliant  success  the  movements  assigned  him  in 
the  valley  of  Virginia.  His  task  required  the  exercise  of  the  greatest 
skill  and  determination.  He  was  to  neutralize  the  forces  of  Fremont, 


616 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Banks  and  McDowell,  and  prevent  them  from  rendering  any  assistance 
lo  McClellan.    Jackson's  army  fell  back  from  Winchester  on  the  llth  of 
March,  and  retired  as  i'ar  as  Mount  Jackson.     Then  rapidly  retracing  its 
steps  it  attacked  Banks'  forces  at  Kernstown,  near  Winchester.     Though 
repulsed  in  this  engagement,  it  succeeded  in  alarming  the  Federal  govern- 
ment for  the  safety  of  Washington.     Banks'  command  was  therefore  re- 
tained in  the  v.alley  to  watch  Jackson,  and  the 
force  under  McDowell  was  not  allowed  to  go  to 
McClellan's  assistance  on  the  peninsula,  lest  by 
so  doing  it  should  uncover  Washington.     After 
the   battle  of   Kernstown,  Jackson   retired    up 
the  valley,  and  a  season  of  comparative  quietude 
ensued.     The  Federal  government  even  believed 
that   his   troops   had    been   sent    to  Richmond. 
Fremont's    army  was   ordered    to    move   from 
LIEOT.-GEN. T.  j.  JACKSON,   western  Virginia   into   the  valley;   Banks  was 
directed     to    march    to     Manassas    and    cover 

Washington ;  while  McDowell,  with  forty  thousand  men,  was  ordered 
to  move  to  Fredericksburg,  from  which  he  was  to  march  across  the 
country  and  unite  with  McClellan's  left  wing,  which  was  thrown  out  far 
to  the  north  of  Richmond  to  meet  him.  These  orders  were  in  process  of 
execution  when  Jackson,  who  had  been  reinforced  by  a  division  under 
General  Ewell,  destroyed  the  whole  Federal  plan  of  campaign. 

Knowing  that  he  could  not  possibly  resist  the  combined  forces  o(  Fre- 
mont and  Banks,  Jackson  determined  to  beat 
them  in  detail.  Marching  rapidly  westward,  he 
crossed  the  mountains,  fell  upon  the  advance 
guard  of  Fremont's  army  at  McDowell,  on  the 
8th  of  May,  defeated  it,  and  drove  it  back  into 
western  Virginia.  Then  retracing  his  steps  with 
remarkable  speed,  he  returned  to  the  valley,  and 
on  the  23d  of  May  attacked  Banks'  outlying  force 
at  Front  Royal,  and  drove  it  in  upon  the 
main  body  at  Strasburg.  Banks  at  once 
broke  up  his  camp,  and  fell  back  down  the 

valley,  pursued  by  Jackson,  who  dealt  him  a  terrible  blow  at  Win- 
chester on  the  25th.  By  extraordinary  exertions  Banks  succeeded  in 
escaping  across  the  Potomac,  but  left  about  three  thousand  prisoners.,  sev- 
eral pieces  of  artillery,  nine  thousand  stand  of  arms,  and  the  greater  part 
of  his  stores  in  the  hands  of  the  Confederates. 

This  bold  advance  greatly  alarmed  the  government  at  Washington,  and 


MAJ.-GKN.  K.  P.  iJANKS. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  g17 

the  president  ordered  Fremont  to  move  with  speed  into  the  valley,  and 
directed  General  McDowell  to  suspend  his  movement  to  the  assistance  of 
McClellan,  and  send  a  force  of  twenty  thousand  men  to  gain  Jackson's 
rear,  and  prevent  his  return  up  the  valley.  McDowell  sent  the  required 
force  under  General  Shields,  and  Fremont  hurried  on  to  gain  the  upper 
valley  in  advance  of  Jackson.  These  movements  entirely  prevented 
McClellan  from  receiving  the  assistance  of  McDowell's  corps,  and  saved 
Richmond  from  capture. 

Jackson  was  too  good  a  general  to  be  caught  in  the  trap  so  skilfully 
laid  for  him.  He  retired  up  the  valley  with  the  greatest  speed,  and  having 
interposed  his  army  between  Fremont  and  Shields,  turned  upon  the  former, 
and  with  a  part  of  his  force  attacked  him  at  Cross  Keys  on  the  8th  of 
June,  and  checked  his  advance.  Then  reuniting  his  forces  he  fell  upon 
Shields  at  Port  Republic  on  the  9th  of  June,  and  drove  him  back  with 
heavy  loss  after  one  of  the  hardest-fought  battles 
of  the  war.  Having  thus  put  an  end  to  the 
pursuit  of  his  antagonists,  Jackson  withdrew  to 
a  safe  position,  from  which  he  could  hold  them 
in  check  or  go  to  the  aid  of  the  army  defending 
Richmond.  The  latter  move  being  decided 
upon,  he  eluded  the  Federal  forces  in  the  valley, 
and  marched  rapidly  to  the  Chickahominy.  Be- 
fore his  absence  from  the  valley  was  suspected, 
he  had  joined  General  Lee.  His  campaign  in 

the  valley  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  most    BRIO.-OEK.  JAS.  SHIELDS. 
brilliant  of  the  war.      With  less  than   twenty 

thousand  men  he  had  neutralized  a  force  of  sixty  thousand  Union  troops, 
and  prevented  the  execution  of  McClellan's  carefully  laid  plans  for  the 
capture  of  Richmond. 

Upon  the  fall  of  General  Johnston  the  command  of  the  Confederate 
army  before  Richmond  was  conferred  upon  General  Robert  E.  Lee, 
whom  subsequent  events  proved  to  be  the  ablest  of  the  southern  leaders. 
Troops  were  drawn  from  every  possible  point  to  reinforce  General  Lee's 
army,  and  by  the  middle  of  June  his  forces,  including  Jackson's  army, 
amounted  to  ninety  thousand  men.  The  Federal  army  was  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  thousand  strong.  Both  armies  were  in  fine  condition.  Gen- 
eral McClellan,  finding  it  impossible  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  McDowell's 
corps,  and  fearing  for  the  safety  of  his  communications  with  his  base  of 
supplies,  which  was  at  West  Point,  at  the  head  of  the  York  river,  pre- 
pared to  move  his  army  to  the  south  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and 
establish  a  new  and  more  secure  base  upon  the  James  river.  Before  he 
52 


818 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


could  put  this  design  in  operation  he  was  attacked  by  General  Lee,  who, 
on  the  25th  of  June,  fell  upon  the  right  of  the  Union  line  at  Mechanics- 
ville,  and  forced  it  back  upon  the  centre  at  Cold  Harbor.  On  the  26th 
the  position  at  Cold  Harbor  was  attacked  and  carried  by  the  Confederates 
afler  a  desperate  struggle.  With  great  difficulty  McClellan  secured  his 
retreat  to  the  south  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  destroyed  the  bridges 
in  his  rear. 

Having  decided  to  retreat  to  the  James  river  rather  than  attempt  to 


KICHMOND,  VIRGINIA. 

retain  his  communications  with  West  Point,  McClellan  destroyed  his 
stores,  and  on  the  28th  began  his  retreat  from  the  Chickahominy  by  way 
of  White  Oak  swarnp.  As  soon  as  his  movement  was  discovered  pursuit 
was  made  by  the  Confederates,  who  attacked  his  rear  guard  under  General 
Snmner  at  Savage  Station  late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  29th.  Sumnerheld 
his  ground  until  the  darkness  put  an  end  to  the  action,  and  during  the 
night  of  the  29th  withdrew  across  White  Oak  swamp,  destroying  all  the 


THE  CIVIL   WAR. 

bridges  after  him.  On  the  30th  General  Lee  made  a  last  effort  to  pre- 
vent McClellan  from  reaching  the  James,  and  towards  the  close  of  the 
afternoon  the  bloody  battle  of  Frazier's  Farm  was  fought.  It  was  con- 
tinued until  nine  o'clock.  The  Federal  force  at  Frazier's  Farm  held  its 
ground  until  the  remainder  of  McClellan's  army  had  safely  traversed 
White  Oak  swamp.  The  object  of  the  battle  having  been  accomplished, 
McClellan  resumed  his  retreat  to  the  James  river,  and  took  position  upon 
Malvern  hill,  within  a  short  distance  of  that  stream.  Here  he  massed 
his  artillery,  and  the  gunboats  in  the  James  river  moved  up  to  a  point 
from  which  they  could  throw  their  shells  into  the  Confederate  lines.  On 
the  afternoon  of  the  1st  of  July  the  Confederates  made  a  gallant  attempt 
to  carry  Malvern  hill,  but  were  repulsed  with  severe  loss.  The  next 
morning  the  Federal  army  withdrew  to  Harrison's  Landing  on  the  James 
river.  'Thus  ended  the  "  Seven  Days'  Battles,"  during  which  the  Federal 
army  lost  about  twenty  thousand  men  in  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners, 
fifty-two  pieces  of  artillery,  thirty-five  thousand 
stand  of  arms,  and  an  enormous  quantity  of 
stores  of  all  kinds.  The  Confederate  loss  was 
nineteen  thousand  five  hundred  and  thirty-three 
killed,  wounded  and  missing. 

The  retreat  of  McClellan's   army  threw  the 
north  into  the  deepest  despondency.     On  the  2d 
of  July  President  Lincoln  issued  a  call  for  three 
hundred  thousand  fresh  troops.     The  necessities 
of  the  struggle,  however,  made  this  force  insuffi-    MAJ.-OEN.  E.V.  STMKEE. 
cient,  and  on  the  4th  of  August  the  president  or- 
dered that  a  draft  of  three  hundred  thousand  militia  should  be  made  and 
placed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  for  a  period  of  nine  months 
unless  sooner  discharged.    The  States  complied  with  the  requisitions  upon 
them,  and  in  the  brief  period  of  three  months  the  enormous  mass  of  six 
hundred  thousand  fresh  troops  was  raised,  armed,  and   placed  in  the 
field. 

For  the  protection  of  Washington  the  Federal  government  now  collected 
the  commands  of  Banks,  Fremont  and  McDowell  in  one  army,  and 
placed  it  under  command  of  Major-General  John  Pope,  whose  capture  of 
Island  No.  10  and  other  points  in  the  west  had  given  him  a  fair  reputa- 
tion. He  assumed  his  new  command  with  a  profusion  of  boasts,  and 
promised  to  succeed  where  McClellan  had  failed.  According  to  General 
Pope  the  capture  of  Richmond  was  the  easiest  undertaking  in  the  world. 
His  army  towards  the  latter  part  of  July  advanced  to  the  Rapidan. 

To  watch  this  force  General  Lee,  late  in  July,  sent  General  Jackson's 


820  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

corps  to  the  Rapidan.  On  the  9th  of  August  Jackson  attacked  the  ad 
vanced  corps  of  Pope's  army  at  Cedar  mountain,  and  defeated  it.  This 
defeat  suspended  General  Pope's  forward  movement.  General  McClellan 
now  received  orders  from  Washington  to  evacuate  Harrison's  Landing  and 
to  reinforce  General  Pope  with  his  army.  He  at  once  put  this  order  in 
execution.  The  withdrawal  of  his  troops  was  detected  by  General  Lee, 
who  rapidly  reinforced  Jackson,  and  ffnally  moved  with  his  whole  army 
to  the  Rapidan.  About  the  same  time  Burnside's  corps,  which  had  been 
withdrawn  from  the  southern  coast,  and  was  awaiting  orders  in  Hampton 
Roads,  was  directed  to  move  into  the  Potomac  and  reinforce  Pope.  General 
Pope  had  now  under  his  command  a  force  of  over  one  hundred  thousand 
men.  The  Confederate  army,  which  was  concentrated  upon  the  Rapidan 
by  the  18th  of  August,  numbered  about  seventy  thousand  men.  Its 
strength  was  greatly  overestimated  by  General  Pope,  who  deemed*  it  most 
prudent  to  retire  behind  the  Rappahannock,  which  he  did  on  the  18th 
and  19th  of  August.  His  new  position  was  well  chosen.  His  right  was 
at  Rappahannock  Station,  and  his  left  at  Kelley's  ford,  some  distance 
lower  down  the  river. 

General  Lee  now  resolved  to  attack  Pope  before  he  could  be  joined  by 
McClellan's  troops.  He  divided  his  army  into  two  columns,  and  sent 
Jackson's  corps  by  a  circuitous  route,  by  way  of  Thoroughfare  gap,  to 
gain  the  rear  of  the  Federal  army.  This  daring  flank  march  was  accom- 
plished by  Jackson,  and  on  the  26th  of  August  he  captured  Manassas 
Junction,  Pope's  main  depot  of  supplies,  with  an  enormous  quantity  of 
stores  of  all  kinds,  and  several  railroad  trains  loaded  with  supplies. 
Upon  learning  of  this  movement  Pope  at  once  fell  back  from  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  intending  to  crush  the  isolated  corps  of  Jackson,  and  at  the 
same  time  Lee  set  off  rapidly  by  way  of  Thoroughfare  gap  to  join  his 
endangered  lieutenant.  Pope's  army  had  been  reinforced  by  the  corps 
of  Porter  and  Heintzelman,  and  Reynolds'  division  of  McClellan's  army, 
and  was  at  least  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  strong.  He  moved 
back  rapidly  to  attack  Jackson,  and  encountered  Ewell's  division  near 
Manassas  Junction  on  the  27th.  Ewell  held  his  ground,  and  at  night 
rejoined  Jackson,  who  moved  swiftly  from  Manassas  to  a  new  position 
near  the  old  Bull  Run  battle-field.  This  brought  him  nearer  to  Lee,  and 
secured  his  retreat  in  case  of  a  defeat.  Ewell's  resistance  deceived  Gen- 
eral Pope,  who  had  posted  McDowell's  and  Porter's  corps  to  hold  the 
road  from  Thoroughfare  gap,  by  which  Lee  must  advance  to  Jackson's 
assistance.  Supposing  that  Jackson  meant  to  make  a  stand  at  Manassas, 
Pope  ordered  these  troops  to  move  from  the  positions  they  had  taken  and 
to  advance  upon  Manassas  Junction.  Manassas  was  reached  at  noon  on 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


821 


GENERAL.  R.  E.  LEE. 


the  28th,  and  then  General  Pope  saw  for  the  first  time  how  he  had  been 
deceived  by  Jackson,  and  how  he  had  blundered  in  leaving  the  road 
from  Thoroughfare  gap  open  to  Lee.  He  endeavored  to  repair  his 
error  by  attacking  Jackson  at  once.  He  did  attack  that  general  in 
his  new  position  late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  28th,  but  was  repulsed 
with  severe  loss.  On  the  same  afternoon 
General  Lee  with  Longstreet's  corps  forced 
the  passage  of  Thoroughfare  gap,  and  bivouacked 
that  night  in  the  open  country  beyond  it.  On  the 
morning  of  the  29th  he  pushed  forward  with 
speed,  and  by  noon  his  advanced  division  reached 
Jackson's  position.  By  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon the  Confederate  army  was  reunited  under 
the  command  of  General  Lee.  About  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  General  Pope  made  a 
heavy  attack  upon  Lee's  position,  but  was  re- 
pulsed. On  the  30th,  having  reunited  all  the 
corps  of  his  army,  General  Pope  determined 

to  risk  the  fate  of  the  campaign  upon  a  decisive  engagement.  The 
Confederates  held  a  large  part  of  the  old  battle-field  of  Bull  Run,  and  the 
conflict  which  ensued  is  usually  known  as  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run. 
It  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  General  Pope,  who  was  driven  back  to  the 
heights  of  Centreville  with  heavy  loss.  On  the  31st  Jackson  attacked 
the  Federal  rear-gua  d  at  Chan  til  ly.  A  spirited  encounter  took  place, 
and  the  Federal  troops  were  slowly  forced  back,  losing  General  Phil 
Kearney,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  officers 
in  the  service.  General  Pope  now  withdrew  his 
army  within  the  lines  of  Washington.  He  had 
lost  since  the  opening  of  the  campaign  over  thirty 
thousand  men,  including  eight  generals  killed, 
thirty  pieces  of  artillery,  over  twenty  thousand 
Btand  of  arms,  and  an  enormous  quantity  of  stores. 
The  Confederate  loss  was  nine  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  twelve,  including  five  generals. 

The    defeat   of    the    Union    army  and    the 
presence   of  the  Confederates  on    the   Potomac 

placed  the  city  of  Washington  in  great  danger.  The  government 
acted  with  vigor  and  decision  in  this  emergency.  The  losses  of  Pope's 
army  were  made  up  by  reinforcements.  General  Pope  was  relieved  of 
his  command,  and  General  McClellan  was  restored  to  the  command  of 
the  army  of  the  Potomac.  He  set  to  work  with  energy  to  reorganize 
the  broken  masses  of  Pope'«  army  into  an  effective  force. 


MAJ.-GEN.  PHIL   KEARNEY. 


822  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

General  Lee  now  crossed  the  Potomac  and  invaded  Maryland,  hoping 
to  be  able  not  only  to  remove  the  war  from  the  soil  of  Virginia,  but  also 
to  obtain  large  reinforcements  from  the  southern  sympathizers  in  Mary- 
land. In  this  he  was  disappointed,  as  scarcely  any  one  joined  him.  On 
the  5th  of  September  he  crossed  the  Potomac,  and  on  the  6th  occupied 
Frederick  City.  Harper's  Ferry  was  held  by  a  force  of  eleven  thousand 
men  under  Colonel  Miles,  and  it  was  necessary  to  reduce  this  post  in 
order  to  preserve  the  communications  of  the  Confederate  army  with  its 
own  country.  General  Jackson  was  despatched  with  his  corps  to  capture 
Harper's  Ferry.  He  promptly  carried  the  heights  overlooking  the  town, 
and  on  the  15th  of  September  the  town  and  garrison  surrendered  to  him 
after  a  feeble  resistance. 

General  Lee  in  the  meantime  had  taken  position  at  South  mountain  to 
await  the  issue  of  Jackson's  attack  upon  Harper's  Ferry.     McClellau, 
advancing  slowly  from  Washington,  reached  Frederick  on  the  12th  of 
September.     There  he  found  a  copy  of  General 
Lee's  confidential  order  to  his  corps  commanders, 
which  had  been  lost  by  some  one.     This  docu- 
ment gave  the  Confederate  plan  of  operations, 
and  enabled  McClellan  to  act  with  certainty  in 
directing  his  own  movements.     Hastening  for- 
ward he  attacked  General  Lee  at  South  moun- 
tain on  the  14th  of  September,  and  after  a  stub- 
born fight  Lee  fell  back  behind  Antietam  creek, 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  17th  was  joined  there 
MAJ.-GEN.  JOHN  A.  BIX.     by  the  troops  of  Jackson,  who  had  made  a  forced 

march  from  Harper's  Ferry. 

The  Confederate  army  numbered  about  forty  thousand  men,  having 
been  terribly  reduced  by  the  straggling  of  the  men  on  the  march  through 
Virginia.  The  Federal  army  numbered  over  eighty  thousand  men,  and 
was  eager  for  a  contest.  The  prolonged  resistance  of  Harper's  Ferry,  and 
the  losses  of  his  army  by  straggling,  had  defeated  Lee's  plan  of  campaign. 
He  was  now  compelled  to  retire  across  the  Potomac,  and  he  halted  on  the 
Antietam  only  to  secure  the  reunion  of  Jackson's  corps  with  his  army  and 
a  safe  passage  of  the  Potomac.  On  the  morning  of  the  17th  of  Septem- 
ber General  McClellan  attacked  the  Confederate  army  in  force,  but  it 
held  its  ground  during  the  day,  both  armies  at  nightfall  occupying  about 
the  same  positions  they  had  held  in  the  morning.  The  Federal  loss  was 
twelve  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty-nine,  including  thirteen  generals 
wounded,  one  mortally ;  that  of  the  Confederates  eight  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  ninety,  including  three  generals  killed,  five  wounded. 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  823 

The  18th  passed  quietly  away,  and  that  night  Lee  silently  withdrew  from 
his  position  and  retreated  across  the  Potomac.  He  retired  up  the  valley 
to  Winchester.  The  Federal  army  moved  to  the  vicinity  of  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  did  not  cross  the  Potomac  until  the  2d  of  November. 

Upon  entering  Virginia  General  McClellan  moved  towards  the  Rap- 
pahannock  with  the  design  of  interposing  his  army  between  Lee  and 
Richmond.  General  Lee  at  once  left  the  valley  where  he  had  been  de- 
tained by  the  necessity  of  watching  McClellan,  and  by  a  rapid  march  to 
Warrenton  placed  his  army  between  Richmond  and  McClellan.  The 
Federal  army  continuing  to  advance,  he  fell  back  to  Culpepper  Court- 
house, and  McClellan  moved  forward  to  the  vicinity  of  Warrenton.  On 
the  7th  of  November,  when  about  to  resume  his  advance,  McClellan, 
whose  conduct  of  the  campaign  had  not  pleased  either  President  Lincoln 
or  the  people  of  the  north,  was  removed  from  the  command  of  the  army 
of  the  Potomac,  which  was  conferred  upon 
General  Ambrose  E.  Burnside. 

Burnside  at  once  advanced  to  the  banks  of 
the  Rappahannock  opposite  Fredericksburg, 
intending  to  pass  the  river  at  that  place  and 
move  upon  Richmond.  Upon  his  arrival  at 
Falmouth,  opposite  Fredericksburg,  he  found 
the  Confederate  army  strongly  posted  on  the 
heights  in  the  rear  of  the  latter  place,  prepared 
to  dispute  his  advance.  He  crossed  the  Rap- 
pahannock on  the  llth  and  1 2th  of  December, 
and  on  the  13th  attacked  the  Confederate  posi-  MAJ.-GEN.  A.  E.  BURNSIDE. 
tion,  which  had  been  strongly  intrenched.  He 

was  repulsed  with  a  loss  of  eleven  thousand  men,  and  compelled  to  retreat 
across  the  Rappahannock.  This  terrible  reverse  greatly  disheartened  the 
army  of  the  Potomac,  and  destroyed  its  faith  in  its  commander ;  and  so 
the  year  closed  gloomily  for  the  Union  cause  in  the  east. 

In  the  fall  of  1862  President  Lincoln  took  the  bold  step  of  issuing  a 
proclamation  announcing  that  if  the  seceded  States  did  not  return  to  their 
allegiance  to  the  Union  he  would  declare  all  the  negro  slaves  within 
their  limits  free  from  the  1st  of  January  next.  This  proclamation  waa 
issued  on  the  22d  of  September,  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Antietam. 
The  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States  were  to  enforce  the  terms  of  this 
proclamation,  and  from  the  new  year  there  was  to  be  no  more  slavery 
within  the  limits  of  the  Union.  The  proclamation  was  avowedly  a  war 
measure,  but  it  was  sustained  by  Congress  by  appropriate  legislation 
during  the  ensuing  winter. 


824  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

When  the  year  1862  closed  the  Federal  government,  in  spite  of  its  re- 
verses in  Virginia,  had  great  cause  for  hope.  It  had  effected  lodgments 
of  its  forces  at  important  points  on  the  southern  coast,  had  captured  New 
Orleans,  the  largest  and  wealthiest  city  of  the  south,  and  had  opened  the 
Mississippi  as  far  as  Vicksburg.  West  Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  northern 
Missouri  were  overrun  and  held  by  the  Union  forces.  A  decided  gain 
had  been  made,  and  there  was  reason  to  hope  that  the  next  year  would 
bring  more  favorable  results.  The  Confederates  were  greatly  elated, 
however,  by  their  succesess  in  the  east,  which  they  regarded  as  counter- 
balancing their  disasters  in  the  west,  and  were  more  than  ever  resolved 
to  continue  the  war  "  to  the  bitter  end/' 


CHAPTER    XLII. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   ABRAHAM   LINCOLN — THE   CIVIL  WAR — 

CONCLUDED. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation — Battle  of  Chancellorsville — Death  of  Stonewall  Jackson 
— Invasion  of  the  North  by  Lee's  Army — Battle  of  Gettysburg — Retreat  of  Lee  into 
Virginia — Grant's  Army  crosses  the  Mississippi — Baltic  of  Champion  Hills — Investment 
of  Vicksburg — Surrender  of  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson — Battle  of  Chickamauga — 
Rosecrans  shut  up  in  Chattanooga — Grant  in  command  of  the  Western  Armies — Battles 
of  Lookout  Mountain  and  Mission  Ridge — Defeat  of  Bragg's  Army — The  Campaign  in 
East  Tennessee — Retreat  of  Longstreet — Capture  of  Galveston — Attack  on  Charleston- 
Capture  of  Fort  Wagner — Charleston  Bombarded — State  of  Affairs  in  the  Spring  of  1864 
— The  Red  River  Expedition — Grant  made  Lieutenant-General — Advance  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac — Battles  of  the  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania,  and  Cold  Harbor—Sheridan's 
Raid — Death  of  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart — Battle  of  New  Market — Early  sent  into  the 
Valley  of  Virginia — Butler's  Army  at  Bermuda  Hundreds — Grant  crosses  the  James 
River — The  Siege  of  Petersburg  begun — Early's  Raid  upon  Washington — Sheridan 
defeats  Early  at  Winchester  and  Fisher's  Hill — Battle  of  Cedar  Creek — The  final  Defeat 
of  Early's  Army — Sherman's  Advance  to  Atlanta — Johnston  removed — Defeat  of  Hood 
before  Atlanta — Evacuation  of  Atlanta — Hood's  Invasion  of  Tennessee — Battle  of 
Franklin — Siege  of  Nashville — Hood  defeated  at  Nashville — His  Retreat — Sherman's 
"March  to  the  Sea" — Capture  of  Savannah — Battle  of  Mobile  Bay — Attack  on  Fort 
Fisher — The  Confederate  Cruisers — Sinking  of  the  "Alabama  "  by  the  "  Kearsarge  " — 
Re-election  of  President  Lincoln — Admission  of  Nevada  into  the  Union — The  Hampton 
Roads  Peace  Conference — Capture  of  Fort  Fisher — Occupation  of  Wilmington — Sher- 
man advances  through  South  Carolina — Evacuation  of  Charleston — Battles  of  Averas- 
boro'  and  Bentonville — Sherman  at  Goldsboro' — Critical  situation  of  Lee's  Army — 
Attack  on  Fort  Steadman— Sheridan  joins  Grant — Advance  of  Grant's  Army — Battle  of 
Five  Forks — Attack  on  Petersburg — Evacuation  of  Richmond  and  Petersburg — Retreat  of 
Lee's  Army — Richmond  occupied — SURRENDER  of  General  Lee's  Army — Rejoicings  in 
the  North — Assassination  of  President  Lincoln — Death  of  Booth — Execution  of  the  Con- 
spirators— Johnston  Surrenders — Surrender  of  the  other  Confederate  Forces — Capture  of 
Jefferson  Davis — Close  of  the  War. 

N  accordance  with  his  proclamation  of  September  22d,  1862, 
President  Lincoln,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1863,  issued  his  procla- 
mation of  emancipation,  in  which  he  declared  all  the  slaves  within 
the  limits  of  the  Confederate  States  free  from  that  day. 

The  plan  of  campaign  adopted  by  the  Federal  government  for 
1863  was  very  much  like  that  of  the  previous  year.  In  the  east  the 
army  of  the  Potomac  was  to  push  forward  towards  Richmond ;  and  in 

825 


S26  H1STUHX   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  west  the  army  of  General  Grant  was  to  capture  Vicksburg,  and  thus 
open  the  Mississippi,  after  which  it  was  to  inarch  eastward,  unite  with  the 
forces  of  General  Rosecrans  and  occupy  East  Tennessee,  thus  cutting  the 
communication  between  the  Border  and  the  Gulf  States.  In  addition  to 
these  operations  an  expedition  against  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  was  to 
4be  attempted. 

The  army  of  the  Potomac  was  greatly  disheartened  by  its  defeat  at 
Fredericksburg,  and  had  lost  confidence  in  General  Burnside.  That 
commander,  at  his  own  request,  was  removed  from  the  command,  and  was 
succeeded  by  General  Joseph  Hooker  on  the  25th  of  January.  Hooker 
at  once  began  the  reorganization  of  his  army,  and  soon  brought  it  to  a 
splendid  state  of  efficiency.  By  the  opening  of  the  spring  it  numbered 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  and  four  hundred  pieces  of  artil- 
lery. General  Lee  had  remained  in  his  position  back  of  Fredericksburg 
all  winter,  and  his  army  had  been  weakened  by  the  withdrawal  of  Gen- 
eral Longstreet's  corps,  twenty-four  thousand 
strong,  by  the  Confederate  government,  leaving 
him  about  fifty  thousand  men. 

General  Hooker,  upon  learning  of  Lee's  weak- 
ened condition,  determined  to  attack  him.  He 
divided  his  army  into  two  columns.  One  of  these, 
consisting  of  the  Second,  Fifth,  Eleventh,  and 
Twelfth  army  corps,  under  his  own  command,  was 
to  cross  the  Rappahannock  above  Fredericksburg 
MAJ.-GEN.  jos.  HOOKER,  and  turn  the  Confederate  position.  The  other 
column,  consisting  of  the  First,  Third,  and  Sixth 

corps,  under  General  Sedgwick,  was  to  cross  the  river  at  Fredericksburg 
and  attack  the  heights.  Between  these  forces  it  was  believed  that  Lee's 
army  would  be  crushed.  On  the  27th  of  April  Hooker  moved  off'  with  the 
first  column,  crossed  the  river  on  the  28th  and  29th  at  Kel ley's  ford,  and 
on  the  30th  took  position  at  Chancellorsville,  on  the  left  and  in  the  rear 
of  Lee's  fortified  line.  On  the  29th  General  Sedgwick  crossed  his  column 
about  three  miles  below  Fredericksburg,  and  during  that  day  and  the 
30th  made  demonstrations  as  though  he  intended  to  assault  the  southern 
position  in  the  rear  of  the  town. 

General  Lee's  situation  was  now  critical,  and  demanded  the  most  extraor- 
dinary exertions  of  him.  Leaving  a  small  force  to  hold  the  heights  in 
the  rear  of  Fredericksburg,  he  moved  with  his  main  body  towards  Chan- 
cellorsville, where  Hooker  had  intrenched  himself  with  about  eighty 
thousand  men.  His  only  hope  of  safety  lay  in  defeating  this  force  before 
Sedgwick's  column  could  arrive  to  its  assistance.  On  the  2d  of  May  he 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  827 

sent  Jackson's  corps  to  turn  the  Federal  right,  and  with  the  remainder  of 
his  force  deceived  Hooker  into  the  belief  that  he  meant  to  storm  the  in- 
trenched position  of  the  Federal  army.  Jackson  performed  his  flank 
march  with  success,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the  2d  of  May  made  a  fierce 
attack  upon  the  Federal  right,  and  drove  it  in  upon  its  centre.  In  this 
attack  he  received  a  mortal  wound,  of  which  he  died  on  the  10th  of  May. 
The  next  day,  the  3d,  having  reunited  Jackson's  corps  with  his  main 
force,  Lee  attacked  Hooker  at  Chancellorsville,  and  drove  him  back  to 
the  junction  of  the  Rappahannock  and  Rapidan  rivers.  He  was  pre- 
paring to  storm  this  new  position  when  he  learned  that  Sedgwick  had 
defeated  the  force  left  to  hold  the  heights  of  Fredericksburg  on  the  3d  of 
May,  and  was  marching  against  him.  His  danger  was  now  greater  than 
ever.  Leaving  a  part  of  his  army  to  hold  Hooker  in  check,  he  marched 
rapidly  to  meet  Sedgwick.  He  encountered  him  at  Salem  heights  on 
the  4th  of  May,  and  compelled  him  to  recross  the  Rappahannock  at 
Banks'  ford.  Then  moving  back  towards 
Hooker's  position  Lee  prepared  to  storm  it. 
General  Hooker,  however,  disheartened  by  Sedg- 
wick's  defea:,  withdrew  his  army  across  the  Rap- 
pahanuock  on  the  night  of  the  5th,  and  returned 
to  his  old  position  on  the  north  side  of  that 
stream,  having  lost  twelve  thousand  men  and 
fourteen  pieces  of  artillery  in  the  battle  of  Chan- 
cellorsville. The  Confederate  loss  was  also 

heavy.     Out  of  an  army  of  about  fifty  thousand     MAJ.-GEN.  j.  SEDGWICK. 
men,  ten  thousand  two  hundred  and  eighty-one 

were  killed,  wounded  and  captured.  The  victory  was  dearly  bought  by 
the  Confederates  by  the  death  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  who  was  worth  fully 
fifty  thousand  men  to  their  cause.  At  the  moment  of  his  success  against 
the  Federal  right,  he  was  shot  down  by  his  own  men,  who  mistook  his 
escort  for  a  party  of  Federal  cavalry. 

The  success  of  the  Confederates  in  Virginia  was  more  than  counter- 
balanced by  their  reverses  in  the  west  and  southwest.  The  southern  gov- 
ernment, anxious  to  change  the  course  of  the  war  by  a  bold  stroke,  de- 
cided to  follow  up  the  victory  at  Chancellorsville  by  an  invasion  of  the 
north  by  Lee's  army.  This  army  was  reinforced  heavily,  and  by  the  last 
of  May  numbered  seventy  thousand  infantry  and  artillery,  and  ten  thou- 
sand cavalry.  General  Hooker's  army  on  the  other  hand  had  been  re- 
duced by  desertions  and  expirations  of  enlistments  to  about  eighty  thousand 
men,  making  the  two  forces  about  equal. 

On  the  3d  of  June,  1863,  Lee   began    his  forward  movement,  and 


828 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATUS. 


R.  S.  EWELL. 


marching  through  the  valley  of  Virginia,  captured  Winchester,  which  was 
held  by  General  Milroy's  command,  on  the  14th,  taking  four  thousand 
prisoners,  and  twenty-nine  pieces  of  cannon.     On  the  22d  of  June  the 
Potomac  was  crossed  at  Williamsport,  and  the  Confederate  army  moved 
towards  Hagerstown,    Maryland.     General   Hooker  had  followed   Lee 
from  the  Rappahannock,  and  had  manoeuvred  his  army  so  as  to  interpose 
it  between   the   Confederates   and  Washington. 
On  the  23d  the  advanced  corps  of  Lee's  army 
under   General   Ewell  occupied  Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania,  and  on  the  25th  and  26th  General 
Hooker  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Edward's  Ferry, 
and  marched  to  Frederick,  Maryland.     He  was 
anxious  to  withdraw  the  garrison  of  Harper's 
Ferry,  which  had  retired  from  that  place  to  the 
Maryland    heights,  opposite  the   town,  but   the 
war  department  refused  to  allow  him  to  do  so. 
Hooker  thereupon  relinquished  the  command  of 

the  army,  and  was  succeeded  by  Major-General  George  G.  Meade,  the 
senior  corps  commander,  and  a  soldier  of  genuine  ability.  General  Lee 
now  moved  his  army  east  of  the  mountains,  and  directed  his  advance 
towards  Gettysburg.  In  ignorance  of  his  adversary's  design,  General 
Meade  hastened  forward  to  occupy  the  same  point. 

The  invasion  of  Pennsylvania  by  the  Confederate  army  aroused  the 
most  intense  excitement  in  the  north. 
President  Lincoln  called  out  one  hundred 
thousand  militia  to  serve  for  six  months, 
unless  sooner  discharged,  and  as  far  north  as 
New  York  preparations  were  made  to  re- 
ceive the  Confederate  army  with  a  stubborn 
resistance  should  it  succeed  in  penetrating  so 
*ur.  Every  effort  was  made  to  raise  troops 
icrward  them  to  General  Meade  in  time 
0c  c  .  ervice  to  him. 

On  tne  morning  of  the  1st  of  July  the 
~ving  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac  under 
Qereral  Reynolds  and  the  advanced  corps 

->f  Lee's  army  under  Generals  A.  P.  Hill  and  Ewell  encountered  each 
other  at  Gettysburg.  General  Reynolds  was  forced  back  and  killed. 
General  Hancock  was  at  once  sent  by  General  Meade  to  assume  the  com- 
mand of  the  left  wing,  and  upon  his  arrival  he  at  once  recognized  the 
importance  of  the  position  at  Gettysburg,  and  occupied  it.  He  was 


MAJ.-GEN.  GEO.  G.  MEADE. 


830  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

promptly  reinforced  by  General  Meade,  and  by  the  afternoon  of  the  2d 
of  July  the  army  of  the  Potomac  was  securely  posted  on  the  heights 
known  as  Cemetery  Ridge.  The  Confederate  army  took  position  on  the 
opposite  hills  known  as  Seminary  Ridge.  Between  the  two  armies  lay 
the  battle-field  on  which  the  engagement  of  the  1st  of  July  was  fought. 
Heavy  skirmishing  prevailed  throughout  the  day  on  the  2d,  the  advantage 
being  with  the  Confederates.  On  the  3d  of  July  General  Lee  made  a 
general  attack  upon  the  Federal  position  on  Cemetery  Ridge,  which,  very 
strong  by  nature,  had  been  rendered  impregnable  by  intrenchments.  His 
attack  was  made  with  determination,  and  was  a  splendid  exhibition  of 
American  courage,  which  won  for  his  troops  the  generous  admiration  of 
their  adversaries ;  but  it  was  unsuccessful.  The  grand  charge  of  the  Con- 
federates was  made  in  the  afternoon,  and  was  repulsed  with  terrible 
slaughter.  Still  Lee's  position  was  so  strong,  and  the  morale  of  his  army 
so  unimpaired,  that  General  Meade  deemed  it  best  to  remain  satisfied  with 
his  victory,  and  not  to  risk  its  fruits  by  an  attack 
upon  the  Confederate  lines.  The  victory  was  de- 
cisive. It  put  an  end  to  the  Confederate  inva- 
sion. On  the  night  of  the  4th  of  July  General 
Lee  withdrew  from  Seminary  Ridge  and  retreated 
to  the  Potomac,  which  he  crossed  on  the  13th  and 
14th  wit.iout  serious  opposition  from  the  Federal 
army.  On  the  15th  Lee  moved  back  to  Win- 
chester. The  Federal  loss  at  Gettysburg  was 
MAJ.-GEN.  j.  F.  REYNOLDS,  twenty-three  thousand,  and  that  of  the  Con- 
federates about  the  same. 

On  the  17th  and  18th  of  July  General  Meade  crossed  the  Potomac 
below  Harper's  Ferry,  and  moving  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  endeavored  to 
place  his  army  between  Lee  and  Richmond.  The  Confederate  commander 
by  rapid  marches  reached  Culpepper  Court-house  in  advance  of  him,  how- 
ever, and  ahput  the  1st  of  August  occupied  the  line  of  the  Rappahannock. 
The  remainder  of  the  year  witnessed  but  one  important  operation  by  the 
armies  in  Virginia.  In  October  General  Lee  made  a  sudden  forward 
movement  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  his  army  between  Meade  and 
Washington,  but  the  latter  eluded  him  and  reached  Centreville  in  safety. 
Lee  then  withdrew  to  the  Rapidan,  and  the  army  of  the  Potomac  took 
position  on  the  north  side  of  that  stream.  Both  armies  passed  the  winter 
there. 

In  the  west  and  southwest  success  crowned  the  Federal  arms.  At  the 
opening  of  the  year  the  army  of  General  Grant  lay  on  the  Mississippi 
above  Vicksburg,  assisted  by  the  fleet  of  gunboats  under  Admiral  Porter. 


832  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  first  three  months  of  the  year  were  passed  by  the  Federal  army  in  a 
series  of  movements  along  the  Yazoo  river,  the  result  of  which  was  to 
convince  General  Grant  that  Vicksburg  could  not  be  taken  from  that 
quarter.  He  therefore  determined  upon  a  new  and  more  daring  plan  of 
operations.  He  decided  to  march  his  army  across  the  Louisiana  shore 
from  Milliken's  bend,  above  Vicksburg,  to  New  Carthage,  below  that 
city,  and  to  run  his  gunboats  and  transports  by  the  batteries.  Should 
the  boats  succeed  in  passing  he  meant  to  cross  his  command  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi shore,  and  attack  Vicksburg  from  the  rear.  By  investing  the 
city  from  the  land  side  his  flanks  would  rest  upon  and  be  covered  by  the 
Mississippi,  and  he  could  re-establish  communication  between  his  right 
wing  and  his  base  of  supplies  at  Milliken's  bend.  The  plan  was  daring 

in  the  highest  degree,  and  required  the 
greatest  skill  and  resolution  in  its  execution. 
In  order  to  retain  their  hold  upon  the 
Mississippi  the  Confederates  had  fortified 
Vicksburg  with  great  care.  Port  Hudson, 
about  two  hundred  and  forty  miles  lower 
down  the  river,  had  also  been  fortified,  but 
not  so  strongly  as  Vicksburg.  As  long  as 
the  Confederates  held  these  points  they  were 
able  to  keep  a  considerable  extent  of  the 
river  open  to  themselves  and  closed  to  the 
MAJOR-GENERAL  j.  A.  LOGAN.  Union  gunboats.  Thus  they  were  enabled 

to  cross  in  safety  the  enormous  herds  of  beef 

cattle  which  they  drew  from  the  rich  pastures  of  Texas  for  their  armies 
east  of  the  Mississippi.  A  strong  force  held  the  works  at  Port  Hudson. 
Vicksburg  was  occupied  by  a  large  garrison,  and  was  under  the  command 
of  Lieutenant-General  John  C.  Pemberton,  who,  with  an  army  of  about 
thirty  thousand  men,  independent  of  the  garrison  of  Vicksburg,  held  the 
country  in  the  rear  of  that  city.  Appreciating  the  importance  of  defeat- 
ing the  Federal  army  in  this  quarter  the  Confederate  government,  in  the 
spring  of  1863,  sent  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  to  take  command  of  all 
the  forces  in  Mississippi.  It  failed  to  supply  him  with  a  proper  force 
of  troops,  and  General  Pemberton  treated  his  orders  with  open  defiance. 
Grant  having  completed  his  preparations  moved  his  army  from  Millk 
ken's  bend  to  a  point  on  the  Louisiana  shore,  opposite  Grand  Gulf.  On 
the  night  of  the  16th  of  April  a  division  of  gunboats  and  transports  ran 
by  the  Vicksburg  batteries,  suffering  severely  from  the  heavy  fire  to 
which  they  .were  exposed  for  a  distance  of  eight  miles.  On  the  night  of 
the  22d  a  second  division  passed  the  batteries  with  similar  loss.  Once 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


833 


below  Vicksburg,  however,  the  boats  were  safe.  They  then  proceeded  to 
Grant's  position  on  the  river  below.  On  the  29th  of  April  the  gunboats 
attacked  the  batteries  at  Grand  Gulf,  but  were  repulsed.  The  troops 
were  then  rarfrched  to  a  point  opposite  Bruinsburg,  Mississippi,  and  the 
gunboats  and  transports  were  run  by  the  Grand  Gulf  batteries.  On  the 
1st  of  May  the  Federal  army  was  ferried  across  to  the  Mississippi  shore, 
and  at  once  began  its  march  into  the  interior.  Near  Port  Gibson  a  part 
of  Pern ber ton's  army  was  encountered  and  defeated  on  the  same  day. 
This  success  compelled  the  evacuation  of  Grand  Gulf  by  the  Confederates. 
Grant  now  boldly  threw  his  army  between  Johnston's  forces  at  Jackson 
and  Pemberton's  army,  intending  to  hold  the  former  in  check,  and  drive 
the  latter  within  the  defences  of  Vicksburg.  On  the  14th  of  May  he 


JACKSON,   MISSISSIPPI. 

attacked  Johnston  at  Jackson,  tire  capital  of  Mississippi,  and  forced  him 
to  retreat  northward  towards  Oanton.  Then  turning  upon  Pemberton  he 
attacked  him  at  Champion  Hills,  or  Baker's  creek,  on  the  16th,  and 
inflicted  a  severe  defeat  upon  him.  Pemberton  withdrew  towards  the 
Big  Black  river,  and  the  next  day  met  a  second  defeat  there.  He  now 
retreated  within  the  defences  of  Vicksburg,  which  place  was  promptly 
invested  by  Grant's  army.  On  the  19th  of  May  Grant  attempted  to 
carry  the  Confederate  position  by  assault,  but  was  repulsed  with  heavy 
loss.  The  assault  was  repeated  with  a  like  result  on  the  22d.  There 
remained  then  nothing  but  a  regular  siege.  This  was  pressed  with  vigor, 
and  the  city  was  subjected  to  a  terrible  bombardment,  which  caused  groat 
suffering  to  the  people.  While  the  siege  was  carried  on  Johnston's  army 
was  held  back,  and  prevented  from  undertaking  any  movement  for  the 
53 


834  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

relief  of  Vicksburg.  At  length,  reduced  to  despair  by  the  steady 
approach  of  the  Union  trenches,  Pemberton  surrendered  the  city  and  his 
army  to  General  Grant  on  the  4th  of  July.  By  this  surrender  thirty 
thousand  prisoners,  two  hundred  and  fifty  cannon,  and  si«ty  thousand 
stand  of  arms,  together  with  a  large  quantity  of  military  stores,  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Union  forces.  It  was  justly  esteemed  the  greatest 
victory  of  the  war. 

While  the  siege  of  Vicksburg  was  in  progress  General  Banks  ascended 
the  Mississippi  from  New  Orleans  and  laid  siege  to  Port  Hudson.  Upon 
hearing  of  the  fall  of  Vicksburg,  the  Confederate  commander  surren- 
dered the  post  and  his  army  of  sixty-two  hundred  and  thirty -three  men 
to  General  Banks,  on  the  8th  of  July. 

These  victories  wrested  from  the  Confederates  their  last  hold  upon  the 
Mississippi,  They  created  the  most  intense  rejoicing  in  the  Northern  and 
Western  States,  and  a  corresponding  depression  in  the  south.  Being 
simultaneous  with  the  defeat  of  the  southern  army  at  Gettysburg,  they 
were  regarded  as  decisive  of  the  war :  as  indeed  they  were.  From  this 
time  we  shall  trace  the  declining  fortunes  of  the  southern  confederacy 
and  the  gradual  but  steady  re-establishment  of  the  authority  of  the  Union 
over  the  Southern  States. 

After  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro',  or  Stone  river,  the  army  of  General 
Rosecrans  remained  quietly  in  winter  quarters  at  Nashville  and  Mur- 
freesboro'. Bragg's  army  passed  the  winter  at  Chattanooga.  Towards 
tae  last  of  June  Rosecrans  moved  forward  from  Nashville,  and  advancing 
slowly  threatened  Bragg's  communications  with  Richmond.  The  Con- 
federate commander  had  no  wish  to  emulate  the  example  of  Pemberton  at 
Vicksburg,  and  at  once  evacuated  Chattanooga,  on  the  8th  of  September, 
and  retired  towards  Dalton,  Georgia.  This  movement,  which  was  inter- 
preted by  Rosecrans  as  a  retreat,  was  designed  to  secure  the  union  with 
Bragg's  army  of  Longstreet's  corps,  which  had  been  detached  from  Lee's 
army  and  sent  to  join  Bragg.  This  junction  was  effected  on  the  18th, 
and  other  reinforcements  arrived  from  Mississippi.  Thus  strengthened 
Bragg  suddenly  wheeled  upon  Rosecrans,  and  on  the  19th  of  September 
attacked  him  at  Chickamauga.  The  battle  was  severe,  but  indecisive, 
and  was  renewed  the  next  day.  Towards  noon,  on  the  20th,  Rosecrans 
having  greatly  weakened  the  other  parts  of  his  line  to  help  the  left,  which 
was  hard  pressed,  Longstreet  made  a  furious  dash  at  the  weakened  part, 
and  in  an  irresistible  attack  swept  the  Federal  right  and  centre  from  the 
field.  Rosecrans  endeavored  to  stop  the  retreat,  but  was  borne  along  in 
the  dense  crowd  of  fugitives.  Only  the  left  wing,  under  the  command 
of  General  George  H.  Thomas,  remained  firm.  Had  that  given  way  the 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  335 

rout  would  have  been  complete;  but  all  through  the  long  aftcrnooi? 
Thomas  held  on  to  his  position  vvitli  a  grim  resolution  which  nothing 
could  shake.  After  nightfall  he  withdrew  his  corps  in  good  order  and 
retired  upon  Chattanooga.  The  Union  loss  at  Chickamauga  was  six- 
.  teen  thousand  men  and  fifty-one  guns ;  Bragg's  about  eighteen  thousand 
men. 

Bragg  advanced  at  once  upon  the  defeated  army  of  Rosecrans,  wind; 
had  taken  refuge  in  Chattanooga,  occupied  the  heights  commanding  the 
city,  and  seized  the  communications  of  the  Federal  army  with  Nashville. 
Thus  closely  besieged  the  Union  forces  suffered  considerably  from  a 
scarcity  of  provisions. 

General  Rosecrans  was  now  removed  from  the  command  of  the  army 
of  the  Cumberland,  and  General  Grant  was  appointed  to  the  chief  com- 
mand of  all  the  western  armies.  He  at  once  set  to  work  to  extricate  the 
army  of  the  Cumberland,  to  tta  command  of  which  General  Thomas 
had  succeeded,  from  its  perilous  situation.  Hooker  was  sent  with  twenty- 
three  thousand  men  from  Meade's  army  to  his  assistance,  and  Sherman 
was  ordered  to  march  with  the  force  which  had  taken  Vicksburg  along 
the  line  of  the  railway  from  Memphis  to  Chattanooga.  The  arrival  of 
these  reinforcements  soon  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs.  On  the  23d  of 
November  the  army  of  the  Cumberland  made  a  vigorous  sortie  and  drov? 
the  Confederates  from  the  important  position  of  Orchard  Knob.  On  the: 
24th  Hooker  stormed  Lookout  mountain,  the  left  of  the  Confederate  line, 
and  carried  it  after  a  hard  fight.  The  investment  was  now  thomnghty 
broken,  and  the  Confederates  were  confined  to  Mission  Ridge,  which  had 
formerly  constituted  the  right  of  their  line.  On  the  25th  this  position 
was  assaulted  by  the  whole  strength  of  the  Federal  army,  and  was  carried 
after  a  stubborn  fight.  Bragg,  beaten  at  all  points,  with  heavy  loss, 
retreated  into  Georgia,  where  he  was  soon  after  removed  from  his  command 
and  succeeded  by  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston. 

During  the  progress  of  this  campaign  General  Burnside  had  moved 
from  Kentucky  with  a  force  of  about  twenty-five  thousand  men,  about 
the  time  that  Rosecrans  began  his  advance  from  Nashville  in  June.  The 
strong  position  of  Cumberland  gap  was  surrendered  to  him  with  scarcely 
an  effort  for  its  defence  by  the  Confederates,  and  he  moved  into  East 
Tennessee.  Driving  back  the  Confederate  forces,  which  sought  to  stop 
his  march,  he  occupied  Knoxvillc.  The  object  of  his  expedition  was  to 
afford  a  rallying  point  for  the  Union  men  of  East  Tennessee.  After  tin; 
battle  of  Chickamauga,  and  the  investment  of  Chattanooga,  President 
Jefferson  Davis  visited  Bragg's  army,  and  being  convinced  that  the  rap- 
ture of  Rosecrans'  force  was  inevitable,  decided  to  withdraw  General 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


837 


Txmgstreet's  corps  from  Bragg,  and  to  send  it  to  drive  Burnside  out  of 
East  Tennessee.  Longstreet's  men  were  in  no  condition  to  undertake 
such  a  campaign,  but  under  their  energetic  commander  succeeded  in  con- 
fining Burnside's  army  to  the  defences  of  Knoxville.  The  siege  of  that 
place  was  formed,  and  several  assaults  were  made  upon  the  Union  works, 
but  were  each  repulsed  with  heavy  loss.  Burnside's  men  were  reduced 
almost  to  starvation,  but  held  out  with  unshaken 
resolution.  After  the  defeat  of  Bragg  at  Mission 
Ridge  Grant  ordered  Sherman  to  march  with  his 
corps  to  the  relief  of  Knoxville.  Upon  the 
approach  of  this  force  Longstreet,  on  the  4th  of 
December,  raised  the  siege  and  retreated  into 
Virginia. 

Beyond  the  Mississippi  the  war  was  carried  on 
with  varying  success  throughout  the  year  1863, 
but   to   the   general  advantage   of  the   Federal 
forces.     On    the    3d  of  July  the    Confederates,  LIEUT.-GEN.  j.  LONGSTREET. 
under  General  Holmes,  attacked  Helena,  Arkan- 
sas, but  were  repulsed.     By  the  close  of  the  year  the  Confederate  forces 
had  been  pressed  back  as  far  as  the  Red  river. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1863,  Galveston,  Texas,  which  had  surrendered 
to  the  Federal  forces  in  the  fall  of  1862,  was  recaptured  by  the  Confeder- 
ates, under  General  Magruder.     By  the  capture  of  this  place  the  Con- 
federates obtained  one    more  port  from  which 
they  could  maintain  communications  with  and 
receive  supplies  from  Europe. 

In  the  spring  of  1863  a  powerful  naval 
expedition,  under  Admiral  Dupont,  was  des- 
patched against  Charleston.  On  the  7th  of 
April  Dupont  attempted  to  foree  his  way  into 
the  harbor,  but  was  driven  back  by  the  forts 
and  batteries,  and  nine  of  his  iron-clads  were 
severely  injured.  Early  in  July  a  force  of  land 
troops,  under  General  Gilmore,  effected  a  lodg- 
ment on  the  south  end  of  Morris'  island,. and 

secured  their  position  by  intrenchments.  The  Union  parallels  were 
pushed  forward  steadily  towards  Fort  Wagner  at  the  north  end  of  the 
island,  and  a  final  assault  of  that  work  was  ordered.  Before  the  order 
could  be  executed  Fort  Wagner  was  evacuated  on  the  night  of  the  6th 
of  September.  The  Federal  batteries  on  Morris'  island  now  maintaised 
a  heavy  and  constant  fire  upon  Fort  Sumter,  and  reduced  it  to  a  shapeless 


ADMIRAL   DUPONT. 


838  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

mass  of  rubbish  on  the  land  side.  Yet  in  this  condition  it  was  stronger 
than  at  first,  the  mass  of  rubbish  offering  a  more  effectual  resistance  to 
shot  and  shell  than  the  walls.  The  long-range  guns  on  Morris'  island 
threw  shells  into  the  city  of  Charleston,  which  was  regularly  bombarded 
from  this  time  until  its  fall,  in  1865.  The  capture  of  Fort  Wagiu-r 
enabled  the  Federal  forces  to  close  the  harbor  of  Charleston  effectually 
against  blockade  runners. 

In  spite  of  the  victories  of  Chancellorsville  and  Chickamauga,  and 
the  invasion  of  the  north,  the  close  of  the  year  found  the  south  fairly  on 
the  downward  road  to  final  failure.  Missouri  was  freed  from  the 
presence  of  the  Confederate  army,  and  the  greater  part  of  Arkansas  was 
held  by  the  Federal  troops.  The  Mississippi  was  lost  to  the  south,  and 


GALVESTON,  TEXAS. 


the  immense  supplies  from  the  trans-Mississippi  region  were  no  longer 
available  to  tire  Confederate  forces  east  of  the  great  river.  Tennessee 
was  occupied  by  the  Federal  forces,  and  the  invasion  of  the  north  had 
ended  in  disaster.  The  resources  of  the  south  were  gradually  becoming 
exhausted,  and  the  supply  of  men  was  falling  off.  The  north  on  the 
other  hand  was  increasing  in  determination.  The  war  had  opened  new 
channels  of  industry,  and  these  had  more  than  repaid  the  losses  of  the 
first  period  of  the  struggle.  The  north  was  growing  richer,  in  spite  of 
the  war,  while  the  south  was  growing  poorer  because  of  it.  At  the  end  of 
1863  the  Federal  debt  had  reached  the  enormous  total  of  $1,300,000,000, 
with  the  certainty  of  a  heavy  increase  during  the  coming  year.  Still  the 
people  of  the  loyal  States  responded  with  heartiness  to  the  heavy 
Demands  of -the  .Federal  government  for  men  and  money.  Specie  had 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


839 


BKIG.-GEN.  Q.  A.  GILMORE. 


long  since  disappeared  from  circulation,  but  a  system  of  treasury  notes, 
which  were  made  a  legal  tender,  had  replaced  coin  as  a  circulating 
medium.  The  new  paper  money  was  abundant,  and  the  north  gave  few 
outward  signs  of  distress.  Everything  spoke  of  prosperity.  The  con- 
trast between  the  condition  of  the  Union  and  the  confederacy  \\-~ 
striking  and  most  suggestive. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1864  an  expedition 
was  sent  into  that  part  of  Louisiana  known  as 
the  Red  river  country?  It  consisted  of  a  force 
of  ten  thousand  troops,  under  General  Smith, 
from  Vicksburg,  and  a  fleet  of  gunboats,  under 
Admiral  Porter.  On  the  14th  of  March  Fort 
de  Rnssy  was  captured  by  the  troops,  and  on 
the  21st  Natchitoches  was  occupied.  General 
Banks  now  arrived  with  a  strong  reinforcement 
of  troops  from  New  Orleans,  and  took  com- 
mand of  the  expedition.  About  the  1st  of 

April  he  set  out  for  Shreveport,  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Red 
river,  his  army  marching  along  the  shore,  and  the  gunboats  ascending  the 
stream.  The  Confederates  gathered  in  heavy  force,  under  the  command 
of  General  Kirby  Smith,  to  oppose  his  advance.  On  the  8th  of  April 
the  Confederate  army  attacked  Banks  at  Sabine  Cross-Roads,  near  Mans- 
field, and  inflicted  a  stinging  defeat  upon  him. 
The  Union  forces  were  rallied  at  Pleasant  Hill, 
where  they  were  attacked  by  the  Confederates 
on  the  9th.  The  Confederates  were  repulsed, 
but  Banks  continued  his  retreat,  and  reached 
Alexandria  on  the  25th  of  April.  The  expe- 
dition then  returned  to  the  Mississippi.  Banks 
was  relieved  of  the  command  at  New  Orleans, 
and  was  succeeded  by  General  Canby. 

General  Steele,  commanding  the  Union 
forces  in  Arkansas,  had  moved  from  Little 
Rock,  on  the  23d  of  March,  towards  Shreve- 

port,  to  co-operate  with  General  Banks.  He  was  attacked  by  the  Confed- 
erates and  driven  back  to  Little  Rock,  which  he  reached  on  the  2d  of 
May. 

The  Red  river  expedition  was  thus  a  total  failure,  and  was  a  source  of 
great  mortification,  as  well  as  serious  loss,  to  the  Federal  government. 

Early  in  March  General  Grant  was  raised  to  the  grade  of  lieutenant- 
general,  that  rank  having  been  revived  by  act  of  Congress  to  reward  Inn?- 


MAJOR-GENERAL  E.  CANBY. 


840  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

for  his  great  services  during  the  war.  It  had  been  held  only  by  Wash- 
ington, General  Scott  having  been  given  only  the  brevet  rank.  He  was 
also  appointed  commander  of  all  the  armies  of  the  United  States.  He 
decided  to  assume  the  immediate  direction  of  the  campaign  in  Virginia, 
and  established  his  head-quarters  with  the  army  of  the  Potomac.  At 
the  same  time  General  W.  T.  Sherman  was  appointed  to  the  command  of 
the  military  division  of  the  Mississippi,  in  which  were  included  the  armie 
of  the  Cumberland,  of  the  Ohio,  and  of  the  Tennessee.  The  supreme 
control  of  the  military  operations  both  east  and  west  was  vested  in  Gen- 
eral Grant — a  great  gain,  inasmuch  as  the  operations  in  the  two  quarters 
of  the  Union  could  now  be  made  to  assist  each  other.  The  plan  of  the 
campaign  smbraced  a  simultaneous  advance  of  both  armies ;  the  army  of 
the  Potomac  was  charged  with  the  task  of  defeating  Lee  and  capturing 
Richmond ;  the  western  army,  under  Sherman,  was  to  force  Johnston 
back  into  Georgia. 

The  army  of  the  Potomac  numbered  one  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
men  on  the  1st  of  May,  1864;  the  Confederate  army,  under  General 
Lee,  about  fifty  thousand.  General  Meade  retained  the  immediate  com- 
mand of  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  but  General  Grant  accompanied  it, 
and  directed  its  movements.  On  the  morning  of  May  4th — -just  three 
days  before  Sherman  moved  from  Chattanooga — the  Federal  army  crossed 
the  Rapidan,  and,  turning  the  right  of  Lee's  position,  entered  tho  region 
known  as  the  Wilderness.  General  Lee  determined  to  attack  this  force 
and  prevent  it  from  reaching  the  open  country  beyond  the  Wilderness. 
On  the  5th  of  May  he  encountered  the  army  of  the  Potomac  in  the 
Wilderness,  near  the  old  battle-field  of  Chancellorsville.  The  attack  was 
made  by  the  Federal  forces,  which  endeavored  to  drive  off  Lee's  army, 
which  blocked  the  route  by  which  they  were  advancing.  Lee  held  his 
ground  during  the  day,  and  that  night  both  armies  bivouacked  upon  the 
field.  The  battle  was  renewed  on  the  6th,  but  Grant  failed  to  force  the 
Confederate  position.  The  fighting  during  these  two  days  was  carried  on 
in  a  thickly-wooded  region,  in  which  the  artillery  of  the  two  armies  could 
not  be  used  to  advantage.  On  the  6th  the  Confederates  suffered  a  serious 
loss  in  the  person  of  General  Longstreet,  who  was  severely  wounded. 
The  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  were  very  heavy  on  both  sides,  as  the 
fighting  was  of  a  desperate  character. 

On  the  7th  General  Grant  moved  his  army  around  Lee's  right,  and 
marched  rapidly  to  seize  the  strong  position  of  Spottsylvania  Court- 
house, which  would  have  placed  him  between  the  Confederates  and 
Richmond.  Lee  at  once  divined  his  purpose,  and  fell  back  rapidly  to 
the  heights  around  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  which  he  occupied  on  the 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  841 

8th.  Upon  arriving  before  this  position  Grant  found  his  enemy  strongly 
intrenched  in  it,  and  at  once  resolved  to  drive  him  from  it.  On  the  10th 
of  May  he  made  a  determined  attack  upon  the  Confederate  line,  but 
failed  to  carry  it.  At  daybreak  on  the  12th  a  furious  assault  was  made 
by  Hancock's  corps  upon  the  right  centre  of  Lee's  line,  which  was  carried 
in  handsome  style.  Grant  at  once  followed  up  Hancock's  success  by 
vigorous  attacks  upon  the  other  part  of  the  southern  line ;  but  Hancock 
was  unable  to  advance  beyond  the  works  he  had  captured  in  his  first 
attack,  and  the  other  assaults  were  repulsed  by  the  Confederates.  It  was 
evident  that  the  Confederates  could  not  be  dislodged  from  their  position 
without  a  still  heavier  loss  to  the  Union  army,  and  General  Grant  de- 
termined to  draw  them  from  the  heights  of  Spottsylvania  by  another 
flank  march  to  the  right.  The  losses  of  the  Union  army  since  the  opening 
of  the  campaign  had  been  enormous,  but  undismayed  by  them,  General 
Grant  wrote  to  the  war  department,  after  the  battle  of  the  12th  of  May : 
"  We  have  now  ended  the  sixth  day  of  very  heavy  fighting.  The  result 
to  this  time  is  very  much  in  our  favor.  ...  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on 
this  line,  if  it  takes  all  summer." 

On  the  21st  of  May  the  army  of  the  Potomac  moved  from  Spottsyl- 
vania to  the  banks  of  the  North  Anna  river,  and  reached  that  stream  on 
the  23d.  Lee  had  inarched  rapidly  by  a  shorter  route,  and  his  army  was 
in  position  on  the  south  side  of  the  river  when  Grant  reached  the  northern 
shore.  Lee  had  chosen  a  position  of  very  great  strength  in  front  of 
Hanover  Junction,  and  had  covered  it  with  earthworks.  On  the  25th 
Grant  crossed  a  large  part  of  his  force  to  the  south  side  of  the  North 
Anna,  and  endeavored  to  force  the  Confederate  lines,  but  discovering  its 
remarkable  strength,  withdrew  his  troops  to  the  north  shore,  and  on  the 
26th  moved  around  Lee's  right  in  the  direction  of  the  Chickahominy. 
Lee  followed  him  promptly  and  took  position  at  Cold  Harbor,  on  the 
north  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  within  nine  miles  of  Richmond,  oc- 
cupying very  much  the  same  position  held  by  McClellan's  army  in  the 
battle  of  Cold  Harbor,  on  the  27th  of  June,  1862.  He  covered  his 
entire  line  with  strong  earthworks.  On  the  1st  of  June  a  sharp  encoun- 
ter occurred  between  the  Federal  right  and  the  Confederate  left  wings, 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  June  Grant  made  a  general  assault  upon 
the  Confederate  works.  The  attack  was  made  with  great  gallantry,  but 
was  repulsed  with  a  loss  to  the  Federal  army  of  thirteen  thousand  men. 
The  losses  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac  since  the  passage  of  the  Rapidan 
had  reached  the  enormous  total  of  over  sixty  thousand  men.  The  Con- 
federate loss  during  the  same  period  was  about  twenty  thousand.  Failing 
vo  force  the  Confederate  line  at  Cold  Harbor,  General  Grant  drew  off 


842 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  813 

leisurely  towards  the  James  river  at  Wilcox's  Landing,  intending  to  cross 
that  river  and  attack  Richmond  from  the  south  side  of  the  James. 

In  the  meantime,  upon  reaching  Spottsylvnnia  Court-house,  General 
Grant  had  sent  General  Sheridan,  with  ten  thousand  cavalry,  to  destroy 
the  railroads  connecting  Richmond  with  Leo's  army  and  the  valley  of 
Virginia.  Sheridan  executed  his  orders  with  complete  success,  and  went 
within  seven  miles  of  Richmond.  On  the  10th  of  May  he  reached  Ash- 
l.ind.  He  was  attacked  there  by  the  Confederate  cavalry  under  General 
Stuart,  and  moved  off  towards  Richmond.  Stuart,  marching  by  a  shorter 
route,  threw  his  cavalry  between  Sheridan  and  Richmond,  and  again  en- 
countered him  at  the  Yellow  Tavern,  on  the  Brook  turnpike,  seven  miles 
from  the  city.  Stuart  was  mortally  wounded,  and  Sheridan  secured  his 
retreat  across  the  Chickahominy  and  down  the  peninsula.  In  General 
Stuart  the  Confederates  lost  their  only  great 
cavalry  leader.  Had  Sheridan,  instead  of 
halting  at  Ashland,  pushed  straight  on  to 
Richmond,  the  Confederate  capital  must 
have  fallen  into  his  hands.  On  the  25th 
of  June  he  rejoined  General  Grant. 

At  the  opening  of  the  campaign  General 
Butler,  with  a  force  of  about  thirty  thousand 
men,  known  as  the  army  of  the  James,  was 
sent  up  the  James  river  to  attack  the  de- 
fences of  Richmond  on  the  south  side  of  that 
river.  He  occupied  City  Point  and  Ber-  MAJOR-GENERAL  w.  s.  HANCOCK. 
muda  Hundreds  on  the  5th  of  May,  and 

a  few  days  later  advanced  up  the  neck  of  land  lying  between  the 
James  and  the  Appomattox  rivers.  To  oppose  him  the  Confederates 
collected  a  force  of  about  eighteen  thousand  men  under  General  Beaure- 
gard,  and  posted  them  in  a  fortified  line  extending  from  the  James  to  the 
Appomattox,  in  front  of  the  Richmond  and  Petersburg  railroad.  On 
the  16th  of  May  Butler's  army,  having  advanced  within  a  short  distance 
of  this  line,  was  attacked  by  the  Confederates  and  driven  back  to  Ber- 
muda Hundreds.  The  Confederates  then  formed  their  lines  across  the 
narrow  peninsula,  and  kept  Butler's  force  enclosed  between  their  work? 
and  the  two  rivers  until  the  crossing  of  the  James  river  by  the  army  of 
the  Potomac. 

The  Federal  plan  of  campaign  also  included  the  seizure  of  the  valley 
of  Virginia,  and  of  the  railway  connecting  Virginia  with  East  Tennessee 
and  Georgia.  On  the  1st  of  May  General  Sigel,  with  an  army  of  ten 
thousand  men,  advanced  up  the  valley  towards  Staunton.  On  the  15:1; 


844  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

he  was  defeated  with  considerable  loss  by  the  Confederates  under  General 
Breckenridge  at  New  Market,  and  was  driven  back  down  the  valley 
General  Hunter  was  appointed  in  Sigel's  place,  and  succeeded  in  forcing 
his  way  to  the  vicinity  of  Lynchburg.  Lee,  becoming  alarmed  for  the 
safety  of  that  place,  sent  General  Early,  with  twelve  thousand  men,  to  its 
assistance.  Early  at  once  attacked  Hunter,  and 
forced  him  to  retreat  by  a  circuitous  route  into 
West  Virginia. 

In  the   meantime  General  Grant  had  reached 
the  James  river,  where  his  army  was  reinforced  to 
one  hundred   and  fifty  thousand   men.     On    the 
loth  and  16th  of  June  he  crossed  his  troops  near 
City  Point,  and  advanced  upon  Petersburg.     At 
the   same   time   General    Butler  moved   forward 
with  the  army  of  the  James  against  the  southern 
MAJ.-GEN.  BRECKENRIDGE.  works  between  the  James  and  Appomattox.     On 
the  16th,  17th,  and  18th,  Grant  made  repeated 

attempts  to  storm  the  Confederate  works  before  Petersburg  and  south 
of  the  James,  but  was  repulsed  with  a  total  loss  of  nine  thousand  six 
hundred  and  sixty-five  men.  Being  unable  to  carry  the  southern 
works  by  storm,  he  began  the  siege  of  Petersburg.  His  right  rested  on 
the  James  above  Bermuda  Hundreds,  and  from  this  point  his  line  ex- 
tended across  the  Appomattox,  with  his  left  thrown  out  towards  the 
Weldon  railroad.  During  the  summer  and  fall  he  continued  to  extend 
his  left  until  he  had  seized  the  Weldon  road. 
From  this  point  he  sought  to  extend  his  left  still 
farther  and  to  seize  the  South  Side  railroad,  Lee's 
only  remaining  line  of  communication  with  the 
south  and  southwest.  Frequent  encounters  oc- 
curred between  the  two  armies  during  the  summer 
and  fall,  a  number  of  which  attained  the  pro- 
portions of  battles,  but  we  have  not  space  to 
relate  them  all.  On  the  30th  of  July  a  mine 
was  sprung  under  one  of  the  principal  works  of 
Lee's  line,  and  the  explosion  was  followed  by  an  MAJOR-GENERAL  HUNTER. 
assault  by  Burnside's  corps.  The  attack  was  re- 
pulsed with  a  loss  of  over  five  thousand  men  to  the  Union  troops.  During 
the  early  autumn  General  Grant  extended  his  lines  across  the  James  river, 
and  established  a  force  on  the  north  side  of  that  river  to  lay  siege  to  the 
defences  of  Richmond.  The  right  of  this  force  was  extended  as  far  as 
the  Williamsburg  road.  This  was  the  situation  ./f  the  two  armies  at  the 
close  of  the  year. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 

In  the  meantime  Early  had  advanced  into  the  valley  of  Virginia 
after  the  defeat  of  Hunter.  The  retreat  of  that  commander  into  u  ,  .t 
Virginia  had  left  the  Potomac  unguarded,  and  Washington  City  exposed 
to  attack.  General  Lee  at  once  reinforced  Early  to  fifteen  thousand  men, 
and  ordered  him  to  cross  the  Potomac  and  threaten  Washington,  hoping 
by  this  bold  movement  to  compel  Grant  to  weaken  his  army  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  capital,  if  not  to  raise  the  siege  of  Petersburg.  Kirk 
moved  rapidly,  crossed  the  Potomac  near  Martinsburg  on  the  5th  of  July, 
and  on  the  7th  occupied  Frederick  City  in  Maryland.  On  the  9th  he 
defeated  a  small  force  under  General  Lewis  Wallace  at  Monocacy  Bridge 
and  advanced  upon  Washington.  The  Nineteenth  army  corps  of  the  Fed- 
eral army  was  at  Fortress  Monroe,  where  it  had  just  arrived  from  \,  \\- 
Orleans,  en  route  to  join  Grant's  army.  It  was  at  once  ordered  to  Wa.-h- 
ington,  which,  until  its  arrival,  was  held  by  a  small  garris6n,  and  Grant 
at  the  same  time  embarked  the  Sixth  corps,  and 
sent  it  with  all  speed  around  to  the  Potomac. 
These  troops  reached  Washington  before  the  ar- 
rival of  Early,  who  appeared  before  the  defences 
of  that  city  on  the  llth  of  July.  He  found  the 
works  too  strongly  manned  to  be  attacked  by  his 
force.  After  skirmishing  for  several  days  before 
them,  he  withdrew  across  the  Potomac  on  the 
14th,  and  retreated  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Winchester. 

Early 's    movement    so   alarmed    the   Federal    MAJ.-OEN.  LEW  WALLACE. 
government  for  the  safety  of  Washington  that  a 

force  of  forty  thousand  men,  ten  thousand  of  which  were  the  splendid 
cavalry  of  Sheridan,  was  stationed  in  the  valley,  and  Major-Genera  1 
Sheridan  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  this  army.  Had  Grant 
been  able  to  retain  these  troops  with  his  own  army,  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
Lee  would  have  been  forced  to  abandon  his  position  at  Petersburg  in  the 
autumn  of  1864.  Their  absence  in  the  valley  enabled  the  Confederate 
leader  to  prolong  his  defence  through  the  winter. 

As  soon  as  he  had  gotten  his  forces  well  in  hand,  Sheridan  advam-ru 
upon  Early,  and  on  the  19th  defeated  him  at  Winchester,  and  drov<  bin; 
back  to  Fisher's  Hill,  where,  on  the  22d,  he  again  defeated  him  and 
drove  him  out  of  the  valley,  pursuing  him  as  far  as  Staunton.  By  the 
orders  of  General  Grant,  General  Sheridan  now  laid  waste  the  entire  val- 
ley of  the  Shenandoah,  destroying  all  the  crops,  mills,  barns,  and  farming 
implements,  and  driving  off  the  cattle  with  his  army  as  he  moved  ba-k. 

Early  was  reinforced  after  his  retreat  to  the  upper  valley,  and  about 


846 


HISTORY  OF  THE   USITZD  STATES. 


MAO.  GEX.  PHIL   SHERIDAN. 


the  middle  of  October  advanced  down  the  valley  towards  the  Federal 
position  with  a  force  of  nine  thousand  men  and  forty  pieces  of  cannon. 
The  Union  army  lay  at  Cedar  creek,  and  was  under  the  temporary  coni' 
maud  of  General  Wright  during  the  absence  of  General  Sheridan.  On 
the  19tii  oi  October  Early  attacked  this  force,  and  drove  it  back  for  sev- 
eral miles.  Instead  of  continuing  the 
pursuit,  his  troops  stopped  to  plunder  the 
Federal  camp,  which  had  fallen  into  the!/ 
hands.  General  Wright  rallied  his  men 
and  re-formed  them  in  a  new  position,  and 
at  this  moment  General  Sheridan  arrived  on 
the  field.  He  had  heard  the  firing  at  Win- 
chester, "twenty  miles  away,"  and  had 
ridden  at  full  speed  from  that  place  to  rejoin 
his  army.  He  at  once  ordered  it  to  ad- 
vance upon  Early,  whose  men,  laden  with 
the  plunder  of  the  captured  camp,  wcie 
driven  back  with  terrible  force  and  pursued 

up  the'  valley  for  thirty  miles.  This  success  cleared  the  valley  of  the 
Confederate  forces,  for  Early  Mras  not  able  after  this  to  collect  more  than 
a  handful  of  men,  and  Lee  had  no  troops  to  spare  him.  Sheridan's 
brilliant  victories  cost  him  a  total  loss  of  seventeen  thousand  men. 

The  western  army  under  General  Sherman 
was  increased  to  one  hundred  thousand 
men,  and  was  concentrated  in  and  around 
Chattanooga  about  the  last  of  April.  Op- 
posed to  this  force  General  Joseph  E.  John- 
ston had  collected  an  army  of  fifty  thousand 
men  at  Dalton,  Georgia.  The  objective 
point  of  Sherman  was  Atlanta,  Georgia,  the 
key  to  the  railroad  system  of  the  south. 

On  the  7th  of  May  the  Federal  army  began 
its  advance.  The  position  at  Dalton  being 
too  strong  to  be  assaulted,  Sherman  turned 
it  by  a  flank  movement  upon  Resaca,  to 
which  place  Johnston  fell  back.  On  the  14th 

and  15th  of  May  Sherman  endeavored  to  force  the  Confederate  lines  near 
Resaca,  but  without  success.  He  therefore  moved  around  Johnston's  lelt 
again,  and  compelled  him  to  fall  back  to  Dallas.  Severe  fighting  oc- 
curred on  the  25th  at  New  Hope  Church,  but  Johnston  maintained  1m 
position.  Heavy  skirmishing  ensued  until  the  28th,  when  Sherman 


GEN.  W.  T.  SHERMAN. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


8-17 


having  turned  Allatoona  pass,  Johnston  occupied  a  new  position,  em- 
bracing  Pine,  Lost,  and  Kenesaw  mountains.  Between  the  15th  of 
June  and  the  2d  of  July  Sherman  made  several  attempts  to  force  this 
position,  which  was  one  of  the  strongest  yet  occupied  by  the  Confederates, 
and  failing  to  carry  it,  again  moved  to  the  left  and  turned  it.  Johnston 
at  once  fell  back  across  the  Chattahoochee  and  within  the  lines  of  Atlanta. 
.He  had  prepared  this  city  for  a  siege,  and  had 
strongly  fortified  it.  He  had  his  army  well  in 
hand,  and  he  was  determined  as  soon  as  the 
Federal  army  had  passed  the  Chattahoochee  to 
attack  Sherman  and  force  him  to  a  decisive  en- 
counter. He  hoped  to  defeat  him,  and  had 
purposely  avoided  a  general  battle  until  now. 
Should  he  succeed  in  his  attempt  the  defeat  of  the 
Federal  army  at  such  a  great  distance  from  its 
base  might  result  in  its  ruin,  and  at  all  events 
would  be  decisive  of  the  campaign.  At  this 
juncture,  however,  he  was  removed  from  his  com- 
mand on  the  17th  of  July  by  the  Confederate 

president,  who  was  greatly  dissatisfied  with  the  results  of  the  campaign, 
and  who,  it  was  generally  believed,  was  influenced  by  his  personal  hos- 
tility to  Johnston.  General  John  B.  Hood,  a  gallant  soldier,  but  unfit 
for  the  great  task  imposed  upon  him,  was  appointed  to  succeed  General 
Johnston.  In  Johnston  General  Sherman  had  recognized  an  antagonist 
of  the  first  rank,  and  had  conducted  the  campaign  accordingly  He  re- 
garded the  appointment  of  General  Hood  as 
greatly  simplifying  the  task  before  h«m.  The 
Federal  army  had  already  paid  the  heavy  price 
of  over  thirty  thousand  men  for  its  advance  to 
Atlanta,  while  Johnston  had  lost  less  than  ei^ht 
thousand  men.  The  conditions  were  now  ic  Ix 
reversed. 

On  the  17th  of  July  the  Union  army  crossed  tho 
Chattahoochee,  and  advanced    towards  Atlanta 
On  the  20th  and  22d  Hood  attacked  the  F.  ,1,-ra! 
lines  on  Peach  Tree  creek,  but  only  to  i>e 


GEN.  JOS.  E.  JOHNSTON. 


MAJ.-GEN.  M'PHERSON. 


oac 


•k  with  a  loss  of  over  eight  thousand  men,  without  inflicting  anv  serious 
injury  upon  tha  Union  army,  which,  however,  lost  Geneial  MePh.-i>..n. 
one  of  its  ablest  commanders.  Sherman  now  drew  in  hi.  lines  el,,,,  r  t-- 
Atlanta,  and  by  a  skilful  movement  thrust  his  army  between  the  tw,i 
wings  of  Hood's  forces,  thus  exposing  them  to  the  danger  of  being  b-n' 


848 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


GEN.  JOHN  B.  HOOD. 


in.  ietail.  This  movement  sealed  the  fate  of  Atlanta,  which  was  evacu- 
ated by  the  Confederates  on  the  31st  of  August.  On  the  2d  of  Septem- 
ber Sherman  occupied  the  city.  Hood  retreated  towards  Macon.  The 
loss  of  Atlanta  was  a  serious  blow  to  the  south.  It  placed  the  Federal 
army  in  the  heart  of  Georgia,  and  destroyed  the  principal  source  from 
which  the  Confederate  armies  were  supplied  with  military  stores,  which 
had  been  manufactured  in  great  quantities  at 
Atlanta.  Rome,  Georgia,  which  was  captured 
by  Sherman's  army  during  the  campaign,  was 
also  largely  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  arms 
and  ammunition. 

General  Sherman  was  now  anxious  to  march 
his  army  through  Georgia,  and  unite  with  the 
Union  forces  on  the  coast,  but  he  was  unable  as 
yet  to  undertake  this  movement,  as  Hood  with 
an  army  of  thirty-five  thousand  men  lay  in  his 
front,  and  his  communications  with  Chattanooga 

and  Knoxville  were  exposed  to  the  raids  of  the  Confederate  cavalry.  He 
now  learned  that  the  Confederate  government  had  ordered  General  Hood 
to  invade  Tennessee  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  his  army  out  of  Georgia, 
and  concluded  to  make  no  effort  to  prevent  this  movement.  The  task  of 
watching  Hood  was  confided  to  the  army  of 
the  Tennessee,  under  General  George  H. 
Thomas,  who  was  given  a  sufficient  force  to 
hold  Tennessee,  and  Sherman  set  about  pre- 
paring his  army  for  his  march  to  the  sea. 
Thomas  was  heavily  reinforced  from  the 
north. 

Hood  began  his  forward  movement  tow- 
ards the  last  of  October,  and  on  the  31st  of 
that  month  crossed  the  Tennessee  near  Flor- 
ence. He  remained  on  this  river  until  the 
middle  of  November,  and  on  the  19th 
marched  northward,  forcing  back  the  com- 
mand of  General  Schofield,  and  effecting  a 
passage  of  Duck  river  on  the  29th.  Scho- 
field fell  back  to  Franklin,  eighteen  miles  south  of  Nashville.  He  \v;;s 
attacked  on  the  30th  by  the  Confederates  and  forced  back  to  Nashville, 
within  the  defences  of  which  city  General  Thomas  had  collected  an  army 
of  about  forty  thousand  men.  Hood  invested  the  city,  and  hastened  for- 
ward his  preparations  to  assault  the  Federal  works.  General  Thomas. 


MAJ.-GEN.  GEO.  H.  THOMAS. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


849 


however,  anticipated  him,  and  on  the  15th  of  December  attacked  tin- 
Confederate  army  and  forced  it  back  at  all  points.  The  next  day,  tlm 
16th,  the  battle  was  renewed,  and  Hood  was  completely  routed.  On  the 
17th  the  Union  army  set  out  in  pursuit  of  Hood's  broken  columns,  and 
followed  them  for  over  fifty  miles.  But  for  the  gallantry  of  a  small  rear- 
guard, which  preserved  its  discipline  and  covered  the  retreat  to  the  lu-t, 
the  Confederate  army  would  have  been  scattered  beyond  all  hope  of  re- 
union. Hood  recrossed  the  Tennessee  with  barely  twenty  thousand  men 
out  of  the  thirty-five  thousand  with  which  he  had  begun  the  campaign. 
He  had  lost  half  of  his  generals,  and  nearly  all  of  his  artillery.  He  fell 


SAVANNAH,  GEORGIA. 

back  1o  Tupelo,  Mississippi,  and  on  the  23d  of  January,  1865,  was,  at  Ma 
own  request,  relieved  of  his  command. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Sherman,  leaving  Thomas  to  deal  with  Hand, 
luul  begun  his  march  through  the  State  of  Georgia.  Satisfied  that  the 
war  was  practically  decided  in  the  southwest,  he  proposed  to  march  to  tin- 
sea  near  Savannah,  and  thence  through  the  confederacy  to  the  position 
of  General  Grant's  army.  This  movement  would  compel  the  Confeder- 
ates to  mass  their  forces  in  his  front,  and  would  confine  the  derisive  OIK.TU- 
54 


850 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


MAJ.-GEN.  O.  O.  HOWARD. 


tions  of  the  war  to  the  country  between  his  own  and  Grant's  armies, 
between  which  it  was  believed  the  southern  forces  could  be  crushed. 
Everything  being  in  readiness,  Sherman  cut  loose  from  his  communica- 
tions with  Chattanooga  and  set  fire  to  Atlanta.  On  the  14th  of  November 
•ie  set  out  on  his  "  March  to  the  Sea,"  at  the  head  of  a  splendid  army  of 

sixty  thousand  men.  He  ravaged  the  country 
as  he  went,  leaving  behind  him  a  broad  belt 
of  desolation,  sixty  miles  in  width  and  three 
hundred  in  length.  The  Confederates  had  not 
sufficient  force  to  offer  serious  opposition  to  his 
march,  and  in  about  four  weeks  he  reached  the 
coast  near  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  river. 
On  the  13th  of  December  he  stormed  and  cap- 
tured Fort  McAllister,  which  commanded  that 
river.  The  city  of  Savannah  was  thus  left  at 
Sherman's  mercy,  and  was  occupied  by  his 
army  on  the  22d  of  December.  By  this  suc- 
cessful march  to  the  sea,  General  Sherman  had 

not  only  gotten  his  army  in  a  position  to  co-operate  with  Grant  in  the  final 
struggle  of  the  war,  but  had  struck  terror  to  the  south.  The  most  hopeful 
Confederate  now  saw  that  the  triumph  of  the  Union  cause  was  inevitable 
and  close  at  hand. 

During  the  year  important  operations  had  been  undertaken  by  the 
Federal  forces  on  the  coast.  In  July  a  powerful  fleet  under  Admiral 
Farragut,  accompanied  by  a  strong  force  of  troops  under  General  Granger, 
was  sent  against  Mobile.  This  city  was  one  of 
the  principal  ports  of  the  confederacy  and  was 
strongly  fortified.  The  entrance  to  the  bay  was 
commanded  by  Forts  Morgan  and  Gaines,  two 
powerful  works  built  before  the  war,  and  a  num- 
ber of  batteries,  and  a  Confederate  fleet  under 
Admiral  Buchanan — who  had  commanded  the 
"  Virginia"  in  her  fight  with  the  "  Monitor" — lay 
beyond  the  forts  ready  to  contest  the  possession 
of  the  bay.  On  the  5th  of  August  Farragut 
passed  the  forts  with  his  fleet  with  the  loss  of  but 

one  iron-clad,  and  entered  Mobile  bay.  He  immediately  attacked  the 
Confederate  fleet,  the  ftag-ship  of  which  was  a  powerful  iron-clad  ram — 
the  "  Tennessee."  After  one  of  the  most  desperate  fights  in  naval  annals, 
the  entire  fleet  was  destroyed  or  captured  by  the  Union  vessels.  Fort 
Powell  was  evacuated  and  blown  up  by  its  garrison  on  the  same  day.  On 


ADMIRAL   PORTER. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR, 


S5i 


the  7th  of  August  Fort  Gaines  surrendered  to  General  Grange.,  and  MII 
the  23cl  Fort  Morgan  also  capitulated.  These  sum-  «tj  mud.;  the  Veai-rai 
forces  masters  of  Mobile  bay,  and  closed  the  port  to  blockade  runners ; 
but  the  city,  which  was  strongly  fortified,  was  not  taken  until  the  m-.\t 
year. 

\\  ilmington,  on  the  Cape  Fear  river,  was  now  the  only  port  in  tie 
confederacy  remaining  open  to  blockade  runners.  It  was  defended  1,\ 
Fort  Fisher,  an  unusually  formidable  work  near  the  mouth  of  the  Cape 
Fear.  A  larger  fleet  than  had  yet  been  employed  during  tie  war  was 
assembled  in  Hampton  Roads  under  Admiral  Porter.  A  fo«w  of  eiirht 


THE  LANDING  AT  MOBILE,  ALABAMA. 

thousand  troops  under  General  Butler  was  embarked,  and  the  expedition 
sailed  to  the  Cape  Fear.  Fort  Fisher  was  subjected  to  a  vigorous  l>on: 
brirdment,  which  was  begun  on  the  ?4th  of  December,  and  the  troop 
were  landed;  but  at  the  last  moment  General  Butler  decided  that  the  fort 
was  too  strong  to  be  assaulted,  and  the  expedition  returned  to  Hampton 
Roads. 

Since  the  opening  of  the  war  the  Confederate  cruisers  had  nean\  driven 
the  commerce  of  the  Northern  States  from  the  ocean.  These  vessels  were 
!>uilt  in  England,  and  were  usually  manned  by  crews  of  English  seamen 
under  Confederate  naval  officers.  One  of  these,  the  "  Florida,''  put  t/j 


852  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

sea  in  the  summer  of  1862,  and  succeeded  in  reaching  Mobile  in  August 
of  that  year.  In  January,  1863,  she  ran  the  blockade,  and  in  three 
months  captured  and  destroyed  fifteen  merchant  vessels.  She  was  at 
length  seized  in  the  harbor  of  Bahia,  in  Brazil,  by  a  Federal  man-of-war, 
and  taken  to  Hampton  Roads.  The  Brazilian  government,  resenting  this1 
breach  of  its  neutrality,  demanded  the  release  of  the  "  Florida,"  but  while 
the  negotiations  \vere  in  progress,  she  was  sunk  in  Hampton  Roads  by  a 
collision  with  another  vessel. 

The  most  famous  of  all  the  Confederate  cruisers  was  the  "  Alabama." 
She  was  built  at  Liverpool,  and  was  suffered  to  go  to  sea  in  spite  of  the 
protest  of  the  American  minister  at  London.  She  was  commanded  by 
Captain  Raphael  Semmes,  and  during  her  long  career  captured  sixty-five 
merchant  vessels,  and  destroyed  over  ten  millions  of  dollars  worth  of 
property.  During  her  entire  career  she  never  entered  a  Confederate  port. 
In  the  summer  of  1864  she  put  into  the  harbor  of  Cherbourg,  in  France, 
and  was  blockaded  there  by  the  United  States 
war-steamer  "Kearsarge,"  Captain  Winslow. 
The  French  government  ordered  the  "  Alabama  " 
to  leave  Cherbourg,  and  she  went  to  sea  on  the 
19th  of  June.  She  was  at  once  attacked  i»y  the 
"  Kearsarge,"  and  was  sunk  by  the  guns  of  that 
steamer  after  an  engagement  of  an  hour  and  a 
quarter.  Semmes  was  saved  from  drowning  by  an 
English  yacht  that  had  witnessed  the  battle  am! 
ADMIRAL  WINSLOW.  was  set  ashore.  The  destruction  of  the  "Alabama  " 

was  hailed  with  delight  throughout  the  north. 

In  the  fall  of  1864  the  presidential  election  was  held  in  the  State? 
remaining  faithful  to  the  Union.  The  Republican  party  nominated 
President  Lincoln  for  re-election,  and  Andrew  Johnson,  of  Tennessee,  for 
the  vice-presidency.  The  Democratic  party  supported  General  George 
B.  McClellan  for  the  presidency,  and  George  H.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio, 
for  the  vice-presidency.  Mr.  Lincoln  received  at  the  polls  2,213,665 
votes  to  1 ,802,237  cast  for  McClellan ;  and  the  electoral  votes  of  every 
State  save  those  of  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Kentucky,  were  cast 
for  him. 

On  the  31st  of  October,  1864,  Nevada  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as 
s,  separate  State. 

The  year  1864  closed  brilliantly  for  the  Union  cause.  Though  the 
Confederates  had  gained  a  number  of  important  victories  during  the  year, 
they  had,  on  the  whole,  steadily  lost  ground.  Virginia,  Tennessee, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Florida  were  overrun  by  the  Federal 


THE  CIVIL    WAR.  853 

armies,  and  on  the  coast  there  was  not  a  single  port  remaining  open  to 
the  Confederacy  save  that  of  Wilmington,  which  was  blockade- 1  by  a 
powerful  fleet.  It  was  evident  that  the  coming  spring  campaign  would 
end  the  war.  The  Federal  forces  had  been  increased  to  the  enormous 
total  of  one  million  of  men.  The  Confederates  could  bring  into  the  field 
.scarcely  two  hundred  thousand  men,  and  for  these  it  was  difficult  to  find 
subsistence.  The  vicious  financial  system  adopted  by  the  Confederate 
government  had  run  its  appointed  course,  and  the  notes  of  the  Confederate 
treasury  were  worth  scarcely  three  or  four  cents  in  the  dollar. 

The  year  1865  opened  with  an  effort  to  secure  the  return  of  peace 
without  further  bloodshed.  In  January  Mr.  F.  P.  Blair,  Sr.,  came  from 
Washington  to  Richmond,  and  on  his  own  responsibility  proposed 
to  the  Confederate  government  the  appointment  of  commissioners  to 
negotiate  with  the  Federal  government  for  the  close  of  the  M-ar.  The 
following  commissioners  were  appointed  by  the  Confederate  government: 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  vice-president  of  the  Con- 
federate States ;  R.  M.T.  Hunter,  senator  from  Vir- 
ginia in  the  Confederate  Congress,  and  John  A. 
Campbell,  assistant  secretary  of  war.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  City  Point  under  a  safe  conduct  from 
General  Grant,  and  were  conveyed  from  that  place 
to  Hampton  Roads  in  a  government  steamer.  On 
the  3d  of  February  President  Lincoln  and  Secretary 
Seward  having  reached  Hampton  Roads,  an  informal 
conference  was  held  between  the  president  and  the 
commissioners.  The  president  refused  to  entertain  BRIG.-<.I\  \.TKRRY. 
any  propositions  which  were  not  based  upon  the 
unconditional  submission  of  the  Southern  States  to  the  authority  of  the 
Union,  and  as  the  commissioners  had  no  authority  from  their  government 
to  enter  into  any  such  arrangement,  the  conference  accomplished  nothing. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  Admiral  Porter,  undaunted  by  the  failure 
of  Butler  to  take  Fort  Fisher,  had  remained  off  the  fort  with  his  fleet  :ni«l 
had  asked  for  troops  to  renew  the  attempt.  The  same  force  that  limit  r 
had  commanded,  with  fifteen  hundred  additional  men,  was  placed  under 
General  Terry's  command  and  ordered  to  join  Porter.  This  force  arrive  i 
off  Fort  Fisher  on  the  12th  of  January,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  l-".th 
accomplished  its  landing  with  success.  A  terrible  fire  was  rained  upon 
the  fort  by  the  fleet  during  the  13th  and  14th,  and  on  the  1  1th  a  daring 
reconnoissance  of  the  Union  force  revealed  the  fact  that  the  fort  had  been 
severely  damaged  by  this  bombardment.  The  trenches  of  the  Union 
army  were  pushed  rapidly  through  the  sand  to  within  two  hundred  yards 


854 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


BRIG.-GEN.   SCHOFIELD. 


of  Fort  Fisher  in  order  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  garrison,  and  on  the 
15th  a  feint  was  made  by  a  force  of  sailors  and  marines  from  the  fleet  in 
this  direction.  At  the  same  time  the  troops  under  General  Terry  stormed 
rhc  fort  from  the  land  side,  and  after  a  hard  hand-to-hand  struggle  of 
ulxmt  five  hours,  during  which  each  traverse  was  carried  in  succession  by 
u  separate  fight,  Fort  Fisher  was  captured.  On  the  16th  and  17th  the 
Confederates  blew  up  their  other  works  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  and  retreated  towards 
Wilmington.  The  mouth  of  the  river  was  now 
in  the  possession  of  the  Federal  forces,  and  the 
last  port  of  the  south  was  closed.  A  number  of 
blockade  runners,  ignorant  of  the  capture,  ran  into 
the  river  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victors. 
Later  in  ths  month,  General  J.  M.  Schofield  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  department  of  North 
Carolina,  and  on  tho  22d  of  February  occupied  the 
city  of  Wilmington  with  his  troops. 

Sherman,  after  the  capture  of  Savannah,  allowed 

his  army  a  month's  rest  on  the  coast,  and  towards  the  end  of  January 
moved  northward  through  South  Carolina  towards  Virginia.  His  force 
was  sixty  thousand  strong  and  moved  in  four  columns  covering  a  front 
of  fifty  miles.  His  route  was  marked  by  the  same  desolation  he  had  spread 
through  Georgia.  The  roads  were  in  a  horrible  condition,  and  in  mary 
places  the  men  were  forced  to  wade  through  the  icy  waters  up  to  the  arm- 
pits. Still  he  pressed  on  right  into  the  heart  of  the 
confederacy.  On  the  17th  of  February  he  reached 
Columbia,  South  Carolina,  having  destroyed  the 
railroad  leading  north  from  Charleston.  General 
Hardee,  commanding  the  Confederate  forces  at 
Charleston,  apprehensive  of  being  shut  up  in  that 
city,  which  was  utterly  unprepared  for  a  siege, 
evacuated  Charleston  and  its  defences  on  the  1 7th 
of  February  and  retreated  northward  to  join  General 
Johnston  in  North  Carolina.  The  next  day 
Charleston  was  occupied  by  the  Federal  forces. 

Fort  Sumter  was  also  taken  possession  of  at  the  same  time.  The  fort 
was  a  mass  of  ruins ;  the  city  was  not  much  better  off.  It  had  suffered 
severely  from  the  bombardment  to  which  it  had  been  subjected  since 
the  fall  of  Fort  Wagner,  and  the  Confederates  upon  their  withdrawal  had 
set  fire  to  a  considerable  part  of  it. 

From  Columbia,  Sherman  moved  towards  Fayetteville,  North  Carolina, 


LIETJT.-GEN.  W.  HARDEF. 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 

driving  back  the  Confederate  forces  that  resisted  his  progress,  and  entered 
that  place  on  the  12th  of  March.  From  Fayetteville  he  moved  toward* 
Golds,  boro'. 

The  Confederate  government,  in  the  emergency  to  which  it  was  reduced, 
was  obliged  to  reappoint  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  to  the  command  of 
the   force   assembling    in    Sherman's    front. 
Johnston  succeeded  in  collecting  about  thirty- 
five  thousand  troops,  with  which  he  attacked 
Sherman  at  Averasboro'  on  the  16th  of  March, 
and  again  at  Bentonville  on  the  19th.     The 
Confederates  fought  with  their  old  enthusi- 
asm in  these  encounters,  but  were  unable  to 
stay  the  progress  of  the  Federal  army,  and  on 
the  23d  of  March  Sherman  occupied  Golds- 
boro'.     Johnston  withdrew  towards  Raleigh. 
At  Goldsboro'  Sherman  was  joined   by  the 
forces  of  Generals  Schofield  and  Terry  which  MAJOR-GENERAL  H.  o.  WRIGHT. 
had  come  up  from  the  coast. 

The  armies  of  Grant  and  Lee  had  lain  confronting  each  other  during 
the  winter.  General  Lee  had  little  hope  of  maintaining  his  position  ai'ur 
the  opening  of  hostilities.  His  army  was  growing  weaker  from  sickness 
and  desertion,  and  no  more  men  could  be  obtained.  The  Confederate 
Congress  made  a  feeble  effort  during  the  winter  to  enlist  negro  troops  in 
its  service,  but  with  a  singular  recklessness  refused  to  offer  the  boon  of 

freedom  to  such  of  the  blacks  as  would  take 
up  arms.  That  body  believed  that  the  negroes 
would  fight  for  their  own  enslavement. 

Early  having  been  driven  out  of  the  valley, 
General  Sheridan  was  ordered  to  start  from 
Winchester  with  a  column  of  ten  thousand 
cavalry,  and  cut  the  communications  of  Lee's 
army  by  railroad  and  telegraph  north  and  ea«t 
of  Richmond.  He  left  Winchester  on  the 
27th  of  February,  and  defeating  Early V  small 
force  at  WayneslwW,  broke  the  Virginia 
Central  railroad  at  that  point  ami  in«>\.,l  t 

Charlottesville,  which  surrendered  to  him.  He  then  divided  hi.s  force 
into  two  columns  and  resumed  his  "ride "on  the  6th  of  March.  He 
thoroughly  destroyed  the  railroad  between  Charlottesville  ami  Lyiu-h- 
burg  for  about  forty  miles,  and  the  canal  between  Ki.-hmond  and 
Lynchburg  shared  the  same  fate  for  a  considerable  distance.  Being 


MAJOR-GENERAL  WARREN. 


856  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

unable  to  cross  the  James  above  Richmond  on  account  of  the  high  water, 
he  moved  around  the  north  of  Richmond,  crossed  the  river  at  Deep 
Bottom,  and  joined  Grant  before  Petersburg  on  the  26th  of  March.  lie 
had  utterly  laid  waste  the  country  along  his  route.  The  arrival  of  this 
splendid  force  of  cavalry  was  of  the  greatest  service  to  Grant,  as  we 
jhall  see.  < 

The  situation  of  General  Lee's  army  was  growing  more  critical  every 
day.  He  had  less  than  forty  thousand  troops.  He  was  fully  convinced 
of  the  necessity  of  abandoning  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  and  was  anxious 
to  do  so  at  once,  and  unite  his  army  with  that  of  General  Johnston  and 
occupy  a  new  position  in  the  interior  of  the  south.  In  order  to  secure 
the  withdrawal  of  his  army  he  determined  to  make  a  vigorous  attack  upon 
Grant's  right,  hoping  to  compel  him,  in  order  to  help  his  right,  to  draw 
back  his  left  wing,  which  was  in  dangerous  proximity  to  the  road  by  which 
Lee  wished  to  retreat.  Could  he  succeed  in  this  effort,  he  meant  to  evacu- 
ate his  position  at  Petersburg  and  retire  towards 
Danville,  where  he  hoped  to  unite  with  General 
Johnston.  On  the  25th  of  March  he  made  a  heavy 
attack  upon  Fort  Steadman  on  the  right  of  Grant's 
line,  and  captured  it.  The  Federal  forces  rallied, 
however,  and  drove  the  Confederates  from  the 
captured  works  back  to  their  own  line,  inflicting 
upon  them  a  loss  of  three  thousand  men.  Lee  had 
now  no  alternative  but  to  await  the  movements 
UEUT.-GEN.  A.  p.  HILL,  of  General  Grant,  as  he  could  not  afford  to  make 
the  sacrifice  of  men  which  a  renewal  of  his 
efforts  would  require  of  him. 

General  Grant  lost  no  time  in  taking  the  field.  By  the  last  of  March 
his  army,  numbering  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  men, 
including  Sheridan's  magnificent  cavalry  division,  was  in  readiness  to 
begin  the  campaign.  On  the  29th  of  March  the  advance  of  the  Federal 
army  was  begun.  Leaving  the  bulk  of  his  army  before  Petersburg,  Grant 
sent  a  column  of  twenty-five  thousand  men  to  turn  the  Confederate  right 
and  seize  the  Southside  railroad,  Lee's  only  means  of  communication  with 
Johnston's  army  and  the  country  in  his  rear.  By  the  morning  of  the  30th 
the  Federal  left  had  gotten  fairly  to  the  right  of  the  Confederates.  On 
the  30th  a  heavy  storm  prevented  a  further  advance,  and  Lee  took 
advantage  of  the  delay  to  reinforce  his  right  wing  with  all  the  troops  he 
could  spare.  On  the  31st  he  attempted  to  drive  back  the  Federal  left, 
but  without  success.  While  this  battle  was  going  on,  Sheridan  swung 
around  the  Confederate  right  and  seized  the  important  position  of  Five 


THE  CIVIL   WAR.  357 

Forks.  Lee  then  sent  Pickett's  and  Johnston's  divisions  to  recover  this 
point,  and  they  drove  off  the  cavalry,  and  occupied  Five  Forks  at  night- 
fall on  the  31st.  Being  joined  by  the  Fifth  corps,  Sheridan  attacked  tin- 
Confederates  on  the  morning  of  the  1st  of  April,  and  defeated  them  nt'n -r 
a  determined  encounter,  taking  over  five  thousand  prisoners. 

As  soon  as  Sheridan  had  secured  Five  Forks,  Grant  opened  a  heavy 
artillery  fire  upon  the  lines  of  Petersburg  along  his  whole  front,  and  con- 
tinued the  bombardment  through  the  night.  On  the  morning  of  the  2d 
of  April  he  made  a  determined  attack  upon  Lee's  line,  and  broke  it  at 
several  points.  General  Lee  was  now  forced  to  assume  a  new  and  shorter 
line  immediately  around  Petersburg.  The  Federal  army  made  a  vigorous 
effort  to  force  its  way  into  the  city,  but  \vas  unsuccessful. 

The  fate  of  Petersburg  was  now  decided.  It  was  impossible  to  hold  it 
longer.  On  the  night  of  the  2d  of  April  General  Lee  withdrew  his  army 
from  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  and  retreated  in  the  direction  of  Amelia 
Court-house.  His  intention  was  to  move  towards 
Danville,  and  endeavor  to  join  Johnston.  His 
retreat  was  discovered  on  the  morning  of  the  3d 
of  April,  and  the  Federal  army,  leaving  a  small 
force  to  occupy  Petersburg,  set  off  in  pursuit,  fol- 
lowing the  line  of  the  Southside  railroad. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3d  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Confederates  from  the  lines  of  Richmond  was 
discovered  by  General  Weitzel,  commanding  the 
Federal  forces  on  the  north  side  of  the  James.  MAJOB-OENERAL  E.  o.  OBD. 
He  at  once  advanced  and  occupied  the  city  of 

Richmond,  a  large  part  of  which  was  in  flames  as  he  entered  it,  having 
been  set  on  fire  by  the  Confederates  upon  their  evacuation  of  it.  Thus 
fell  the  Confederate  capital  after  four  long  years  of  bloody  war  for  ite 

possession. 

Upon  reaching  Amelia  Court-house,  General  Lee  found  that  the  sup- 
plies he  had  ordered  to  be  sent  there  from  Danville  were  not  to  be  had. 
The  trains  sent  from  Danville  by  his  instructions  had  been  ordered 
Richmond  to  remove  the  property  of  the  Confederate  government,  and 
had  not  been  allowed  to  unload  their  stores  at  Amelia  Court-house.  1 
was  a  terrible  blow  to  Lee,  who  was  now  unable  to  furnish  f 
troops,  who  had  eaten  nothing  since  the  commencement  of  the 
Parties  were  sent  into  the  surrounding  country  to  obtain  «i|,,.l«-s,  ai 
this  consumed  the  whole  of  the  4th  and  5th  of  April  which  Lee 
hoped  to  spend  in  pushing  on  beyond  his  pursuers.     The  delay  e 
Sheridan,  with  eighteen  thousand  mounted  men,  to  seize  the  ( 


858  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

line  of  retreat  at  Jetersville.  This  movement  put  an  e&d  to  Lee's  hope 
of  reaching  Danville  and  joining  Johnston.  A  battle  was  impossible,  for 
Sheridan  had  a  force  nearly  equal  to  his  own,  and  Grant  was  hurrying  on 
with  the  rest  oi'  the  Federal  army.  General  Lee  therefore  turned  off  and 
retreated  towards  Farmville,  hoping  to  be  able  to  reach  Lynchburg,  but 
iSlieridan,  after  passing  Farmville,  pushed  forward  again,  and  by  a  forced 
march  reached  Appomattox  Station,  on  the  Southside  railroad,  on  the 
night  of  the  8th,  and  planted  his  force  squarely  across  the  Confederate 
line  of  retreat.  The  next  morning  Lee,  when  near  Appomattox  Court- 
house, discovered  this  obstacle  in  his  way,  and  about  the  same  time 
Sheridan  was  joined  by  the  army  of  the  James,  under  General  Ord,  while 
the  army  of  the  Potomac,  under  General  Meade,  was  closing  in  fast  upon 
Lee's  rear.  General  Lee  had  now  but  eight  thousand  men  with  arms  in 
their  hands.  The  bulk  of  his  forces,  being  too  much  broken  down  by 
fatigue  and  hunger  to  keep  their  places  in  the  ranks,  accompanied  the 
regiments  in  a  disorganized  mass.  As  soon  as  he  discovered  Sheridan  in 
his  front,  Lee  attempted  to  cut  his  way  through  his  lines,  but  failing  in 
this  effort,  and  being  convinced  that  further  resistance  would  merely  be  a 
useless  sacrifice  of  his  men,  he  asked  for  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  and 
went  to  meet  General  Grant. 

The  two  commanders  met  at  a  house  near  Appomattox  Court-house, 
and  after  a  brief  interview  arranged  the  terms  of  the  surrender.  General 
Grant  treated  the  beaten  army  with  great  liberality.  The  hungry  Con- 
federates were  fed  by  the  victors,  and  after  laying  down  their  arms  were 
permitted  to  return  to  their  homes.  In  order  that  the  men  might  betake 
themselves  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  and  so  avoid 
the  suffering  which  the  failure  of  the  harvest  would  entail  upon  the 
south,  General  Grant  released  all  captured  horses  which  were  identified 
as  the  property  of  the  soldiers  surrendering  them.  The  terms  of  the 
surrender  were  arranged  on  the  9th  of  April.  On  the  12th  the  army  of 
northern  Virginia  formed  in  divisions  for  the  last  time,  and  marching  to 
a  designated  spot  near  Appomattox  Court-house,  laid  down  its  arms,  and 
disbanded.  About  seventy-five  hundred  men  with  arms,  and  about 
eighteen  thousand  unarmed 'stragglers,  took  part  in  the  surrender.  The 

o  oo  /  i 

Federal  troops  treated  their  vanquished  opponents  with  true  soldierly 
kindness,  and  carefully  refrained  from  everything  which  might  seem  to 
insult  the  valor  that  had  won  their  earnest  admiration. 

The  news  of  the  capture  of  Richmond  and  Petersburg  and  the  sur- 
render of  Lee's  army  was  received  in  the  north  with  the  greatest  rejoicing. 
Bells  w'ere  rung,  cannon  fired,  and  illuminations  flashed  from  every  town 
and  village,  for  it  was  understood  that  these  great  successes  were  decisive 
of  the  war. 


• 


SURREXDEH   OK  GENERAL   LEE. 


SCO  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNU.ED  STATES. 

In  the  midst  of  these  rejoicings  occurred  a  terrible  tragedy,  which 
plunged  the  country  into  mourning.  President  Lincoln,  whose  re-elec- 
tion we  have  related,  entered  upon  his  second  terra  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1865,  amid  the  congratulations  of  the  country.  On  the  evening  of  the 
1 4th  of  April  he  attended  a  performance  at  Ford's  theatre,  in  the  city 
of  Washington.  During  the  midst  of  the  performance  the  report  of  a 
pistol  rang  through  the  house,  and  the  next  moment  a  man  leaped  from 
the  president's  box  upon  the  stage,  and  waving  a  pistol  over  his  head, 
shouted  "Sic  semper  tyrannis"  (Thus  always  with  tyrants),  and  disap- 
peared behind  the  scenes.  The  cry  was  raised  that  the  president  had 
been  killed,  and  in  the  commotion  which  ensued  the  assassin  escaped. 
The  murderer  had  entered  the  lobby  of  the  theatre,  and  had  fired  from 
the  door  of  the  private  box  upon  the  unsuspicious  president,  who  was 
sitting  with  his  back  to  him.  Mr.  Lincoln  fell  heavily  forward  and 
never  spoke  again.  He  was  conveyed  to  a  house  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  street, and  the  highest  skill  was  exerted  to  save  him;  but  all  in  vain. 
He  died  on  the  morning  of  the  15th,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  the 
leading  men  of  the  nation.  Appropriate  funeral  services  were  held  on 
the  19th,  and  the  body  of  the  martyred  president  was  conveyed  through 
the  principal  cities  of  the  north  and  west  to  Springfield,  Illinois,  where 
it  was  buried.  Along  the  entire  route  it  was  received  with  the  evidences 
of  the  nation's  grief.  Cities  were  draped  in  mourning,  and  dense  crowds 
poured  out  to  greet  the  funeral  cortege  and  testify  their  love  and  sorrow 
for  the  dead  man.  Even  in  the  south,  which  had  made  the  election  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  the  occasion  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  the  unaf- 
fected and  manly  virtues  of  this  simply  great  man  had  conquered  the 
people,  who  had  come  to  regard  him  as  their  best  and  truest  friend.  His 
death  was  sincerely  lamented  there,  and  in  the  lamentation  of  the  south 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  his  proudest  triumph.  His  death  was  a  crushing 
misfortune  to  the  whole  country.  He  was  the  only  man  capable  of  carry- 
ing out  a  policy  of  generous  conciliation  towards  the  south,  and  he  had 
resolved  upon  such  a  course.  He  was  sincerely  desirous  to  heal  the 
wounds  of  the  war  as  soon  as  possible,  and  was  strong  enough  to  put 
down  all  opposition  to  his  policy.  His  untimely  death,  as  well  as  the 
manner  of  it,  threw  back  the  settlement  of  our  national  troubles  fully 
five  years. 

As  he  leaped  from  the  president's  box  to  the  stage  the  assassin's  foot 
caught  in  an  American  flag  with  which  the  box  was  draped,  and  he  fell 
heavily,  breaking  his  leg.  He  managed  to  escape,  however.  It  was  im- 
mediately ascertained  that  the  assassin  was  John  Wilkes  Booth,  a  younger 
son  of  the  famous  actor  Junius  Brutus  Booth.  Almost  at  the  same  time 


THE  CIVIL    WAR. 


861 


MONUMENT  TO  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  IN  FAIRMOUNT  PABK,   PHILADELPHIA. 

that  the  president  was  shot,  another  assassin,  one  Payne  alias  Powell, 
entered  the  residence  of  Secretary  Seward.  Proceeding  to  the  chamber 
where  the  secretary  was  confined  to  a  sick-bed,  he  attacked  the  two  attend- 
ants of  the  invalid,  and  his  son,  Frederick  W.  Seward,  and  injured  them 
severely,  and  then  attempted  to  cut  Mr.  Seward's  throat.  He  succeeded 
in  gashing  the  face  of  his  intended  victim,  but  fled  before  further  harm 
could  be  done. 

Booth,  who  was  most  probably  insane,  had  drawn  quite  a  number  of 
persons  into  a  conspiracy,  which  had  for  its  object  the  murder  of  the 
president  and  vice-president,  Secretaries  Seward  and  Stanton,  and  Chief 
Justice  Chase.  The  plot  failed  through  unexpected  movements  of  some 
of  the  intended  victims  and  the  cowardice  of  some  of  the  conspirators. 
Booth  and  a  young  man  named  Har  >ld  fled  into  lower  Maryland,  from 
which  they  crossed  the  Potomac  into  Virginia.  They  were  pursued  l-y 
the  government  detectives  and  a  squadron  of  cavalry,  and  were  tnx  k«<l 
to  a  barn  in  Caroline  county,  Virginia,  between  Bowling  Green  and  Port 
Royal.  Here  they  were  surrounded  on  the  26th  of  April.  Harold  sur- 
rendered himself,  but  Booth,  refusing  to  yield,  was  shot  by  Sergeant 
Boston  Corbett,  and  died  a  few  lioure  later,  after  suffering  intensely.  His 


862 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


HON.   W.  H.  SEWARD. 


accomplices  were  arrested,  and  were  brought  to  trial  before  a  military 
commission  at  Washington.  Payne  or  Powell,  Atzerot,  Harold,  and 
Mrs.  Surratt  were  condemned  to  death,  and  were  hanged  on  the  7th  of 
July,  1865,  for  complicity  in  the  plot.  Dr.  Mudd,  O'Laughlin  and 

Arnold  were  imprisoned  in  the 
Dry  Tortugas  for  life,  and  Spongier 
for  six  years.  What  Booth  ex- 
pected to  accomplish  by  his  horri- 
ble deed  yet  remains  a  mystery.  It 
is  now  generally  believed  that  he 
was  insane  ;  rendered  so  perhaps  by 
his  dissipated  habits — and  in  this 
state  of  mind  had  conceived  the  idea 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  tyrant,  and 
as  such  ought  to  be  put  to  death. 
He  had  no  accomplices  in  the  south, 
and  his  bloody  deed  was  regarded 
with  horror  by  the  southern  people. 
We  must  now  return  to  Sher- 
man's army,  which  we  left  resting  at 
Goldsboro'.  Johnston's  army  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Raleigh,  and  after 
tiie  fall  of  Richmond  was  joined  by  Mr.  Davis  and  the  various  officers  of 
the  Confederate  government.  On  the  10th  of  April  Sherman  advanced 
from  Goldsboro'  towards  Johnston's  position,  and  steadily  pressed  the 
Confederate  army  back.  On  the  13th  Sherman  entered  Raleigh.  Being 
convinced  that  further  resistance  was  hopeless,  and  having  learned  of1  tho 
surrender  of  General  Lee's  army,  General  John- 
ston now  opened  negotiations  with  General  Sher- 
man for  the  surrender  of  his  army  to  the  Federal 
commander.  The  result  of  these  negotiations  was 
an  agreement  signed  by  the  two  commanders  on 
the  18th  of  April.  As  this  agreement  provided 
for  the  restoration  of  the  States  of  the  Confed- 
eracy to  their  lost  places  in  the  Union,  it  was  dis- 
approved by  the  Federal  government,  and  Sher- 
man was  ordered  to  resume  hostilities.  General  LIEUT.-GEN. E. KIRBY SMITH. 
Johnston  was  at  once  notified  by  General  Sherman 

of  this  order,  and  on  the  26th  of  April  entered  into  an  agreement  with 
him  by  which  he  surrendered  to  General  Sherman  all  the  Confederate 
forces  under  his  command,  on  terms  similar  to  those  granted  to  Genera' 
Lee  bv  General  Grant. 


864 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


The  example  of  Generals  Lee  and  Johnston  was  followed  by  the  oilier 
Confederate  commanders  throughout  the  south.  The  last  to  surrender 
was  General  E.  Kirby  Smith,  in  Texas,  on  the  26th  of  May.  On  the 
29th  of  May  President  Johnson  issued  a  proclamation  announcing  the 
close  of  the  war,  and  offering  amnesty  to  all  who  had  participated  in  it 

on  the  Confederate  side,  with  the  exception  of 
fourteen  specified  classes. 

Upon  the  surrender  of  Johnston's  army,  Mr. 
Davis  and  the  members  of  his  former  cabinet 
endeavored  to  make  their  way  to  the  coast  of 
Florida,  from  which  they  hoped  to  be  able  to 
reach  the  West  Indies.  Some  of  them  suc- 
ceeded in  doing  so,  but  Mr.  Davis  was  captured 
at  Irwinsville,  Georgia,  on  the  10th  of  May, 
and  was  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Fortress  Monroe, 
where  he  was  held  in  confinement  until  May, 
1867. 

The  civil  war  was  over.  It  had  cost  the  country  one  million  of  men 
in  the  killed  and  crippled  for  life  of  the  two  armies.  In  money  the  north 
and  the  south  had  expended  probably  the  enormous  sum  of  $5,000,000,- 
000.  The  exact  amount  will  never  be  known,  as  the  Confederate  debt 
perished  with  the  government  which  created  it. 


JTOAH    P.  BENJAMIN. 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   ANDREW   JOHNSON. 

The  New  President— Keturn  of  the  Army  to  Civil  Life— The  Public  Debt— The  Recon- 
struction Question — Action  of  the  President— He  declares  the  Southern  States  Read* 
mitted  into  the  Union— The  Fifteenth  Amendment— Meeting  of  Congress — Tha 
President's  Acts  Annulled — Reconstruction  Policy  of  Congress — The  Fourteenth 
Amendment — The  Freedman's  Bureau  and  Civil  Rights  Bills— The  Tenure  of  Office 
Act — Admission  of  Nebraska  into  the  Union — The  Southern  States  Organized  as  Mili- 
tary Districts — Admission  of  Southern  States  into  the  Union— The  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment Ratified — President  Johnson's  Quarrel  with  Secretary  Stanton — Impeachment  of 
the  President — His  Acquittal — Release  of  Jefferson  Davis — Indian  War — The  French 
in  Mexico — Fall  of  the  Mexican  Empire — Laying  of  the  Atlantic  Telegraph — Purchase 
of  Alaska — Naturalization  Treaty  with  Germany — Treaty  with  China — Death  of  Gen- 
eral Scott — Death  of  ex-President  Buchanan — General  Grant  Elected  President — The 
Fifteenth  Amendment. 


PON  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Andrew  Johnson,  the  vice-presi- 
dent, by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution,  became  president  of  the 
United  States.  He  took  the  oath  of  office  on  the  15th  of  April, 
and  at  once  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  His  first 
act  was  to  retain  all  the  members  of  the  cabinet  appointed  by 
Mr.  Lincoln. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  a  native  of  North  Carolina,  having  been  born  ia 
Raleigh  on  the  29th  of  December,  1808.  At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  bound 
as  an  apprentice  to  a  tailor  of  that  city.  He  was  at  this  time  unable  to 
read  or  write.  Some  years  later,  being  determined  to  acquire  an  educa- 
tion, he  learned  the  alphabet  irom  a  fellow-workman,  and  a  friend  tau«rht 
him  spelling.  He  was  soon  able  to  read,  and  pursued  his  studios  steadily, 
working  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day  at  his  trade,  and  studying  two  or  three 
more.  In  1826  he  removed  to  Greenville,  Tennessee,  carrying  with  him 
his  mother,  who  was  dependent  upon  him  for  support.  Upon  attaining 
manhood  he  married,  and  continued  his  studies  under  the  direction  of  his 
wife,  supporting  his  family  in  the  meantime  by  his  trade.  He  was  sub- 
sequently chosen  alderman  of  his  town,  and  with  this  election  entered 
upon  his  political  career.  Studying  law  he  abandoned  tailoring,  and  de- 
voted himself  to  legal  pursuits  and  politics.  He  was  successively  chosen 
mayor,  member  of  the  legislature,  presidential  elector,  and  State  senator. 
He  was  twice  elected  governor  of  Tennessee,  and  three  times  a  senator  of 
55  <» 


866  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

the  United  States  from  that  State.  Upon  the  secession  of  Tennessee  from 
the  Union  he  refused  to  relinquish  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  and  remained 
faithful  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  throughout  the  war,  winning  consider- 
able reputation  during  the  struggle  by  his  services  in  behalf  of  the  na- 
tional cause.  He  was  an  earnest,  honest-hearted  man,  who  sincerely 
desired  to  do  his  duty  to  the  country.  His  mistakes  were  due  to  his  tem- 
perament, and  proceeded  from  no  desire  to  serve  his  own  interests  or  those 
of  any  party.  In  his  public  life  he  was  incorruptible.  A  man  of  ardent 
nature,  strong  convictions,  and  indomitable  will,  it  was  not  possible  that 
he  should  avoid  errors,  or  fail  to  stir  up  a  warm  and  determined  opposi- 
tion to  his  policy. 

The  first  duty  devolving  upon  the  new  administration  was  the  disband- 
ing of  the  army,  which  at  the  close  of  the  war  numbered  over  a  million 
of  men.  It  was  prophesied  by  foreign  nations  and  feared  by  many  per- 
sons at  home  that  the  sudden  return  of  such 
a  large  body  of  men  to  the  pursuits  of  civil 
life  would  be  attended  with  serious  evils,  but 
both  the  Union  and  the  Confederate  soldiers 
went  back  quietly  and  readily  to  their  old 
avocations.  Thus  did  these  citizen-soldiers 
give  to  the  world  a  splendid  exhibition  of 
the  triumph  of  law  and  order  in  a  free 
country,  and  a  proof  of  the  stability  of  our 
institutions. 

Two   questions — both  difficult  and   deli- 
cate— presented  themselves  for  settlement  by 
the  government.     In  June,  1865,  the  war 
ANDREW  JOHNSON.  debt  amounted  to  $2,700,000,000.     The  in- 

terest on  this  sum  was  $133,000,000,  and 

•was  nearly  all  payable  in  gold.  The  government  was  called  upon  to 
raise  the  latter  amount  to  pay  the  interest  on  its  bonds,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  take  measures  to  strengthen  the  confidence  of  the  bondholders  in 
the  security  of  their  investments.  The  latter  object  was  accomplished  by 
a  solemn  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  adopted  with  but 
one  dissenting  voice  on  the  5th  of  December,  1865,  pledging  the  faith  of 
the  nation  to  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,  "  principal  and  interest." 
In  order  to  provide  for  the  immediate  wants  of  the  government  Congress 
levied  additional  duties  on  imported  articles,  and  imposed  taxes  upon 
manufactured  articles,  incomes,  etc.  These  burdensome  imposts  were 
cheerfully  submitted  to  by  the  people,  and  a  revenue  of  over  $300,000,000 
was  raised,  providing  not  only  for  the  payment  of  the  interest  on  the 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 


t,  and  of  the  current  expenses  of  the  government,  but  also  leaving  a 
targe  surplus,  which  was  applied  to  the  reduction  of  the  national  <1«  bu 
In  the  year  1866,  "  before  all  the  extra  troops  called  out  by  the  war  hud 
bee*i  discharged,  the  debt  had  been  diminished  more  tlian  thirty-one 
millions  of  dollars" — a  striking  proof  of  the  ability  as  well  as  the  wil- 
lingness of  the  nation  to  discharge  its  financial  obligations.  During  the 
remamd  3r  of  Mr.  Johnson's  term  this  policy  was  faithfully  adhered  U, 
under  1  le  able  guidance  of  Hugh  McCulloch,  secretary  of  the  treasury. 

Thf  jther  question  demanding  immediate  attention  was  the  adjustment 
of  the  relations  of  the  States  of  the  south  to  the  Union.     The  president 


CTT?  HAIX,  PORTLAND,  MATTTE. 

ixeld  that  they  had  never  been  out  of  the  Union,  but  had  simply  been  iu 
insurrection,  and  had  been  brought  back  to  the  acknowledgment  of  their 
•allegiance  to  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  wh.rh  1 
claimed  they  had  no  power  to  renounce.     Now  that  they  had  subimit 
to  the  authority  they  had  formerly  endeavored  to  reject,  he  claimed 
they  were  entitled  to  immediate  restoration  to  their  old  places 
Union.     In  support  of  his  position  he  quoted  the  solemn  fa 
Cono-ress  in  the  summer  of  1861,  and  the  assurances  of  Mr.  Lm< 

•I 


868  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

administration  that  the  war  was  fought  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union, 
and  not  for  purposes  of  conquest.  In  accordance  with  these  declarations, 
provisional  governments  had  been  formed  in  some  of  the  Southern  States 
and  their  representatives  had  been  admitted  to  Congress  during  the  pro- 
gress of  the  war.  A  considerable  party  in  the  north  supported  President 
Johnson  in  this  position;  but  the  Republican  party,  now  the  dominant. 
political  organization  of  the  United  States,  opposed  his  views  with  great 
determination.  The  Republicans  insisted  that  the  results  of  the  war 
should  be  secured  by  stringent  laws,  and  that  the  Southern  States,  before 
their  admission  into  the  Union,  should  be  compelled  to  give  guarantees  for 
the  perpetuation  of  these  results.  The  Republican  party,  moreover,  claimed 
that  the  work  of  reconstructing  the  Union  properly  belonged  to  the  legis- 
lative branch  of  the  government  and  not  to  the  president.  Had  the 
president  summoned  Congress  in  extra  session  and  sought  the  aid  of  that 
body  in  the  task  before  him,  a  conciliatory  policy  might  have  been  agreed 
upon,  and  the  work  of  reconstruction  have  been  completed  without 
delay. 

President  Johnson,  however,  proceeded  alone  and  without  delay  to  the 
work  of  restoring  the  Southern  States  to  their  places  in  the  Union.  On 
the  29th  of  May,  1865,  he  issued  a  proclamation  appointing  a  provisional 
governor  for  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  and  providing  for  the  assem- 
bling of  a  convention  in  that  State  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  new  con- 
stitution, under  which  the  State  would  be  recognized  by  him  as  a  member 
of  the  Federal  Union.  In  the  meantime  North  Carolina  was  kept  under 
military  rule.  A  similar  course  was  pursued  by  the  president  towards  the 
States  of  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Missis- 
sippi, Arkansas,  Louisiana  and  Texas.  The  people  of  the  ten  Southern 
States  held  conventions  in  accordance  with  the'  president's  requirements, 
annulled  their  ordinances  of  secession,  renewed  their  obligations  to  the 
Federal  Union,  adopted  new  State  constitutions,  and  ratified  the  thir- 
teenth amendment  to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  prohibiting 
slavery  forever  in  all  the  States  of  the  Union.  They  also  elected  senators 
and  representatives  to  Congress,  and  were  recognized  by  the  president  as 
formally  restored  to  their  places  in  the  Federal  Union. 

On  the  1st  of  February,  1865,  Congress  passed  a  resolution  submitting 
to  the  legislatures  of  the  various  States  the  following  amendment  to  the 
constitution  : 


I.  Section  1.  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  pun- 
ishment for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the 
United  States,  or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

"Section  2.  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by  appropriate  legislation." 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

On  the  18th  of  December,  William  H.  Seward,  secretary  of  state,  for- 
mally announced  that  this,  the  thirteenth  amendment,  had  been  duly 
ratified  by  the  States,  and  had  become  a  part  of  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  ratification  of  this  amendment  had  been  required  of 
the  Southern  States  by  the  president  as  a  condition  of  their  readm. 
into  the  Union. 

The  Thirty-ninth  Congress  met  in  December,  1865,  and  at  once  took 
measures  to  neutralize  the  reconstruction  policy  of  the  president  The 
Republican  party  had  a  large  majority  in  eacli  house,  and  was  thoroughly 
united  in  its  opposition  to  the  president.  The  senators  and  representatives 
of  the  Southern  States  were  refused  admission  to  seats  in  Congress,  and 
the  reconstruction  measures  of  the  president  were  treated  as  null  and  void. 
Congress  insisted  that  the  Union  should  not  be  "  restored  "  as  it  was  be- 
fore the  war,  but  "  reconstructed "  upon  an  entirely  new  basis.  The 
measures  of  the  president  had  made  no  change  in  the  political  status  of 
the  black  population  of  the  south.  The  negroes  were  secured  in  their 
freedom  by  the  thirteenth  amendment.  Congress  now  proceeded  to 
make  the  negro  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  to  reconstruct  the 
Union  upon  this  basis.  The  following,  known  as  the  fourteenth  amend- 
ment to  the  constitution,  was  adopted  by  Congress  and  proposed  to  the 
States  for  ratification : 

"ARTICLE  XIV.  Section  1.  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and 
subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  of  the  States 
wherein  they  reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the 
privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States :  nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any 
person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to  any  person 
within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws. 

"  Section  2.  Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  several  States  according  to 
their  respective  numbers,  counting  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  each  State,  excluding 
Indians  not  taxed  ;  but  when  the  right  to  vot3  at  any  election,  for  the  choice  of  electors  for 
president  and  vice-president  of  the  United  States,  representatives  in  Congress,  the  executive 
and  judicial  officers  of  a  State  or  the  members  of  the  legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any 
of  the  male  inhabitants  of  such  State  (being  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  citizens  of  the 
United  States),  or  in  any  way  abridged  except  for  participation  in  rebellion  or  other  crime, 
the  basis  of  representation  therein  shall  be  reduced  in  the  proportion  which  the  number 
of  such  male  citizens  shall  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of 
age,  in  said  State. 

"  Section  3.  No  person  shall  be  a  senator  or  representative  in  Congress,  or  elector  of  pres- 
ident and  vice-president,  or  hold  any  office,  civil  or  military,  under  the  United  State*,  or 
under  any  State,  who,  having  previously  taken  an  oath  as  a  Ynember  of  Congress,  or  u  an 
officer  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a  member  of  any  State  legislature,  or  as  an  executive 
judicial  officer  of  any  State,  to  support  the  constitution  of  the  United  Stateis  *hall  havi 
engaged   in   insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid  or  comfort  to  U 
enemies  thereof;  but  Congress  may,  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  each  House,  remove  «uch 
disability. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


"  »"$ecr><TO  4.  The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States  authorized  by  law,  in- 
cluding debts  incurred  for  payment  of  pensions  and  bounties  for  services  in  suppressing 
insurrection  or  rebellion,  shall  not  be  questioned  ;  but  neither  the  United  States  nor  any 
State  shall  assume  or  pay  any  debt  or  obligation  incurred,  in  aid  of  insurrection  or  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for  the  loss  or  emancipation  of  any  slave;  but  all 
?icU  debts,  obligations  and  claims  shall  be  held  illegal  and  void, 

"Section  5.  The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce,  by  appropriate  legislation,  the 
provisions  of  this  article." 

This  amendment  was  rejected  by  all  the  Southern  States  except  Ten- 
nessee, and  by  several  of  the  Northern  States.  Tennessee  ratified  the 
amendment,  and  was  admitted  by  Congress  into  the  Union.  Congress  at 


CHESTiniT  8TBEET  BRIDGE  OVEB  THE    gCHTTTLKILL,  PHILADELPHIA. 

this  session  enacted  what  is  known  as  the  "  Freedman's  Bureau  Bill," 
creating  a  department  nnder  the  Federal  government  for  the  care  and  pro- 
tection of  the  newly  emancipated  negroes  and  the  destitute  whites  of  the 
south.  This  measure  was  vetoed  by  the  president  as  unconstitutional, 
and  was  passed  over  his  veto.  It  was  immediately  put  in  operation 
throughout  the  south.  While  the  freedman's  bureau  did  much  to  assist 
the  negro  in  adapting  himself  to  the  duties  of  his  new  position,  it  wag 
productive  of  an  immense  amount  of  corruption  and  fraud. 

Another  measure  of  Congress  which  was  vetoed  by  the  president  upon 
constitutional  grounds,  and  was  passed  over  his  veto,  was  the  "  Civil  Eights 
Bill,"  which  secured  to  the  negro  the  rights,  ©f  a  citizen. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON.  371 

As  the  quarrel  between  the  president  and  Congress  deepened,  various 
efforts  were  made  by  the  latter  to  hamper  the  executive  and  impair  his 
powers.  The  Thirty-ninth  Congress  adopted  for  this  purpose  a  measure 
known  as  the  "  Tenure  of  Office  Act,"  by  the  terms  of  which  the  presi- 
dent was  forbidden  to  remove  any  person  from  a  civil  office  under  the 
government  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  This  bill  was  promptly 
vetoed  by  the  president,  but  was  passed  over  his  veto  by  Congress. 

On  the  1st  of  March,  1867,  a  new  State  was  added  to  the  Union  by  tho 
admission  of  Nebraska  on  an  equality  with  the  original  thirteen  States — 
four  of  which  were  at  that  time  undergoing  the  process  of  reconstruction. 

In  February,  1867,  Congress  proceeded  to  take  extreme  measures  with 
the  Southern  States  that  had  refused  to  ratify  the  fourteenth  amend- 
ment. The  State  governments  were  abolished,  the  State  officers  removed, 
and  the  Southern  States  were  organized  as  military  districts,  and  placed 
under  absolute  martial  law.  The  writ  of  Jiabeas  corpus  was  suspended, 
and  the  civil  law  was  made  to  give  place  to  the  will  of  a  military  com- 
mander. This  was  done  with  the  avowed  intention  of  compelling  the 
Southern  States  to  ratify  the  fourteenth  amendment  and  seek  admission 
into  the  Union  upon  the  terms  prescribed  by  Congress.  The  effect  of  the 
measures  of  Congress  was  to  disfranchise  the  better  class  of  the  southern 
people,  and  to  confer  the  tinrastricted  right  of  suffrage  upon  the  negroes. 
The  intelligence  of  the  Southern  States  was  denied  any  voice  in  their  gov- 
ernment, which  was  intrusted  to  the  most  ignorant  and  degraded  part  of 
their  population.  The  measures  of  Congress  were  regarded  with  bitter 
hostility  by  the  south,  and  there  were  very  many  of  the  more  thoughtful 
Republicans  of  the  north  who  seriously  doubted  the  wisdom  of  this 
method  of  reconstruction.  The  measures  of  Congress  \\vre  vetoed  by  the 
president,  but  were  passed  over  his  veto,  March  2d,  1867. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  military  districts,  the  commanding  gen- 
erals, who,  as  a  rule,  exercised  their  power  with  moderation  and  forbear- 
ance, caused  a  registry  of  voters  to  be  made,  and  ordered  elections  to  be 
held  for  conventions  to  form  State  governments.  The  conventions  so 
elected  could  not  in  any  case  be  said  to  represent  the  white  people  of  the 
south.  After  a  bitter  and  protracted  struggle,  some  of  the  convention* 
ratified  the  fourteenth  amendment,  and  organized  State  government-. 
On  the  24th  of  June,  1868,  Congress  passed  a  bill  over  the  president's 
veto  admitting  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georp".  I'"'ii<- 
iana,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina  into  th«>  Union.  Vinrini:i. 
Mississippi,  and  Texas,  having  refused  to  ratify  the  amendment,  were 
denied  admission  into  the  Union. 

The   fourteenth    amendment    having  been  adopted   by  the   requisite. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 


873 


number  of  States,  was  formally  declared  a  part  of  the  constitution  on  the 
28th  of  July,  1868. 

In  the  meantime  the  quarrel  between  the  president  and  Congress  came 
lo  a  decisive  issue.  The  extreme  or  radical  wing  of  the  Republican 
party,  comprising  the  majority  in  Congress,  was  anxious  to  remove  Mr. 
Johnson  from  his  position.  Could  it  succeed  in  doing  so,  Benjamin 
Wade,  of  Ohio,  the  president  of  the  Senate,  would,  by  virtue  of  his  office, 
become  president  of  the  United  States.  As  Mr.  Wade  was  one  of  the  ex- 
treme radical  leaders,  this  would  place  the  whole  power  of  the  govern- 


LAKE  STREET,  CHICAGO. 

ment  in  the  hands  of  that  party.     A  quarrel  between  the  president  and 
Mr.  Stanton,  the  secretary  of  war,  furnished  the  occasion  for  this  effi 
On  the  12th  of  August,  1867,  Secretary  Stanton  was  removed  from  the 
war  department  by  President  Johnson,  who  appointed  General  Grant 
secretary  of  war  ad  interim.     Upon  the  meeting  of  Congress  in  Pcoetu 
ber,  1867,  the  president's  course  was  denounced  as  a  violation  of 
tenure  of  office  act,  and  on  the  12th  of  January,  1868,  the  Senate  re- 
fused to  sanction  the  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton.     Mr.  Sianton  theroupoi 
demanded  of  General  Grant  the  surrender  of  the  war  department,  and  the 


874  HISTORY  OF  TUE  UNITED  STATES. 

latter  at  once  complied  with  the  demand.  On  the  21st  of  February, 
President  Johnson  again  removed  Mr.  Stanton,  and  appointed  General 
Lorenzo  Thomas,  adjutant-general  of  the  United  States,  secretary  of  war 
ad  Interim.  He  held  the  tenure  of  office  act  to  be  unconstitutional,  and 
an  invasion  of  his  lawful  powers  as  chief  magistrate  of  the  republic. 
This  second  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  on 
the  24th  of  February,  1868,  the  House  of  Representatives,  by  a  strict 
party  vote,  ordered  the  president  to  be  impeached  of  high  crimes  and  mis- 
demeanors.* The  Senate,  sitting  as  a  high  court  of  impeachment,  met 
on  the  5th  of  March,  1868,  under  the  presidency  of  Chief-Justice  Chase. 
The  impeachment  was  conducted  by  managers  appointed  by  the  House, 
and  the  president  was  defended  by  able  counsel.  On  the  26th  of  May, 
the  case  being  closed,  the  vote  was  taken,  with  the  following  result :  For 
conviction,  34;  for  acquittal,  19.  There  not  being  the  requisite  two- 
thirds  vote  for  conviction,  the  president  was  acquitted. 

Jefferson  Davis  had  been  confined  in  Fortress  Monroe  since  his  capture 
by  the  Federal  forces,  in  May,  1865.  All  the  Confederate  officials  taken 
by  the  Union  forces  had  been  released  within  a  year  after  their  capture 
on  giving  their  parole  to  answer  any  prosecution  that  might  be  brought 
against  them  by  the  Federal  authorities.  Mr.  Davis  was  excepted  from 
this  clemency,  and  remained  in  prison  for  two  years.  A  prosecution  for 

*  The  charges  against  the  president  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  1.  Unlawfully  order- 
ing the  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton  from  the  office  of  secretary  of  war,  in  violation  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  tenure  of  office  act.  2.  The  unlawful  appointment  of  General  Lorenzo 
Thomas  as  secretary  of  war  ad  interim.  3.  Conspiring  with  General  Thomas  and  other 
persons  to  prevent  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  lawfully  appointed  secretary  of  war,  from  hold- 
ing that  office.  6.  Conspiring  with  General  Thomas  and  other  persons  to  hinder  the 
operation  of  the  tenure  of  office  net ;  and  in  pursuance  of  this  conspiracy  attempting  to 
prevent  Mr.  Stanton  from  acting  as  secretary  of  war.  6.  Conspiring  with  General  Thomas 
and  others  to  take  forcible  possession  of  the  property  in  the  war  department.  7.  The 
president  was  charged  with  having  called  before  him  the  commander  of  the  troops  in  the 
department  of  Washington,  and  declaring  to  him  that  a  law  passed  on  the  30th  of  June, 
1867,  directing  that  "  all  orders  and  instructions  relating  to  military  operations,  issued  by 
the  president  or  secretary  of  war,  shall  be  issued  through  the  general  of  the  army,  and  in 
case  of  his  inability  through  the  next  in  rank,"  was  unconstitutional,  and  not  binding  upon 
the  commander  of  the  department  of  Washington,  the  design  being  to  induce  that  com- 
mander to  violate  the  law,  and  obey  orders  issued  directly  from  the  president.  8.  That 
in  a  number  of  public  speeches  the  president  had  attempted  to  set  aside  the  authority  of 
Congress,  to  bring  it  into  disgrace,  and  to  excite  the  hatred  and  resentment  of  the  people 
against  Congress  and  the  laws  enacted  by  it.  9.  That  in  August,  1866,  in  a  public  speech 
in  Washington,  the  president  had  declared  that  Congress  was  not  a  body  authorized  by  the 
constitution  to  exercise  legislative  powers.  Then  followed  a  specification  of  alleged  at- 
tempts on  the  part  of  the  president  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  Congress.  The 
impeachment  articles  were  eleven  in  number.  The  othar  two  were  simply  repetitions  of 
tome  of  the  above  charges, 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANDREW  JOILMsOS.  375 

treason  was  instituted  against  him  in  the  district  court  of  Virginia,  but 
he  was  not  brought  to  trial.  A  number  of  prominent  citizens  of  the  north 
who  had  been  so  active  in  their  support  of  the  war  that  their  motives 
could  not  be  suspected,  exerted  themselves  to  procure  his  release  on  bail, 
and  became  his  sureties.  He  was  accordingly  released  on  bail  on  the  13th 
of  May,  1867.  During  the  following  year  the  indictment  against  him 
was  quashed  by  the  government. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  civil  war  a  vexatious  and  bloodv  warfare 
with  the  Indians  broke  out  on  the  frontier.  It  began  in  1864,  and  ex- 
tended through  1865  and  1866,  and  until  the  fall  of  1868  its  ravages  were 
spread  along  the  frontier  through  Southern  Colorado  into  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory, causing  severe  suffering  to  the  settlers  of  this  region.  By  the 
winter  of  1865-'66  the  war  had  assumed  such  formidable  proportions 
that  General  Sheridan  was  sent  with  a  considerable  force  against  the 
savages.  The  vigorous  measures  of  Sheridan, 
and  General  Ouster's  victory  over  the  band  of 
Black  Kettle  at  Wacheta,  brought  the  war  to 
a  close  in  the  fall  of  1868. 

While  the  civil  war  was  at  its  height, 
France,  England  and  Spain  became  involved 
in  a  quarrel  with  Mexico  concerning  the  non- 
payment of  certain  claims  due  citizens  of  those 
countries  by  the  Mexican  republic,  and  a  joint 
expedition  was  despatched  to  Mexico  in  the 

fall  of  1861.     Discovering  that   France  was     MAJ.-OEK.  OEO.  w.  CTBTER. 
seeking  to  use  the  expedition  to  destroy  the  in- 
dependence of  Mexico,  England  and  Spain  settled  their  claims  with  the 
republic  by  the  convention  of  Solidad,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1862,  and 
withdrew  their  forces.     The  French,  however,  continued  the  war,  and 
after  a  hard  struggle,  during  which  the  Mexicans  fought  gallantly  for 
their  country,  Mexico   was  conquered,  and   early   in   June,  1863,  the 
French  army  entered  the  capital.     The  emperor  of  the  French  now  pro 
ceeded  to  overthrow  the  republic,  it  being  his  intention  to  replace  it  with 
an  empire  which  should  be  dependent  upon  France.     An  election  ww 
held  and  under  the  intimidation  of  the  French,  resulted  in  a  major, 
favor  of  the  abolition  of  the  republic  and  the  erection  of  the  ern 
Through  the  same  influence  the  Mexicans  chose  Maximilian,  arch, 
of  Austria,  emperor  of  Mexico,  and  in  an  evil  hour  for  himself 
amiable  and  high-soulecl  prince  accepted  the  crown. 

The  government  of  the  United  States  had  viewed  the  interference 
France  in  Mexican  affairs  with  marked  displeasure,  but  being  too  mucb 


376  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

engaged  in  its  efforts  to  bring  the  civil  war  to  a  successful  close  to  under- 
take any  new  difficulty,  simply  entered  its  protest  against  the  action  of 
France.  The  civil  war  having  been  brought  to  a  close,  however,  it  took 
a  bolder  stand,  and  demanded  of  the  French  emperor  the  withdrawal  of 
his  troops  from  Mexico.  The  action  of  the  government  was  sustained  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  American  people,  and  it  was  believed  by  many  that 
a  foreign  war  would  be  a  sure  and  speedy  way  of  bringing  about  the 
restoration  of  the  Union.  The  Emperor  Napoleon  hesitated  for  a  while, 
but  finally  acceded  to  the  American  demand.  The  French  troops  were 
recalled  at  the  close  of  the  year  1866,  and  the  Emperor  Maximilian  was 
left  to  face  the  Mexican  people  alone.  They  at  once  rose  against  him,  de- 
feated his  forces,  and  took  him  prisoner.  On  the  19th  of  June,  1867, 
he  was  shot  by  order  of  the  Mexican  government,  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  the  United  States  to  save  him.  Thus  ended  the  hope  of  reviving  the 
dominion  of  France  on  the  American  continent. 

The  efforts  of  the  gentlemen  interested  in  the  laying  of  a  telegraphic 
cable  across  the  Atlantic  did  not  end  with  their  failures  in  1858.  In 
1865  the  same  company  succeeded  in  laying  a  cable  for  about  fourteen 
hundred  miles  from  the  Irish  coast,  when  it  suddenly  parted  and  sank 
into  the  sea.  The  expedition  then  returned  to  England.  Undismayed 
by  this  failure,  Mr.  Cyrus  "W.  Field,  of  New  York,  to  whose  courage 
and  determination  the  final  success  of  the  scheme  was  due,  succeeded  in 
persuading  capitalists  to  make  one  more  effort,  and  in  July,  1866,  a  cable 
was  laid  from  Valentia  bay,  in  Ireland,  to  Heart's  Content,  in  Newfound- 
land, a  distance  of  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-four  miles.  It  was  found 
to  work  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  all  parties,  and  the  great  enterprise 
was  now  an  accomplished  fact.  The  fleet  then  sailed  from  Newfoundland 
to  the  spot  where  the  cable  of  1865  had  parted  in  mid-ocean,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  grapple  for  it.  It  was  recovered  and  raised  from  a  depth  of 
over  two  miles,  and  was  then  spliced  to  the  coil  on  board  the  "  Great 
Eastern,"  the  ship  employed  in  the  undertaking.  The  huge  steamer  then 
put  about,  and  completed  the  laying  of  the  cable  to  Heart's  Content,  thus 
giving  the  company  two  working  lines.  The  completion  of  the  work 
was  hailed  with  rejoicings  in  both  America  and  Europe. 

On  the  29th  of  March,  1867,  a  treaty  was  concluded  between  the  United 
States  and  Russia,  by  which  the  latter  power  sold  to  the  United  States  for 
•  the  sum  of  seven  million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  all  of  the  region 
in  the  extreme  northwestern  part  of  the  American  continent  known  as 
Russian  America.  The  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  Senate  on  the  9th  of 
April.  The  new  territory  added  to  the  area  of  the  United  States  a  dis- 
trirt  of  about  five  hundred  and  seventy-seven  thousand  three  hundred 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ANDREW  JOHNSOX.  877 

and  ninety  square  miles.  In  July,  1868,  Congress  extended  over  tin- 
region  the  laws  of  the  United  States  relating  to  customs,  commerce  and 
navigation,  and  established  a  collection  district.  In  August,  1868,  the 
military  district  of  ALASKA  was  organized,  and  attached  to  the  department 
of  California.  With  the  exception  of  about  ten  thousand  whites,  the  in- 
habitants were,  at  the  time  of  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  all  Indians.  The 
region  is  chiefly  valuable  for  its  furs  and  fisheries,  and  for  its  harbors*, 
which  afford  a  safe  retreat  for  the  American  whalers  in  the  Pacific. 

In  1868  a  treaty  was  negotiated  between  the  United  States  and  the 
North  German  Confederation,  by  which  the  latter  power  recognized  the 
right  of  German  emigrants  to  the  United  States  to  renounce  their  alle- 
giance co  the  countries  of  their  birth,  and  become  citizens  of  the  United 
States  by  naturalization. 

In  the  same  year  a  treaty  was  negotiated  with  China,  through  an  em- 
bassy from  that  country,  which  visited  the  United  States  under  the  charge 
of  Anson  Burlingame,  formerly  the  American  minister  to  China.  It  was 
the  first  instance  in  which  that  exclusive  nation  had  ever  sought  to  nego- 
tiate a  treaty  of  commerce  and  friendship  with  a  foreign  nation.  Liberty 
of  conscience  to  Americans  residing  in  China,  protection  of  their  property 
and  persons,  and  important  commercial  privileges  were  secured  by  this 
treaty. 

In  1866  the  Fenians,  a  secret  society  organized  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
livering Ireland  from  British  rule,  invaded  Canada  in  large  numbers 
from  Buffalo,  New  York,  and  St.  Albans,  Vermont.  President  Johnson 
at  once  issued  his  proclamation  declaring  the  Fenian  movement  a  violation 
of  the  neutrality  of  the  United  States,  and  sent  General  Meade  with  a 
sufficient  force  to  the  border  to  execute  the  laws.  This  decisive  action 
put  an  end  to  the  hopes  of  the  Fenians  of  embroiling  this  country  in 
hostilities  with  Great  Britain,  and  after  some  slight  encounters  with  the 
British  troops  in  Canada  they  abandoned  the  expedition. 

During  President  Johnson's  administration,  two  distinguished  public 
servants  passed  away.  On  the  29th  of  May,  1866,  Lieutenant-General 
Winfield  Scott,  the  veteran  conqueror  of  Mexico,  died  at  the  age  of  eighty 
.years.  On  the  1st  of  June,  1868,  ex-President  James  Buchanan  died  at 
his  home  at  Wheatland,  near  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  gevrnty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age. 

In  the  fall  of  1868  the  presidential  election  was  held.     The  Republican 
party  nominated  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  the  commanding-general  of 
the  army,  for  the  presidency,  and  Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana,  for  the  vice- 
presidency.     The  Democratic  party  nominated  Horatio  Seymour,  of 
York,  for  the  presidency,  and  Frank  P.  Blair,  of  Missouri,  for  the  vice- 


878  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

presidency.  The  election  resulted  in  the  choice  of  General  Grant  by 
a  popular  vote  of  2,985,031  to  2,648,830  votes  cast  for  Mr.  Seymour. 
In  the  electoral  college  Grant  received  two  hundred  and  seventeen  votes 
and  Seymour  seventy-seven.  The  States  of  Virginia,  Mississippi  and 
Texas  were  not  allowed  to  take  part  in  this  election,  being  still  out  of 
jthe  Union. 

In  February,  1869,  the  two  houses  of  Congress  adopted  the  fifteenth 
amendment  to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  submitted  it  to 
the  various  States  for  ratification  by  them.  It  was  in  the  following 
words :  "  The  right  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall  not 
be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States,  or  any  State,  on  account  of 
race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude." 


CHAPTER   XLIV. 

THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF   ULYSSES   S.   GRANT. 

Early  Life  01  Vresident  (frant — Completion  of  the  Pacific  Railway — Death  of  ex-President 
Pierce — Tne  Firteenth  Amendment  Ratified — Prosperity  of  the  Country — The  Enforce- 
ment Act — The  'leal-oath  Abolished — The  Constitutionality  of  the  Legal  Tender  Act 
Affirmed — Death  of  Admiral  Farragut — Death  of  General  Lee — The  Income  Tax  Re- 
pealed— The  Alabama  <Jiaims — Treaty  of  Washington — The  Geneva  Conference— Award 
in  favor  of  the  United  States — The  San  Juan  Boundary  Question  settled — Efforts  to 
annex  St.  Domingo — Burning  of  Chicago — Forest  Fires — The  Civil  Disabilities  re- 
moved from  the  Southern  People — Re-election  of  General  Grant — Death  of  Horace 
Greeley — Great  Fira  at  Bwrton — The  Modoc  War — Murder  of  General  Canby  and  the 
Peace  Commissioners — Execution  of  the  Modoc  Chiefs — The  Cuban  Revolution — Cap- 
ture of  the  "Virginius" — Execution  of  the  Prisoners — Action  of  the  Federal  Government 
— The  Panic  of  1873 — Bill  lor  the  Resumption  of  Specie  Payments — The  Centennial 
Exhibition — The  Sioux  War — Death  ot  General  Custer — Presidential  Election — Con- 
troversy over  it — The  Electoral  Commission — The  Count  of  the  Vote — Hayes  declared 
elected. 

LYSSES  S.  GRANT,  the  eighteenth  president  of  the  United  States, 
was  inaugurated  at  Washington  with  imposing  ceremonies  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1869.  He  was  born  at  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio,  on 
the.  27th  of  April,  1822.  His  father  was  a  tanner,  and  wished 
him  to  follow  his  trade,  but  the  boy  had  more  ambitious  hopes, 
and  at  the  age  of  seventeen  a  friend  secured  for  him  an  appointment  as 
a  cadet  at  West  Point,  where  he  was  educated.  Upon  graduating  he 
entered  the  army.  Two  years  later  he  was  sent  to  Mexico,  and  served 
through  the  war  with  that  country  with  distinction.  He  was  specially 
noticed  by  his  commanders,  and  was  promoted  for  gallant  conduct.  Soon 
after  the  close  of  the  war  he  resigned  his  commission,  and  remained  in 
civil  life  and  obscurity  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war,  when  he 
volunteered  his  services,  and  was  commissioned  by  Governor  Yates 
colonel  of  the  twenty-first  Illinois  regiment.  He  was  soon  made  a  briga- 
dier-general, and  fought  his  first  battle  at  Belmont.  His  subsequent 
career  has  already  been  related  in  these  pages.  He  selected  the  members 
of  his  cabinet  more  because  of  his  personal  friendship  for  them  than  for 
their  weight  and  influence  in  the  party  that  had  elected  him.  Hamilton 
Fish  of  New  York  was  made  secretary  of  state. 

The  most  important  event  of  the  year  1869  was  the  opening  of  the 
Pacific  railway  from  the  Missouri  river  to  the  Pacific  ocean.    The  eastern 

879 


880  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

division  of  this  road  is  known  as  the  Union  Pacific  railway,  and  was 
begun  at  Omaha,  Nebraska,  in  December,  1863,  and  carried  westward. 
But  little  progress  was  made  in  the  work  until  1865,  when  it  was  pushed 
rapidly  forward.  The  western  division,  known  as  the  Central  Pacific 
railway,  was  begun  at  San  Francisco  near  about  the  same  time,  and  car- 
ried eastward  across  the  Sierra  Nevada.  The  two  roads  unite  at  Ogden. 
near  Salt  Lake  City,  in  Utah,  and  the  union  was  accomplished  on  the 
10th  of  May,  1869,  on  which  day  the  last  rail  was  laid.  The  Union 
Pacific  railway,  from  Omaha  to  Ogden,  is  one  thousand  and  thirty-two 
miles  in  length ;  the  Central  Pacific,  from  Ogden  to  San  Francisco,  eight 
hundred  and  eighty-two  miles  ;  making  a  total  line  of  nineteen  hundred 
and  fourteen  miles,  and  constituting  by  far  the  most  important  railway 
enterprise  in  the  world.  By  the  completion  of  this  great  road,  to  the 
construction  of  which  the  general  government  contributed  liberally  in 

money  and  lands,  Portland,  Maine,  and  San 
Francisco,  the  extremes  of  the  continent,  are 
brought  within  a  week's  travel.  The  long  and 
difficult  journey  across  the  plains  has  been  dis- 
pensed with,  and  the  traveller  may  now  pass 
over  this  once  terrible  and  dangerous  route 
with  speed  and  safety,  enjoying  all  the  while 
the  highest  comforts  of  the  most  advanced  civil- 
ization. The  east  and  the  west  are  no  longer 
separated,  and  the  rapid  development  of  the 
resources  of  the  rich  Pacific  slope  has  more 

ULYSSES  s.  GRANT.  ^^  rePai(i  tne  enormous  cost  of  the  road.     A 

direct  trade  with  China  and  Japan   has  been 

opened,  and  the  wealth  of  the  Orient  is  beginning  to  pour  into  America 
through  the  portals  of  the  Golden  Gate.  The  shortest  route  to  India— 
the  dream  of  Columbus  and  the  old  mariners— has  indeed  been  found. 

On  the  8th  of  October,  1869,  ex-President  Franklin  Pierce  died,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-five  years. 

The  fifteenth  amendment,  having  been  ratified  by  the  necessary  number 
of  States,  was  formally  proclaimed  by  Hamilton  Fish,  secretary  of  state, 
a  part  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  on  the  30th  of  March 
1870. 

In  the  year  1870  the  ninth  census  of  the  United  States  was  taken,  and 
showed  the  population  of  the  country  to  be  38,558,371  souls. 

The  country  had  now  attained  a  marked  degree  of  prosperity.  Gold 
fell  to  110,  and  during  the  first  two  years  of  President  Grant's  adminis- 
tration, $204.0nn  000  of  the  national  debt  were  paid.  The  effects  of  the 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ULYSSES  S. 


881 


war  were  being  rapidly  overcome,  and  the  bitter  feelings  engendered  by 
the  struggle  were  giving  way  to  a  more  friendly  intercourse  between  the 
north  and  the  south.  The  manufacturing  industries  of  the  country  had 
nearly  doubled  since  i  860,  and  the  five  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the 
war  had  witnessed  a  marked  improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  south. 


PRESIDENT   GRANT   LEAVING  THE  WHITE  HOUSE  TO   BE   INAUGURATE* 

whi2h  was  gradually  adjusting  her  industry  upon  the  basis  of  free  latx  r, 
and  entering  upon  new  and  profitable  enterprises  of  manufacture  aril 
commerce. 

The  work  of  reconstruction  was  concluded  in  the  year  1870.     On  the 
8th  of  October,  1869,  the  State  of  Virginia  ratified  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  amendments,  and  on  the  26th  of  January,  1870,  was  readmitted 
56 


\    , 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.  883 

into  the  Union.  On  the  llth  of  January,  1870,  Mississippi  ratified  these 
amendments,  and  was  readmitted  into  the  Union  on  the  17th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1870.  Texas  was  the  last  to  return  to  the  Union,  but  came  in 
during  the  year,  having  ratified  the  amend  nunta  to  the  constitution. 

The  political  troubles  in  the  south,  however,  did  not  end  with  the 
return  of  the  States  to  the  Union.  A  great  deal  of  lawlessness  prevailed 
in  many  of  the  Southern  States,  and  considerable  suffering  waa  experi 
enced  by  the  negroes,  whose  sudden  endowment  with  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  citizenship  was  resented  by  a  lawless  class  of  white  men.  The 
Federal  government  undertook  to  remedy  these  troubles  rather  than 
leave  them  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  States.  In  the  spring  of  1871  Con- 
gress passed  a  measure  known  as  the  "  Enforcement  Act,"  or  the  "  Ku- 
klux  Act  of  1871,"  which  gave  to  the  Federal  officials  absolute  power 
over  the  liberties  of  the  citizens  of  the  States  in  which  these  troubles* 
occurred.  The  president  carried  out  the  terms  of  the  act  with  prompt 
ness,  and  on  the  17th  of  October  issued  a  proclamation  suspending  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  nine  counties  in  South  Carolina,  in  order  that 
the  law  might  be  enforced  without  the  interference  of  the  courts  of  the 
State.  The  evils  which  these  severe  measures  were  intended  to  remedy 
were  unquestionably  very  great,  but  the  enforcement  bill  was  neverthe- 
less a  dangerous  departure  from  the  principles  of  free  government  as 
understood  in  this  country.  A  free  people  cannot  too  jealously  guard 
their  liberties. 

On  the  31st  of  January,  1871,  Congress  repealed  the  test  oath  law, 
which  required  all  applicants  for  civil  offices  to  swear  that  they  had  not 
participated  in  the  secession  movement.  As  few  southern  men  could 
take  this  oath,  this  law  excluded  the  genuine  inhabitants  of  the  Southern 
States  from  office  under  the  general  government,  and  threw  the  political 
power  of  those  States  into  the  hands  of  a  class  of  adventurers,  who  had 
been  drawn  to  the  south  since  the  war  by  the  hope  of  obtaining  office. 
The  repeal  of  this  law  by  Congress  restored  the  control  of  the  Southern 
States  to  the  legitimate  citizens  and  tax-payers  thereof. 

In  1870  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  decided  that  the  act 
of  Congress  making  "  greenbacks,"  or  the  notes  of  the  Federal  treasury, 
a  legal  tender,  was  unconstitutional  as  regarded  the  payment  of  debts 
contracted  prior  to  the  passage  of  that  act.  As  this  decision  had  been 
given  by  a  majority  of  but  one  justice,  Mr.  Hoar,  the  attorney-general, 
moved  to  reconsider  it.  The  case  was  heard  again,  and  the  decision  of 
the  court  was  reversed  by  a  vote  of  five  to  four,  on  the  18th  of  January, 
1871.  Thus  the  constitutionality  of  the  legal  tender  act  was  affirmed. 

In  1870  died  Admiral  David  G.  Farragut,  on  the  14th  of  August, 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ULYSSES  ts.  GRANT. 

aged  sixty-nine ;  General  George  H.  Thomas,  "  the  Rock  of  Chicka- 
mauga,"  and  the  defender  of  Nashville,  on  the  28th  of  December,  aged 
fifty-three,  and  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  the  commander  of  the  Con- 
federace  army  of  northern  Virginia  during  the  civil  war,  on  the  12th  of 
October,  aged  sixty-three. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1871,  Congress  repealed  the  income  tax.  It 
had  been  retained  long  after  the  necessity  for  it  had  passed  away,  and 
had  become  odious  to  the  nation,  which  had  only  submitted  to  it  at  first 
because  of  the  urgency  of  the  need  for  it. 

Immediately  upon  the  .pening  of  Piasident  Lincoln's  second  term  of 
office,  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  American  minister  at  the  court 
of  St.  James,  was  instructed  to  call  the  attentio"  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment to  the  depredations  committed  .pon  American  commerce  by 
Confederate  cruisers,  built,  equipped,  and  manned  in  England,  and  to 
insist  upon  the  responsibility  of  Great  Britain  for  th  losses  thus  incurred 
by  American  ship-owners.  Mr.  Adams  discharged  this  duty  in  a  com- 
munication addressed  to  the  British  -overnment,  on  the  7th  of  April, 
1865.  This  led  to  a  correspondence  which  continued  through  the  summer 
of  that  year.  Great  Britain  refused  to  admit  the  validity  of  the  Amer- 
ican claim,  or  to  submit  the  question  to  the  arbitration  of  any  foreign 
government.  The  "Alabama  question  "  remained  unsettled  for  several 
years,  and  occasioned  a  considerabl ;  amount  of  ill-feeling  between  the  two 
countries.  Both  governments  regarded  it  as  full  of  danger,  but  to  Great 
Britain  it  was  especially  so,  as  in  the  event  of  a  war  between  that  country 
and  any  foreign  power,  the  United  States,  following  the  example  of  Eng- 
land, might  and  doubtless  would  allow  cruisers  to  be  sent  out  from  their 
ports  which  would  seriously  cripple,  if  they  did  not  destroy,  the  British 
commerce.  After  Mr.  Adams'  return  from  England,  his  successor, 
Reverdy  Johnson,  was  directed  by  the  president  to  reopen  the  matter. 
He  negotiated  a  treaty  with  the  Earl  of  Clarendon  on  behalf  of  the 
British  government,  IL  1869,  but  this  arrangement  was  unsatisfactory  to 
the  Senate,  which  body  refused  to  ratify  it.  Two  years  later  the  matter 
was  revived,  and  in  1871  a  joint  high  commission,  composed  of  a  number 
of  distinguished  public  men,  appointed  by  the  American  and  British 
governments,  met  at  Washington,  and  arranged  a  settlement  known  as 
the  treaty  of  Washington,  which  was  ratified  by  both  governments. 
This  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  Senate  on  the  24th  of  May,  and  provided 
for  the  settlement  not  only  of  the  Alabama  claims,  but  of  all  other  ques- 
tions at  issue  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 

The  Alabama  claims  were  referred  by  the  treaty  of  Washington  to  a 
board  of  arbitration  composed  of  five  commissioners  selected  from  the 


386  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

neutral  nations.  This  board  met  at  Geneva,  in  Switzerland,  on  the  15th 
of  April,  1872,  and  the  American  and  English  representatives  presented 
to  it  their  respective  cases,  which  had  been  prepared  by  the  most  learned 
counsel  in  both  countries.  On  the  27th  of  June,  the  board  announced 
its  decision.  The  claims  of  the  United  States  were  admitted,  and  the . 
damages  awarded  to  that  government  were  $16,250,000.  These  were 
paid  in  due  time. 

In  our  account  of  the  administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan  we  have  related 
the  dispute  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  concerning  the 
possession  of  the  island  of  San  Juan,  growing  out  of  the  uncertainty  as 
to  the  true  course  of  the  northwestern  boundary  of  the  Union.  This  had 
been  an  open  question  all  through  the  civil  war.  By  the  thirty-fourth 
article  of  the  treaty  of  Washington  the  two  countries  agreed  to  refer  this 
dispute  to  the  friendly  arbitration  of  the  emperor  of  Germany.  Soon 
after  the  r.ward  of  the  Geneva  conference  was  made,  the  boundary  ques- 
tion was  decided  by  the  Emperor  William  in  favor  of  the  United  States, 
into  the  possession  of  which  the  island  of  San  Juan  accordingly  passed. 
Thus  were  these  delicate  and  dangerous  questions  satisfactorily  adjusted 
by  peaceful  methods,  and  not  by  the  sword. 

In  1870  the  republic  of  St.  Domingo,  comprising  a  large  part  of  the 
island  of  Hayti,  applied  for  annexation  to  the  United  States.  President 
Grant  was  very  anxious  to  secure  the  annexation  of  this  island,  and  to 
accomplish  it  went  to  the  very  verge  of*  his  constitutional  powers — going 
farther,  indeed,  than  many  of  his  friends  believed  he  had  the  right 
Measures  were  introduced  into  Congress  for  the  purpose  of  securing  this 
union,  but  were  warmly  opposed.  A  commission  of  eminent  gentlemen 
was  appointed  by  the  president  to  visit  the  island  and  examine  into  its 
condition.  They  reported  favorably,  but  after  a  warm  debate  in  Con- 
gress the  measures  for  the  annexation  of  the  Dominican  republic  were 
defeated  by  a  decisiv^  majority. 

On  the  night  of  Sunday,  October  8th,  1871,  a  fire  broke  out  in  the 
city  of  Chicago,  and  raged  writh  tremendous  violence  for  two  days,  laying 
the  greater  part  of  the  city  in  ashes.  It  was  the  most  destructive  con- 
flagration of  modern  times.  The  total  area  of  the  city  burned  over  was 
2124  acres,  or  very  nearly  three  and  one-third  square  miles.  The  num- 
ber of  buildings  destroyed  was  17,450.  About  250  persons  died  from 
various  causes  during  the  conflagration,  and  98,000  persons  were  ren- 
dered homeless  by  it.  The  entire  business  quarter  was  destroyed.  The 
actual  loss  will  never  be  known.  As  far  as  it  can  be  ascertained,  it  was 
about  $196,000,000. 

Almost  simultaneous  with  this  disaster,  extensive  forest  fires  swept 


888 


over  the  woods  of  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  and  Michigan.  Whole  villages 
were  destroyed  by  the  flames,  which  travelled  with  such  speed  that  it  was 
often  impossible  for  the  fleetest  horse  to  escape  from  them.  Over  fifteen 
hundred  people  perished  in  Wisconsin  alone. 

These  terrible  calamities  aroused  the  generous  sympathy  of  the  rest  of 
the  country,  and  aid  in  money,  clothing,  and  the  necessities  of  life  was 
liberally  extended  to  the  sufferers  in  Chicago  and  the  other  afflicted  com- 
munities. The  telegraph  flashed  the  news  across  the  Atlantic,  and  in  an 

almost  incredibly 
short  time  liberal 
contributions  i  n 
money  came  pour- 
ing in  from  Eng- 
land and  conti- 
nental Europe, 
and  even  from  the 
far-off  cities  of 
India. 

On  the  29th  of 
May,  1872,  Con- 
gress passed  an 
act  removing  the 
disabilities  im- 
posed upon  the 
southern  people 
by  the  third  sec- 
tion of  the  four- 
teenth amendment 
to  the  constitu- 
tion. From  this 
general  exemption 
were  excepted  all 

persons  who  had  been  members  of  Congress,  officers  of  the  army  or 
navy,  heads  of  departments  under  the  general  government,  or  ministers 
to  foreign  countries,  who  had  resigned  their  positions  and  joined  the 
•secession  movement.  By  this  act  a*  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand men  of  capacity  and  experience,  whose  services  were  greatly  needed 
oy  the  south,  were  restored  to  political  life. 

In  the  fall  of  1872  the  presidential  election  occurred.  The  canvass 
was  marked  by  the  most  intense  partisan  bitterness.  The  Republican 
party  renominated  General  Grant  for  the  presidency,  and  supported 


HORACE  GREELEY. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

Henry  Wilson  for  the  vice-presidency.  The  measures  of  the  adminis- 
tration had  arrayed  a  large  number  of  Republicans  against  it.  These 
now  organized  themselves  as  the  Liberal  Republican  party,  and  nom- 
inated Horace  Greeley  of  New  York  for  the  presidency,  and  B.  Gratz 
Brown  of  Missouri  for  the  vice-presidency.  The  Democratic  party 
made  no  nominations,  and  its  convention  indorsed  the  candidates  of  the 
Liberal  Republican  party.  The  election  resulted  in  the  triumph  of  the 
Republican  candidates  by  overwhelming  majorities. 

The  elections  were  scarcely  over  when  the  country  was  saddened  by 
the  death  of  Horace  Greeley.  He  had  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  had  been  closely  identified  with  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  country  for  over  thirty  years.  He  was  the  "  Founder  of  the 
New  York  Tribune"  and  had  done  good  service  with  his  journal  in 
behalf  of  the  cause  he  believed  to  be  founded  in  right.  He  was  a  man 
of  simple  and  childlike  character,  utterly  unaffected,  and  generous  to  a 
fault.  In  his  manner  and  dress  he  was  eccentric,  but  nature  had  made 
him  a  true  gentleman  at  heart.  His  intellectual  ability  was  conceded 
by  all.  His  experience  in  public  life  and  his  natural  disposition  induced 
him  to  favor  a  policy  of  conciliation  in  the  settlement  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion question,  and,  influenced  by  these  convictions,  he  signed  the  bail-bond 
of  Jefferson  Davis  and  secured  the  release  of  the  fallen  leader  of  the 
south  from  his  imprisonment.  This  act  cost  him  a  large  part  of  his 
popularity  in  the  north.  He  accepted  the  presidential  nomination  of 
the  Liberal  party  in  the  belief  that  his  election  would  aid  in  bringing 
about  a  better  state  of  feeling  between  the  north  and  the  south.  He 
was  attacked  by  his  political  opponents  with  a  bitterness  which  caused 
him  much  suffering,  and  many  of  his  old  friends  deserted  him  and  joined 
in  the  warfare  upon  him.  Just  before  the  close  of  the  canvass,  his  wife, 
to  whom  he  was  tenderly  attached,  died,  and  his  grief  for  her  and  the 
excitement  and  sorrow  caused  him  by  the  political  contest  broke  down 
his  firmness  and  unsettled  his  mind.  He  was  conveyed  by  his  friends 
to  a  private  asylum,  where  he  died  on  the  29th  of  November,  1872, 
in  the  sixty-second  year  of  his  age.  The  country  could  ill  afford  to 
spare  him. 

On  the  9th  of  November,  1872,  a  fire  occurred  in  Boston,  and  burned 
until  late  on  the  10th,  sweeping  over  an  area  of  sixty-five  acres  in  the 
centre  of  the  wholesale  trade  of  the  city,  and  destroying  property  to  the 
amount  of  seventy-eight  million  dollars.  As  this  fire  was  confined  to  the 
business  quarter  of  the  city,  comparatively  few  persons  wero  deprived  of 
their  homes. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1873,  President  Grant  was  inaugurated  a  second 


890  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

time  at  Washington  with  great  pomp.  Twelve  thousand  troops  took  pnrt 
in  the  procession  which  escorted  him  to  the  capitol. 

Early  in  1873  a  troublesome  war  began  with  the  Modoc  Indian  tribe 
on  the  Pacific  coast.  These  Indians  had  been  removed  by  the  government 
from  their  old  homes  in  California  to  reservations  in  the  northern  part 
of  Oregon.  They  at  length  became  dissatisfied  with  their  new  location, 
whicli  they  declared  was  unable  to  afford  them  a  support,  and  began  a 
series  of  depredations  upon  the  settlements  of  the  whites,  which  soon  drew 
upon  them  the  vengeance  of  the  Federal  government.  Troops  were  sent 
against  them,  but  they  retreated  to  their  fastnesses  in  the  lava  beds,  where 
they  maintained  a  successful  resistance  for  several  months.  The  govern- 
ment at  length  reinforced  the  troops  operating  against  them,  and  General 
Can  by,  commanding  the  department  of  the  Pacific,  assumed  the  immediate 
command  of  the  troops  in  the  field.  At  the  same  time  a  commission  was 
appointed  by  the  government  to  endeavor  to  settle  the  quarrel  with  the 
Indians  peaceably.  This  commission  held  several  conferences  with  Captain 
Jack,  the  head  chief  of  the  Modocs,  and  the  other  Indian  leaders,  but 
accomplished  nothing.  At  length  the  commissioners  and  General  Canby 
agreed  to  meet  the  Indians  in  the. lava  beds  a  short  distance  in  advance 
of  the  lines  of  the  troops.  They  went  unarmed  and  without  an  escort. 
While  the  conference  was  in  progress  the  Indians  suddenly  rose  upon 
the  commissioners,  and  killed  all  but  one,  who  managed  to  escape  with 
severe  wounds.  General  Canby  was  shot  dcwu  at  the  same  time,  and 
died  instantly. 

The  Indians  at  once  fled  to  their  strongholds  amid  the  rocks.  The 
troops,  infuriated  by  the  murder  of  their  commander,  closed  in  upon  them 
from  all  sides,  and  shut  them  in  the  lava  beds.  Their  position  was  one 
which  a  handful  of  men  might  defend  against  an  army,  and  they  held  ifc 
with  a  desperate  determination.  They  were  dislodged  finally  by  the 
shells  of  the  American  guns,  and  such  as  were  not  killed  were  captured. 
Captain  Jack  and  his  associates  in  the  murder  of  General  Canby  and  the 
commissioners  were  tried  by  a  court-martial  and  sentenced  to  death.  They 
were  hanged  in  the  presence  of  their  countrymen  and  of  the  troops  on  the 
3d  of  October,  1873. 

For  many  years  Cuba  had  been  growing  dissatisfied  with  the  rule  of 
Spain.  In  1868  a  revolution  broke  out  in  that  island,  having  for  its 
object  the  expulsion  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  establishmentof  the  independ- 
ence of  Cuba.  The  patriot  army  was  able  to  win  numerous  successes 
over  the  Spanish  troops,  and  for  several  years  maintained  its  position 
against  every  effort  to  dislodge  it.  Very  great  sympathy  was  manifested 
for  the  Cuban  patriots  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  repeated 


892  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

efforts  were  made  to  induce  the  government  of  this  country  to  recognize 
the  independence  of  Cuba  and  assist  the  patriots,  or  at  least  to  acknowledge 
their  rights  as  belligerents.  The  government,  however,  faithfully  observed 
its  obligations  as  a  neutral  power,  and  forbade  the  organization  or  departure 
of  all  expeditions  from  this  country  for  the  assistance  of  the  Cubans.  The 
4  Cuban  agents  were  prevented  from  shipping  arms  or  military  supplies  to 
their  forces,  and  several  vessels  intended  to  serve  as  cruisers  against  the 
Spanish  commerce  were  seized  and  detained  by  the  Federal  authorities. 

In  spite  of  the  precautions  of  the  government,  however,  several  expedi- 
tions did  succeed  in  getting  to  sea  and  reaching  Cuba.  One  of  these 
embarked  on  the  steamer  "  Virgiuius,"  in  the  fall  of  1873.  When  off  the 
coast  of  Jamaica,  the  Spanish  war-steamer  "Tornado"  was  sighted.  She 
at  once  gave  chase,  and  though  the  "  Virginius "  was  on  the  high  seas 
and  was  flying  the  American  flag,  overhauled  her  and  took  possession  of 
her  on  the  31st  of  October.  The  "  Tornado  "  then  carried  her  prize  into 
the  port  of  Santiago  de  Cuba,  which  was  reached  the  next  day.  Captain 
Fry,  the  commander  of  the  "  Virginius,"  and  the  crew  and  passengers  of 
the  vessel,  were  thrown  into  prison.  After  a  mock  trial,  in  which  the 
simplest  forms  of  decency  were  disregarded,  Captain  Fry  and  a  number 
of  the  crew  and  passengers  of  the  "  Virginius,"  about  thirty-five  or  forty 
in  all,  were  shot  by  order  of  the  military  authorities.  The  other  prisoners 
were  held  in  a  most  cruel  captivity  to  await  the  pleasure  of  the  Spanish 
officials  at  Havana.  The  consul  of  the  United  States  at  Santiago  de  Cuba 
made  great  exertions  to  save  Fry  and  those  condemned  to  die  with  him. 
He  was  treated  with  great  indignity  by  the  Spanish  officials,  and  was  not 
allowed  to  communicate  with  Havana,  from  which  point  he  could  consult 
his  government  by  telegraph. 

When  the  news  of  the  seizure  of  the  "  Virginius  "  at  sea  tinder  the 
American  flag  reached  the  United  States,  it  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation. 
Meetings  were  held  in  all  the  principal  cities,  and  the  press  unanimously 
sustained  the  popular  demand  that  the  government  should  require  satisfac- 
tion for  the  outrage  upon  its  flag.  The  general  sentiment  of  the  people 
was  in  favor  of  instant  war,  and  it  vcas  openly  declared  that  a  better 
opportunity  would  never  arise  to  drive  the  Spaniards  out  of  Cuba  and 
obtain  possession  of  the  island. 

The  government  acted  with  firmness  and  prudence.  Several  vessels  of 
war  were  sent  to  Santiago  de  Cuba  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  sur- 
viving prisoners  taken  with  the  "  Virginius ; "  the  fleet  in  the  West  Indies 
was  reinforced  as  rapidly  as  possible ;  and  the  navy  was  at  once  put  on  a 
war-footing  in  order  to  be  ready  for  any  emergency.  The  president  was 
urged  to  convene  Congress  in  extra  session,  but  he  declined  to  do  so, 


894  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

knowing  that  that  body  would  be  most  likely  to  yield  to  the  popular 
demand  for  war,  and  he  was  anxious  to  settle  the  difficulty  by  peaceful 
means  if  possible.  General  Sickles,  the  American  minister  at  Madrid, 
was  ordered  to  demand  of  the  Spanish  government  the  arrest  and 
punishment  of  the  officials  implicated  in  the  massacre  of  Captain  Fry  and 
his  associates,  a  suitable  indemnity  in  money  for  the  families  of  the  mur- 
dered men,  an  apology  to  the  United  States  for  the  outrage  upon  their 
flag,  and  the  surrender  of  the  l'  Virginius,"  to  the  naval  authorities  of  the 
United  States.  These  demands  were  at  once  submitted  to  Sefior  Castellar, 
the  president  of  the  Spanish  republic.  In  the  critical  situation  in  which 
Spain  was  then  placed  by  her  internal  dissensions,  Castellar  had  no  choice 
but  to  submit  to  the  American  demands.  Orders  were  at  once  transmitted 
to  Cuba  to  surrender  the  "Virginius"  and  all  the  prisoners  to  the 
American  naval  forces. 

The  orders  of  the  Spanish  government  were  at  first  disregarded  by  the 
officials  at  Havana,  who  blustered  a  great  deal,  and  declared  their  wil- 
lingness to  go  to  war  with  the  United  States.  They  were  brought  to 
their  senses,  however,  by  the  warning  of  Captain  General  Jovellar,  who 
told  them  that  their  refusal  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  Madrid  government 
would  certainly  involve  them  in  a  war  with  the  United  States,  in  which 
Spain  would  leave  them  to  fight  that  power  without  aid  from  her.  The 
Havana  officials  therefore  yielded  an  ungracious  obedience  to  the  orders 
of  the  home  government.  The  survivors  of  the  "Virginius"  expedition, 
who  were  in  a  most  pitiable  condition  in  consequence  of  the  cruelty  with 
which  they  had  been  treated  during  their  imprisonment,  were  released, 
and  delivered  on  board  of  an  American  man-of-war  in  the  harbor  of 
Havana.  On  the  12th  of  December  the  "Virginius,"  which  had  been 
taken  to  Havana  by  her  captors  some  time  before,  was  towed  out  of  that 
harbor  and  delivered  to  an  American  vessel  sent  to  receive  her.  She  was 
carried  to  Key  West,  from  which  port  she  was  ordered  to  New  York.  On 
the  voyage  she  foundered  at  sea  in  a  gale  off  Cape  Fear,  on  the  26th  of 
December.  At  a  later  period  the  Spanish  government  paid  the  indemnity 
demanded  by  the  United  States. 

In  the  fall  of  1873  a  severe  commercial  crisis  known  as  the  "Railroad 

Panic  "  burst  upon  the  country.     It  was  caused  by  excessive  speculation 

in  railway  stocks  and  the  reckless  construction  of  railways  in  portions  of 

the  country  where  they  were  not  yet  needed  and  which  could  not  support 

them.     The  excitement  began  on  the  17th  of  September,  and  on  the  18th, 

19th  and  20th  several  of  the  principal  banking  firms  of  New  York  and 

xhiladelfhia   wspeided     aynen'.     TV   ailnre  of  these  houses  involved 

jindreds  of     ther  ftrms  '.n  .ill  a  arts  yf   he  country  in  their  ruin.     The 


896 


HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 


excitement  became  so  intense  that  on  the  20th  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  closed  its  doors  and  put  a  stop  to  all  sales  of  stocks  in  order  to 
prevent  a  general  destruction  of  the  values  of  all  securities.  The  banks 

were  obliged  to  resort  to  the  most 
stringent  measures  to  avoid  being 
drawn  into  the  common  ruin. 

President  Grant  and  the  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury  hastened  to 
New  York  to  consult  the  capital- 
ists of  that  city  as  to  the  proper 
measures  to  be  taken  for  the  relief 
of  the  business  of  the  country. 
Various  measures  were  urged  upon 
them.  A  strong  appeal  was  made 
to  the  president  to  lend  the  whole 
or  the  greater  part  of  the  treasury 
reserve  of  forty-four  million  dollars 
of  greenbacks  to  the  banks  to  fur- 
nish the  Wall  street  brokers  with 
funds  to  settle  their  losses  and  re- 
sume business.  He  at  once  declined 
to  take  so  grave  a  step,  and,  thanks 
to  his  firmness,  the  credit  of  the 
United  States  was  not  placed  at  the 
mercy  of  the  reckless  men  who  had 
caused  the  trouble.  The  govern- 
ment as  a  measure  of  relief  con- 
sented to  purchase  a  number  of  its 
bonds  of  a  certain  class  at  a  fair 
price,  and  thus  enable  the  holders 
who  were  in  need  of  money  to 
obtain  it  without  sacrificing  their 
securities.  On  the  22d  the  excite- 
ment in  New  York  and  the  eastern 
cities  began  to  subside.  The  trouble 

was  not  over,  however.  The  stringency  of  the  money  market  which 
followed  the  first  excitement  prevailed  for  fully  a  year,  and  affected  all 
branches  of  the  industry  of  the  country,  and  caused  severe  suffering  from 
loss  of  employment  and  lowering  of  wages  to  the  working  classes. 

The  panic  showed  the  extent  to  which  railroad  gambling  had  demoral- 
ized the  business  and  the  people  of  the  country.     It  showed  that  some  of 


NEW  YORK  STOCK   EXCHANGE. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF   ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.  §97 

the  strongest  and  most  trusted  firms  in  the  Union  had  lent  themselves  to 
the  task  of  inducing  people  to  invest  their  money  in  the  securities  of 
enterprises  the  success  of  which  was,  to  say  the  least,  doubtful.  It  showed 
that  the  banks,  the  depositories  of  the  people's  money,  had  to  an  alarm irg 
extent  crippled  themselves  by  neglecting  their  legitimate  business  and 
making  advances  on  securities  which  in  the  hour  of  trial  proved  worthier 
in  many  cases,  uncertain  in  most.  The  money  needed  for  the  use  of  the 
legitimate  business  of  the  country  had  been  placed  at  the  mercy  of  the 
railroad  gamblers  and  had  been  used  by  them.  The  funds  of  helpless 
and  dependent  persons,  of  widows  and  orphan  children,  had  been  used  to 
pay  fictitious  dividends  and  advance  schemes  which  had  been  stamped 
with  the  disapproval  of  the  public.  An  amount  of  recklessness  and 
demoralization  was  revealed  in  the  management  of  the  financial  interests 
of  the  country  that  startled  even  the  most  hardened.  The  lesson  was 
severe,  but  it  was  needed.  The  panic  was  followed  by  a  better  and  more 
healthful  state  of  affairs.  The  business  of  the  country  slowly  settled 
down  within  proper  channels.  Recklessness  was  succeeded  by  prudence  ; 

extravagance  by  economy  in  all  quar- 
ters. The  American  people  took 
their  severe  lesson  to  heart,  and  reso- 
lutely set  to  work  to  secure  the  good 
results  that  came  to  them  from  this 
harvest  of  misfortune. 

In  January,  1875,  Congress  passed 
an  act  providing  for  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments,  and  requiring  that  on  and  after  January  1st,  1879,  the 
legal  tender  notes  of  the  government  shall  be  redeemed  in  specie.  In  the 
meantime  silver  coin  is  to  be  substituted  for  the  fractional  paper  currency. 
On  the  4th  of  March,  1875,  the  Territory  of  Colorado  was  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  State,  making  the  thirty-eighth  member  of  the  con- 
federacy. 

The  political  troubles  in  Louisiana  and  Arkansas  assumed  a  most 
serious  character  during  the  year  1873,  amounting  to  civil  war  in  both 
States.  The  president  in  view  of  the  serious  nature  of  the  disturbances 
intervened  with  force  in  each  State,  and  compelled  the  rival  parties  to 
refrain  fro:n  additional  hostilities,  and  the  quarrels  were  settled  in  the 
course  of  the  year  without  further  bloodshed. 

The  year  1875  completed  the  period  of  one  hundred  years  from  the 

opening  of  the  revolution,  and  the  events  of  1775  were  celebrated  with 

appropriate  commemorative  ceremonies  in  the  places  where  they  occurred. 

The  centennial  anniversary  of  the  battles  at  Lexington  and  Concord 

57 


COAT  OF  ARMS  OF    COLORADO. 


898 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


was  celebrated  at  those  places  on  the  19th  of  April  with  great  rejoicings.' 
On  the  17th  of  June  the  centennial  of  Bunker  Hill  was  celebrated  at 
Charlestown.  Vast  crowds  were  present  from  all  jxirts  of  the  country. 
One  of  the  most  gratifying  features  of  the  celebration  was  the  presence 
and  hearty  participation  in  the  ceremonies  of  a  large  number  of  troops 
from  the  Southern  States.  Nearly  all  of  these  liad  served  in  the  Con- 
federate army,  and  their  presence  in  the  metropolis  of  New  England  was 
an  emphatic  proof  that  the  Union  has  indeed  been  restored.  The  memory 
of  the  common  glory  won  by  the  fathers  of  the  republic  has  already  done 
much  to  heal  the  wounds  and  obliterate  the  scars  of  the  civil  war.  May 
the  good  work  go  on. 

As  early  as  1872  measures  were  set  on  foot  far  the  proper  observance 


OPENING  CEREMONIES  INTERNATIONAL  CENTENNIAL  EXHIBITION. 

of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States.  It  was  resolved  to  commemorate  the  close  of  the  first  century  of 
the  republic  by  an  International  Exhibition,  to  be  held  at  Philadelphia 
in  1876,  in  which  all  the  nations  of  the  world  were  invited  to  participate. 
Preparations  were  at  once  set  on  foot  for  the  great  celebration.  The 
European  governments  with  great  cordiality  responded  to  the  invitations 
extended  to  them  by  the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  on  the 
10th  of  May,  1876,  the  International  Centennial  Exhibition  was  opened 
with  the  most  imposing  ceremonies,  in  the  presence  of  'an  immense 
concourse  of  citizens  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  and  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  and  the  Emperor  of  Brazil.  The  exhibition  remained 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.  g99 

open  from  May  10th  to  November  10th,  1876,  and  was  visited  by  several 
million  people  from  the  various  States  of  the  Union,  from  Canada,  South 
America,  and  Europe.  It  was  one  of  the  grandest  and  most  notable 
events  of  the  century. 

On  the  4th  day  of  July,  1876,  the  United  States  of  America  completed 
the  one  hundredth  year  of  their  existence  as  an  independent  nation.  The 
day  was  celebrated  with  imposing  ceremonies  and  with  the  most  patriotic 
enthusiasm  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  The  celebrations  began  on  the 
night  of  the  3d  of  July,  and  were  kept  up  until  near  midnight  on  the 
4tl».  Each  of  the  great  cities  of  the  Union  vied  with  the:  others  in  the 
splendor  and  completeness  of  its  rejoicings ;  but  the  most  interesting  of 
all  the '  celebrations  was  naturally  that  which  was  held  at  Philadelphia, 
in  which  city  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  adopted.  The 
arrangements  for  the  proper  observance  of  the  day  were  confided  to  the 
United  States  Centennial  Commission,  and  extensive  preparations  were 
made  to  conduct  them  on  a  scale  of  splendor  worthy  of  the  glorious 
occasion.  The  city  of  Philadelphia1  and  the  Siatd  bf  Pennsylvania  lent 
their  cordial  co-operation  to  the  effort  to  have  all  things  in  readiness  for 
the  Fourth,  and  the  work  went  forward  with  ai  heartiness  and  vigor  that 
could  not  fail  of  success. 

It  was  wisely  resolved  by  the  Commission  that  as  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  signed  in  Independence  Hall  and  proclaimed  to  the 
people  in  Independence  Square,  the  commemorative  ceremonies  should 
be  so  conducted  as  to  make  the  venerable  building  the  grand  central 
figure  of  all  the  demonstrations.  The  city  authorities  caused  the  building 
to  be  handsomely  draped  in  the  national  colors,  and  enormous  stands, 
covered  with  canvas  awnings  and  ornamented  with  flags  and  streamers,, 
were  erected  iu  Independence  Square  for  the  accommodation  of  tlic> 
singers  and  invited  guests  who  were  to  take  part  in  the  rejoicings.  A 
new  bell  of  vast  proportions — the  gift  of  a  patriotic  and  public-spirited 
citizen — was  hung  in  the  State  House  tower,  ready  to  join  its  deep  tones 
to  the  shouts  of  the  multitude  when  the  moment  of  rejoicing  should 
arrive. 

Being  anxious  that  the  Centennial  celebration  should  do  Its  share  in 
cementing  the  reunion  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  States,  the  Com- 
mission began,  at  least  a  year  before  the  occasion,  the  formation  of  a 
"  Centennial  Legion,"  consisting  of  a  detachment  of  troops  from  each  of 
the  thirteen  original  States.  The  command  of  this  splendid  body  of 
picked  troops  was  conferred  uj>on  General  Ambrose  'E.  Burnside,  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  General  Henry  Heth,  of  Virginia,  was  chosen 
Lieutenant-Colonel.  Both  were  veterans- of  thb  late  civil  war. 


IQQ  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Legion  was  readily  made  up,  the  best  volunteer  commands  of  the  Original 
States  being  eager  to  serve  in  it. 

For  a  week  previous  to  the  4th  of  July  crowds  of  people  began  to  pour 
steadily  into  Philadelphia.  Volunteer  organizations  from  the  various 
States  were  constantly  arriving,  and  were  either  encamped  at  various 
points  in  and  around  the  Exhibition  grounds  or  were  quartered  at  the 
various  hotels.  The  city  was  gayly  decorated  with  flags  and  streamers, 
and  the  view  down  any  of  the  principal  streets  was  brilliant  by  reason  of 
the  clouds  of  bunting  with  which  it  was  decorated.  The  principal 
buildings  were  almost  hidden  by  the  flags  which  adorned  them,  or  were 
ornamented  with  patriotic  inscriptions,  and  at  various  points  on  Chestnut 
street  triumphal  arches  were  erected.  By  the  night  of  the  3d  of  July  it 
was  estimated  that  at  least  250,000  strangers  were  assembled  in  Phila- 
delphia. 

The  Centennial  ceremonies  were  begun  on  the  morning  of  Saturday, 
the  1st  of  July.  The  leading  writers  of  the  Union  had  been  invited  to 
prepare  memoirs  of  the  great  men  of  our  revolutionary  period,  which 
were  to  be  deposited  among  the  archives  of  the  State  House,  and  all  who 
were  able  to  accept  the  invitation  assembled  in  Independence  Hall  at 
eleven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  July  1st,  1876,  where  they  were  joined 
by  a  number  of  invited  guests.  The  ceremonies  were  opened  by  an 
address  from  Colonel  Frank  M.  Etting,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  the  Restoration  of  Independence  Hall,  and  a  prayer  by  the  Rev. 
William  White  Bronson.  Whittier's  Centennial  Hymn  was  then  sung 
by  a  chorus  of  fifty  voices.  The  names  of  the  authors  were  then  called, 
to  which  each  responded  in  person  or  by  proxy,  and  laid  his  memoir  on 
the  table  in  the  hall.  The  exercises  were  then  brought  to  a  close,  and  the 
company  repaired  to  the  stand  in  Independence  Square,t  where  a  large 
crowd  had  assembled. 

The  ceremonies  in  the  square  were  begun  at  half-past  twelve  o'clock 
with  Helfrich's  Centennial  Triumphal  March,  performed  by  the  Centen- 
nial Musical  Association.  Mr.  John  William  Wallace,  the  president  of 
the  day,  then  delivered  a  short  address,  after  which  Whittier's  Centennial 
Hymn  was*  sung  by  a  chorus  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  voices,  and  Mr. 
William  V.  McKean  reviewed  at  some  length  the  great  historical  event 
in  commemoration  of  which  the  ceremonies  were  held.  After  the  band 
had  played  "God  Save  America,"  the  Hon.  Leverett  Saltonstall,  of 
Massachusetts,  delivered  an  address,  which  elicited  warm  applause. 
"  The  Voice  of  the  Old  Bell,"  a  Centennial  ode,  was  then  sung,  and 
Governor  Henry  Lippitt,  of  Rhode  Island,  made  a  short  speech.  The 
band  followed  with  a  number  of  patriotic  airs,  and  Mr.  Wallace  an- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF   ULYSSES  S.  GRANT.  9Q1 

nounced  the  unavoidable  absence  of  General  John  A.  Dix,  and  introduced 
in  his  place  Frederick  De  Peyster,  President  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  who  made  a  few  remarks.  After  a  Centennial  Ode,  by  S.  C. 
Upham,  had  been  sung  by  the  chorus,  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Harris 
Brewster  delivered  an  eloquent  address,  at  the  close  of  wfiich  anotl  <r 
Centennial  Hymn,  by  William  Fennimore,  was  sung.  Senator  Frame 
P.  Stevens,  of  Maryland,  then  said  a  few  words,  after  which  the  "Star 
Spangled  Baener  "  was  sung,  and  the  exercises  were  brought  to  a  close 
by  a  prayer  from  Bishop  Stevens. 

All  through  Sunday,  the  2d,  the  crowds  continued  to  pour  into  the 
city,  and  on  Monday,  3d,  the  streets  were  almost  impassable.  Business 
was  generally  suspended  from  the  1st  to  the  5th  of  July. 

The  celebration  ushering  in  the  4th  of  July  was  begun  on  the  night  of 
the  3d.  A  grand  civic  and  torchlight  procession  paraded  the  streets, 
which  were  brilliantly  illuminated  along  the  whole  line  of  march.  The 
procession  began  to  move  about  half-past  eight  o'clock  at  night,  and  con- 
sisted of  deputations  representative  of  the  various  trades  of  the  city,  the 
Centennial  Commissioners  from  the  various  foreign  countries  taking  part 
in  the  Exhibition,  the  governors  of  a  number  of  the  States  of  the  Union, 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States,  civic  and  political 
associations,  and  officers  of  foreign  men-of-war  visiting  the  city.  Some 
of  the  deputations  bore  torches,  and  these  added  to  the  brilliancy  of  the 
scene.  All  along  the  line  fireworks  were  ascending  into  the  air,  and 
cheer  after  cheer  went  up  from  the  dense  masses  of  enthusiastic  spectators 
which  filled  the  sidewalks. 

The  illumination  of  the  streets  along  the  route  of  the  procession  was 
superb.  Chestnut  and  Broad  streets  flashed  resplendently  in  lines  of  fire 
and  colored  lanterns.  The  dense  masses  which  thronged  these  streets 
^tood  out  boldly  in  the  clear  light  of  the  illumination,  and  the  long, 
slow-moving  line  of  the  procession  flowed  through  them  like  a  vast  river. 

Crowds  had  collected  around  Independence  Hall,  filling  the  street 
before  it  and  the  square  in  the  rear  of  it.  An  orchestra  and  chorus 
were  stationed  on  the  stands  in  the  square  to  hail  the  opening  of  the 
Fourth  with  music.  The  movements  of  the  procession  were  so  timed  that 
the  head  of  the  column  arrived  in  front  of  Independence  Hall  precisely 
at  midnight.  The  crowd,  which  had  been  noisy  but  good-natured,  w;;i 
hushed  into  silence  as  the  hands  of  the  clock  in  the  tower  approached 
the  midnight  hour,  and  one  hundred  thousand  people  waited  in  breath- 
less eagerness  the  strokes  which  were  to  usher  in  the  glorious  day.  A- 
the  minute  hand  swept  slowly  past  the  hour  there  was  a  profound  silence, 
and  then  came  rolling  out  of  the  lofty  steeple  the  deep,  liquid  tones  of 


902  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  new  liberty  bell,  sounding  wonderfully  solemn  and  sweet  as  they 
floated  down  to  the  crowd  below.  Thirteen  peals  were  struck,  and  the 
first  tone  had  hardly  died  away  when  there  went  tip  from  the  crowd  such 
a  shout  as  had  never  been  heard  in  Philadelphia  tafore.  It  was  caught 
up  ind  re-echoed  all  over  the  city,  and  at  the  same  time  the  musicians 
and  singers  in  the  square  broke  into  the  grand  strains  of  the  "Star 
Spangled  Banner."  All  the  bells  and  steam  whistles  in  the  city  joined 
in  the  sounds  of  rejoicing,  and  fireworks  and  firearms  made  the  noise 
tenfold  louder.  When  the  "Star  Spangled  Banner"  was  ended  the 
chorus  in  Independence  Square  sang  the  "  Doxology,"  in  which  the  crowd 
joined  heartily,  and  the  band  then  played  national  airs. 

The  festivities  were  kept  up  until  after  two  o'clock,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  first  streaks  of  the  dawn  began  to  tinge  the  sky  that  the 
streets  >i  the  city  resumed  their  wonted  appearance. 

The  lull  in  the  festivities  was  not  of  long  duration.  The  day  was 
at  hand,  and  it  threatened  to  be  mercilessly  hot,  as  indeed  it  was.  As 
the  sun  arose  in  his  full-orbed  splendor  the  thunder  of  cannon  from  the 
Navy  Yard,  from  the  heights  of  Fairmount  Park,  and  from  the  Swedish, 
Brazilian,  and  American  war  vessels  in  the  Delaware,  and  the  clanging 
of  bells  from  every  steeple  in  the  city,  roused  the  few  who  had  managed 
to  snatch  an  hour  or  two  of  sleep  after  the  fatigues  of  the  night,  and  by 
six  o'clock  the  streets  were  again  thronged. 

In  view  of  the  extreme  heat  of  the  weather  the  military  parade  had 

en  ordered  for  an  early  hour  of  the  day.  At  a  little  after  seven 
o'clock  the  line  was  formed,  the  right  resting  on  Chestnut  street,  facing 
west,  in  the  following  order : 

Governor  Hartranft,  of  Pennsylvania,  Commander-in-Chief,  and  Aides ;  General  Bank- 
son,  commanding  First  Division  N.  G.  P.,  and  Aides;  Philadelphia  City  Troop;  Black 
Hussars;  Keystone  Battery;  Brigadier-General  Thayer,  Second  Brigade,  First  Division, 
N.  G.  P.,  and  Aides ;  Cadets  United  States  Military  Academy;  United  States  Marines; 
Second  Brigade,  First  Division,  N.  G.  P. ;  Third  Pennsylvania  Regiment,  Colonel  Ballier ; 
Sixth  Pennsylvania  Regiment,  Colonel  Maxwell;  Gray  Invincibles  (Pa.),  Captain  Jones- 
First  Brigade,  First  Division,  N.  G.  P.;  Brigadier-General  Brinton  and  Staff;  Second 
Pennsylvania  Regiment,  Colonel  Lyle;  United  Train  Artillery,  Providence,  R.  I. ;  Detroit 
National  Guards,  Captain  O'Keefe ;  First  Regiment  Pennsylvania  Infantry,  Colonel  Ben- 
son ;  Twenty-second  Regiment  New  York  N.  G,,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Camp ;  Albany 
Zouave  Cadets,  Captain  Reynolds ;  Weccacoe  Legion,  Captain  Denny ;  B  Company  First, 
Regiment  N.  G.,  District  of  Columbia;  D  Company  Eighth  Regiment  N.  G.  P.,  of  Harris-, 
burg;  Washington,  D.  C.,  Grays;  Pierce  Light  Guards  of  Boston;  Centennial  Legion; 
Three  companies  Virginia  National  Guards,  Colonel  Ordway  ;  Seventh  National  Guards, 
New  York,  Colonel  Clark ;  Twenty-third  National  Guards,  New  York,  Colonel  Ward  ; 
Two  companies  First  Regiment  N.  G.  of  Vermont ;  Two  companies  Detroit  Independent 
Cadets;  Visiting  troops  from  Texas;  Cadets  of  Northern  Home;  Girard  College  CadeU; 
Ywiting  Governors  and  their  Staffs. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  ULYSSKS  8.  GRANT.  903 

The  Centennial  Legion,  composed  of  detachments  from  the  thirteen 
original  States,  occupied  a  prominent  place  in  the  line.  It  was  com- 
manded by  General  Henry  Heth,  of  Virginia,  and  was  composed  as 

follows : 

Rhode  Island,  Light  Infantry  Regiments;  Georgia,  Clinch  Rifles;  New  Jersey,  Pl.ii 
Kearney  Guards;  Delaware,  American  Rifles;  Maryland,  Detachment  Fifth  Regiment; 
Massachusetts,  Boston  Light  Infantry;  South  Carolina,  Washington  Light  Infantry;  New 
York,  Old  Guard;  North  Carolina,  Fayetteville  Light  Infantry;  New  Hampshire,  First 
New  Hampshire  Battery;  Connecticut,  New  Haven  Grays;  Pennsylvania,  State  Fencibles ; 
Virginia,  First  Light  Artillery  Blues. 

The  troops  numbered  about  ten  thousand  men,  rank  and  file,  and  the- 
whole  column  was  under  the  chief  command  of  General  Hartranft,  Gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  gallant  veteran  of  the  civil  war.  The 
command  was  made  up  of  troops  who  during  that  bloody  struggle  had 
fought  each  other  gallantly,  and  who  had  now  come  to  testify  their  devo- 
tion to  their  common  country,  and  to  show  to  the  world  that  in  trusting 
its  defence  to  its  well-regulated  militia  the  American  republic  is  stronger 
than  the  most  powerful  monarchies  of  the  old  world. 

At  half-past  eight  the  column  began  to  move  down  Chestnut  street 
towards  Independence  Hall,  in  front  of  which  the  troops  were  reviewed 
by  General  W.  T,  Sherman,  the  Commanding  General  of  the  armies  of 
the  United  States;  the  Secretary  of  War;  Prince  Oscar  of  Sweden  ,- 
Lieutenant-General  Saigo,  of  the  Imperial  army  of  Japan  ;  the  officers 
of  the  Swedish  men-of-war  in  the  harbor ;  the  governors  of  several  ot 
the  States;  and  General  Hawley,  the  President  of  the  Centennial 
Commission. 

As  the  troops  passed  along  they  were  greeted  with  enthusiastic  cheers 
by  the  crowds  on  the  street.  The  Centennial  Legion  and  the  troops 
from  the  Southern  States  were  the  objects  of  an  especially  hearty  demon- 
stration. The  route  chosen  was  a  short  one,  the  extreme  heat  forbidding 
an  extended  parade,  and  by  ten  o'clock  the  military  ceremonies  were  over. 

As  soon  as  the  parade  was  ended  the  crowd  turned  into  Independence 
Square,  which  was  soon  filled.  The  approaches  to  the  building  by  way 
of  Chestnut  and  Sansom  streets  were  kept  clear  by  the  police,  in  order 
that  those  who  were  entitled  to  seats  on  the  stand  might  reach  their 
places.  Four  thousand  persons  were  given  seats  on  the  stand,  and  a  vast 
2rowd  filled  the  square.  As  the  invited  guests  appeared  and  took  their 
seats  on  the  platform  the  prominent  personages  were  cheered  by  the 
crowd.  The  Emperor  of  Brazil  received  a  welcome  that  was  especially 
noticeable  for  its  heartiness. 

It  was  hoped  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  would  be  present 


904  HISTORY  OF  THE  VNITED  STATES. 

and  preside  over  the  ceremonies;  but  General  Grant  declined  tlie  invita- 
tion to  do  so,  which  it  was  at  once  his  privilege  and  his  duty  to  accept, 
and  remained  in  Washington,  preferring  his  selfish  ease  to  a  little  patriotic 
exertion  and  exposure  to  the  heat  on  this  grandest  of  his  country's  festi- 
vals. '  His  absence  was  generally  remarked  and  severely  condemned  by 
his  countrymen. 

At  a  few  minutes  after  ten  o'clock  General  Hawley,  the  President  of 
the  United  States  Centennial  Commission,  appeared  at  the  speaker's  stand 
and  signalled  to  the  orchestra  to  begin.  The  opening  piece,  which  wan 
an  overture  entitled  "  The  Great  Republic,"  based  on  the  national  air, 
"  Hail  Columbia/'  and  arranged  for  the  occasion  by  Professor  George 
F.  Bristow,  of  New  York,  was  rendered  in  fine  style  by  the  orchestra 
under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  P.  Gilmore.  As  the  music  ceased  General 
Hawley  again  came  forward  and  introduced  as  the  presiding  officer  of 
the  day  the  Hon.  Thomas  W.  Ferry,  Vice-President  of  the  United  States, 
who  was  received  with  loud  cheers.  After  a  few  remarks  appropriate 
to  the  occasion  Vice-President  Ferry  presented  to  the  audience  the 
Right  Reverend  William  Bacon  Stevens,  D.  D.,  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  whom  he  introduced  as  the  ecclesiastical  suc- 
cessor of  the  first  chaplain  of  the  Continental  Congress.  The  bishop 
was  in  his  canonical  robes,  with  prayer  book  in  hand.  He  delivered  a 
solemn  and  impressive  prayer,  during  the  utterance  of  which  the  whole 
audience  stood  with  uncovered  heads,  silent  and  attentive,  unmindful  of 
the  blazing  sun  which  poured  down  upon  them. 

When  the  prayer  was  ended  the  "Hymn,  'Welcome  to  All  Nations/ 
words  by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  music,  'Keller's  Hymn/"  was  sung. 
The  Vice-President  then  announced  that  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Vir- 
ginia, a  grandson  of  the  patriot  of  the  Revolution  who  offered  the  reso- 
Jution  in  Congress  that  "these  United  Colonies  are  and  of  right  ought 
to  be  free  and  independent  States,"  would  read  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence from  the  original  manuscript,  which  the  President  had  in- 
trusted to  the  mayor  of  Philadelphia.  The  faded  and  crumbling 
manuscript,  held  together  by  a  simple  frame,  was  then  exhibited  to  the 
crowd  and  was  greeted  with  cheer  after  cheer,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  a 
Goldierly-looking  Virginian,  then  came  forward  and  read  the  Declaration  ; 
but  the  enthusiasm  of  the  crowd  was  too  great  to  permit  them  to  listen 
to  it  quietly. 

At  the  close  of  the  reading  the  orchestra  performed  a  musical  composi- 
tion entitled  "A  Greeting  from  Brazil,"  a  hymn  for  the  first  Centennial 
of  American  Independence,  composed  by  A.  Carlos  Gomez,  of  Brazil, 
at  -the  request  of  His  Majesty  Dora  Pedro  II.,  Emperor  of  Brazil.  It 


VIEW  OF  THE  INTE 


)F  NINTH   AND  CHESTNUT  STREETS,   PHILADELPHIA, 

905 


906  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

was  received  with  cheers  by  the  crowd,  which  were  repeated  for  the 
Brazilian  Emperor,  whose  hearty  interest  in  the  Centennial  celebrations 
and  the  Exhibition  had  made  him  a  favorite  in  Philadelphia. 

Mr.  John  Welsh,  Chairman  of  the  Centennial  Board  of  Finance, 
then,  at  the  suggestion  of  Vice-President  Ferry,  introduced  Bayard 
Taylor,  the  poet  of  the  day,  who  recited  a  noble  ode,  which  \vas  listened 
to  with  deep  attention,  the  audience  occasionally  breaking  out  into 
applause.  When  the  poem  was  ended  the  chorus  sang  "  Our  National 
Banner,"  the  words  by  Dexter  Smith,  of  Massachusetts,  the  music  by 
Sir  Julius  Benedict,  of  England. 

As  the  music  died  away  the  Vice-President  introduced  the  Hon. 
William  M.  Evarts,  of  New  York,  the  orator  of  the  day.  Mr.  Evarts 
was  greeted  with  hearty  cheers,  after  which  he  proceeded  to  deliver  an 
eloquent  and  able  address,  reviewing  the  lessons  of  the  past  century 
and  dwelling  upon  the  great  work  America  has  performed  for  the 
world. 

When  Mr.  Evarts  retired  from  the  speaker's  stand  General  Hawley 
gave  the  signal  to  the  leader  of  the  orchestra,  and  the  "Hallelujah 
Chorus,'v  from  "  The  Messiah,"  was  sung ;  after  which  the  vast  audience, 
at  the  request  of  the  Vice-President,  joined  in  the  One  Hundredth 
Psalm,  with  which  the  memorable  ceremonies  came  to  an  end. 

At  night  the  city  was  brilliantly  illuminated,  and  a  magnificent  display 
of  fireworks  was  given  by  the  municipal  authorities  at  old  Fairmount. 

The  year  1876,  however,  was  not  destined  to  be  entirely  a  period  of 
peace.  In  1867  the  Government  of  the  United  States  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Sioux  Indians,  by  which  the  latter  agreed  to  relinquish  to  the  United 
States  all  the  territory  south  of  the  Niobrara  river,  west  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  fourth  meridian  of  longitude  and  north  of  the  forty-sixth  par- 
allel of  latitude.  This  treaty  secured  to  the  Sioux  a  large  reservation  in 
the  southwestern  part  of  Dakota,  and  they  agreed  to  withdraw  to  this 
reservation  by  the  1st  of  January,  1876.  A  few  years  later  gold  was 
discovered  in  the  Black  Hills  country,  a  very  desirable  region  situated  in 
southwestern  Dakota,  and  lying  within  the  Sioux  reservation.  The 
announcement  of  this  discovery  produced  great  excitement  among  the 
mining  class.  In  the  summer  of  1874  an  expedition  under  General 
Custer  was  sent  by  the  War  Department  to  explore  the  Black  Hills 
region,  partly  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  character  of  the  country, 
and  partly  to  discover  practicable  military  routes  between  Fort  Lincoln, 
in  the  Department  of  Dakota,  opposite  the  terminus  of  the  Union  Pacifio 
Railway,  and  Fort  Laramie,  in  the  Department  of  the  Platte.  The 
report  of  this  expedition  confirmed  the  stories  of  the  discovery  of  gold, 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  a'.  GRANT.  907 

and  immediately  preparations  were  made  by  parti  PS  of  miners  to  prooppd 
to  the  favored  lands  for  the  purpose  of  working  the  gold  mines.  Those 
expeditions  being  reported  to  the  government,  measures  were  taken  bv 
the  War  Department  to  prevent  any  intrusion  into  the  Indian  reserva- 
tion. Notwithstanding  this  prohibition,  private  expeditions  were  fitted 
out,  and  started  for  the  Black  Hills.  Some  of  these  were  driven  back  by 
the  Indians,  with  loss  of  life  and  property,  but  others  succeeded  in  reach- 
ing the  Black  Hills. 

It  was  now  evident  that  a  systematic  and  determined  effort  would  be 
made  to  settle  the  Black  Hills,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  armv; 
and  the  government  decided  to  endeavor  to  purchase  the  region  from  the 
Sioux  and  throw  it  open  to  emigration.  Efforts  were  made  during  the 
year  1875  to  induce  the  Sioux  to  sell  their  lands,  but  the  weak  and  vacil- 
lating course  pursued  by  the  government  simply  disgusted  the  Indians, 
and  they  refused  to  make  the  desired  arrangement. 

The  Sioux  had  never  been  really  willing  to  retire  to  the  reservation  to 
which  the  treaty  of  1867  confined  them,  and  now  took  advantage  of  the 
intrusions  of  the  whites  into  their  territory  to  gratify  their  long-cherished 
wish  for  war.  They  broke  away  from  their  reservation,  and  made  re- 
peated forays  into  Wyoming  and  Montana,  laid  the  country  waste,  car-, 
ried  off  the  horses  and  cattle,  and  murdered  such  settlers  as  ventured  to 
oppose  them. 

This  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and  early  in  1876  the  government  re- 
solved to  drive  the  Sioux  back  upon  their  reservation.  A  force  of  regular 
troops,  under  Generals  Terry  and  Crook,  was  sent  into  the  difficult  moun- 
tainous region  of  the  Upper  Yellowstone,  and  an  active  campaign  was 
begun  against  the  Indians.  The  force  was  too  small,  however,  for  the 
work  required  of  it.  A  large  part  of  the  army  had  been  stationed  by  the 
President  in  the  States  of  the  South,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  those 
States  for  the  Republican  party  in  the  approaching  Presidential  election, 
and  President  Grant,  when  required  to  choose  between  the  reinforcement 
of  the  troops  on  the  frontier  and  the  continuance  of  his  disgraceful  and 
unconstitutional  policy  in  the  South,  decided  to  sacrifice  the  brave  fellows 
in  the  field  rather  than  lose  the  least  party  advantage  that  could  be  gained 
by  preventing  the  free  expression  of  the  will  of  the  States  of  the  South. 
In  spite  of  the  smallness  of  its  numbers,  the  army  on  the  frontier  suc- 
ceeded in  forcing  the  savages,  who  were  led  by  Sitting  Bull,  their  most 
famous  chief,  and  who  num.bered  several  thousand  fighting  men,  back  to 
the  Big  Horn  mountains.  The  Indians  now  took  up  a  strong  position  in 
the  mountains,  and  on  the  25th  of  June,  1876,  the  Seventh  Cavalry, 
under  Generals  Custer  and  Reno,  were  sent  forward  to  ascertain  the 


008  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

whereabouts  of  the  enemy.  They  found  the  savages  encamped  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Little  Horn  river,  and  occupying  a  large  village  some 
three  miles  in  length.  General  Ouster,  with  his  little  command,  at  once 
made  a  gallant  attack  upon  the  Indian  village,  hoping  that  General  Reno 
would  be  able  to  come  up  in  time  to  support  him.  Reno  was  unable  to 
advance,  however,  and  Custers  little  band  was  soon  surrounded  by  several 
thousand  of  the  bravest  Sioux  warriors.  The  conflict  which  ensued  was 
one  of  the  most  heroic  in  the  annals  of  the  American  army,  and  one  of 
the  most  disastrous.  Custer  was  slain,  together  with  every  man  who  ac- 
companied him  into  the  fight,  but  not  until  they  had  exacted  a  fearful 
price  for  their  lives  at  the  hands  of  the  savages.  General  Reno,  in  the 
meantime,  had  become  engaged  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  town,  and  was 
so  hard  pressed  by  the  Indians  that  he  was  unable  to  advance  to  Ouster's 
assistance.  He  succeeded  in  drawing  off  his  men,  and  in  retiring  to  the 
bluffs  of  the  Little  Horn,  where  he  held  his  position  until  the  arrival  of 
General  Gibbon  with  reinforcements  compelled  the  savages  to  retreat,  and 
saved  the  remnant  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry  from  destruction.  The  disaster 
of  the  Little  Horn  was  the  most  terrible  defeat  ever  inflicted  upon  the 
United  States  army  by  the  savages,  and  was  directly  due  to  the  criminal 
folly  of  the  administration  in  sending  a  mere  handful  of  troops  to  meet  a 
strong  body  of  the  bravest  Indian  warriors  on  the  continent. 

The  disaster  aroused  such  a  storm  of  indignation  throughout  the 
country  that  the  government  hastily  forwarded  reinforcements  to  the 
frontier,  and  Generals  Terry  and  Crook  were  able  to  conduct  their  cam- 
paign with  more  vigor.  The  Indians  were  beaten  in  a  number  of  en- 
gagements, and  on  the  24th  of  November  suffered  a  decisive  defeat  in  a 
battle  with  the  Fourth  Cavalry,  under  Colonel  McKenzie,  at  one  of  the 
passes  of  the  Big  Horn  mountains.  Negotiations  were  in  progress  during 
the  summer  and  autumn  for  the  removal  of  the  Sioux  to  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory, and  by  the  beginning  of  the  winter  the  greater  part  of  the  savages 
had  surrendered.  A  few  bands  under  Sitting  Bull  and  Crazy  Horse 
continued  in  the  field.  They  were  not  allowed  to  remain  in  security 
during  the  winter,  and  on  the  8th  of  January,  1877,  a  decisive  victory 
was  won  over  the  band  of  Crazy  Horse,  at  Wolf  mountains,  in  Montana 
Territory,  by  General  Miles,  with  a  force  of  infantry  and  artillery.  This 
victory  led  to  the  surrender  of  other  bands  of  Indians,  and  early  in  1877 
the  operations  against  Sitting  Bull  obliged  that  chief  to  take  refuge  in 
the  territory  of  British  America.  By  the  spring  of  1877  the  war  had 
been  practically  brought  to  a  close. 

The  question  of  the  reconstruction  of  the  Southern  States  was  one  of 
the  legacies  which  President  Grant  received  at  the  hands  of  his  prede- 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  S.   GRANT.  909 

cessor.  It  was  fondly  hoped  by  the  country  at  large  that  under  the  new 
administration  "the  work  of  reconstruction  would  be  accomplished,  and 
the  wounds  of  civil  war  healed."  The  utterances  of  President  Grant 
upon  entering  upon  his  new  duties  justified  these  expectations,  as  it  was 
not  believed  that  he  cherished  extreme  views,  or  that  he  harbored  vin- 
dictive feelings.  "Nor  is  it  probable,"  says  a  distinguished  northern 
writer,*  "that  those  who  relied  upon  the  President's  disposition  to  deal 
fairly,  and  even  liberally  with  the  Southern  States,  were  at  all  mistaken 
in  that  regard ;  but  his  ignorance  in  civil  affairs,  which  in  some  cases  was 
conspicuous  and  mortifying,  seems  very  early  to  have  thrown  him  into 
the  hands  of  managing  politicians,  and  these  were  mainly  of  the  extreme 
type,  who  made  up  in  bitterness  what  they  lacked  in  breadth.  The  poli- 
ticians from  the  South  who  were  most  about  him  were  generally  adven- 
turers, who  found  the  power  of  the  government  a  convenient  instrument 
for  the  furtherance  of  personal  schemes,  and  who  did  not  scruple  to  make 
use  of  their  influence  with  the  President  to  that  end.  Among  these  was 
one  of  the  President's  brothers-in-law,  who  amazed  the  country  by  his 
daring  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  State  which  he  had  chosen  as  the 
scene  of  his  operations.  The  northern  politicians  who  surrounded  the 

President  were  largely  of  a  similar  stripe Was  it  to  be  expected 

of  such  men  that  they  would  deal  generously  with  a  fallen  foe,  or  was  it 
within  the  compass  of  partisanship  like  theirs  that  their  opponents  should 
be  treated  with  judicial  fairness?  llepublican  leaders  who  were  disposed 
to  amnesty  and  a  real  oblivion  for  past  offences,  were  elbowed  out  of 
place,  and  at  last  driven  to  the  rear." 

The  labors  of  reconstruction  were  nominally  completed  in  1870. 
"  Had  the  course  of  the  managing  men  of  the  party  in  power  been  wise 
and  conciliatory,  had  it  been  actuated  by  high  motives  and  statesmanlike 
views,  and  had  the  men  who  represented  the  party  in  the  Southern  States 
been  men  who  were  laboring  for  the  good  of  their  section,  rather  than  for 
the  advancement  of  their  own  personal  interests,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
that  the  administration  would  have  been  able  to  attach  to  itself  the  sup- 
port of  a  majority  of  the  southern  people.  The  colored  people  were 
naturally  its  friends.  The  patronage  of  the  administration  was  large,  and 
it  would  have  drawn  a  strong  support  to  the  party  had  it  been  distributed 
wisely  and  from  an  evident  desire  to  accomplish  only  the  purposes  for 
which  offices  are  created.  Moreover,  the  southern  people  needed  peace 
and  quiet  to  recuperate  their  exhausted  interests ;  and  while  many  hot- 
heads were  supposed  to  be  violent  and  troublesome,  the  best  and  most 

*  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr. 


910  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

influential  of  them,  of  whom  the  late  Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy 
was  an  example,  were  disposed  to  accept  with  gratitude  such  advances  of 
their  late  enemies  as  promised  to  render  peace  possible  and  permanent. 
But  as,  unfortunately,  all  were  not  of  this  class,  the  persons  who  had  the 
President's  ear,  and  who  assumed  to  speak  for  the  party  in  Congress, 
found  it  convenient  for  their  purpose  to  present  the  impracticable  and 
violent  as  the  proper  representatives  of  southern  sentiment,  and  to  speak 
of  and  deal  with  the  southern  people  as  unrepentant  rebels,  who  were  to 
be  held  down  by  the  strong  hand.  That  the  white  people  of  the  South 
were  alienated  from  the  Republican  party  was  not  surprising.  It  was 
almost  a  matter  of  course  that  the  control  of  the  Southern  States  should 
pass  to  the  Democratic  party,  for  it  was  quite  impossible  to  retain  all  the 
freedmen  in  one  party,  while  their  late  masters,  the  persons  upon  whom 
they  now  relied  for  employment,  were  mainly  to  be  found  in  the  other. 
The  'color  line'  was  drawn  when  the  narrow  policy  of  extreme  partisans 
among  the  Republican  leaders  arrayed  against  them  southern  whites;  the 
drawing  of  it  indeed  left  some  white  leaders  among  the  freedmen,  but  it 
did  not  prevent  a  still  greater  number  of  the  latter  following  the  political 
fortunes  of  those  with  whose  material  interests  their  own  were  so  closely 
identified;  and  the  political  ascendency  of  the  Republican  party  in  the 
Southern  States  was  lost  permanently."  * 

The  President,  however,  could  never  be  made  to  see  the  great  error  he 
was  committing.  He  who  had  been  so  generous  a  foe  to  the  people  of 
the  South,  when  commanding  the  armies  of  the  Union,  he  who  had  made 
so  emphatic  an  indorsement  of  the  good  intentions  of  those  people  in  his 
report  to  President  Johnson  upon  the  condition  of  the  Southern  States, 
now,  strange  to  relate,  became  the  bitterest  partisan  that  ever  occupied 
the  Executive  chair.  He  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  representations  of  those 
best  qualified,  both  by  their  knowledge  of  the  subject  and  by  their  love 
of  constitutional  liberty,  to  advise  him,  and  would  listen  only  to  the  men 
whose  interest  it  was  to  maintain  the  era  of  misrule  which  he  had  allowed 
to  grow  up  in  the  South.  The  most  unconstitutional  acts  received  the 
President's  sanction,  and  the  whole  Executive  power  was  used  to  sustain 
the  men  who  were  enriching  themselves  at  the  cost  of  the  people  of  the 
States  upon  which  the  President  forced  them. 

This  interference  of  the  President  in  the  affairs  of  a  State  was  brought 
to  a  crisis  in  the  winter  of  1874—75,  in  the  State  of  Louisiana.  At  the 
election  for  members  of  the  Legislature,  held  during  the  fall  of  1874, 
both  the  Republican  and  Conservative  parties  claimed  the  victory.  The 

*  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  S.   GRANT. 

Legislature  met  in  New  Orleans,  on  the  4th  of  January,  1875,  and  a 
struggle  ensued  for  the  control  of  the  organization  of  the  lower  House. 
By  their  superior  strategy  the  Democrats,  or  Conservatives,  were  suc- 
cessful, and  proceeded  to  organize  the  House  and  seat  five  members  of 
their  own  party,  who  had  contested  as  many  Republican  seats  in  the 
House.  The  Democratic  triumph  was  of  short  duration,  however,  for  in 
a  few  moments  General  De  Trobriand,  of  the  United  States  army,  entered 
the  hall  and  announced  that  he  had  orders  to  remove  the  five  members 
sworn  in.  The  Democratic  Speaker  and  the  five  members  themselves 
protested  against  this  interference  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  troops,  and 
declared  that  they  would  not  leave  their  seats  until  forced  from  them. 
General  De  Trobriand  immediately  summoned  a  file  of  soldiers,  and  the 
five  members  were  removed  from  their  seats  and  expelled  from  the  hall. 
The  Democratic  Speaker  and  members  at  once  withdrew  from  the  hall, 
and  the  House  was  organized  by  the  Republicans. 

This  strange  and  inexcusable  spectacle  of  the  interference  of  the  Fed- 
eral troops  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  a  State  had  then  no  parallel  in 
American  history.  It  aroused  a  feeling  of  general  indignation  through- 
out the  North,  and  the  President  was  sharply  denounced,  even  by  men 
of  his  own  party,  for  his  interference  with  the  organization  of  a  State 
Legislature.  Several  governors  addressed  special  messages  on  the  subject 
to  the  Legislatures  of  their  respective  States,  and  legislative  resolutions 
were  passed  denouncing  the  course  pursued  by  the  Federal  government. 
The  indignation  which  thus  expressed  itself  was  greatly  increased  by  a 
despatch  from  General  Sheridan,  commanding  at  New  Orleans,  to  the 
War  Department,  dated  5th  of  January,  1875,  advising  the  general  gov- 
ernment to  declare  the  people  of  Louisiana  banditti,  and  to  turn  them 
over  to  him  and  to  his  troops  for  punishment.  This  savage  suggestion 
was  deeply  resented  by  the  people  of  the  whole  country,  who  had  by 
this  time  good  cause  to  deplore  any  interference  of  the  military  in  civil 
affairs. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  public  indignation  was  felt  by  even 
the  President,  for,  in  a  message  to  Congress  upon  the  subject,  he  made 
this  admission,  while  defending  the  course  of  the  administration  :  "  I  am 
well  aware  that  any  military  interference  by  the  officers  or  troops  of  the 
United  States  with  the  organization  of  a  State  Legislature  or  any  of  its 
proceedings,  or  with  any  civil  department  of  the  government,  is  repug- 
nant to  our  ideas  of  government.  I  can  conceive  of  no  case  not  involving 
rebellion  or  insurrection  where  such  interference  by  authority  of  the 
general  government  ought  to  be  permitted  or  can  be  justified."  And 
yet,  with  this  conviction,  so  strongly  expressed,  President  Grant  never 


912  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

hesitated  to  use  the  military  force  of  the  government  to  secure  a  party 
advantage  whenever  he  thought  it  could  be  done  with  safety. 

In  the  summer  of  1876  the  various  political  parties  of  the  Union  met 
in  their  respective  conventions  to  nominate  candidates  for  the  Presidency 
and  Vice-Presidency  of  the  United  States,  which  officers  were  to  be  chosen 
at  the  general  election  in  November.  The  Republican  Convention  as- 
sembled at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  the  14th  of  June,  and  resulted  in  the 
Domination  of  Governor  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  of  Ohio,  for  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  of  William  A.  Wheeler,  of  New  York,  for  Vice- 
President.  The  Democratic  Convention  was  held  at  St.  Louis,  on  the 
27th  of  June,  and  nominated  Governor  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  of  New  York, 
for  the  Presidency,  and  Governor  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  of  Indiana,  for 
the  Vice-Presidency.  A  third  convention,  representing  the  Independent 
Greenback  party,  met  at  Indianapolis,  on  the  18th  of  May,  and  nomi- 
nated Peter  Cooper,  of  New  York,  for  President,  and  Samuel  F.  Gary, 
of  Ohio,  for  Vice-President. 

The  campaign  which  followed  these  nominations  was  one  of  intense 
bitterness,  and  was  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable  the  country  hns 
ever  witnessed.  A  most  discreditable  feature  of  it  was  the  appearance  of 
Mr.  Chandler,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  as  the  chief  manager  of  the 
Republican  party.  It  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country 
that  a  member  of  the  President's  Cabinet  had  ever  held  so  questionable 
a  position  ;  the  first  time  that  the  patronage  of  the  government  had  ever 
been  used  so  openly  in  behalf  of  a  political  party.  Under  the  leadership 
of  Secretary  Chandler,  the  manly  and  conciliatory  letter  of  acceptance  of 
Governor  Hayes  was  ignored,  and  a  campaign  of  great  bitterness  was  in- 
augurated. The  old  wounds  of  the  civil  war  were  torn  open;  the  people 
of  the  South  were  denounced  as  traitors,  ready  to  plunge  the  country  into 
a  new  war  upon  the  slightest  pretext,  and  the  people  of  the  North  were 
urged  to  treat  them  as  enemies,  and  save  the  government  from  the  hands 
of  traitors.  This  method  of  conducting  the  campaign  received  the  cordial 
indorsement  of  President  Grant,  and,  as  far  as  he  could  give  it,  his  active 
aid. 

The  election  was  held  on  the  7th  of  November.  The  popular  vote 
was  as  follows: 

For  Samuel  J.  Tilden 4.284  205 

"     Rutherford  B.  Hayes 4,033,-J(J5 

"     Peter  Cooper 81,7:37 

Tilden  thus  received  a  popular  majority  of  250,970  votes  over  Hayes, 
and  a  majority  of  169,233  votes  over  both  Hayes  and  Cooper. 


THE   ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  S.   GRANT.  913 

In  the  Electoral  Colleges  185  votes  were  necessary  to  a  choice.  Of 
this  number  Governor  Tilden  received  184,  and  Governor  Hayes  163 
undisputed  votes.  The  votes  of  the  States  of  Florida,  Louisiana,  Oregon 
and  South  Carolina,  twenty-two  in  number,  were  claimed  by  both  parties 
for  their  respective  candidates.  It  was  declared  by  the  Democrats  that, 
even  conceding  the  votes  of  Oregon  and  South  Carolina  to  Governor 
Hayes,  Mr.  Tilden  had  fairly  carried  both  Florida  and  Louisiana,  and 
was  entitled  to  196  electoral  votes.  The  revision  of  the  vote  in  Florida 
and  Louisiana  had  been  confided,  since  the  reorganization  of  those  States, 
to  Returning  Boards,  which  bodies  had  power  to  manipulate  the  votes 
of  the  people  of  their  respective  States  to  an  extent  sufficient  to  make  the 
result  what  they  pleased.  In  consequence  of  this,  it  had  several  times 
happened  in  Louisiana  that  the  Returning  Board  had,  after  canvassing 
the  vote,  announced  a  result  entirely  at  variance  with  the  vote  at  the 
polls.  In  the  present  case  the  Florida  and  Louisiana  Returning  Boardt 
were  Republican  in  their  composition.  In  the  Florida  Board  there  was 
one  Democratic  member,  but  in  the  Louisiana  Board  the  place  of  the 
Democratic  member  was  vacant,  and  the  board  refused  to  fill  the  vacancy, 
leaving  it  entirely  Republican. 

It  was  evident  from  the  first  that  each  of  these  boards  would  return 
the  vote  of  its  respective  State  for  the  Republican  candidate,  and  it  was 
feared  that  this  interference  with  the  will  of  the  people  would  be  pro- 
ductive of  trouble.  Immediately  after  the  election,  therefore,  President 
Grant  appointed  a  number  of  prominent  Republicans  to  proceed  to 
Florida  and  Louisiana  to  watch  the  counting  of  the  votes  of  those  States; 
and  a  number  of  prominent  Democrats  repaired  to  Tallahassee  and  New 
Orleans  for  the  same  purpose.  These  gentlemen  had  no  official  charac- 
ter, and  were  without  power  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  counting 
of  the  vote.  It  was  hoped,  however,  that  their  presence  as  witnesses 
would  act  as  a  check  upon  the  boards,  and  thus  a  fair  count  be  secured. 
This  hope  was  not  destined  to  be  realized.  The  Louisiana  Board  in  par- 
ticular was  composed  of  reckless  and  disreputable  men,  and,  in  spite  of 
the  presence  of  the  gentlemen  referred  to,  some  of  the  most  prominent 
of  whom  gave  open  encouragement  to  the  course  of  the  board,  returned 
the  vote  of  the  State  for  Hayes,  thus  setting  aside  the  popular  majority 
at  the  polls  of  over  10,000  for  the  Democratic  candidates.  A  similar 
course  was  pursued  in  Florida,  which  State  was  also  returned  for  Hayes. 
Investigations  showed  that  the  electoral  vote  of  South  Carolina  had  l>een 
fairly  cast  for  Hayes,  and  it  was  generally  conceded  to  him  by  both 
parties.  The  Democratic  Governor  of  Oregon  attempted  by  a  trans- 
parent fraud  to  give  the  electoral  vote  of  that  State  to  Tilden,  and  thus 
58 


914  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

elect  him;  but  it  came  to  be  the  general  sentiment  of  the  country  that  the 
electoral  vote  of  Oregon  should  rightfully  be  cast  for  Hayes. 

This  confined  the  real  struggle  to  the  votes  of  Florida  and  Louisiana. 
It  was  the  general  conviction  of  the  country  that  both  of  those  States  had 
been  fairly  carried  by  the  Democratic  party,  and  many  earnest  Republi- 
cans gave  open  expression  to  this  belief.  The  action  of  the  Return 
Boards,  however,  though  so  evidently  in  defiance  of  the  will  of  the  people, 
was  still  within  the  letter  of  the  laws  under  which  they  had  acted.  The 
Republican  party,  therefore,  claimed  that,  as  such  action  was  not  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  Florida  and  Louisiana,  it  must  stand;  that  neither  Congress 
nor  any  other  body  had  power  to  go  behind  the  certificate  of  the  electoral 
vote  of  a  State,  properly  signed  and  authenticated  by  the  State  officials; 
and  that  when  such  certificates  were  presented  to  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress,  at  the  counting  of  the  electoral  votes  of  the  States,  they  must 
be  accepted  without  question,  and  the  electoral  votes  of  Florida  and 
Louisiana  be  counted  for  Hayes.  They  declared  that  the  States  had 
power  to  make  any  laws  they  might  see  fit  for  the  counting  of  their  popu- 
lar vote,  and  that  for  Congress  to  seek  to  interfere  with  such  laws  would 
bo  to  illegally  trespass  upon  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States.  They  held, 
therefore,  that  as  the  action  of  the  Return  Boards  was  within  the  letter 
of  the  laws  of  their  respective  States,  Florida  and  Louisiana  must  be 
counted  for  Hayes;  and  in  order  to  maintain  this  position  the  Republican 
party  was  compelled  to  assume  the  strange  and  inconsistent  role  of  the 
champion  of  States'  Rights,  the  doctrine  against  which  it  had  waged  a 
relentless  war  of  nearly  twenty  years.  The  Democrats,  on  the  other  hand, 
maintained  that  the  popular  majority  for  Tilden  in  Florida  and  Louisiana 
was  too  evident  to  be  doubted,  being  simply  overwhelming  in  the  latter 
State,  and  that  the  Return  Boards  had  overcome  these  majorities  only  by 
a  fraudulent  use  of  their  powers  in  throwing  out  Democratic  votes  to  an 
extent  sufficient  to  give  Florida  and  Louisiana  to  the  Republicans.  They 
declared,  moreover,  that,  as  the  Louisiana  Board  had  refused  to  appoint 
a  Democratic  member  to  the  vacancy  in  that  body,  as  required  by  the  law 
under  which  they  acted,  their  action  was  necessarily  illegal.  They  held 
that,  as  both  Florida  and  Louisiana  had  been  wrongfully  and  fraudulently 
given  to  the  Republicans  by  the  Return  Boards,  in  defiance  of  the  will  of 
the  people  of  those  States,  as  expressed  at  the  polls,  the  electoral  votes  of 
both  of  those  States  should  not  be  counted  by  Congress.  Such  action  on 
the  part  of  Congress  would  have  resulted  in  a  declaration  by  that  body 
that  there  had  been  no  popular  choice  of  a  President  and  V ice-President, 
and  the  election  of  the  President  would  have  devolved  upon  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  the  choice  of  the  Vice-President  upon  the  Senate, 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  S.   GRANT.  91$ 

in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  The  Democrats, 
therefore,  declared  that  they  would  insist  upon  the  rejection  of  the  votes 
of  Florida  and  Louisiana,  upon  the  ground  of  fraud  on  the  part  of  the 
Return  Boards;  and  the  Republicans  announced  their  decision  to  insist 
upon  the  counting  of  the  votes  of  those  States  as  certified  by  the  State 
officials.  Each  party  denounced  the  other  with  great  bitterness;  the 
country  was  deeply  agitated,  and  threats  of  armed  resistance  were  freely 
indulged  in  by  both  parties.  The  crisis  was  the  most  alarming  that  had 
threatened  the  country  since  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war.  A  feeling  of 
general  uneasiness  prevailed  throughout  the  Union,  which  showed  itself 
in  the  depression  of  business  in  all  sections. 

Congress  met  on  the  4th  of  December,  1876.  The  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives WOA  organized  by  the  Democratic  majority  by  the  election  of 
Samuel  J.  Randall,  of  Pennsylvania,  as  Speaker.  Immediately  upon  the 
organization  of  Congress  the  question  of  the  manner  of  counting  the 
electoral  votes  of  the  States  came  up  in  that  body.  The  Republican  ma- 
jority in  the  Senate  claimed  that,  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution,  the 
Vice-President  was  compelled  to  open  the  certificates  of  the  States  in  the 
presence  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress,  in  joint  convention,  and  declare 
the  result,  the  two  Houses  being  present  merely  as  witnesses  of  the  count 
by  the  Vice-President.  With  this  view  the  Republicans  in  the  lower  House 
agreed.  The  Democrats  in  both  Houses  maintained  that  while  the  Con- 
stitution required  the  Vice-President  to  open  the  certificates  and  count  the 
electoral  votes,  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  were  made  the  judges  of  the 
legality  of  those  certificates,  and  that,  in  the  case  of  the  presentation  of 
two  certificates  from  the  same  State,  the  two  Houses  were  the  rightful 
judges  of  which  was  the  proper  one;  and  that,  in  the  event  of  a  failure 
of  the  two  Houses  to  agree  in  such  a  decision,  the  vote  of  such  State  must 
be  rejected.  In  support  of  this  view  they  brought  forward  the  Twenty- 
second  Joint  Rule  of  Congress,  adopted  February  6th,  1865,  by  a  Re- 
publican Congress,  and  under  which  the  counting  of  the  electoral  vote  in 
1865,  1869  and  1873  had  been  conducted.  This  rule  was  designed  to 
secure  a  Republican  triumph  at  the  time  of  its  passage,  but  in  January, 
1876,  when  it  was  evident  that,  the  House  of  Representatives  having- 
become  Democratic,  the  rule  would  be  used  by  the  Democrats  for  their 
own  advantage,  the  Senate,  still  Republican,  passed  a  concurrent  resolu- 
tion adopting  the  joint  rules  of  the  previous  session  of  Congress  as  the 
joint  rules  for  that  session,  "excepting  the  Twenty-second  Joint  Rule." 
The  House  failed  to  act  upon  the  resolution.  At  the  opening  of  the  ses- 
sion in  December,  1876,  the  President  of  the  Senate  ruled  that  there  were 
uo  joint  rules  in  operation.  The  Speaker  of  the  House,  on  the  other 


016  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

hand,  ruled  that  the  joint  rules  previously  existing  still  existed.  Thus 
the  issue  between  the  two  Houses  was  distinctly  made.  The  House 
declared  its  intention  of  insisting  upon  the  right  secured  to  it  by  the 
Twenty-second  Joint  Rule  of  objecting  to  the  vote  of  a  State,  and  that 
it  would  withdraw  from  the  joint  convention  if  this  right  were  denied  it 
by  the  Senate.  The  Senate  declared  that,  in  case  of  such  withdrawal  by 
the  House,  the  count  would  be  continued  by  the  Senate,  and  the  result 
proclaimed  by  the  Vice-President.  The  House,  on  the  other  hand,  an- 
nounced its  intention  of  acting  in  such  a  case  as  if  there  had  been  no 
choice  by  the  electoral  vote;  it  would  at  once  proceed  to  elect  the  Presi- 
dent as  required  by  the  Constitution.  Each  House  was  firm  in  its  reso- 
lution, and  the  breach  between  them  widened  daily.  Angry  speeches  and 
threats  were  made  by  members  of  Congress,  and  the  general  alarm  and 
uneasiness  deepened  throughout  the  country.  The  time  appointed  by  the 
Constitution  for  counting  the  electoral  vote  was  rapidly  drawing  nigh, 
and  it  seemed  likely  that  an  era  of  anarchy  was  about  to  ensue.  Each 
House  would  act  for  itself;  two  Presidents  would  be  declared  elected. 
There  was  no  doubt  that  President  Grant  would  sustain  the  choice  of  the 
Senate  with  the  army.  In  such  an  event  civil  Avar  was  inevitable. 

The  danger  was  so  great  that  patriotic  men  of  both  parties  in  Congress 
set  to  work  to  devise  some  means  of  settlement.  It  was  plain  that  this 
could  be  accomplished  only  by  a  compromise.  A  conference  committee 
was  appointed  by  each  House,  which  committee,  after  a  long  deliberation, 
reported  to  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  a  bill  providing  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  commission,  to  consist  of  fifteen  members.  Five  of  these  were 
to  be  appointed  by  the  Senate,  and  five  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 
The  remaining  five  were  to  be  chosen  from  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court.  Four  of  the  justices  were  designated  by  the  bill ;  the  fifth  was 
to  be  chosen  by  the  justices  named  in  the  bill.  The  bill  provided  for  the 
meeting  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  in  joint  convention  on  the  first 
Thursday  in  February.  The  votes  were  to  be  opened  by  the  Vice- 
President,  and  counted  by  tellers  appointed  for  the  purpose.  Each  House 
was  to  have  the  right  to  object  to  the  vote  of  a  State,  but  in  cases  where 
only  one  certificate  was  presented  the  objection  must  be  sustained  by  the 
affirmative  vote  of  both  Houses.  If  not  so  sustained,  the  objection  must 
fall  and  the  vote  be  counted.  Section  II.  of  the  bill  provided,  "  That,  if 
more  than  one  return,  or  paper  purporting  to  be  a  return  from  a  State, 
shall  have  been  received  by  the  President  of  the  Senate,  purporting  to 
be  the  certificates  of  electoral  votes  given  at  the  last  preceding  election  for 
President  and  Vice-President  in  such  State  (unless  they  shall  be  duplicates 
of  the  same  return),  all  such  returns  and  papers  shall  be  opened  by  him 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  S.    GRANT.  917 

in  the  presence  of  the  two  Houses  when  met  as  aforesaid,  and  read  by  the 
tellers,  and  all  such  returns  and  papers  shall  thereupon  be  submitted  to 
the  judgment  and  decision,  as  to  which  is  the  true  and  lawful  electoral 
vote  of  such  State,"  of  the  commission  appointed  by  the  bill.  The  de- 
cision of  the  commission,  with  the  reasons  therefor,  was  to  be  submitted 
to  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  Should  objection  be  made  by  five 
senators  and  five  representatives  to  the  report  of  the  commission,  the  two 
Houses  were  to  separate  and  discuss  the  said  objections,  the  time  allowed 
for  debate  being  limited  by  the  bill  ;  but  unless  both  Houses  should  agree 
to  sustain  the  objections,  the  decision  of  the  commission  should  stand. 

This  plan  met  with  considerable  favor  from  the  conservative  element 
of  both  Houses,  but  was  strongly  opposed  by  the  more  ultra  of  both 
parties.  It  was  debated  at  length  and  with  great  vigor.  It  passed  the 
Senate  on  the  25th  of  January,  1877,  by  a  vote  of  47  yeas  and  17  nay?  ; 
ten  senators  not  voting.  The  vote  in  the  House  was  taken  the  next  da), 
and  stood,  yeas,  191 ;  nays,  86  ;  fourteen  representatives  not  voting.  The 
vote  in  the  Senate  was  divided  as  follows:  Yeas — Republicans,  21; 
Democrats,  46.  Nays — Republicans,  16;  Democrats,  1.  In  the  House 
it  stood  :  Yeas — Democrats,  159  ;  Republicans,  32.  Nays — Democrats, 
18;  Republicans,  68.  The  bill  was  immediately  signed  by  President 
Grant,  who  had  from  the  first  given  it  his  warm  encouragement. 

The  members  of  the  commission  were  promptly  appointed.  They 
were  as  follows:  Justices  Clifford,  Strong,  Miller,  Field  and  Bradley, 
of  the  Supreme  Court;  Senators  Edmunds,  Morton,  Frelinghuysen, 
Thurman  and  Bayard ;  and  Representatives  Payne,  Hunton,  Abbott, 
Garfield  and  Hoar. 

The  two  Houses  of  Congress  met  in  joint  convention  on  the  1st  of 
February,  1877,  and  began  the  counting  of  the  electoral  vote.  When 
the  vote  of  Florida  was  reached,  three  certificates  were  presented  and 
were  referred  to  the  Electoral  Commission.  This  body,  upon  hearing  the 
arguments  of  the  counsel  of  the  Democratic  and  Republican  parties,  de- 
cided that  it  had  no  power  to  go  behind  the  action  of  the  Return  Board, 
and  that  the  certificate  of  that  body  giving  the  vote  of  that  {State  to 
Hayes  must  be  accepted  by  the  two  Houses  of  Congress.  The  vote  by 
which  this  decision  was  reached  stood  eight  (all  Republicans)  in  favor  of 
it,  and  seven  (all  Democrats)  against  it.  The  party  line  appearing  thus 
so  sharply  in  the  commission  mortified  and  disgusted  the  whole  country, 
which  had  looked  to  the  commission  for  a  decision  that  should  be  beyond 
question.  A  similar  conclusion  was  come  to  in  the  case  of  Louisiana. 
Objections  were  made  to  the  reception  of  the  votes  of  Oregon  and  South 
Carolina.  In  the  Oregon  case  the  decision  was  unanimously  in  favor  of 


918  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

counting  the  votes  of  the  Hayes  electors.  In  the  South  Carolina  case  the 
commission  decided  that  the  Democratic  electors  were  not  lawfully  chosen  ; 
but  on  the  motion  to  give  the  State  to  Hayes,  the  vote  stood  8  yeas  to 
7  nays.  So  South  Carolina  was  counted  for  Hayes.  Objection  was  made, 
on  the  ground  of  ineligibility,  to  certain  electors  from  Michigan,  Nevada, 
Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont  and  Wisconsin,  but  the  objections 
were  not  sustained  by  the  two  Houses. 

The  final  result  was  reached  at  ten  minutes  after  four  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  2d  of  March,  1877.  The  counting  of  the  votes  of  the 
States  having  been  concluded,  Mr.  Allison,  one  of  the  tellers  on  the  part 
of  the  Senate,  announced  the  result  of  the  footings;  whereupon  the  pre- 
siding officer  of  the  two  Houses  declared  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  of  Ohio, 
the  duly  elected  President,  and  William  A.  Wheeler,  of  New  York,  the 
duly  elected  Vice-President,  for  the  term  of  four  years,  commencing  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1877. 

The  country  had  watched  the  proceedings  of  the  Electoral  Commission 
with  the  deepest  interest,  and  with  feelings  of  pain  and  disgust  at  the 
strong  partisan  bias  which  marked  all  of  its  decisions.  For  a  while  there 
was  a  disposition  to  reject  its  award ;  but  the  conservative  sentiment  of 
the  nation  prevailed,  and  it  was  finally  resolved  to  accept  the  decision  as 
the  only  escape  from  worse  trouble.  The  sentiment  of  the  best  element 
of  the  country  was  thus  summed  up  by  a  leading  journal :  "  The  Electoral 
Commission  has  completed  its  work,  and  we  do  not  believe  there  is  one 
candid  and  competent  person  outside  of  the  heated  circle  of  partisans  of 
the  '  successful '  party  who  will  hesitate,  after  a  careful  examination  of  its 
formal  judgments  submitted  to  Congress,  to  say  that  its  official  record 
disgraces  every  member  of  the  majority  of  that  body.  The  task  which 
this  majority  had  to  perform  as  a  partisan  body  was  a  difficult  one,  and 
the  necessity  of  presenting  reasons,  as  judges,  for  action  taken  simply  as 
politicians,  involved  its  members  in  a  maze  of  contradictory  opinions  to 
justify  contradictory  judgments.  In  the  Florida  case  it  compelled  them 
te  hold  that  evidence  to  prove  the  ineligibility  of  an  elector  was  admissi- 
ble, and,  in  that  case,  the  eligibility  of  Humphreys  was  decided  on  its 
merits.  In  the  Louisiana  case,  on  the  other  hand,  it  compelled  them  to 
declare  that  all  evidence  as  to  the  eligibility  of  two  of  the  Hayes  electors 
was  aliunde,  and  that  their  eligibility  was  a  presumption  of  law.  In  the 
Oregon  case,  again,  they  were  forced  to  take  evidence  touching  the  in- 
eligibility of  Watts,  and  a  decision  was  made  on  the  point  pronounced 
immaterial  in  the  Louisiana  case,  the  court  actually  going  so  far  as  to 
show  what  course  of  election,  resignation,  and  reappointment  it  was 
necessary  for  Watts  to  go  through  with  in  order  to  make  himself  eligible! 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF    ULYSSES  S.    GRANT.  919 

In  the  Florida  case,  the  governor's  false  certificate,  based  ou  what  the 
courts  of  the  State  had  declared  a  false  canvass,  was  pronounced  final  and 
unassailable.  In  the  Oregon  case,  the  certificate  of  the  governor,  based 
on  a  true  canvass  and  on  his  interpretation  of  the  laws  of  the  State  affect- 
ing it,  was  held  to  be  void  and  of  no  effect.  In  the  Louisiana  case  it  was 
held  that  the  commission  could  not  inquire  whether  the  Returning  Board 
was  legally  constituted  or  had  obeyed  the  statute  creating  it,  nor  yet 
whether  the  persons  to  whom  the  governor  gave  certificates  received  a 
majority  of  the  votes  cast  in  the  State  or  not.  But  in  the  Oregon  case  it 
was  decided  that  the  act  of  Governor  Grover,  '  in  giving  to  E.  A.  Cronin 
a  certificate  of  his  election,  though  he  received  a  thousand  votes  less  thau 
Watts,  on  the  ground  that  the  latter  was  ineligible,  was  without  authority 
of  law,  and  is  therefore  vacant.'  This  establishes  in  effect  the  principle — 
if  such  it  can  be  called — that,  while  a  governor's  certificate  is  not  gooti 
against  a  Republican  elector  in  Oregon,  who  has  one  thousand  votes  and 
the  equities  in  his  favor,  a  governor's  certificate  is  valid  against  a  Demo- 
cratic elector  in  Louisiana  who  has  eight  thousand  votes  and  the  equities 
in  his  favor.  The  many  absurdities  and  inconsistencies  put  forward 
by  the  commission  to  serve  as  legal  excuses  for  its  partisan  action 
come  to  their  zenith  and  consummation  in  the  South  Carolina  decision  and 
the  resolutions  upon  which  it  is  based.  Taken  all  in  all,  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  no  such  hasty  and  ill-digested  opinions  were  ever  before 
offered  by  a  set  of  judges  in  defence  of  a  series  of  dishonest  decrees." 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF    RUTHERFORD  B.   HAYES. 

Inauguration  of  President  Hayes  —  Sketch  of  the  New  President  —  Civil  Service  Reform  — 
Settlement  of  the  Troubles  in  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  —  Tenth  Census  of  the 
United  States  —  Election  of  General  Garfield  as  President. 


B.  HAYES,  the  nineteenth  President  of  the 
United  States,  was  publicly  inaugurated  at  Washington  on 
Monday,  March  5th,  1877.  As  the  4th  of  March  fell  on  Sun- 
day, the  President-elect  simply  took  the  oath  of  office  on  that 
day.  The  inaugural  ceremonies  were  carried  out  on  the  5th  at 
the  capitol  with  the  usual  pomp  and  parade,  and  in  the  presence  of  an 
enormous  multitude  of  citizens  and  visiting  military  organizations  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  After  the  customary  reception  by  the  Senate, 
the  new  President  was  escorted  to  the  eastern  portico  of  the  capitol, 
where  he  delivered  his  inaugural  address  to  the  assembled  multitude, 
after  which  the  oath  of  office  was  publicly  administered  to  him  by  Chief- 
Justice  Waite. 

The  new  President  was  a  native  of  Ohio,  having  been  born  at  Dela- 
ware, in  that  State,  on  the  4th  of  October,  1822.  He  graduated  at 
Kenyon  College,  Gambier,  Ohio,  and  obtained  his  professional  education 
at  the  Cambridge  Law  School.  He  began  the  practice  of  the  law  at 
Cincinnati  in  1856.  He  was  shortly  afterwards  made  city  solicitor, 
which  office  he  held  until  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  in  1861.  Soon 
after  the  opening  of  the  war  he  enlisted  in  the  Twenty-third  Ohio  Volun- 
teers, with  which  regiment  he  served  as  major,  lieutenant-colonel  and 
colonel.  He  led  his  regiment,  which  formed  a  part  of  General  Reno's 
division,  at  the  battle  of  South  Mountain,  in  September,  1862,  and  was 
severely  wounded  in  the  arm  in  that  engagement.  In  the  fall  of  1862 
he  was  made  colonel  of  the  regiment,  and  in  1864  was  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general  of  volunteers,  "for  gallant  and  meritorious 
services  in  the  battles  of  Winchester,  Fisher's  Hill,  and  Cedar  Creek," 
and  was  brevetted  major-general,  "  for  gallant  and  distinguished  services 
during  the  campaigns  of  1864  in  West  Virginia,  and  particularly  in  the 
battles  of  Fisher's  Hill  and  Cedar  Creek."  At  the  time  of  this  last 
920 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF  RUTHERFORD   B.  HAYES.        921 

promotion  he  was  in  command  of  a  division.  He  served  until  the  close 
of  the  war,  receiving  four  wounds  and  having  five  horses  shot  under  him 
during  his  military  career.  In  the  fall  of  1864  he  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress, and  was  returned  a  second  time  in  1866.  In  1867,  before  the 
expiration  of  his  Congressional  term,  he  was  elected  Governor  of  Ohio, 
and  was  re-elected  to  that  office  in  1869,  being  each  time  the  candidate 
of  the  Republican  party.  In  1870  General  Hayes  was  again  elected  to 
Congress,  and  in  1874  was  nominated  for  a  third  term  as  Governor  of 


PRESIDENT   HAYES. 


Ohio.  His  opponent  was  Governor  William  Allen,  one  of  the  most 
popular  of  the  Democratic  leaders  of  Ohio.  General  Hayes  was  elected 
by  a  handsome  majority.  He  resigned  this  office  in  March,  1877,  to 
enter  upon  his  new  duties  as  President  of  the  United  States. 

President  Hayes,  in  his  letter  accepting  the  nomination  of  his  party  for 
the  Presidency,  declared  that  if  elected  he  would  earnestly  and  faithfully 
seek  to  do  justice  to  the  States  of  the  South,  and  reform  the  civil  service 
of  the  country  by  ridding  it  of  corrupt  men,  and  requiring  a  faithful  dis- 
charge of  duty  at  the  hands  of  every  public  officer.  Immediately  upon 


022  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

his  inauguration  he  set  to  work  to  make  good  his  promises.  He  selected 
his  Cabinet  from  among  the  ablest  men  in  the  country,  making  ability, 
and  not  partisan  service,  the  test  of  the  fitness  of  the  persons  selected. 
William  M.  Evarts,  of  New  York,  was  made  Secretary  of  State,  and  the 
existence  of  the  Southern  States  as  members  of  the  Union  was  recognized 
by  the  appointment,  as  Postmaster-General,  of  Mr.  Key,  of  Tennessee, 
who  had  sustained  the  Democratic  ticket  in  the  canvass  of  1876.  Except 
to  the  extreme  partisans  who  had  done  the  country  so  much  harm  under 
the  last  administration,  the  appointments  of  the  new  President  gave  great 
satisfaction  to  the  entire  nation. 

Measures  were  promptly  set  on  foot  for  the  inauguration  of  a  better 
civil  service  system.  It  is  yet  to(  oon  to  predict  the  result,  but 
there  seems  to  be  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  President's  plan  will  be 
successful. 

The  most  important  matter  which  presented  itself  to  the  new  Presi- 
dent for  settlement  was  the  condition  of  the  States  of  Louisiana  and 
South  Carolina.  Under  President  Grant  the  troops  of  the  United  States 
had  been  freely  used  to  control  the  political  affairs  of  those  States.  In 
the  fall  of  1876  an  election  for  governor  and  other  State  officers  was  held 
in  each  of  these  States.  The  result  at  the  polls  was  in  favor  of  the  Demo- 
cratic or  Conservative  candidates.  In  each  State  the  revision  of  the  vote 
was  controlled  by  the  most  ultra  Republicans,  some  of  whom  were  candi- 
dates for  re-election.  The  Returning  Boards,  therefore,  made  such 
changes  in  the  popular  vote  as  they  found  necessary  for  their  own  success, 
and  announced  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  tickets  in  Louisiana  and 
South  Carolina.  The  outrage  was  too  transparent  this  time,  and  the 
patience  of  the  people  was  exhausted.  The  Republican  party  of  the 
North  declined  to  sustain  their  southern  associates  any  longer. 

In  South  Carolina  the  Conservatives  resolved  to  inaugurate  General 
Wade  Hampton,  their  candidate,  as  governor.  All  investigations  into 
the  election  made  it  evident  that  Hampton  and  his  associates  had  been 
fairly  chosen  by  the  people  at  the  polls,  and  the  party  which  had  elected 
him,  and  which  represented  the  property  and  intelligence  of  the  State, 
determined  not  to  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  men  whom  they  had  defeated. 
The  Governor  of  the  State  was  Mr.  Daniel  H.  Chamberlain,  who  had 
been  the  Republican  candidate  for  re-election.  Upon  learning  the 
intention  of  the  Democrats  to  inaugurate  their  governor,  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain applied  to  President  Grant  for  military  aid.  He  hoped  to  repeat  in 
South  Carolina  what  had  been  done  in  Louisiana — to  organize  his  Legis- 
lature under  the  protection  of  the  troops  of  the  United  States,  declare  the 
result  of  the  election  in  his  favor,  and  compel  the  people  to  submit  on 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF  RUTHERFORD   B.  HAYES. 


923 


pain  of  a  conflict  with  the  United  States.  His  application  to  President 
Grant  was  promptly  responded  to,  and  General  Ruger,  commanding  the 
Department  of  the  South,  was  ordered  to  place  the  troops  stationed  in 
Columbia  at  Governor  Chamberlain's  disposal.  Having  secured  the  aid 
of  the  troops,  Governor  Chamberlain  now  proceeded  to  take  the  first  step 
in  his  plan.  On  the  night  of  the  27th  of  November  the  State  House  was 
occupied  by  a  detachment  of  troops,  which  was  posted  so  as  to  command 
all  the  approaches  to  the  halls  of  the  Legislature. 

The  28th  of  November,  1876,  was  the  day  appointed  for  the  meeting 


WILLIAM    A.   WHEELER. 


of  the  Legislature.  The  Democratic  members  met  in  caucus  at  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the  State  House. 
Arriving  there  they  found  the  building  occupied  by  the  troops,  and  were 
compelled  to  submit  their  credentials  to  the  officer  of  the  guard,  who  ad- 
mitted such  as  had  papers  which  he  pronounced  satisfactory.  Passing 
through  the  troops  the  members  of  the  Legislature  reached  the  door  of 
the  hall  of  the  lower  House,  which  they  found  guarded  also  by  troops. 
The  doorkeeper,  backed  by  the  military  force,  refused  to  admit  certain 
of  the  delegates  whose  credentials  he  declared  were  null  and  void.  The 
entire  body  of  Democratic  members  then  withdrew,  after  protesting 


924  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES. 

against  the  interference  of  the  military.  Under  the  protection  of  the 
troops  the  Republicans  organized  the  Legislature. 

The  interference  of  the  troops  aroused  the  most  intense  excitement  in 
Columbia,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  an  outbreak  was  prevented, 
mainly  through  the  influence  of  General  Hampton.  This  indignation 
spread  throughout  the  country,  and  the  unwarrantable  interference  of 
President  Grant  in  the  domestic  affairs  of  a  State  was  sharply  denounced. 

The  Democrats,  on  the  29th  of  November,  succeeded  in  gaining  admis- 
sion to  the  State  House,  where  they  organized  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. After  a  struggle  of  a  week  with  the  Republicans,  they  withdrew 
to  South  Carolina  Hall,  and  conducted  the  sessions  of  their  Legislature 
there,  gaining  members  by  degrees  from  Chamberlain's  Legislature  at 
the  State  House.  The  Republican  Legislature  declared  the  election  of 
Governor  Chamberlain,  and  on  the  7th  of  December  he  was  sworn  into 
office,  under  the  protection  of  the  Federal  troops. 

The  Conservative  Legislature  continued  its  sessions  at  South  Carolina 
Hall,  and  on  the  14th  of  December  Governor  Hampton  was  publicly  in- 
augurated amid  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  He  at  once  set  to  work,  with 
his  associates,  to  administer  the  government  of  the  State.  He  was  recog- 
nized by  the  vast  majority  of  the  people  of  South  Carolina,  by  many  even 
who  had  voted  against  him.  His  authority  was  everywhere  respected  ; 
and  his  calls  upon  the  people  to  advance  a  portion  of  the  taxes  to  enable 
him  to  carry  on  the  government  were  cordially  and  promptly  responded 
to.  The  authority  of  Governor  Chamberlain  was  not  recognized  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  State  House  in  which  the  Federal  troops  were  quar- 
tered; the  people  refused  to  pay  their  taxes  to  his  government,  and  his 
governorship  was  a  mere  name.  In  view  of  this  state  of  affairs  President 
Grant  was  repeatedly  urged  to  withdraw  the  troops  from  the  State  build- 
ings to  their  barracks;  but,  as  he  knew  that  such  a  step  would  result  in 
the  downfall  of  the  Chamberlain  government,  he  persistently  refused  to 
do  so. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  South  Carolina  at  the  inauguration  of 
President  Hayes.  The  new  President,  with  characteristic  caution,  pro- 
ceeded to  investigate  the  matter.  After  a  patient  and  thorough  inquiry 
he  found  that  the  Federal  troops  were  quartered  in  the  State  House  of 
South  Carolina  in  an  unlawful  manner;  that  the  Constitution  gave  to  the 
Federal  government  no  authority  to  interfere  in  the  domestic  concerns  of 
a  State,  leaving  the  decision  of  disputed  elections  to  the  State  courts  for 
settlement;  and  that  no  such  state  of  lawlessness  or  insurrection  as  would 
justify  Federal  interference  existed  in  South  Carolina.  In  view  of  these 
facts,  his  duty  in  the  case  was  plain.  It  was  to  restore  the  proper 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   OF  RUTHERFORD   B.  HAYES.        925 

relations  between  the  Federal  government  and  the  State  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  to  put  an  end  to  the  unlawful  and  unjustifiable  interference 
with  the  affairs  of  that  State.  The  matter  was  laid  before  the  Cabinet 
and  on  the  2d  of  April,  1877,  it  was  resolved  to  order  the  troops  to 
withdraw  from  the  State  House  to  their  barracks  at  Columbia.  The 
order  was  at  once  issued,  and  was  carried  into  effect  on  the  6th  of  April. 
The  troops  were  withdrawn,  and  Soutli  Carolina  was  left  to  settle  her 
own  affairs.  This  step  was  followed  by  the  speedy  withdrawal  of  Gover- 
nor Chamberlain  from  the  contest.  The  Hampton  government  was  soon 
installed  in  the  State  House,  and  its  authority  was  firmly  established  in 
all  parts  of  the  State,  to  the  great  joy  of  its  people. 

The  State  buildings  of  Louisiana  had  been  held  by  the  Federal  troops 
ever  since  the  expulsion  of  the  members  of  the  Legislature  by  General 
De  Trobriand,  in  1873.  At  the  election,  in  1876,  Mr.  Stephen  B.  Pack- 
ard was  the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor,  and  Mr.  H.  T.  Nicholls 
was  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic  party  for  the  same  office.  The  elec- 
tion resulted  in  the  choice  at  the  polls  of  Governor  Nicholls  by  an  over- 
whelming majority.  The  Returning  Board,  however,  so  manipulated  the 
popular  vote  as  to  make  it  appear  that  Mr.  Packard  had  been  chosen 
Governor.  This  fraudulent  return  was  supported  by  the  Federal 
government,  and  under  the  protection  of  the  troops  Packard  was  in- 
augurated. 

The  substitution  of  Mr.  Packard  for  Mr.  Kellogg  as  Governor  of 
Louisiana  did  not  touch  the  evils  from  which  the  people  of  that  State 
had  been  suffering  for  so  many  years.  Their  patience  was  exhausted, 
and  they  resolved  to  repudiate  the  men  that  had  been  forced  upon  them 
and  to  sustain  the  government  of  their  choice.  The  Conservative  Legis- 
lature was  accordingly  organized,  and  on  the  8th  of  January,  1877, 
Governor  Nicholls  was  publicly  inaugurated.  On  the  same  day  Mr. 
Packard  was  sworn  into  office  under  the  protection  of  the  troops.  The 
Nicholls  government  got  to  work  as  soon  as  possible;  its  authority  was 
recognized  throughout  the  State  by  the  courts  and  people;  taxes  were 
paid  to  it,  and  it' was  indorsed  and  supported  by  a  vast  majority  of  the 
people  of  Louisiana.  President  Grant  was  urged  to  remove  the  troops 
from  the  State  House  and  other  buildings  belonging  to  Louisiana,  and 
was  assured  that  the  Packard  government  would  fall  to  pieoes  for  lack 
of  support  as  soon  as  he  should  take  the  troops  away.  He  refused  to  do 
so,  however. 

President  Hayes  found  Louisiana  in  this  condition  when  he  entered 
upon  his  duties  as  Chief  Magistrate.  He  selected  a  commission,  consist- 
ing of  four  Republicans  and  one  Democrat,  and  these  gentlemen,  at  his 


926  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

request,  proceeded  to  New  Orleans  to  investigate  and  report  to  him  the 
real  state  of  affairs  in  Louisiana.  They  made  an  investigation  of  the  af- 
fairs of  the  State,  and  found  Packard  a  governor  in  name  only,  while  the 
authority  of  the  Nicholls  government  extended  throughout  the  State. 
They  found  also  that  the  condition  of  affairs  in  Louisiana  was  not  such 
as  to  justify  the  further  interference  of  the  Federal  government  in  the 
domestic  concerns  of  the  State.  The  conclusions  of  the  commission  were 
reported  to  the  President  on  the  19th  of  April,  and  the  next  day  he  issued 
the  order  to  withdraw  the  United  States  troops  in  New  Orleans  from  the 
State  buildings  to  their  barracks.  The  troops  were  withdrawn  at  noon 
on  the  24th  of  April,  amid  the  rejoicings  of  the  people.  Governor  Pack- 
ard at  once  abandoned  the  contest.  The  members  of  his  Legislature 
joined  the  Nicholls  Legislature,  and  the  affairs  of  the  State  were  once 
more  placed  in  her  own  hands. 

The  action  of  the  President  in  withdrawing  the  troops  from  South 
Carolina  and  Louisiana  gave  great  satisfaction  to  the  country  at  large. 
A  small  class  of  extreme  politicians  were  disposed  to  denounce  it,  but 
their  partisan  outcries  were  silenced  by  the  general  voice  of  approval 
which  came  from  all  parts  of  the  Union.  The  nation  was  sick  of  civil 
war  and  partisan  strife,  and  hailed  the  action  of  the  President  as  the 
beginning  of  the  long-hoped-for,  long-delayed  era  of  peace  and  good-will. 

In  the  year  1880  the  Tenth  Census  of  the  United  States  was  taken, 
and  showed  the  population  of  the  country  to  be  50,152,559. 

In  the  summer  of  1880  the  various  political  parties  of  the  country 
met  in  Convention  to  nominate  candidates  for  the  Presidency  and  Vice- 
Presidency  of  the  United  States.  The  Republican  Convention  met  at 
Chicago  on  the  2d  of  June,  and  nominated  James  A.  Garfield,  of  Ohio, 
for  President,  and  Chester  A.  Arthur,  of  New  York,  for  Vice-President. 
The  Democratic  Convention  met  at  Cincinnati,  on  the  22d  of  June,  and 
nominated  Winfield  Scott  Hancock,  of  Pennsylvania,  for  President,  and 
William  H.  English,  of  Indiana,  for  Vice-Prcsident.  The  Greenback 
Convention  met  at  Chicago,  on  the  9th  of  June,  and  nominated  James  B. 
Weaver,  of  Iowa,  for  President,  and  B.  J.  Chambers,  of  Texas,  for  Vice- 
President. 

The  election  was  held  on  the  2d  of  November,  and  resulted  in  the 
choice  of  General  James  A.  Garfield,  who  received  214  electoral  votes  to 
155  electoral  votes  cast  for  General  Hancock.  The  popular  vote  was  as 
follows:  Garfield,  4,437,345;  Hancock,  4,435,015;  Weaver,  305,931. 


CHAPTER    XLVI. 

THE  ADMINISTRATION   OP  JAMES   A.   OARFIELD. 

General  Garfield  Declared  President — Inaugural  Ceremonies— Sketch  of  the  New  Presi- 
dent—Contest with  the  Stalwarts— The  Star  Route  Cases— Assassination  of  President 
Garfield — His  Illness — Removal  to  Long  Branch— Death  of  President  Garfield — 
Removal  of  the  Remains  to  Washington  and  Cleveland— Interment  at  Cleveland — 
Inauguration  of  President  Arthur. 

|N  the  second  Wednesday  in  February,  1881,  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress  met  in  joint-session  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, for  the  purpose  of  counting  the  electoral  vote.  The 
certificates  of  the  Electoral  colleges  of  the  various  States  having 
been  opened  and  read,  with  the  result  mentioned  above,  the 
Vice-President  announced  that  James  A.  Garfield  had  been  duly  elected 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  Chester  A.  Arthur  Vice-President, 
for  the  term  of  four  years,  from  the  4th  of  March,  1881. 

The  result  of  the  election  was  cordially  accepted  by  the  conntry,  and 
the  nation  began  to  look  forward  to  a  new  era  of  prosperity  and  happi- 
ness. 

On  Friday,  March  4th,  1881,  the  inauguration  ceremonies  took  place 
upon  a  scale  of  unusual  magnificence,  and  were  participated  in  by  numer- 
ous military  and  civic  organizations,  and  by  thousands  of  citizens  from 
all  parts  of  the  country.  After  the  new  Vice-President  had  taken  the 
oath  of  office,  President-elect  Garfield  was  formally  received  by  the 
Senate,  and  escorted  to  the  eastern  portico  of  the  capitol,  where,  in  the 
presence  of  an  immense  multitude  of  citizens  and  soldiery,  he  delivered 
an  able  and  eloquent  inaugural  address,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  at  the 
hands  of  Chief-Justice  Waite. 

The  new  President  had  been  long  and  favorably  known  to  his  coun- 
trymen. He  was  in  his  fiftieth  year,  and  in  vigorous  health.  A  man 
of  commanding  presence,  he  was  dignified  and  courteous  in  his  demeanor, 
accessible  to  the  humblest  citizen,  and  deservedly  popular  with  men  of 
all  parties.  Born  a  poor  boy,  without  influential  friends,  he  had  by  his 
own  efforts  secured  a  thorough  collegiate  education,  arid  had  carefully 
fitted  himself  for  the  arduous  duties  he  was  now  called  upon  to  dis- 

927 


928 


HISTORY    OF    THE   UNITED    STATES. 


charge.  Entering  the  army  at  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  he  had  won 
a  brilliant  reputation  as  a  soldier,  and  had  been  promoted  to  the  rank^of 
major-general  of  volunteers.  Elected  to  Congress  from  Ohio,  in  1862, 
he  had  entered  the  House  of  Representatives  in  December,  1863,  and 


JAMES    A.    GARFIELD. 

had  seen  almost  eighteen  years  of  constant  service  in  that  body,  in  which 
he  had  long  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  trusted  leaders  of 
the  Republican  party.  Early  in  1880  he  had  been  chosen  a  United 
States  Senator  from  Ohio,  but  had  been  prevented  from  taking  his  seat 
in  the  Senate  by  his  election  to  the  Presidency.  Immediately  after  his 
inauguration  he  sent  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation  the  names  of  the 


THE   ADMINISTRATION    OF  JAMES   A.    GARFIELD. 


929 


members  of  his  Cabinet.  They  were  chosen  from  among  the  leading 
members  of  the  conservative  portion  of  the  Republican  party,  and  were 
headed  by  James  G.  Elaine,  of  Maine,  as  Secretary  of  State.  They  were 
at  once  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  and  the  new  administration  embarked 
upon  its  short-lived  career. 

Very  soon  after  entering  upon   his  duties,  President  Ga'rfield  found 


MKS.    LUCRETIA   R.   OARFIKLI),   WIKK   OF  THE    PRESIDENT. 

that  the  Executive  chair  was  by  no  means  a  bed  of  roses.  The  Republi- 
can party  soon  divided  into  two  sections,  one,  .known  as  the  "  Conserva- 
tive," supporting  the  administration,  and  the  other,  known  as  "  the  Stal- 
warts," opposing  it.  A  bitter  partisan  quarrel  sprang  up  between  these 
two  wings  of  the  party,  and  prolonged  the  Executive  session  of  the 
Senate  until  late  in  June.  The  quarrel  was  the  fiercest  over  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  new  collector  for  the  port  of  New  York,  and  culminated  in 
59 


930  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

the  resignation  of  their  seats  in  the  Senate  by  Senators  Conkling  and 
Platt  of  New  York,  on  the  16th  of  May.  The  resignation  of  these  gen- 
tlemen was  based  upon  the  ground  that  the  President  had  nominated 
Judge  Robertson  to  be  collector  of  the  port  of  New  York,  without  con- 
sulting or  yielding  to  the  wishes  of  the  senators  from  that  State,  the  said 
senators  in  effect  claiming  the  right  to  determine  what  appointments 
should  or  should  not  be  made  by  the  President  in  their  State.  The 
President,  on  his  part,  insisted  upon  his  right  to  nominate  to  office  any 
man  whom  he  should  deem  worthy  of  the  trust.  The  struggle  was  in 
reality  a  contest  for  the  independence  of  the  Executive  in  the  matter  of 
public  appointments,  and  President  Garfield  was  warmly  supported  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  nation  without  regard  to  party.  He,  therefore, 
pursued  with  unshaken  firmness  the  policy  he  had  determined  upon. 
After  the  resignation  of  Senators  Conkling  and  Platt,  the  nomination  of 
Judge  Robertson  was  confirmed  by  the  Senate. 

As  the  time  wore  on,  President  Garfield  gained  steadily  in  the  esteem 
of  his  countrymen.  His  purpose  to  give  to  the  nation  a  fair  and  just 
administration  of  the  government  was  every  day  more  apparent,  and  his 
high  and  noble  qualities  became  more  conspicuous.  Men  began  to  feel 
for  the  first  time  in  many  years  that  the  Executive  chair  was  occupied 
by  a  President  capable  of  conceiving  a  pure  and  noble  standard  of  duty, 
and  possessed  of  the  firmness  and  strength  of  will  necessary  to  carry  it 
into  execution.  The  country  was  prosperous,  and  there  was  every  rea- 
son to  expect  a  continuance  of  the  general  happiness. 

Soon  after  the  opening  of  President  Garfield's  administration,  the 
Postmaster-General  discovered  that  certain  contracts  for  carrying  the 
mails  on  what  are  known  as  "The  Star  Routes,"  were  fraudulent,  and 
that  the  persons  interested  in  them  were  defrauding  the  government  of 
large  sums  of  money.  The  President,  Postmaster-General  and  Attorney- 
General,  sustained  by  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  without  excep- 
tion, thereupon  resolved  to  bring  the  guilty  parties  to  justice.  The  lat- 
ter being  men  of  wealth  and  position,  bitterly  resented  the  course  of  the 
government,  and  violently  denounced  it.  Nevertheless  the  President 
caused  measures  looking  to  the  punishment  of  the  accused  parties  to  be 
begun,  and  only  the  unexpected  adjournment  of  the  grand  jury  and 
court  prevented  a  formal  indictment  from  being  brought  against  them. 
Before  other  measures  could  be  taken,  the  attention  of  the  entire  nation 
was  occupied  by  an  event  of  graver  importance. 

While  these  matters  were  still  in  progress,  President  Garfield  began 
preparations  for  a  brief  pleasure  trip  to  Long  Branch,  where  Mrs.  Garfield 
was  recovering  from  a  severe  illness ;  intending  from  that  point  to  visit 


932  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

New  England,  and  be  present  at  the  commencement  exercises  of  his  alma 
mater^  Williams'  College,  in  Massachusetts.  He  was  to  be  accompanied  by 
a  distinguished  party,  including  several  members  of  the  Cabinet.  On  the 
morning  of  the  2d  of  July,  the  party  proceeded  to  the  Baltimore  and 
Potomac  depot,  where  they  were  to  take  the  cars,  in  advance  of  the 
President,  who  arrived  soon  after  in  company  with  Secretary  Elaine,  who 
came  simply  to  see  him  off  and  say  good-bye.  They  left  the  President's 
carriage  together,  and  sauntered  arm-in-arm  through  the  depot  towards 
the  cars.  In  passing  through  the  ladies'  wait  ing-room,  the  President  was 
fired  at  twice  by  a  man  named  Charles  J.  Guiteau.  The  first  shot  inflicted 
a  slight  wound  in  the  President's  right  arm,  and  the  second  a  terrible 
wound  in  the  right  side  of  his  back,  between  the  hip  and  the  kidney. 
The  President  fell  heavily  to  the  floor,  and  the  assassin  was  secured  as  he 
was  seeking  to  make  his  escape  from  the  building,  and  was  conveyed  to 
a  police  station,  from  which  he  was  subsequently  taken  to  prison. 

The  President  lay  helpless  upon  the  floor  of  the  waiting-room,  the 
blood  flowing  copiously  from  both  his  wounds.  As  soon  as  those  near 
him  recovered  from  the  dismay  into  which  the  tragedy  had  thrown  them, 
he  was  placed  upon  a  mattrass,  physicians  were  summoned,  and  he  was 
conveyed  to  an  upper  room  in  the  depot.  He  bore  his  sufferings  with 
great  firmness,  and  from  the  first  displayed  a  cool  courage  that  won  the 
warm  admiration  of  the  country.  The  surgeons  summoned  were  soon 
at  hand,  and  found  that  the  President's  injuries  were  very  critical.  It 
was  decided  to  remove  him  to  the  Executive  Mansion,  and  he  was  carried 
down  the  stairs,  placed  in  an. army  ambulance  and  driven  rapidly  to  the 
White  House.  Arriving  there  he  was  conveyed  to  his  wife's  chamber, 
overlooking  the  Potomac,  and  placed  in  bed.  Two  attempts  were  made 
by  the  surgeons  to  find  the  ball — one  at  the  depot,  and  one  at  the 
White  House  after  his  arrival  there — but  both  were  unsuccessful.  Grave 
fears  were  entertained  by  the  surgeons  for  the  President's  life,  and  Mrs. 
Garfield  was  summoned  by  telegraph  from  Long  Branch.  She  arrived 
during  the  evening. 

The  news  of  the  attempt  upon  the  President's  life  spread  rapidly 
throughout  the  Union,  and  was  everywhere  received  with  horror  and 
indignation.  During  the  afternoon  his  condition  became  more  alarming, 
and  bulletins  were  issued  by  the  surgeons  in  charge  at  frequent  intervals, 
giving  the  latest  news  of  the  state  of  the  illustrious  sufferer.  These  were 
telegraphed  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  were  watched  with  eager  im- 
patience by  vast  crowds,  of  citizens  wherever  they  were  posted.  The  sym- 
pathy of  the  whole  nation  went  out  warmly  towards  the  wounded  Pres- 
ident and  his  afflicted  family,  and  from  the  governments  and  nations  of 


933 


934  HISTORY  OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Europe  messages  of  inquiry  and  sympathy  were  constantly  received 
through  the  Atlantic  cable.  During  the  entire  period  of  the  President's 
illness  the  official  bulletins  were  issued  three  times  each  day,  and  t^e 
nation  was  thus  kept  informed  of  his  condition. 

The  best  medical  and  surgical  skill  of  the  country  was  employed  in  the 
effort  to  save  the  President's  life,  and  throughout  the  whole  period  of  his 
illness  he  never  lost  his  calm  courage,  but  displayed  a  firmness  and  cheer- 
fulness that  astonished  his  attendants,  and  encouraged  them  to  hope  for 
a  favorable  result. 

The  afternoon  of  the  2d  of  July  wore  anxiously  away,  no  signs  of  a 
reaction  being  manifested,  but  after  the  arrival  of  Mrs.  Garfield,  in  the 
evening,  the  President  began  to  rally  slightly.  The  night  was  passed  in 
anxious  suspense.  On  the  morning  of  the  3d,  the  President  was  calm  and 
cheerful,  though  he  fully  realized  the  gravity  of  his  situation.  He  told 
Dr.  Bliss,  the  surgeon  in  charge  of  his  case,  that  he  wished  to  know 
exactly  what  his  chances  for  life  were ;  that  while  he  desired  to  live,  he  was 
prepared  to  die,  and  did  not  fear  to  learn  the  worst.  Dr.  Bliss  replied 
that  though  his  injuries  were  formidable,  he  had,  in  his  judgment,  a  chancre 
for  his  life.  "  Well,  Doctor,"  exclaimed  the  sufferer,  with  a  cheerful 
smile,  "  we'll  take  that  chance."  The  day  passed  away  without  any  event 
of  importance,  and  the  anxious  nation  as  well  as  the  President's  attend- 
ants drew  some  hope  from  the  fact  that  he  continued  "  to  hold  his  own." 
The  popular  anxiety  and  sympathy  were  strikingly  manifested  on  the  4th 
of  July,  the  anniversary  of  the  National  Independence,  in  the  listless  and 
careless  manner  in  which  the  day  was  celebrated.  The  people  were  too 
much  engrossed  with  their  anxiety  to  take  part  in  any  demonstration  of  joy. 

The  two  months  following  the  wounding  of  President  Garfield  dragged 
wearily  away,  the  patient  at  times  showing  symptoms  of  marked  improve- 
ment, and  at  others  experiencing  dangerous  relapses.  The  nation  alter- 
nated between  hope  and  despair,  and  was  kept  all  the  while  in  a  most 
painful  suspense.  The  surgeons  in  charge,  however,  recognized  the  true 
character  of  the  wound  from  the  first,  and  while  they  hoped  for  a  recovery, 
could  not  conceal  from  themselves  the  fact  that  such  a  result  would  be 
almost  miraculous.  The  President's  sufferings  were  very  great  during 
this  period,  and  were  increased  by  the  intense  heat  of  the  season  and  the 
unhealthy  surroundings  of  the  White  House.  Yet  he  bore  them  all  with 
unshaken  firmness  ami  unalterable  cheerfulness.  Dr.  Bliss,  his  chief 
surgeon,  writes  of  him  during  this  period  : — "  The  time  which  passed 
until  the  23d  of  July,  when  the  first  rigor  occurred,  was  chiefly  remarkable 
for  the  quiet,  cool  determination  of  the  sufferer.  Quite  ready  for,  and 
evidently  expecting  the  worst,  his  demeanor  was  that  of  the  man  whose 


936  HISTORY    OF  THE    UNITED   STATES. 

great  intellect  and  wonderful  will  enabled  him  to  give  the  most  intelli- 
gent aid  to  the  physician.  Apparently  indifferent  as  to  the  result,  so  far 
as  it  should  affect  him  alone,  he  still  watched  every  symptom,  even  mak- 
ing inquiry  after  each  examination  as  to  the  temperature,  pulse  and  res- 
piration, and  every  measure  of  relief  adopted,  with  evidently  firm  deter- 
mination to  live  for  others  if  possible." 

Towards  the  last  of  August,  the  surgeons  in  attendance  upon  the  Pres- 
ident resolved  to  remove  him  from  the  White  House  to  a  more  healthful 
locality.  The  removal  was  a  risk,  but  not  so  great  a  risk  as  to  permit 
him  to  remain  in  the  malarious  atmosphere  which  surrounded  the  Exec- 
utive Mansion,  and  which  was  rapidly  destroying  the  little  strength  left 
him.  It  was  decided  to  convey  him  to  Long  Branch  in  the  hope  that 
the  pure  and  bracing  air  of  the  sea  would  enable  him  to  regain  some 
of  his  lost  vitality.  Accordingly,  on  the  6th  of  September,  the  Presi- 
dent, accompanied  by  his  family,  his  surgeons,  and  attendants,  was 
conveyed  to  Long  Branch  in  a  train  especially  prepared  for  the  purpose. 
The  journey  was  made  quickly  and  successfully,  and  after  reaching  Long 
Branch  the  President  seemed  to  rally.  For  the  first  few  days  after  his 
arrival  at  the  seashore  his  symptoms  were  so  much  better  that  renewed 
hope  sprang  up  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen.  It  was  only  for  a  brief 
period,  however.  On  the  16th  of  September  there  was  a  marked  change 
for  the  worse,  with  unmistakable  evidences  of  increasing  weakness  in 

/  O 

mind  and  body.  On  the  17th  the  President  sank  still  lower,  and  in  the 
fdrenoon  was  seized  with  a  severe  rigor.  On  the  evening  of  the  18th 
another  alarming  rigor  occurred,  followed  by  other  grave  symptoms. 
From  this  time  the  President  continued  to  grow  worse.  On  the  morning 
of  the  19th  he  was  attacked  with  another  severe  rigor,  but  after  that  had 
passed  away  appeared  more  comfortable,  and  his  attendants  were  hopeful 
of  a  quiet  night  for  him.  Towards  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  he  fell 
into  a  quiet  sleep,  from  which  he  awakened,  shortly  after  ten  o'clock,  in 
great  pain.  General  Swaim,  who  was  watching  by  him,  alarmed  by  the 
President's  symptoms,  hastily  summoned  the  family  and  the  surgeons. 
The  President  was  unconscious  when  they  arrived,  and  continued  to  sink 
rapidly.  Efforts  were  made  to  revive  him  with  stimulants,  but  in  vain, 
and  at  thirty-five  minutes  after  ten  o'clock,  the  brave  struggle  was 
brought  to  an  end,  and  the  soul  of  James  A.  Garfield  passed  into  eter- 
nity. 

The  sad  news  of  the  death  of  President  Garfield  was  at  once  tele- 
graphed to  New  York,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  the  whole  country  was 
aware  that  its  Chief-Magistrate  was  dead.  Bells  were  tolled  in  every 
city,  town,  and  village  of  the  Union,  and  everywhere  citizens  draped 


937 


938  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

their  houses  in  mourning.     Such  a  display  of  national  sorrow  had  never 
been  witnessed  before. 

The  news  of  the  death  of  President  Garfield  was  at  once  transmitted 
by  telegraph  to  Vice-President  Arthur  by  the  members  of  the  Cabinet 
present  at  Long  Branch,  and  he  was  advised  by  them  to  take  the  oath  of 
office  as  President  without  delay.  Accordingly,  Justices  Brady  and 
Donahoe  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  were  at  once  summoned 
by  the  Vice-President,  and  at  a  little  after  two  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  the  20th  of  September,  he  took  the  oath  of  office  as  President  of  the 
United  States  before  them  at  his  private  residence  in  New  York. 

On  the  20th  of  September  arrangements  were  made  for  removing  the 
body  of  the  late  President  to  Washington  City,  and  on  the  same  day  an 
autopsy  was  held  upon  the  body  by  the  surgeons  who  had  been  in  at- 
tendance, upon  the  President,  assisted  by  several  others.  The  autopsy 
revealed  the  fact  that  the  wound  had  been  fatal  from  the  first.  On  the 
morning  of  the  21st,  funeral  ceremonies  were  held  in  the  cottage  at  Long 
Branch  in  which  the  President  died,  and  at  ten  o'clock  the  remains  were 
placed  on  board  of  a  special  train,  and  conveyed  to  Washington,  and  ac- 
companied by  the  family  and  friends  of  the  dead  President,  and  by 
President  Arthur  and  a  number  of  distinguished  personages.  Wash- 
ington was  reached  at  4.35  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  body  was  escorted 
by  a  detachment  of  military  and  Knights  Templar  to  the  Capitol,  where 
it  was  laid  in  state  until  the  23d.  During  the  2'2d  and  23d  it  was 
visited  by  over  one  hundred  thousand  persons.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  23d,  the  public  funeral  services  were  held  in  the  rotunda  of  the 
Capitol,  after  which  the  body  was  escorted  to  the  Baltimore  and  Poto- 
mac depot,  and  conveyed  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  by  a  special  train.  Cleve- 
land was  reached  the  next  day,  and  the  remains  were  laid  in  state  in  a 
structure  especially  prepared  for  them  until  the  morning  of  the  26th,  when 
they  were  buried  with  the  most  imposing  ceremonies  in  Lake  View  Cem- 
etery, in  the  suburbs  of  that  city.  Business  was  suspended  and  memorial 
services  were  held  during  the  day  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  22d  of  September  President  Arthur  again  took  the  oath  of 
office,  this  time  at  the  hands  of  the  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States, 
and  was  quietly  inaugurated  in  the  Vice-President's  room,  in  the  Capi- 
tol, delivering  upon  this  occasion  a  brief  inaugural  address. 

Soon  after  the  attempt  upon  the  life  of  President  Garfield,  a  popnln. 
subscription  was  set  on  foot  to  provide  a  fund  for  the  support  of  hLs 
family  in  the  event  of  his  death.  The  movement  was  successful,  and 
over  $330,000  were  raised,  and  invested  in  United  States  bonds  for  the 
benefit  of  the  widow  and  children  of  the  "Martyred  President." 


ADMINISTRATION  OF  CHESTER  A.  ARTHUR. 


939 


President  Arthur  entered  quietly  upon  the  duties  of  his  administra- 
tion, and  his  first  acts  were  satisfactory  to  a  majority  of  his  countrymen. 
As  he  had  been  the  leader  of  "the  Stalwart"  section  of  the  Republican 
party,  it  was  felt  by  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  of  the  late  President  that 
he  should  be  free  to  choose  his  own  advisers.  Therefore,  immediately 
upon  his  accession  to  the  Executive  chair,  Mr.  Blaiue  and  his  colleagues 
tendered  him  their  resignations.  They  were  requested,  however,  by  the 
new  President  to  retain  their  offices  until  he  could  find  suitable  successors 


CHESTER  A.  ARTHITB. 

to  them.  To  this  they  agreed,  but  before  the  year  was  out  several  impor- 
tant changes  had  been  made  in  the  Cabinet.  The  principal  of  these  were 
the  substitution  of  Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen,  of  New  Jersey,  for 
Mr.  Elaine,  as  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  appointment  of  Judge  Charles 
J.  Folder  to  the  Treasury  Department. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  administration  was  to  cause  the  indict- 
ment of  Charles  J.  Guiteau  for  the  murder  of  President  Garfield.  The 
grand  jury  of  the  District  of  Columbia  met  on  the  3d  of  October,  1881. 


940  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

and  promptly  found  a  true  bill  against  Guiteau,  who  was  arraigned  in  the 
Criminal  Court  of  the  District  on  the  14th  of  October.  After  some  delay 
the  trial  of  the  assassin  began  on  the  14th  of  November.  The  first  three 
days  were  consumed  in  selecting  a  jury,  and  then  the  trial  began  in  ear- 
nest. It  ended  on  the  25th  of  January,  1882,  in  the  conviction  of  Gui- 
teau for  the  murder  of  the  late  President.  The  prisoner  was  defended  by 
able  counsel,  and  was  allowed  many  privileges  never  before  granted  to 
persons  on  trial  for  so  grave  an  offence.  The  plea  upon  which  the  defence 
was  based  was  insanity,  but  the  evidence  entirely  destroyed  this  assump- 
tion, and  the  verdict  of  the  jury  was  received  throughout  the  country  as 
just  and  proper.  An  effort  was  made  by  Guiteau's  counsel  to  obtain  a 
new  trial  for  him,  but  this  was  denied  by  the  court,  and  on  the  4th  of 
February  Guiteau  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged  on  the  30th  of  June,  1882. 
The  counsel  for  the  prisoner  still  continued  his  efforts  to  secure  a  new 
trial,  but  these  being  unsuccessful  in  each  and  every  instance,  his  only 
resource  was  an  appeal  to  the  clemency  of  the  Executive.  The  President 
declined,  however,  to  interfere  with  the  sentence. 

During  the  interval  between  his  sentence  and  his  execution,  Guiteau 
was  confined  in  the  jail  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  at  Washington.  His 
conduct  during  this  interval  was  in  keeping  with  that  which  had  marked 
his  trial — vain,  egotistical,  and  blasphemous.  To  the  last  the  prisoner 
was  confident  that  President  Arthur  would  interfere  in  his  behalf,  but 
the  result  proved  this  to  be  a  vain  hope. 

The  execution  took  place  in  the  District  jail  on  the  30th  of  June,  1882, 
and  was  witnessed  by  about  two  hundred  people,  nearly  all  representa- 
tives of  the  press.  Guiteau  displayed  more  firmness  than  had  been 
expected  of  him.  He  walked  to  the  gallows  without  making  the  violent 
scene  which  had  been  anticipated  by  many,  and  ascended  it  with  a  firm 
step.  Upon  the  scaffold,  however,  he  displayed  considerable  emotion, 
which  he  quickly  subdued.  His  religious  adviser,  Rev.  Dr.  Hicks, 
offered  a  short  prayer,  and  Guiteau  read  a  selection  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. Then  he  read  a  prayer,  strangely  at  variance  with  his  religious 
professions,  in  which  he  called  down  the  curse  of  the  Almighty  upon  all 
who  had  been  engaged  in  his  trial  and  execution,  and  upon  the  nation  at 
large,  and  denounced  President  Arthur  as  a  coward  and  an  ingrate. 
Finally  he  chanted  a  poem  which  he  had  written  during  the  morning. 
.  Vt  the  close  of  this  singular  recital  the  trap  fell,  precisely  at  forty-three 
minutes  past  twelve  o'clock,  and  the  great  crime  against  the  American 
people  was  avenged.  Guiteau's  neck  was  broken  by  the  fall,  and  his 
death  was  painless.  He  died  without  a  struggle,  and  with  scarce  a 
tremor. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 

CONCLUSION. 

I E  have  now  traced  the  history  of  the  republic  from  its  settlement 
through  the  first  century  ^f  its  national  existence,  and  from  the 
point  we  have  reached  may  look  back  over  the  long  period  we 
have  traversed,  and  mark  the  results  accomplished  by  the  nation 
and  the  lessons  which  our  history  teaches. 
In  material  growth  our  country  has  surpassed  every  nation  upon  the 
globe.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  nearly  two  centuries  after 
the  settlement  at  Jamestown,  tha  population  of  the  thirteen  colonies  was  a 
little  more  than  three  millions.  By  1790,  the  year  after  the  inauguration 
of  the  republic,  it  was  3,929,827.  In  1880  it  had  reached  the  enormous 
figure  of  50,152,559.  In  1776  the  area  of  the  States  comprising  the 
Union  was  less  than  one  million  square  miles,  embracing  only  a  narrow 
strip  of  country  along  the  Atlantic  from  Georgia  to  Canada.  It  has  grown 
by  successive  additions  until  it  is  now  nearly  four  millions  of  square  miles, 
and  stretches  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  the  Arctic  ocean. 

In  1776  but  a  few  wretched  roads  connected  the  distant  parts  of  the 
country.  Now  all  points  are  brought  into  close  and  intimate  relations 
with  each  other  by  lines  of  railway  and  canals.  Splendid  steamers  navi- 
gate our  bays,  lakes  and  rivers,  and  the  feeble  and  precarious  trade  of 
colonial  days  has  expanded  into  a  mighty  and  growing  system  of  com- 
merce which  is  rapidly  enriching  the  country.  In  1880  there  were  about 
seventy  thousand  miles  of  railway  in  operation  in  the  United  States. 
The  telegraph  was  unknown  at  the  commencement  of  our  existence.  Over 
seventy  thousand  miles  of  wire  are  now  in  operation  in  this  country. 

In  1776  the  manufactures  of  the  country  were  few,  and  were  limited 
to  one  or  two  necessary  articles.  In  1870  there  were  252,148  establish- 
ments in  the  United  States,  employing  a  capital  of  $2,11.8,208,769,  and 
producing  manufactured  articles  to  the  value  of  $4,232,325,442  annually. 
In  1790  the  tonnage  of  the  United  States  engaged  in  foreign  trade  was 
only  a  little  over  half  a  million.  In  1860  it  exceeded  six  millions.  It 

941 


942 


HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


fell  off  during  the  war,  in  consequence  of  the  depredations  of  the  Anglo- 
Confederate  cruisers,  but  it  now  amounts  to  4,068,034  tons,  and  ranks 
next  to  that  of  Great  Britain.  In  1880  the  total  value  of  goods  imported 
into  the  United  States  from  foreign  countries  was  $667,885,565;  the  total 
value  of  exports  for  the  same  year  was  $835,793,924. 

In  1790  the  cultivation  of  cotton  was  just  being  introduced  in  the 
South.  In  1860  the  cotton  crop  amounted  to  5,198,077  bales,  and  con- 
Ktituted  the  principal  article  of  export  at  that  period.  In  1880  the  crop 
amounted  to  5,737,257  bales. 

Besides  the  larger  crops,  the  value  of  orchard  and  market  garden  pro- 


SCENE  ON  THE  HUDSON  RIVEK  IN   1875. 

ductd  in  1870  was  $68,054,418.  In  the  same  year  the  value  of  home- 
made articles  was  $23,433,332 ;  the  value  of  slaughtered  animals,  $398,- 
956,376 ;  the  cash  value  of  farms,  $9,262,803,861  j  and  the  value  of 
farming  implements  and  machinery,  $336,878,429. 

The  inventive  genius  of  the  country  has  supplied  every  demand  which 
its  rapid  development  has  created.  To  Americans  the  world  owes  the 
application  of  steam  to  navigation,  the  invention  of  the  electric  telegraph, 
the  sewing  machine,  the  cotton  gin,  the  reaping  machine,  the  discovery 
of  the  use  of  ether  as  an  anaesthetic,  and  the  great  improvements  in  the 
steam-engine  and  the  printing-press.  "  The  States  were  behind  us  in 


CONCLUSION. 


943 


invention,"  says  Mr.  Charles  Reade.  "They  soon  advanced  upon  us, 
and  caught  us,  and  now  they  head  us  far.  .  .  Europe  teems  with  the 
material  products  of  American  genius.  American  patents  print  English 
newspapers,  and  sew  Englishmen's  shirts.  A  Briton  goes  to  his  work  by 
American  clocks,  and  is  warmed  by  American  stoves,  and  cleaned  l>\ 
American  dust-collectors.  .  .  In  a  word  America  is  the  leading  nation 
in  all  matters  of  material  invention  and  construction,  and  no  other  nation 
rivals  nor  approaches  her." 

Nor  is  it  only  in  material  wealth  that  the  improvement  of  our  country 


ST.  PAUL,   JHXITESOTA. 

lias  been  so  remarkable.  In  the  higher  departments  of  intellectual  effort 
it  has  kept  pace  with  its  growth  in  riches 

In  1800  there  were  but  two  hundred  newspapers  published  in  tho 
United  States.  In  1880  the  number  of  daily  newspapers  was  5,670,  and 
their  circulation  amounted  to  3,581,187  copies. 

At  the  opening  of  the  century  there  were  few  libraries  in  this  country, 
and  these  were  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  private  individuals.  In  1870 
there  were  in  the  United  States  164,815  public  and  private  libraries,  con- 
taining 45,528,938  volumes. 


9-14  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

Tn  1790  there  were  not  more  than  a  dozen  colleges  in  the  Union,  and 
the  common  schools  were  confined  to  the  New  England  States.  In  1870 
there  were  2454  colleges  and  professional  and  scientific  schools  in  tht 
United  States,  with  an  attendance  of  255,190  pupils.  The  private  school" 
in  the  same  year  numbered  14,025,  with  726,688  pupils,  and  the  free 
public  schools  125,059,  with  an  attendance  of  6,228,060  pupils.  The 
total  income  of  all  these  establishments  in  1870  was  $95,402,726.  In 
the  same  year  there  were  but  748,970  white  males  and  1,145,718  white 
females,  of  twenty-one  years  and  over,  who  could  not  read,  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States.  The  public  schools  exist  now  in  every 
State,  and  liberal  provision  is  made  for  their  support,  in  order  that  the 
blessings  of  education  may  be  diffused  among  the  entire  population. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  number  of  churches  was  limited, 
and  in  many  communities  there  was  not  a  single  religious  establishment. 
In  1870  there  were  63,082  religious  edifices  in  the  Union,  with  sittings 
for  21,665,062  worshippers.  In  this  year  the  value  of  church  property 
was  $354,483,581. 

Such  are  some  of  the  results  of  a  century  of  free  government.  Few 
persons,  one  hundred  years  ago,  would  have  believed  them  possible.  The 
American  republic  was  an  experiment,  and  its  establishment  and  first 
steps  were  watched  with  the  keenest  anxiety  by  the  friends  of  kuman 
freedom  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Even  the  founders  of  our  system  of 
government  were  painfully  apprehensive  of  the  future,  while  from  mo- 
narchical Europe  came  hosts  of  predictions  of  failure.  The  wisest  states- 
men of  Europe  had  grave  doubts  whether  a  nation  established  upon  prin- 
ciples such  as  ours  could  long  endure.  They  predicted  that  in  a  short 
time  we  would  be  involved  in  wars  with  foreign  powers ;  that  our  gov- 
ernment, unable  to  give  security  to  life  and  property,  would  end  in 
anarchy,  and  that  we  would  at  last  be  driven  into  monarchy  as  the  only 
solution  of  the  troubles  that  would  afflict  us  before  the  end  of  the  century. 

Time,  the  great  solver  of  all  problems,  has  demonstrated  the  wisdom 
of  the  fathers  of  the  republic,  and  has  confounded  the  predictions  of  their 
opponents.  Republican  institutions  have  been  tested,  and  have  been 
found  sufficient  to  all  the  wants  of  a  free  people. 

Let  us  compare  the  predictions  of  our  adversaries  at  the  commencement 
of  our  existence  with  the  actual  facts  as  they  have  occurred. 

It  was  predicted  that  we  would  be  involved  in  ruinous  foreign  wars, 
as  our  weakness  would  tempt  stronger  nations  to  acts  of  aggression.  We 
have  had  but  two  foreign  wars — one  with  England  and  the  other  with 
Mexico — from  both  of  which  we  have  emerged  successfully  and  with  in- 
creased strength.  In  the  same  period  England  has  engaged  in  four 


VIEW  ON    THE  COLORADO  RIVKB. 


945 


946  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

foreign  wars,  besides  her  wars  in  India,  China  and  Persia.  France  has 
had  ten,  Prussia  six,  Russia  ten,  Austria  five,  and  Italy  six  foreign  wars 
in  the  same  period  of  time.  With  the  exception  of  England  every  one 
of  these  nations  has  been  beaten  in  some  of  its  wars.  Thus  it  appears 
that  republican  institutions  have  not  only  given  us  success  in  war,  but 
have  secured  for  us  a  longer  period  of  unbroken  peace  than  any  European 
power  has  enjoyed. 

It  was  predicted  that  we  would  be  torn  by  internal  dissensions,  and 
that  our  government  would  end  in  anarchy.  During  the  entire  period  of 
our  national  existence  we  have  had  but  one  serious  internal  disturbance — 
the  civil  war — which  has  been  happily  overcome,  and  the  wounds  of 
which  are  being  healed  by  the  virtues  of  our  free  institutions.  During 
this  same  period  England  has  had  two  insurrections,  Prussia  one,  Austria 
two  of  great  severity,  Russia  one,  France  seven  revolutions,  each  of  which 
has  been  accompanied  by  a  change  in  the  form  of  government,  and  Italy 
and  Spain  an  indefinite  number.  Our  government  has  been  strong 
enough  to  put  down  the  most  formidable  civil  war  of  history,  and  yet  at 
the  same  time  to  preserve  the  institutions  of  the  republic  unimpaired. 
The  result  has  shown  that  we  are  less  inclined  to  civil  wars  and  revolu- 
tions than  monarchical  Europe. 

Our  government  has  never  been  overthrown,  while  those  of  many 
European  states  have  been  overturned  by  revolutions  since  the  establish- 
ment of  our  cwn.  France  has  never  been  able  to  maintain  a  system  of 
government  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  the  great  Revolution.  In 
Austria,  Bavaria  and  Greece,  the  sovereign  has  been  forced  to  abdicate, 
and  in  France  he  has  several  times  been  riven  from  the  throne  and 
country.  Even  Prussia  has  been  forced  to  submit  to  the  demands  of  the 
revolutionary  spirit,  as  when,  in  1848,  she  changed  her  form  of  govern- 
ment from  an  absolute  to  a  constitutional  monarchy. 

Our  confederation  of  States  has  never  been  broken  up.  Germany  has 
witnessed  the  destruction  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  the  downfall  cf 
the  system  established  by  Napoleon,  and  the  destruction  of  the  German 
confederation.  The  Austrian  state  has  been  several  times  overthrown. 
Italy  has  been  changed  from  a  kingdom  to  a  collection  of  detached  states, 
and  then  to  a  kingdom  again.  France  has  lost  her  possessions  of  Holland 
and  Belgium  and  the  Rhine  provinces.  During  this  period  our  govern* 
ment  has  prospered  and  grown  great,  and  at  the  same  time  the  various 
States,  as  many  in  number  as  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  have  retained 
their  independence  and  the  sole  management  of  their  internal  affairs. 

We  have  gained  ground  steadily.  Our  territory  has  increased  rapidly 
by  conquest,  purchase,  or  cession,  and  we  have  never  at  any  time  parted 


CONCLUSION.  947 

with  a  foot  of  land  belonging  to  the  republic.  During  this  period  scarcely 
a  state  of  Europe  has  failed  at  some  time  or  other  to  lose  a  material  part 
of  itself.  Thus  republican  institutions  have  enabled  us  not  only  to  retain 
our  original  possessions,  but  to  aggrandize  ourselves  beyond  the  wildest 
dreams  of  any  European  monarchy. 

Our  growth  in  material  wealth  and  in  the  higher  departments  of  civil* 
ization  has  been  shown.  It  was  argued  at  the  commencement  of  our 
existence  that  our  republican  ideas  would  lead  us  to  run  into  licentious- 
ness and  infidelity.  To-day  we  have  more  churches  than  any  nation  in 
'  Europe,  and  our  people  are  a  more  practically  religious  people  than  any 
European  nation.  Foreign  writers  often  admit  that  this  is  the  only 
country  whose  civilization  is  based  on  personal  religion.  Yet  we  have 
no  state  religion  or  religious  laws,  but  leave  matters  of  conscience  to  be 
settled  between  the  man  and  his  Creator.  Our  benevolent  institutions 
are  equal  to  those  of  any  European  country  in  number,  efficiency  and  the 
liberality  with  which  they  are  supported.  Crime  is  not  more  frequent 
here  than  in  other  lands ;  and  it  is  a  notorious  fact  that  our  criminal  and 
pauper  classes  are  almost  entirely  composed  of  foreigners. 

Thus  we  have  proved  to  the  world  that  republican  institutions  can 
make  a  country  as  great,  as  strong  at  home  and  respected  abroad,  as  pros- 
perous and  as  stable,  as  enlightened  and  as  virtuous  as  the  most  powerful 
monarchy,  and  by  far  freer  and  happier. 

Such  a  destiny  could  not  be  worked  out  by  any  but  a  free  people.  The 
supremacy  of  the  law  in  this  country  leaves  the  citizen  free  and  untram- 
melled. We  have  dispensed  with  large  standing  armies,  which  eat  up 
the  life  of  states,  and  the  safety  of  the  republic  and  our  institutions  is 
intrusted  to  the  whole  body  of  citizens,  each  of  whom  is  vitally  interested 
in  maintaining  it.  We  have  no  class  interests  to  array  our  people  in 
hostile  divisions.  Church  and  state  are  separate  ;  neither  intrudes  upon 
the  domain  of  the  other ;  and  the  result  is  to  the  advantage  of  each.  All 
men  are  equal  before  the  law,  and  personal  merit  is  the  only  badge  of 
distinction  among  us.  Men  are  trained  to  regard  themselves  as  free  citi- 
zens of  a  free  land,  a  title  more  precious  than  all  princely  rank. 

Such  a  state  of  society  can  exist  only  among  an  educated  people.  An 
ignorant  man  can  never  be  a  good  citizen.  This  was  the  deep  conviction 
of  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  and  it  led  them  to  undertake  the  great  experi- 
ment of  educating  the  people  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  in  order  that 
they  might  properly  discharge  their  obligations  of  citizenship.  Their  de- 
scendants have  continued  their  work,  and  have  extended  the  work  begun 
by  them  throughout  the  entire  country,  and  have  wisely  made  the  five 
school  the  basis  of  our  whole  political  system.  There,  free  from  ssctariau 


948 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


influence  or  teachings,  the  young  citizen  receives  the  training  which  fite 
him  to  appreciate  and  enjoy  in  after  years  the  blessings  secured  to  him, 
and  to  labor  for  their  perpetuity.  If  any  man  seek  the  reason  of  the 
remarkable  prosperity  of  our  country,  he  will  find  it  in  the  general  in- 
telligence of  our  people.  As  a  whole  our  people  are  more  intelligent 
than  those  of  European  states.  The  education  of  our  women  is  higher 
than  that  of  any  other  nation.  For  this  we  are  indebted  to  the  free 
school. 

If,  then,  the  story  of  our  first  hundred  years  teaches  us  any  lesson,  or 
conveys  any  warning,  it  is  that  we  should  guard  with  jealous  care  our 
system  of  free  public  education,  and  resist  any  and  all  efforts  to  impair  its 
usefulness,  or  to  give  to  it  a  sectarian  character.  It  is  the  most  precious 
heritage  that  has  come  down  to  us  from  our  fathers — the  corner-stone  of 
republican  liberty.  It  is  worth  fighting  for,  worth  dying  for,  if  need  be. 


APPENDIX. 


THE    CENTENNIAL    EXHIBITION. 

S  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  drew  near,  it  was  generally  regarded  as  the  duty  of  the 
nation  to  celebrate  it  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  great  fame  and 
wealth  of  the  republic.  Various  plans  for  accomplishing  this 
object  were  suggested,  but  none  met  with  a  national  approval. 
In  1866,  a  number  of  gentlemen  conceived  the  idea  of  celebrating  the 
great  event  by  an  exhibition  of  the  progress,  wealth,  and  general  condi- 
tion of  the  republic,  in  which  all  the  nations  of  the  world  should  be 
invited  to  participate.  The  honor  of  originating  and  urging  this  plan 
upon  the  public  belongs  to  the  Hon.  John  Bigelow,  formerly  minister 
from  the  United  States  to  France ;  General  Charles  B.  Norton,  who  had 
served  as  a  commissioner  of  the  United  States  at  the  Paris  exposition  of 
1867;  Professor  John  L.  Campbell,  of  Wabash  College,  Indiana;  and 
Colonel  M.  Richards  Mudde",  of  Philadelphia.  The  plan  proposed  by 
these  gentlemen  was  not  generally  received  with  favor  at  first.  It  was 
argued  in  opposition  to  it  that  the  great  exhibitions  of  Europe  were  the 
work  of  the  governments  of  the  countries  in  which  they  were  held ;  that 
under  our  peculiar  system  the  government  could  not  take  the  same  part 
in  our  exhibition ;  and  that  it  would  thus  be  thrown  into  the  hands  of 
private  parties  and  would  result  in  failure.  The  city  of  Philadelphia 
was  designated  as  the  place  at  which  the  exhibition  should  be  held. 
This  feature  of  the  plan  aroused  considerable  opposition  growing  out  of 
local  jealousies.  It  was  argued  by  the  friends  of  the  scheme  that  Phila- 
delphia was  fairly  entitled  to  the  honor,  inasmuch  as  it  had  been  the 
scene  of  the  signing  of  the  declaration  of  independence ;  and  that  the  city 
was  also  admirably  located  for  such  an  exhibition,  being  easily  accessible 
from  all  parts  of  the  Union  and  from  Europe. 

The  friends  of  the  scheme  labored  hard  to  overcome  the  objections 
urged  against  it,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  their  plans  become 
more  popular  every  day.  The  matter  was  ably  discussed  in  the  press  of 
the  country,  and  at  length  was  taken  in  band  by  the  Franklin  Institute 

949 


950  APPENDIX. 

of  Philadelphia,  which  body  petitioned  the  municipal  authorities  to  grant 
the  use  of  a  portion  of  Fairmount  Park  for  the  purposes  of  a  centennial 
celebration.  This  petition  was  laid  before  the  select  council  by  Mr.  John 
L.  Shoemaker,  one  of  that  body,  who  offered  a  resolution  providing  for 
the  appointment  of  a  joint  commission  of  seven  members  from  each 
chamber  to  take  the  subject  into  consideration.  The  resolution  was 
adopted,  and  Mr.  Shoemaker  was  appointed  president  of  the  joint  com- 
mission. 

After  a  careful  consideration  of  the  subject,  the  commission  decided  to 
lay  the  plan  before  Congress.  The  legislature  of  Pennsylvania  now  came 
to  the  assistance  of  the  commission,  and  adopted  a  resolution  requesting 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  take  such  action  as  in  its  judgment 
should  seem  wise  in  favor  of  an  international  celebration  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  American  independ- 
ence. The  legislature  also  appointed  a  committee  of  ten  to  accompany 
the  Philadelphia  commission  to  Washington  to  present  a  memorial  upon 
the  subject  to  Congress.  The  memorial  of  the  committees  was  presented 
to  Congress  by  the  Hon.  W.  D.  Kelley,  a  representative  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, who  urged  its  adoption  by  that  body,  and  the  selection  of  Phila- 
delphia as  the  scene  of  the  celebration,  as  that  city  had  witnessed  the 
adoption,  signing,  and  proclamation  of  the  declaration  of  independence. 

Early  in  March,  1870,  Mr.  Daniel  J.  Morrell,  of  Pennsylvania,  pre- 
sented a  bill  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress,  making  provision  for  the 
proposed  exhibition.  The  bill  was  several  times  amended,  and  was 
finally  adopted  by  Congress  on  the  3d  of  March,  1871.  It  provided  for 
the  appointment  by  the  president  of  the  United  States  of  a  commissioner 
and  alternate  commissioner  from  each  State  and  Territory  of  the  Union, 
who  were  to  be  nominated  by  the  governors  of  the  States  and  Territories 
from  which  they  were  appointed.  Philadelphia  was  selected  as  the  place 
at  which  the  exhibition  should  be  held  ;  and  it  was  expressly  declared  that 
the  United  States  should  not  be  liable  for  any  of  the  expenses  attending 
the  exhibition. 

The  president  having  approved  the  bill,  it  became  a  law.  During  the 
year  1871  he  appointed  the  commissioners  provided  for  by  the  act  of 
Congress.  They  were  invited  to  assemble  at  Philadelphia  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1872;  and  on  that  day  commissioners  from  twenty-four  States, 
three  Territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia  met  at  the  Continental 
Hotel,  in  Philadelphia.  A  temporary  organization  was  effected  by  the 
election  of  David  Atwood,  of  Wisconsin,  as  chairman,  and  J.  N.  Baxter, 
of  Vermont,  as  secretary.  The  commissioners  then  repaired  in  a  body 
to  Independence  Hall,  where  they  were  officially  received  and  welcomed 


APPENDIX. 

by  Mayor  Stokley.  General  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut,  responded 
to  this  address  on  behalf  of  the  commissioners,  who  then  repaired  to  the 
chamber  of  the  common  council.  After  a  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hutter, 
the  commissioners  proceeded  to  business.  On  the  5th,  a  permanent 
organization  was  effected,  officers  were  elected,  nine  standing  committees 
were  appointed,  and  the  United  States  Centennial  Commission  was  defi- 
nitely organized. 

In  order  to  provide  the  necessary  funds  for  the  Exhibition,  Congress, 
on  the  1st  of  June,  1872,  adopted  a  bill  creating  a  "Centennial  Board  of 
Finance,"  who-  were  authorized  to  issue  stock  in  shares  of  ten  dollars 
each,  the  whole  amount  issued  not  to  exceed  ten  millions  of  dollars. 
The  subscriptions  to  the  stock  were  opened  November  2 1st,  1872,  and 
were  continued  for  one  hundred  days. 

The  members  of  the  Centennial  Board  of  Finance  were  appointed  by 
the  stockholders  at  a  meeting  held  in  April,  1873.  A  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  board  were  chosen  from  Philadelphia  in  order  that,  these 
gentlemen  being  residents  of  the  city,  there  might  always  be  a  quorum 
for  the  transaction  of  business  present  at  the  meetings  of  the  board.  The 
board  was  authorized  to  issue  bonds  to  an  amount  not  to  exceed  the 
capital,  to  be  secured  upon  the  exhibition  buildings  and  other  property 
in  possession  of  the  commission,  and  upon  its  prospective  revenues.  The 
board  was  also  ordered  to  begin  at  once  the  work  of  preparing  the 
grounds  and  ei acting  the  necessary  buildings  for  the  exhibition. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1873,  the  commissioners  of  Fairmount  Park 
formally  surrendered  to  the  Centennial  Commission  the  area  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  that  had  been  set  apart  by  the  city  government 
for  the  purposes  of  the  exhibition.  The  transfer  was  made  in  presence 
of  an  immense  throng  of  citizens,  and  with  imposing  ceremonies  in  which 
the  military  and  civic  organizations  of  Philadelphia  took  part.  The 
ceremonies  were  opened  with  a  prayer  by  Bishop  Simpson  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  after  which  Hon.  Morton  McMichael,  president 
of  the  Park  Commission,  formally  surrendered  the  grounds  to  General 
J.  R.  Hawley,  president  of  the  Centennial  Commission,  who  accepted 
thsm  in  an  appropriate  address.  As  he  closed  his  address,  General 
Hawley  exclaimed,  "  In  token  that  the  United  States  Centennial  Com- 
mission now  takes  possession  of  these  grounds  for  the  purpose  we  have 
d  -scribed,  let  the  flag  be  unfurled  and  duly  saluted."  The  stars  and 
stripes  were  then  raised,  and  at  the  same  moment  the  trumpeter  of  the 
City  Troop  gave  a  signal  which  \vas  answered  by  a  salute  of  thirteen  gun? 
from  the  Keystone  Battery.  A  grand  military  review  succeeded  these  cere- 
monies,  and  the  festivities  were  closed  by'a  display  of  fireworks  at  night. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  1873,  the  president  of  the  United  States  issued  a 


952  APPENDIX. 

proclamation  in  which,  after  stating  the  action  of  Congress  with  reference 
to  the  exhibition,  and  declaring  that  he  had  received  official  notice  that 
the  grounds  had  been  secured  and  that  the  buildings  vould  be  imine- 
.liately  commenced,  he  declared:  "Now,  therefore,  I,  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 
President  of  the  United  States,  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  the 
Act  of  Congress  aforesaid,  do  hereby  declare  and  proclaim  that  there  will 
be  held,  at  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  an 
International  Exhibition  of  Arts,  Manufactures,  and  Products  of  the 
Soil  and  Mine,  to  be  opened  on  the  19th  day  of  April,  Anno  Domini 
eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-six,  and  to  be  closed  on  the  19th  day  of 
October  in  the  same  year. 

"And,  in  the  interest  of  peace,  civilization  and  domestic  and  inter- 
national friendship  and  intercourse,  I  commend  the  celebration  and 
exhibition  to  the  people  of  the  United  States ;  and  in  behalf  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  people,  I  cordially  commend  them  to  all  nations  who  may 
be  pleased  to  take  part  therein." 

On  the  5th  of  July,  the  secretary  c,f  state  of  the  United  States  for- 
warded the  president's  proclamation  to  the  various  foreign  ministers  resid- 
ing in  the  United  States,  together  with  an  official  note,  from  which  we 
make  the  following  extract : 

"  The  president  indulges  the  hope  that  the  government  of will 

be  pleased  to  notice  the  subject,  and  may  deem  it  proper  to  bring  the 
exhibition  and  its  objects  to  the  attention  of  the  people  of  that  country, 
and  thus  encourage  their  co-operation  in  the  proposed  celebration.  And 
he  further  hopes  that  the  opportunity  afforded  by  the  exhibition  for  the 
interchange  of  national  sentiment  and  friendly  intercourse  between  the 
people  of  both  nations  may  result  in  new  and  still  greater  advantages  to 
science  and  industry,  and  at  the  same  time  serve  to  strengthen  the  bonds 
of  peace  and  friendship  which  already  happily  subsist  between  the  govern- 
ment and  people  of and  those  of  the  United  States." 

In  order  that  the  Federal  government  shall  be  fully  represented  in  the 
exhibition,  the  president  of  the  United  States,  on  the  23d  of  'January, 
1874,  issued  an  order  that  there  should  be  displayed  in  the  exhibition 
such  objects  appertaining  to  the  executive  departments  of  the  government 
as  should  "illustrate  the  functions  and  administrative  faculties  of  the 
government  in  time  of  peace  and  its  resources  as  a  war  power,  and  thereby 
serve  to  demonstrate  the  nature  of  our  institutions,  and  their  adaptations 
to  the  wants  of  the  people."  To  carry  out  the  requirements  of  this  order 
the  president  directed  that  each  of  the  departments  participating  in  the 
exhibition  should  appoint  one  person  to  take  charge  of  its  property  and 
arrange  for  its  proper  display  and  safe-keeping. 


APPENDIX. 


953 


CENTENNIAL   MEDAL — OBVERSE. 


On  the  5th  of  June,  1874,  Congress  adopted  a  resolution  requesting 
the  president  to  extend,  in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  "  a  respectful 
and  cordial  invitation  to  the  governments  of  other  nations  to  he  repre- 
sented and  take  part  in  the  Cen- 
tennial  Exposition."     In  accord- 
ance with   this  resolution  the  in- 
vitation   was    extended    by    the 
president,  and    was    accepted    by 
nearly  all  the  European   govern- 
ments. 

On  the  16th  of  June,  Congress 
passed  a  bill  authorizing  the  Cen- 
tennial Commission  to  cause  to  be 
prepared  and  struck  at  the  Mint 
at  Philadelphia,  medals  commem- 
orating the  one  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. The  said  medals  were 
to  be  furnished  to  the  Commission 

by  the  Mint  "  upon  the  payment  of  a  sum  not  less  than  the  cost  thereof." 
On  the  18th  of  June,  1874,  Congress  passed  an  act  for  the  admission, 
free  of  duties,  of  all  articles  from  foreign  countries  intended  for  the  Inter- 
national Exhibition. 

The  work  upon  the  buildings 
and  grounds  of  the  Exhibition  was 
begun  immediately  after  the  trans- 
fer of  the  grounds  to  the  Centennial 
Commission,  and  was  pushed  for- 
ward steadily.  The  enterprise  re- 
ceived the  cordial  indorsement  and 
hearty  support  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  and  ample  funds 
were  provided  to  insure  its  success. 
The  buildings  were  all  completed 
in  time  for  the  reception  of  the 
goods  intended  for  exhibition,  and 
the  work  of  installation  was  begun 
at  the  appointed  day,  and  was 
carried  forward  rapidly  and  promptly.  On  the  10th  of  May,  1876,  the 
Exhibition  was  formally  opened  with  imposing  ceremonies  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  throng  of  citizens. 
Among  the  visitors  were  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Brazil. 


CENTENNIAL  MEDAL — REVERSE. 


954 


APPENDIX. 


The  grounds  appropriated  to  the  Exhibition  comprise  a  tract  of  four 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  situated  within  the  well-known  and  beautiful 
Fairmount  Park,  the  total  area  of  which  is  three  thousand  acres.  They 
extend  from  George's  Hill  almost  to  the  Schuylkill  river,  and  northward 
almost  to  the  Belmont  mansion.  Of  this  tract  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  acres  have  been  occupied  by  the  Exhibition  buildings  and  the  open 
spaces  between  them,  and  have  been  enclosed  with  a  stout  picket  fence. 

The  tract  thus  enclosed  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  the 
Exhibition.  It  is  an  elevated  plateau,  with  three  spurs  jutting  out  toward 
the  river, separated  from  each  other  by  deep,  wooded  ravines,  through  which 
flow  small  streams.  The  ravine  nearest  the  southern  end  of  the  grounds 
is  called  the  Lansdownc  valley,  the  other  the  Belmont  valley.  The 
Lansdowne  valley  is  spanned  by  two  handsome  bridges,  the  Belmont 

valley  by  one,  these 
bridges  affording  an 
_  easy  communication 


between  the  various 
portions  of  the 
grounds. 

The  Exhibition 
plateau  stands  one 
hundred  and  twenty 
feet  above  the  Schuyl- 
kill, and  is  always 
swept  by  a  delightful 
breeze.  The  view 
from  either  of  the 
spurs  is  exquisitely  beautiful,  embracing  as  it  does  the  river,  the  park, 
and  the  distant  city.  The  most  northern  of  these  spurs  is  occupied  by 
the  Agricultural  Building,  the  central  one  by  Horticultural  Hall,  and  the 
southern  by  Memorial  Hall.  The  three  unite  in  a  broad  plain,  which 
contains  the  Main  Building,  Machinery  Hall,  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment Building  and  a  number  of  smaller  structures.  The  sides  of  the 
ravines  and  the  spaces  between  the  more  prominent  edifices  are  also  thickly 
covered  with  buildings. 

Thirteen  places  of  entrance  and  exit  to  and  from  the  grounds  have 
been  selected  by  the  Board  of  Finance.  The.se  are  located  at  points 
convenient  to  the  main  roads  and  nearest  to  the  places  at  which  the 
horse  and  steam  railways  and  steamboats  will  set  down  their  passengers. 
Each  entrance  is  provided  with  a  patent  registering  apparatus,  which  is 
connected  by  an  electrical  wire  with  a  dial  in  the  office  of  the  Bureau  of 
Admissions,  and  registers  each  visitor  as  he  passes  in.  /• 


TRANSCONTINENTAL  HOTEL,   OPPOSITE  MAIN  BUILDING. 


APPENDIX.  955 

The  principal  buildings  are  five  in  numtar,  and  consist  of  the  Main 
Hall  of  the  Exhibition,  the  Memorial  Hall  or  Art  Gallery,  the  Agricul- 
tural Hall,  the  Horticultural  Hall  and  the  Machinery  Hall.  These  cover 
a  total  area  of  about  forty-eight  acres,  and  constitute  the  principal  edifices. 

The  Main  Exhibition  Building  is  a  parallelogram  in  shape,  1880  feet 
in  length  by  464  fi«et  in  width,  and  70  feet  in  height,  with  central  towers 
120  feet  high.  Including  its  towers  and  projections,  it  covers  an  area  ot 
twenty-one  and  a  half  acres.  At  the  centre  of  the  longer  sides  are  pro- 
jections 416  feet  in  length,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  shorter  sides  or  ends 
of  the  building  are  projections  216  feet  in  length.  In  these  projections, 
in  the  centre  of  the  four  sides,  are  located  the  main  entrances,  which  are 
provided  with  arcades  upon  the  ground  floor,  and  central  fagados  extend- 
ing to  the  height  of  90  feet.  The  building  is  of  iron  and  glass,  and  in 
the  interior  shows  a  grand  hall  70  feet  in  height,  with  a  central  pavilion 
rising  to  a  height  of  96  feet.  A  magnificent  central  avenue  120  feet  wide 
extends  through  the  entire  length  of  the  building,  and  there  are  two  side 
aisles  of  equal  length  and  100  feet  wide.  Three  transepts  or  cross  avenues 
intercept  the  three  long  avenues,  and  divide  the  plan  into  nine  open 
spaces,  free  from  supporting  columns.  A  number  of  lesser  aisles  traverse 
the  building.  The  latter  are  48  feet  in  width. 

The  edifice  was  erected  by  Mr.  R.  J.  Dobbins,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  builders  of  Philadelphia.  He  was  the  constructor  of  the  Public 
Ledger  Building,  and  his  two  great  works  in  the  Exhibition  grounds, 
the  Main  Building  and  Memorial  Hall,  are  enviable  monuments  of  his 
skill  and  energy.  In  "the  construction  of  the  Main  Building  7,000,000 
feet  of  lumber,  and  nearly  8,000,000  pounds  of  iron  were  used,  and  the 
services  of  three  thousand  men  were  employed.  Underneath,  and  ex- 
tending through  the  edifice,  are  four  miles  of  water  and  drainage  pipes, 
the  service  in  this  respect  being  perfect.  Gas  pipes  are  introduced 
through  the  building,  which  is  lighted  at  night  by  "  reflectors  "  suspended 
from  the  roof,  and  placed  beyond  the  possibility  of  communicating  fire  to 
the  structure  or  itvS  contents.  Hydrants  are  placed  at  numerous  points 
in  the  hall,  and  are  so  arranged  that  the  water  can  be  turned  directly  upon 
a  fire,  which  can  be  extinguished  before  it  has  gained  any  advantage. 

The  light  in  the  building  is  excellent,  and  all  exhibitors  are  placed  on 
an  equality  for  showing  their  goods  by  the  admirable  arrangement  of  the 
hall  in  this  respect. 

The  cost  of  the  Main  Building  was  $1,580,000.  The  foundations  of 
the  building  were  begun  in  the  autumn  of  1874.  On  the  8th  of  May, 
1875,  the  erection  of  the  iron  work  was  begun,  and  was  completed  on  the 
2d  of  December,  1875.  The  other  work  was  carried  on  with  rapidity, 


956 


APPENDIX. 


and  the  building  was  completed  early  in  February,  1876,  and  on  the  14th 
of  that  month  was  delivered  by  the  contractor  to  the  Board  of  Finance. 
The  Main  Building  is  in  all  respects  the  most  imposing  structure  of 
the  Exhibition.  It  is  not  as  beautiful  as  Memorial  Hill,  but  is  superb 
in  its  massiveness  and  in  the  perfection  of  its  details.  In  spite  of  its 
immense  size,  it  is  light  and  graceful  in  appearance,  and  seen  from  any 
commanding  point,  with  its  thousands  of  flags  and  streamers  fluttering  in 
the  air,  its  beautiful  proportions  rising  grandly  and  clearly  against  the 
sky,  it  constitutes  an  object  which  long  holds  the  gazer's  eye  and  elicit? 
his  warmest  praise.  The  exterior  is  painted  in  light  brown  colors,  with 
tasteful  ornamental  lilies  in  red  and  other  harmonizing  hues. 


VIEW  OF  THE  SCHtJYLKILL  FROM  LAUREL  HILL,  SHOWING  THE  FALLS  BRIDGE. 

The  interior  is  decorated  handsomely.  The  prevailing  colors  are  the 
lightest  shade  of  blue  and  cream  color,  and  the  decorations  are  in  bright, 
cheerful  tints  v.Thich  blend  wrell  with  these  hues.  There  is  nothing 
sombre  or  gloomy  about  the  edifice,  and  the  taste  displayed  in  the  selec- 
tion and  arrangement  of  colors  is  highly  to  be  commended. 

Around  the  inner  cornice  small  circular  panes  of  stained  glass  have 
been  set,  decorated  with  the  arms  of  the  United  States,  the  various  States 
and  Territories  of  the  Union,  and  the  different  nations  of  the  world,  and 
with  subjects  relating  to  the  arts  and  sciences. 

The  four  sides  of  the  central  transept  are  ornamented  with  elaborate 


APPENDIX.  957 

pieces  representing  America,  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  Each  of  these 
paintings  is  forty  feet  in  width  and  fifty  feet  in  height,  and  embodies  a 
group  emblematic  of  one  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe. 

The  building  is  provided  with  every  possible  comfort  for  visitors.  Seats 
are  scattered  through  the  aisles,  and  at  the  ends  of  the  main  aisle  and  cen- 
tral transept  are  water-closets  and  wash-rooms  for  visitors.  Cloak-rooms 
and  umbrella-stands,  provided  by  the  Department  of  Public  Comfort,  are 
located  under  the  arcades  at  the  four  main  entrances  to  the  building. 
Umbrellas,  water-proofs,  or  parcels  of  any  kind  are  received  at  these 
stands,  and  taken  care  of  for  a  small  sum.  The  owner  is  given  a  metal 
check  for  his  property,  and  this  must  be  presented  when  the  article  is 
claimed.  Restaurants  are  located  at  the  north  and  south  ends  of  the 
central  transept.  They  are  provided  with  lunch  counters  as  well  as  the 
ordinary  tables.  Soda-water  stands  are  established  at  several  prominent 
points  in  the  main  aisles  and  the  central  transept.  Wheel-chair  stations 
are  located  at  each  end  and  near  the  centre  of  the  main  aisle.  In  the 
main  aisle,  also,  are  stands  for  the  sale  of  the  official  catalogues  and  guide 
books.  Telegraph  offices  are  established  at  one  or  two  points  in  the 
main  aisle,  from  which  messages  may  be  sent  to  any  part  of  the  world. 
Scattered  through  the  building  are  a  number  of  iron  letter  boxes,  estab- 
lished by  the  United  States  Post-Office  Department,  from  which  collec- 
tions are  made  at  stated  times.  In  the  centre  of  the  building  a  large 
music-stand  has  been  erected.  Concerts  are  given  here  daily. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle,  about  half-way  between  the  eastern 
entrance  and  the  transept,  is  the  establishment  of  the  Centennial  Safe 
Deposit  Company.  The  company  receive  on  deposit  valuables  and 
papers,  and  guarantee  their  safe  return  upon  demand.  A  charge  is  made 
for  the  keeping  of  each  article  according  to  a  fixed  tariff.  The  safes  of 
the  company  are  fire-proof. 

In  one  of  the  central  towers  a  steam  elevator  conveys  visitors,  who  may 
wish  to  make  the  ascent,  to  the  roof  or  to  the  galleries  of  the  tower. 
Stairways  are  provided  for  those  who  do  not  wish  to  use  the  elevator. 
The  elevator  is  of  the  most  approved  construction,  and  is  exhibited  as  one 
of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  its  kind. 

In  a  work  like  this  it  is  simply  impossible  to  describe  each  feature  of 
the  Exhibition  in  detail.  We  can  only  refer  to  it  in  general  terms,  dwell- 
ing merely  upon  the  objects  which  constitute  its  principal  attractions. 

At  least  one-third  of  the  twenty-one  and  a  half  acres  of  the  floor-space 
of  the  Main  Building  is  occupied  by  the  United  States.  These  seven 
acres  are  filled  with  a  rich  and  beautiful  display,  and  the  national  pride 
of  the  native  visitor  is  sure  to  find  satisfaction  in  the  imposing  and  spk-n- 


958  APPENDIX. 

did  appearance  made  by  his  country.  In  one  department  especially,  the 
show-cases  in  which  the  articles  on  exhibition  are  displayed,  the  United 
States  lead  the  world. 

The  United  States. — We  begin  our  inspection  of  the  contents  of  the 
Main  Building  in  our  own  country,  and  in  doing  so  glance  first  at  the 
great  gallery  which  crosses  the  eastern  end  over  the  entrance  doors.  Stairs 
ascend  to  this  gallery  from  either  side  of  the  entrance.  A  sign  over  the 
doorway  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs  informs  us  that  the  gallery  is  occupied 
mainly  by  the  Educational  Department  of  the  Sfate  of  Massachusetts. 
This  display  occupies  the  northern  and  southern  sections  of  the  gallery, 
the  central  portion  being  given  to  the  well-known  Boston  organ- builders, 
Hook  &  Hastings,  who  display  here  one  of  their  grand  organs  and  a 
number  of  smaller  instruments. 

In  the  two  rooms  on  the  right  and  left  of  the  great  organ,  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts  displays  her  public  school  system,  and  does 
so  by  exhibiting  models  and  specimens  of  the  furniture,  apparatus,  and 
text-books  used  in  her  schools  of  all  grades,  and  by  showing  the  actual 
work  of  the  pupils  of  the  various  schools  as  set  forth  in  their  examination 
papers.  These  papers  are  bound  in  handsome  volumes,  each  of  which  is 
prefaced  by  a  sketch  of  the  system  used  in  the  various  classes,  and  the 
questions  propounded  to  the  pupils  at  the  examinations.  The  result  is 
highly  creditable  to  the  State. 

The  gallery  at  the  south  end  of  the  central  transept  contains  the  educa- 
tional departments  of  a  number  of  the  States.  These  are  Maryland,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Maine,  New  Jersey,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode 
Island,  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Tennessee  and  Connecticut.  The  system 
adopted  for  showing  the  workings  of  their  school  systems  is  similar  to 
that  of  Massachusetts.  Nearly  all  the  States  mentioned  show  models, 
plans,  or  photographic  views  of  their  public  schools  of  various  grades. 
Samples  of  school  furniture  are  also  shown,  and  some  of  the  States  exhibit 
models  of  their  educational  buildings  so  constructed  as  to  display  the 
interior  ao  well  as  the  exterior  arrangement.  At  the  eastern  end  of  the 
gallery  the  colored  schools  of  the  South  make  a  creditable  showing  of 
their  progress. 

The  gallery  at  the  north  end  of  the  transept  is  occupied  by  the  second 
of  the  great  organs  of  the  Exhibition.  This  is  the  Roosevelt  Organ. 

Having  finished  our  glance  at  the  galleries,  we  now  descend  to  the  floor" 
and  begin  our  inspection  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  American  department, 
which  is  also  the  eastern  end  of  the  building. 

Near  the  eastern  doors  the  manufacturers  of  paper  display  their  wares. 
The  exhibit  is  very  good,  and  the  articles  are  arranged  in  the  most  taste- 


APPENDIX.  959 

ful  and  attractive  manner.  The  show-cases  used  are  beautiful  specimens 
of  skill  in  cabinet-making.  The  Philadelphia  and  New  York  stationers 
also  exhibit  fine  specimens  of  book-binding.  Close  by,  Lange  &  Little, 
of  New  York,  exhibit  some  beautiful  specimens  of  fine  printing. 

We  now  reach  the  main  aisle,  near  the  eastern  doors.  Here  is  collected 
the  display  of  cotton,  woollen  and  silk  goods  of  American  manufacture. 
In  all  three  departments  the  exhibit  is  very  fine.  Nearly  all  the  great 
New  England  factories  are  represented — in  some  cases  by  separate  ex- 
hibits, and  in  others  by  collective  exhibits  of  the  products  of  all  the  mills 
in  a  single  town.  The  group  is  the  largest  in  the  building,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  from  Philadelphia,  the  exhibitors  are  mainly  from 
New  England.  The  cotton  and  woollen  mills  of  the  West  and  South  are 
but  poorly  represented,  and  this  is  all  the  more  to  be  regretted,  as  they 
have  made  such  marked  progress  of  late  years  as  to  render  them  for- 
midable rivals  of  the  Eastern  mills.  A  contrast  between  the  articles 
displayed  here  and  those  exhibited  in  similar  sections  by  the  foreign 
countries  cannot  fail  to  be  gratifying  to  the  American  visitor. 

To  the  north  of  this  section  the  carpet-makers  of  New  England,  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  have  erected  a  triple  row  of  pavilions,  open  on 
one  side,  in  which  an  extensive  and  beautiful  collection  of  American- 
made  carpets  is  shown.  Except  in  the  most  costly  styles,  woven  in  a 
single  piece,  this  young  American  industry  compares  more  than  favorably 
with  its  older  competitors  from  Europe.  The  designs  are  handsome  and 
tasteful,  the  workmanship  good. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle,  above  the  department  of  textile 
fabrics,  the  hardware  and  cutlery  firms  of  the  country  make  their  display. 
The  collection  of  cutlery  compares  well  with  that  of  the  great  English 
manufacturers,  and  few  visitors  will  fail  to  notice  the  immense  Centennial 
knife  and  fork  exhibited  by  the  Beaver  Falls  Cutlery  Company,  of 
Pennsylvania.  The  exhibit  of  tools  and  hardware  of  all  kinds  is  complete 
and  attractive,  and  merits  a  careful  study. 

Alongside  of  the  hardware  men,  Mr.  Charles  W.  Spurr,  of  Boston,  has 
erected  a  small  but  handsome  pavilion,  the  inner  walls  of  which  are 
decorated  with  polished  woods  prepared  by  a  patent  process.  The  wood 
is  sawed  to  the  thinness  of  soft  paper  and  is  then  glued  to  harder  paper, 
which  is  pasted  on  the  walls  in  the  usual  manner,  after  which  the  wood 
surface  is  subjected  to  a  high  polish.  This  system  of  house  decoration  is 
very  beautiful,  and  is  rapidly  becoming  popular  in  this  country. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  hall,  near  the  eastern  end,  is  the  display  of 
American  pottery  and  porcelain.  It  is  creditable  on  the  whole,  but  does 
not  compare  with  the  display  made  by  either  of  the  leading  European 


960  APPENDIX. 

nations,  or  by  China  or  Japan.  The  exhibits  in  this  line  are  therefore 
modestly  placed  in  a  corner. 

Below  the  pottery  collection  are  a  number  of  tall  marble  and  granite 
shafts  and  monuments,  and  beyond  these  are  the  carefully  executed  maps 
and  charts  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  New  Jersey,  with  a  number  of 
specimens  of  the  geological  formations  of  the  State. 

Close  by,  the  Stephens  Institute  of  Technology,  of  Hoboken,  New 
Jersey,  displays  an  interesting  collection  of  scientific  apparatus. 

The  iron,  steel  and  slate  men  of  the  country  make  an  imposing  display 
of  ores  and  manufactured  metals.  The  Cambria  Iron  Works  of  Penn- 
sylvania has  a  stately  Masonic  arch  constructed  of  solid  T  rails ;  and 
close  by  the  famous  Lucy  Furnace,  of  Pittsburgh,  is  shown  in  a  small 
but  complete  model.  The  display  of  ores,  pig-metals,  manufactured 
articles,  nails,  bars  and  other  products,  is  extensive  and  interesting. 

The  Keystone  Bridge  Company,  of  Pittsburgh,  exhibit  alongside  of 
the  irons  a  fine  model  of  the  famous  draw-bridge  constructed  by  them 
over  Raritan  bay  for  the  Central  Railroad  of  New  Jersey. 

Crossing  towards  the  main  aisle  again,  we  notice  a  handsome  case  in 
which  the  American  Watch  Company,  of  Waltham,  Massachusetts, 
display  an  extensive  assortment  of  handsome  watches  in  gold  and  silver 
cases.  A  few  feet  north  of  this  case  the  Elgin  Watch  Company,  of  Elgin, 
Illinois,  exhibit  their  watches  and  a  number  of  samples  of  the  wheels  and 
other  movements  used  in  them.  In  Machinery  Hall  we  shall  see  the 
process  by  which  these  watches  are  made  by  machinery.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  features  of  the  whole  exhibition. 

Crossing  the  *main  aisle  we  notice  along  its  northern  side  a  formidable 
row  of  Gatling,  Parrott  and  breech-loading  guns.  The  cannon  are  all 
fine  specimens  of  the  classes  to  which  they  belong,  and  attract  much 
attention.  The  display  of  small  arms  is  also  very  fine,  and  shows  some 
interesting  improvements  in  sporting  weapons. 

North  of  the  arms  collection  are  the  burglar  and  fire-proof  safes.  All 
the  principal  safe  makers  are  represented,  and  the  display  is  exceptionally 
good  and  interesting. 

To  the  west  of  this  stand  is  a  large  case  containing  a  handsome  display 
of  military  uniforms  and  ornaments,  passing  which,  we  enter  a  region  of 
ready-made  clothing  and  ladies'  costumes. 

Continuing  on  the  north  side  we  notice  a  handsome  display  of  terra 
cotta  ware.  Galloway  &  Graff,  of  Philadelphia,  exhibit  some  beautiful 
vases,  tazzas,  pedestals  and  fountains.  The  collection  of  articles  for 
homelier  uses  is  also  very  good. 


APPENDIX. 


961 


Along  the  western  end  of  the  American  department  on  the  north  side 
is  a  capital  exhibit  of  ropes  and  cordage,  from  the  most  delicate  pack- 
thread to  the  stoutest  cables.  We  have  now  reached  the  extreme  limit 
of  the  American  department  on  the  north  side,  and  returning  to  the  main 
aisle  cross  to  the  south  side  at  the  soda  fountain  which  stands  opposite  the 
Mexican  court.  In  the  front  line  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle  are 
the  vaults  of  the  Centennial  Safe  Deposit  Company,  looking  the  very 
picture  of  strength  and  security,  and  next  above  this  the  Seth  Thomas 
Company,  of  Thomaston,  Connecticut,  display  a  large  collection  of 
American  clocks. 

Immediately  above  the  clocks  is  the  Telegraph  Department,  fronting 
also  on  the  main  aisle.  The  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  exhibit 
here  a  complete  collection  of  telegraphic  apparatus,  and  a  thorough  illus- 
tration is  given  of  the  system  by  which  the  extensive  lines  of  this 
company  are  operated. 

The  display  of  glassware  along  the  main  aisle  is  very  beautiful  and 
quite  extensive.  The  finest  specimens  of  cut  and  ground  glass  are  to  be 
seen  here.  This  department  extends  southward  from  the  main  aisle,  and 
embraces  also  a  large  collection  of  plainer  and  more  substantial  articles 
of  glass.  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  and  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  the 
two  principal  seats  of  American  glass  manufacture,  are  well  represented, 
and  New  Jersey  and  Massachusetts  also  make  excellent  displays. 

Just  beyond  the  glassware,  on  the  main  aisle,  is  a  magnificent  display 
of  fine  gas  fixtures  by  the  leading  mafanucturers  of  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia. This  is  one  of  the  most  notable  features  of  the  American 
department,  and  many  of  the  articles  exhibited  are  exceedingly  beautiful. 
No  foreign  country  has  anything  to  compare  with  us  in  the  extent  of  the 
display  in  this  line. 

The  next  department  is  that  of  the  silver  and  plated  ware.  The  firms 
represented  here  are  principally  from  the  Eastern  States,  and  the  display 
of  the  finest  grades  of  plated  ware  is  large  and  magnificent.  The  various 
manufacturing  firms  represented  appear  to  have  exhausted  their  ingenuity 
in  the  production  of  rare  and  beautiful  articles  for  display  at  the  great 
Exhibition.  The  cases  are  rich  and  massive,  and  are  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  beautiful  objects  they  contain. 

The  jewellers  make  a  fine  exhibit  of  their  wares.  Bailey  &  Co.  havt 
a  handsome  pavilion,  in  which  is  a  large  and  beautiful  collection  of  jew- 
elry and  precious  stones.  At  the  intersection  of  the  main  aisle  with  the 
central  transept  is  a  crescent-shaped  Moorish  pavilion  of  beautiful  design, 
and  ornamented  in  warm,  rich  colors.  It  is  in  all  respects  the  most  beau- 
tiful structure  in  the  Exhibition,  and  is  occupied  by  Messrs.  Tiffany  & 
61 


OG2  APPENDIX. 

Co.,  and  Starr  &  Marcus,  of  New  York,  Caldwell  &  Co.,  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  the  Gorham  Manufacturing  Company,  of  Providence,  R.  I. 
These  houses  display  the  richest  and  most  costly  articles  to  be  seen  in  the 
Exhibition.  The  finest  jewels  are  to  be  seen  here  in  profusion.  The 
cameos  exhibited  by  Starr  &  Marcus  are  among  the  most  exquisite  in  the 
world,  and  are  selected  with  skill  and  taste.  Tiffany  &  Co.  exhibit  a 
superb  collection  of  precious  stones  in  the  most  beautiful  settings,  and 
Caldwell  &  Co.  display  a  line  of  beautiful  jewelry  and  silver  ware  which 
are  the  envy  of  many  a  fair  gazer  upon  them.  The  Gorham  Manufac- 
turing Company,  famous  as  the  first  manufacturers  of  silver  and  fine 
plated  ware  in  America,  fully  sustain  their  well-earned  reputation  by 
their  display  here.  The  principal  object  of  their  exhibit  is  the  magnifi- 
cent "Century  Vase,"  which  stands  at  the  entrance  to  their  section.  It 
is  of  solid  silver,  and  is  four  feet  two  inches  in  height.  The  length  of 
the  vase  is  five  feet  four  inches ;  its  cost  was  $7000. 

Passing  to  the  southward  we  find  near  the  central  transept  an  exten- 
sive display  of  chemicals  and  paints.  These  are  grouped  tastefully,  and 
with  their  brilliant  hues  constitute  one  of  the  most  attractive  features  of 
the  American  department. 

Going  eastward  again  we  notice  the  handsome  display  of  the  cologne 
and  perfume  makers  of  this  country.  The  firms  represented  are  from 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  chiefly.  Burnett  has  a  pretty  black  marble 
fountain  which  sends  up  a  constant  jet  of  cologne  water,  and  where  the 
tired  visitor  may  enjoy  the  delightful  privilege  of  bathing  his  forehead 
with  the  refreshing  liquid.  AVenck,  of  New  York,  has  a  handsome  bam- 
boo pavilion,  from  which  perfumexl  sprays  are  thrown,  filling  the  air 
with  their  delicious  fragrance.  Lundborg,  of  New  York,  has  a  tall, 
gayly  decorated  Moorish  pavilion,  in  which  he  makes  an  extensive  and 
attractive  show  of  his  perfumes. 

Going  eastward  still  we  enter  the  furniture  department,  and  it  requires 
but  a  glance  to  see  that  the  West  has  offered  a  sharp  competition  to  the 
East  in  this,  its  specialty.  There  are  some  fine  specimens  of  furniture 
from  the  West,  the  State  of  Michigan  being  especially  well  represented  in 
this  respect.  The  display  of  furniture  is  very  large,  and  some  of  the 
finest  specimens  are  from  Columbus,  Ohio.  The  makers  of  the  finest 
grades  of  furniture  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  have  gone  to  great 
expense  in  setting  up  their  exhibits.  Many  of  them  have  constructed' 
rooms  of  the  usual  size,  which  are  handsomely  carpeted,  provided  with 
curtains,  doors,  frescoed  ceilings  and  walls,  and  superb  gas  fixtures  and 
mantel -pieces.  The  rooms  are  open  on  one  side.  With  the  homelike 
surroundings  thus  provided  the  furniture  shows  to  the  best  possible 


APPENDIX. 


960 


advantage.  It  is  of  the  most  elaborate  description,  and  is  richly  uphol- 
stered. 

North  of  the  furniture  collection  is  the  display  of  philosophical  and 
surgical  instruments.  It  is  quite  large,  and  the  articles  compare  well 
tVith  those  in  the  English,  French  and  Swiss  departments. 

From  the  scientific  department  we  pass  on  and  find  ourselves  in  th;. 


STUDIO  OP  THE  NATIONAL  PHOTOGRAPHIC  COMPANY. 

piano-forte  collection.  All.  the  principal  firms  are  represented.  Stein- 
way,  Chickering,  Weber,  Kuabe,  and  a  score  of  well-known  names  greet 
us  at  every  turn.  Each  maker  has  sent  his  best  instruments,  and  th« 
highest  skill  has  been  exercised  in  the  construction  of  the  beautiful  frames 
in  which  these  are  placed.  All  the  spaces  occupied  by  the  piano  makers 
are  enclosed,  and  many  of  them  are  covered  with  elegant  pavilions,  richly 
carpeted,  and  provided  with  seats  for  visitors.  Several  of  the  leading 


964  APPENDIX. 

firms  have  engaged  distinguished  performers  to  show  off  their  instruments, 
and  one  is  sure  of  always  hearing  some  brilliant  pianist  while  lingering 
in  this  department.  The  collection  covers  a  large  area  and  is  very 
complete. 

Alongside  of  the  pianos  is  the  display  of  cabinet  organs,  which,  though 
smaller,  is  quite  as  handsome  as  that  of  the  stringed  instruments.  Two 
pipe  organs  are  on  exhibition  close  by. 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland. — First  among  the  foreign  nations  is  the 
kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the  mother  land  of  our  young 
republic.  The  space  occupied  by  the  British  section  lies  north  of  the 
main  aisle  and  west  of  the  central  transept,  and  is  not  enclosed  by  a 
pavilion  or  any  other  structure.  Each  exhibitor  was  obliged  to  provide 
and  set  up  his  own  show-case,  and  these,  while  always  executed  in  a 
thorough  and  workmanlike  manner,  are  as  simple  and  unadorned  as 
possible.  They  are  painted  black  with  gilt  mouldings.  A  banner  of 
red,  with  the  words  "Great  Britain  and  Ireland,"  is  suspended  from  the 
roof  over  the  entrance. 

At  the  entrance,  opposite  the  music  stand  in  the  central  transept,  is  a 
rich  display  of  silver  and  plated  ware  by  Elkington  &  Co.,  silversmiths, 
of  Birmingham.  The  collection  embraces  many  articles  of  great  value 
and  beauty,  and  is  the  gem  of  the  British  exhibit.  Some  splendid 
bronzes  are  included  in  it,  and  one  may  pass  hours  in  inspecting  the 
objects  displayed  by  this  enterprising  firm,  whose  exhibit  is  valued  by  the 
London  Times  at  $500,000.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  articles  to  be  seen 
here  is  the  "  Helicon  vase,"  in  repousse"  and  richly  enamelled,  which  is 
valued  at  $30,000.  The  reproductions  in  electro-deposit  of  ancient 
works  of  art  from  the  South  Kensington  and  British  Museums  are  espe- 
cially interesting. 

Adjoining  this  splendid  display  is  the  space  occupied  by  Messrs.  Cox 
&  Co.,  of  London,  who  exhibit  a  large  and  handsome  collection  of  church 
plate,  wrought-iron  and  brass  work,  church  furniture  of  various  kinds, 
and  some  fine  ebonized  and  carved  oak  furniture. 

Going  north,  along  the  eastern  end  of  the  British  section,  we  reach  the 
display  of  porcelain,  pottery  and  majolica  ware.  In  her  porcelain  Eng- 
land fairly  rivals  France,  the  first  nation  in  Europe  in  the  extent  and 
beauty  of  this  manufacture,  and  in  pottery  and  majolicas  leads  the  world. 
In  pottery,  England  excels  all  the  nations  in  her  display.  The  collection 
includes  vessels  of  all  kinds  for  household,  scientific  and  commercial  uses, 
drainage  and  objects  of  ornament,  statuary,  etc.  Some  of  the  statues  and 
busts  are  remarkably  fine,  and  the  display,  on  the  whole,  is  beautiful  and 
creditable  in  the  highest  degree. 


APPENDIX.  965 

The  tile  makers  have  a  fine  collection.  Sereral  of  the  structures  enclos- 
ing the  spaces  of  the  exhibitors  are  constructed  entirely  of  tiles  bear- 
ing handsome  paintings,  and  finished  in  the  most  ]>erfect  style  of  the  art. 
There  is  also  a  fine  show  of  geometrical  mosaic,  encaustic,  and  majolica 
tiles,  among  which  are  a  number  of  fine  reproductions  of  ancient  works, 
as  well  as  modern  designs. 

The  collection  of  tiles  is  chiefly  near  the  north  side  of  the  British  sec- 
tion, at  its  eastern  end.  Returning  from  this  to  the  front  line,  we  notice 
the  exhibit  of  ornamental  iron-work,  made  by  Barnard,  Bishop  &  Bar- 
nard, of  Norwich.  The  most  prominent  object  of  this  collection  is  the 
fine  pavilion  of  iron-work  filled  with  the  wares  of  the  firm.  The  South 
Kensington  Museum  has  purchased  duplicate  portions  of  this  building  as 
specimens  of  the  finest  styles  of  ornamental  iron-work  of  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Passing  northward,  we  reach  the  collection  of  furniture.  A  special 
feature  of  this  department  consists  of  the  handsome  and  comfortable- 
looking  brass  bedsteads,  of  which  quite  a  number  are  displayed,  Here 
is  a  handsome  pavilion  divided  into  a  number  of  chambers  furnished  with 
exquisite  taste  in  the  Anglo-Indian  style.  These  cozy  apartments  are 
exceedingly  attractive,  and  visitors  are  loud  in  their  praise  of  their 
arrangement.  Here,  also,  is  some  fine  furniture  of  the  Jacobean  and 
Queen  Anne  styles.  A  fine  display  of  decorative  furniture  is  also  made. 
The  furniture  exhibit  includes  many  beautiful  specimens  of  interior 
decoration  and  adornment,  and  is  a  fair  representation  of  a  school  from 
which  our  own  decorators  might  learn  much. 

The  collection  of  ornamental  mantels,  fire-places,  and  heating  apparatus 
stands  in  the  rear  of  the  furniture.  It  is  handsome,  but  in  point  of  con- 
venience and  completeness  is  inferior  to  that  displayed  by  our  own 
country  in  the  annex  to  the  Main  Building. 

A  conspicuous  feature  of  the  British  collection  is  the  magnificent  tent, 
or  booth,  constructed  of  purple  velvet  hangings,  and  ornamented  with  a 
superb  collection  of  specimens  of  embroidery  and  needlework.  An 
exquisitely  worked  scroll  over  the  entrance  tells  us  that  this  is  the  pavil- 
ion of  the  "  Royal  School  of  Art  and  Needlework."  This  school  is 
under  the  especial  patronage  of  Her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  embroideries  displayed  are  the  work  of  the  royal 
family  or  of  ladies  of  noble  birth. 

Returning  once  more  to  the  main  aisle,  we  enter  the  department  of 
cotton  and  woollen  goods.  The  exhibit  in  those  lines  is  immrnsi-,  and 
extremely  varied.  The  articles  are  of  the  best  quality,  and  are  displayed 
in  the  most  artistic  manner.  Linens  also  abound  here,  and  excite,  as 


966  APPENDIX. 

they  well  deserve,  the  praise  of  all  visitors.  A  rase  of  magnificent  Irish 
poplins  is  exhibited  by  Pirn  Brothers,  of  Dublin.  They  are  among  the 
most  beautiful  fabrics  on  exhibition  in  the  Main  Hall,  and  a  crowd  of 
visitors  is  always  collected  around  them.  The  famous  Bulbriggan  Hose 
Manufacturers  make  an  interesting  and  complete  exhibit  near  by.  The 
display  of  laces,  silks,  ribbons  and  silk  fabrics  is  also  very  fine.  The 


NEW   JERSEY  STATE  BUILDING. 

department  of  textile  fabrics  includes  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  ;iiu\ 
.fully  sustains  the  claims  of  the  British  kingdom  with  regard  to  th:;> 
branch  of  her  manufactures. 

Farther  north  is  the  collection  of  jewelry.  This  is  handsome  in  many 
respects,  but  is  not  such  a  display  as  was  hoped  for  from  Great  Britain. 
One  or  two  cases  are  especially  noticeable. 

The  exhibit  of  cutlery,  tools,  and    hardware  is  large,  and   includes 


APPENDIX.  967 

London,  Sheffield,  and  Birmingham.  The  articles  offered  are  of  the 
finest  quality,  and  are  tastefully  arranged.  In  this  department  the  Tele- 
graph Construction  avid  Maintenance  Company  exhibit  a  collection  of 
~r>eet  incus  of  the  different  submarine  cables  laid  by  them  in  various  parts 
of  the  world. 

The  display  of  scientific  and  philosophical  instruments  is  extensive  ar.d 
unusually  good.  All  the  leading  makers  are  represented,  and  the  speci- 
mens on  exhibition  are  among  the  very  best  in  the  building.  Some  fine 
watches  and  chronometers  and  a  number  of  musical  instruments  are  to  be 
seen  near  by. 

In  the  alcoves  along  the  northern  wall  of  the  building  the  carpet 
makers  display  their  finest  products.  Here  are  to  be  seen  the  most 
beautiful  Axminster,  Wilton,  and  Indian  carpets  and  rugs  that  Great 
Britain  has  ever  sent  to  this  country.  The  larger  ones,  woven  in  a 
soamless  piece,  are  suspended  against  the  wall,  and  may  be  examined 
readily  by  the  lovers  of  these  beautiful  fabrics. 

A  fine  collection  of  fire-arms  is  to  be  seen  near  by,  together  with  appar- 
atus for  hunting  and  fishing,  a  collection  deeply  interesting  to  sportsmen. 

At  the  western  end  of  her  section  Great  Britain  has  grouped  the 
exhibits  of  her  publishers,  and  her  educational  display.  The  latter  is 
not  large,  and  does  not  do  justice  to  the  country  which  has  done  so  much 
for  the  cause  of  knowledge.  Her  great  universities  are  not  represented 
at  all,  and  her  excellent  school  system  is  scarcely  shown,  a  circumstance 
much  to  be  regretted. 

The  display  of  stained  glass  windows  is  more  complete  and  beautiful 
than  has  ever  been  made  by  England  at  any  International  Exhibition. 
These  exhibits  are  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  windows  of  the  gallery  at 
the  south  end  of  the  transept,  where  they  show  to  the  best  advantage. 

India. — The  exhibit  made  by  British  India  is  under  the  control  of  the 
British  Commissioners,  and  is  chiefly  from  the  India  Museum  in  London. 
It  is  neither  as  extensive  nor  as  fine  as  the  exhibit  made  at  Vienna. 
Specimens  are  exhibited,  showing  everything  the  natives  eat,  wear  or  use. 
The  grains  of  India,  the  cotton,  and  other  products  are  arranged  in  cases 
according  to  a  regular  classification,  and  are  deserving  of  a  careful  study. 
Native  dyes  are  also  shown,  together  with  a  quantity  of  silks,  raw,  floss, 
spun,  and  woven,  and  the  cocoon  from  which  the  silk  is  obtained.  Some 
of  the  silks  are  beautifully  embroidered,  and  some  fine  specimens  of  gold 
and  silver  cloth  are  to  be  seen  here.  The  collection  of  laces  and  shawls 
is  very  attractive.  A  set  of  magnificently  carved  black  furniture  is 
included  in  the  collection,  and  attracts  much  attention.  Jewelled  weapons 
and  native  arms  are  among  the  showiest  features  of  the  display.  A  col- 


968  APPENDIX. 

lection  of  native  pottery  and  metal  work,  lacquered  ware,  boxes  made  of 
porcupine  quills  and  sandal  wood,  some  magnificent  native  fans  inlaid 
with  ivory  and  precious  stones,  some  singular  drawings  in  mica,  and  a 
number  of  Hindoo  antiquities  are  also  to  be  found  in  this  department. 
Some  fine  India  carpets  are  displayed.  Delhi  sends  some  handsome 
embroidered  work,  and  Bombay  a  rich  collection  of  jewels.  Along  the 
sides  of  the  space  are  photographs  of  scenes  in  India,  and  of  the  native 
races  of  that  country.  From  the  display  made  here  one  may  gather  a 
fair  idea  of  the  people  of  India  and  their  habits,  and  contrast  them  with 
those  of  other  lands.  This,  indeed,  should  be  the  main  object  of  the 
intelligent  visitor,  and  the  various  Commissions  have  arranged  their 
exhibits  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  this  study. 

The  Dominion  of  Canada. — Canada  occupies  almost  as  much  space  as 
the  mother  country.  The  exhibit  is  made  under  the  direction  of  three 
Commissioners  from  the  Dominion  and  one  from  each  of  the  Provinces. 

The  extent  and  variety  of  the  exhibition  of  Canadian  manufactures 
will  surprise  even  those  who  suppose  themselves  well  versed  in  these 
matters.  Cotton  and  woollen  goods,  hosiery,  boots  and  shoes,  drugs  and 
chemicals,  sewing  machines,  hardware,  saws,  pianos,  and  wearing  apparel 
of  all  kinds,  are  displayed  in  profusion  and  of  admirable  qualities.  The 
leading  ship-builders  on  the  coast  send  models  of  the  vessels  they  have 
constructed,  and  Quebec  and  Toronto  send  fine  specimens  of  furniture. 
The  Canadian  potters  send  handsome  specimens  of  stoneware,  which  they 
claim  is  equal  to  the  best  Staffordshire  ware;  and  from  Montreal  there 
are  finely  wrought  marble  mantels,  which  the  exhibitors  assert  are  equal 
in  quality  and  workmanship  to  anything  produced  in  Italy.  A  large 
display  of  furs  is  made,  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  taking  the  lead  in 
this  respect.  A  specialty  is  the  exhibit  of  the  geological  department,  in 
which  the  ores  and  petroleum  of  the  Dominion  are  most  prominent.  A 
lump  of  plumbago,  six  feet  by  four  in  size,  is  exhibited.  It  is  said  to  be 
the  largest  ever  mined.  New  Brunswick  contributes  some  fine  speci- 
mens of  red  granite.  A  case  of  clothing  of  skins  ornamented  with  bead- 
work,  and  articles  of  adornment  of  bead-work,  made  by  the  Indians  of 
Canada,  attracts  much  attention.  The  Province  of  Ontario  displays  with 
great  pride  and  minuteness  her  educational  system.  The  plan  adopted 
is  similar  to  that  of  the  States  of  the  American  Union,  and  no  pains  have 
been  spared  to  make  the  showing  complete.  Models  and  drawings  of 
the  principal  educational  establishments  are  exhibited,  together  with  the 
text-books  used,  and  specimens  of  the  pupils'  work.  A  handsome  collec- 
tion of  philosophical  apparatus  and  maps  is  embraced  in  the  exhibit. 

Neiv  South    Wales. — The  Australian  colonies  exhibit  many  interesting 


APPENDIX.  969 

objects.  New  South  Wales  has  endeavored  to  show  by  her  display  the 
extent  and  variety  of  her  resources.  Fine  photographs  of  Sidney,  the 
capital,  said  to  be  the  largest  ever  taken,  constitute  a  prominent  part  of 
the  exhibit,  and  show  to  the  visitor  what  a  stately  city  has  grown  up  in 
the  far-off  country.  The  exhibit  of  wool  is  very  large,  and  fairly  repre- 
sents the  extent  and  importance  of  this  branch  of  Australian  industry. 
An  extensive  collection  of  mineral  specimens,  including  copper,  antimony, 
iron,  gold,  and  kaolin,  is  shown,  among  which  is  a  pyramid  formed  of 
blocks  of  coal  and  samples  of  all  the  carboniferous  specimens  discovered 
in  the  country.  A  number  of  lumps  of  tin  ore,  and  blocks  of  refined 
tin,  show  what  New  Zealand  can  do  in  the  mining  of  this  metal,  and  a 
lofty  obelisk  of  gilt  shows  the  amount  of  gold  that  was  taken  from  the 
country  from  1851  to  1874,  which  was  8,205,232,598  ounces,  valued  at 
$167,949,355.  Samples  of  silk  and  silk  cocoons,  and  a  number  of  speci- 
mens of  the  work  of  the  natives  of  the  country,  are  shown.  The  fine 
timber  which  forms  so  prominent  a  part  of  the  exports  of  the  colony  is 
shown  in  a  number  of  excellent  specimens  of  sections  of  trees.  A  large 
block  of  kerosene  shale  is  to  be  seen,  from  which  the  kerosene  oil  used  in 
the  colony  is  manufactured. 

Queensland. — The  exhibit  from  Queensland  is  contained  in  an  enclosed 
apartment,  on  the  north  side  of  the  British  space,  immediately  opposite 
the  New  South  Wales  section.  The  visitor's  attention  is  at  once  drawn 
to  a  tall  obelisk  covered  with  gilt,  which  shows  the  amount  of  gold 
exported  from  Queensland  between  1868  and  1875.  It  was  sixty-five 
tons  forty-one  pounds  and  six  ounces,  and  was  valued  at  $35,000,000. 
A  fine  collection  of  gold-bearing  cpiiartz  is  arranged  around  this  obeli.-k. 
The  collection  of  minerals  is  very  complete,  and  embraces  all  that  are 
found  in  the  colony.  There  are  specimens  of  tin,  copper,  arrowroot, 
woods,  oils,  silk,  timber  and  antimony.  The  production  of  tin  is 
increasing  every  year,  and  now  exceeds  that  of  gold.  Indeed,  the 
principal  supply  of  the  tin  used  by  the  civilized  world  is  now  drawn  from 
Queensland.  Several  lumps  of  copper  ore  are  exhibited,  weighing  five 
tons  in  the  aggregate,  and  twenty-two  different  kinds  of  wood  are  shown. 
The  botanical  collection  is  very  rich.  Some  fine  native  sugars  are 
exhibited,  and  the  display  of  wool  is  large  and  of  an  excellent  quality. 
A  case  of  native  implements  and  clothing,  exhibiting  the  dress  and  habiu; 
of  the  native  Australian,  forms  an  interesting  part  of  the  collection. 
Black  wall  tablets  are  suspended  around  the  enclosure,  showing  the 
mining,  grazing,  agricultural  and  geological  statistics  of  the  colony,  and 
below  these  is  an  extensive  array  of  paintings  and  photographs  illustrative 
pf  the  country  and  its  inhabitants. 


APPENDIX. 

Victoria. — The  exhibit  of  the  colony  of  Victoria  comprises  a  display 
of  her  mineral  resources,  including  fac-si miles  of  enormous  nuggets  of 
gold  found  in  her  rich  gold  fields;  a  classified  collection  of  rocks, 
minerals  and  fossils,  illustrative  of  the  geology,  mineralogy  and  mining 
resources  of  Victoria;  and  a  collection  of  gems  and  precious  stones, 
consisting  of  diamonds,  blue  sapphires,  oriental  emeralds,  rubies,  aqua 
marines,  topazes,  spinels,  beryls,  opals,  garnets,  tourmalines,  etc.  A 
number  of  specimens  of  chemical  preparations  from  Australian  products 
will  be  found  in  this  section,  and  the  display  of  home-made  pottery  is 
excellent.  Specimens  also  are  shown  of  the  manufactures  of  the  colony 
in  cotton  and  woollen  goods,  and  silk  threads  and  raw  silk  produced  in 
Victoria.  Samples  of  paper  made  from  different  barks  are  shown,  also 
a  collection  of  fine  photographs.  The  Australian  climate1  is  the  most 
favorable  in  the  world  to  photography,  and  all  the  specimens  from  that 
continent  are  very  fine.  The  grains  and  other  agricultural  products,  the 
wools,  coffee  tfnd  native  wines,  are  also  well  displayed.  A  sijmll  exhibit 
is  made  of  the  educational  system  of  the  colony,  and  also  of  the  work  of 
the  penal  institutions.  Around  the  walls  of  the  enclosure  are  hung  a 
number  of  photographs  and  paintings  of  places  and  scenery  in  Victoria. 

South  Australia. — The  exhibit  of  the  colony  of  South  Australia  includes 
specimens  of  gold  quartz,  copper  ores,  iron  ores,  bismuth  and  malachite, 
olive  oil,  native  wines,  the  native  woods,  barks,  grains,  and  other  vege- 
table products,  wools  and  raw  silks.  Articles  made  by  the  native 
Australians  are  also  exhibited.  Fine  photographs  of  Adelaide,  the 
capital,  and  various  places  in  South  Australia,  are  hung  around  the 
enclosure. 

New  Zealand. — The  exhibit  of  the  colony  of  New  Zealand  is  not  very 
large,  but  includes  specimens  of  the  ores- — such  as  copper,  lead,  zinc, 
manganese,  iron  and  coal — found  in  the  islands.  The  principal  feature 
of  the  exhibit,  however,  is  the  display  of  paintings  and  drawings  repre- 
senting the  country  and  its  inhabitants;  the  models  of  its  public  works 
and  the  large  photographs  of  scenery  and  places  in  the  colony.  There  is 
also  an  interesting  collection  of  Maori  weapons  and  implements. 

The  Cape  of  Good  Hope. — The  arrangements  of  the  exhibit  of  this 
colony  are  exceptionally  good.  The  display  includes  some  rich  specimens 
of  copper  ore,  black  oxide  of  manganese,  diamonds,  saltpetre  and  coal ; 
native  articles  of  dress;  native  jewelry  and  weapons;  specimens  of  the 
wines  and  brandies  made  in  the  colony ;  leather,  wool,  mohair,  agricul- 
tural products,  ivory,  skins,  and  specimens  of  the  birds  and  animals  of 
the  Cape.  Here  also  are  photographs  and  paintings  of  the  scenery  of  the 
country. 


APPENDIX.  97  j 

The  Gold  Const. — The  exhibit  of  the  Gold  Coast  colony  is  small,  but 
well  arranged.  It  embraces  some  fine  specimens  of  gold  dust  and  native 
ornaments  of  gold  ;  skins  of  the  wild  animals  of  the  African  coast;  native 
idols,  clothing,  weapons,  and  other  articles. 

Jamaica. — The  island  of  Jamaica  has  fitted  up  a  small  pavilion,  in 
which  it  displays  its  favorite  rums  and  sugars,  its  coffee,  cotton,  medicinal 
barks,  hemp  and  native  woods. 


ARKANSAS  STATE   BUILDING. 


The  Bermudas. — In  the  small  pavilion  appropriated  to  the  Bermuda 
islands  a  handsome  collection  is  gathered,  consisting  of  shells,  corals  of 
the  most  exquisite  forms,  palm-leaf  baskets,  mats  and  fans,  and  native 
woods. 

The  Bahamas. — The  Bahama  islands  display  some  beautiful  specimens 
of  shell  work,  large  shells,  native  woods,  tobacco,  cotton,  beeswax,  and 
tough  fibres  of  the  native  trees  of  the  islands. 


972  APPENDIX. 

Trinidad. — Trinidad's  display  is  small,  and  consists  mainly  of  specimens 
of  the  agricultural  and  mineral  products  of  the  colony,  and  a  number  of 
samples  of  the  native  manufactures. 

British  Guiana. — The  exhibit  of  this  colony  consists  principally  of 
sugars,  rums,  and  specimens  of  the  reptiles  found  in  the  colony. 

Tasmania. — The  collection  of  Tasmania  is  small,  but  interesting,  and 
represents  the  native  products,  the  mineral  and  the  agricultural  resources 
of  the  colony,  with  photographs  and  paintings  of  scenes  and  places  in  the 
island. 

France. — The  space  occupied  by  France  lies  on  the  north  side  of  the 
building,  immediately  east  of  the  central  transept,  extending  from  the 
main  aisle  to  the  north  wall.  It  is  about  one-half  as  large  as  the  space 
assigned  to  Great  Britain.  The  section  is  unenclosed,  and  the  cases  are 
simple  but  perfectly  constructed.  They  are  invariably  painted  black, 
with  ornamental  lines  of  gilt,  and  with  the  names  of  the  exhibitors  above 
in  gilt  letters.  This  uniformity  and  simplicity  were  prescribed  by  M.  de 
Somerard,  the  Director-General  of  France,  for  all  International  Exhibi- 
tions. He  established  this  regulation  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1867, 
and  has  enforced  it  ever  since. 

The  principal  entrance  to  the  French  section  is  at  the  intersection  of 
the  main  aisle  with  the  central  transept,,  opposite  the  music  stand.  Here, 
in  a  semi-circular  space,  is  a  collection  of  exquisite  bronzes  and  articles 
in  gilt  and  verd  antique.  The  gem  of  the  whole  collection  is  a  mantel- 
piece of  black  marble  fifteen  feet  high,  ornamented  with  statues  and  high 
reliefs  in  gilt  and  verd  antique  bronze.  It  has  no  rival  in  the  Exhibi- 
tion. Back  of  the  front  line  one  finds  a  rich  and  beautiful  display  of 
antique  furniture,  cabinets,  etc.,  all  of  which  are  very  attractive,  and 
many  of  which  are  of  great  value  as  works  of  art. 

Close  by  is  the  display  of  porcelain  and  pottery.  This  is  the  largest 
portion  of  the  French  exhibit,  and  by  far  the  most  attractive.  There 
are  four  collections  of  porcelain  proper,  and  six  of  faience  and  majolica. 
The  porcelains  are  arranged  along  the  central  transept,  and  face  the 
English  display  in  friendly  defiance,  being  separated  from  it  only  by  the 
broad  walk.  In  this  department  France  is  absolutely  peerless  among  the 
nations  of  Europe,  and  the  rare  beauty  and  extent  of  her  display  will 
delight  all  lovers  of  beautiful  objects. 

The  front  line  along  the  main  aisle  is  taken  up  principally  with  a 
display  of  cloths,  cotton  goods,  silks,  velvets,  gloves,  laces  and  wearing 
apparel.  The  goods  displayed  in  this  department  are  exceedingly  beauti- 
ful, and  the  exhibit  is  very  large.  Here  are  silks,  velvets  and  satins, 
ribbons  and  silk  threads  of  every  conceivable  hue  and  texture.  The  eye 


APPENDIX.  973 

is  dazzled  by  the  brilliancy  of  the  collection,  and  at  the  same  time  one  is 
charmed  with  the  perfect  good  taste  of  the  arrangement. 

The  clothing  department  is  also  extensive  and  includes  wearing  apparel 
of  every  description.  Some  of  the  costumes  for  ladies  are  superb,  and 
are  not  excelled  by  any  in  the  Exhibition.  The  display  of  laces  and  lace 
fabrics  is  very  fine,  and  is  also  quite  extensive,  and  includes  a  number 
of  superb  lace  shawls  which  receive,  as  they  deserve,  general  admiration. 

Going  back  from  the  front  line,  near  the  western  end  of  the  French 
court,  we  find  a  handsome  display  of  Aubusson  tapestries,  worked  by 
hand,  in  which  the  weaver  has  introduced  as  many  as  three  thousand 
shades  of  wool.  They  are  woven  into  fine  pictures,  which  at  a  distance 
resemble  paintings,  and  the  shadings  are  as  delicate  and  as  perfectly  laid 
on  as  if  the  work  had  been  done  with  a  brush. 

Raffl  &  Co.,  of  Paris,  make  a  showy  display  of  statues  for  churches, 
of  painted  plaster.  The  centre  piece  is  a  group  representing  the  Ador- 
ation of  the  Infant  Saviour  by  the  Shepherds  and  the  Wise  Men. 

Opposite  this  enclosure  is  the  pavilion  of  the  Paris  book  publishers. 
Several  of  the  great  houses  are  represented.  Hachette  &  Co.  show  a 
number  of  fine  illustrated  works,  including  Bida's  beautiful  etchings  of 
the  Four  Gospels.  An  interesting  exhibit  is  also  made  of  educational 
and  scientific  works.  Ducher  &  Co.,  of  Paris,  exhibit  a  fine  collection 
of  works  on  architecture,  and  at  the  centre  of  the  pavilion  is  a  superb 
reproduction  of  an  oil-painting  in  colored  lithography. 

To  the  north  of  the  booksellers'  pavilion  are  a  number  of  handsome 
carriages,  made  principally  in  Paris.  They  are  elegant  and  costly 
vehicles,  and  are  fitted  up  in  the  most  sumptuous  style.  Among  them 
are  a  steam  velocipede  and  two  velocipedes  worked  by  dog-power.  In 
the  carriage  department  will  also  be  seen  a  handsome  array  of  trunks, 
saddles  and  harness. 

Just  beyond  the  carriages  is  the  exhibit  of  cutlery.  This  is  very  fine, 
and  the  articles  are  beautifully  displayed,  but  the  exhibit  is  not  equal  to 
that  of  Great  Britain.  The  chemists  also  make  an  attractive  display,  and 
beside  them  are  the  glass-makers,  whose  collection  extends  up  to  the 
central  transept  and  for  some  distance  northward.  Conspicuous  among 
the  articles  exhibited  are  several  immense  sheets  of  plate  glaas,  which 
tower  towards  the  roof.  They  are  said  to  be  the  largest  specimens  of 
plate  glass  in  the  world,  and  their  transportation  from  the  steamer  to  the 
Exhibition  grounds  was  effected  with  extreme  difficulty. 

Near  the  western  end  the  perfumers  make  a  capital  display  of  their 
wares,  but  do  not  dispense  them  to  the  public  as  lavishly  as  do  the  ex- 
hibitors in  the  same  line  in  the  American  department. 


974  APPENDIX. 

The  display  of  that  large  class  of  objects  known  on  the  continent  of 
Europe  as  Articles  de  Paris  is  extensive,  and  occupies  a  very  considerable 
part  of  the  French  space.  It  covers  a  wide  range  of  articles,  and  may  be 
said  to  include  every  object  that  can  be  used  in  the  adornment  of  the 
jK-rson  or  of  the  house.  The  jewelry  is  a  notable  feature,  and  several 
rich  exhibits  are  made,  and  are  characterized  by  the  peculiar  loveliness 
and  originality  which  belongs  to  the  metropolis  of  European  civilization. 

The  department  of  engineering  and  architecture  includes  a  series  of 
finely  executed  maps  and  plans  of  the  Suez  Canal,  a  fine  model  of  the  steam- 
ship "Pereire,"  plying  between  New  York  and  Havre,  and  a  number  of 
maps  and  plans  and  finely  illustrated  works  and  reports  upon  subjects 
belonging  to  this  department.  The  collection  of  scientific  and  philoso- 
phical instruments  is  excellent,  and  represents  the  best  work  of  the  best 
makers.  The  musical  instruments  are  chiefly  horns,  flutes,  violins  and 
music-boxes,  though  a  few  pianos  and  parlor  organs  are  included  in  the 
collection. 

Germany. — Like  her  neighbors,  England  and  France,  Germany  has  left 
her  space  unenclosed.  It  lies  on  the  west  side  of  the  central  transept,  and 
extends  from  the  main  aisle  to  the  south  wall  of  the  building,  covering 
a  little  more  than  one-half  the  space  occupied  by  France.  The  display 
is;very  fine,  and  the  cases  in  which  it  is  contained  are  more  varied  than 
those  of  the  other  European  nations. 

The  principal  display,  and  the  most  beautiful  single  exhibit  in  the 
building,  is  made  by  the  Royal  Prussian  Factory,  of  Berlin.  It  stands 
at  the  intersection  of  the  main  aisle  with  the  central  transept.  At  each 
end  of  the  case  is  a  tall  column  of  ebony  and  gold,  surmounted  by  a 
Prussian  eagle  in  gilt.  On  the  shelves  of  the  case,  which  rise  one  above 
the  other,  is  collected  a  rare  and  beautiful  display  of  porcelain.  Vases, 
cups  and  saucers,  plates,  statuettes,  busts,  and  other  articles  of  the  most 
exquisite  shapes,  ornamented  with  the  most  delicate  and  carefully  ex- 
ecuted paintings,  are  gathered  here.  Here  are  also  framed  paintings  on 
flat  plates  of  porcelain,  each  of  which  is  worthy  of  the  most  careful 
study.  At  the  front  line  of  the  collection  stand  three  massive  vases,  its 
master  pieces,  which  are  not  equalled  in  the  Exhibition  for  richness  of 
decoration  or  the  artistic  merit  of  the  paintings  upon  them.  The  Ger- 
man exhibit  is  a  collection  of  all  the  important  industries  of  the  Father- 
land, and  includes  articles  in  daily  use  by  tht  lower  as  well  as  the  upper 
classes. 

Immediately  west  of  the  porcelain  exhibit,  along  the  front  line,  is  a  fine 
display  of  plate-glass,  and  boyond  this  is  the  collective  exhibit  of  the 
German  jewellers.  It  includes  many  objects  of  great  value  and  beauty, 


APPENDIX. 


975 


but  does  not  compete  with  the  exhibit  of  either  the  United  States, 
France,  or  England. 

Going  west  still,  along  the  front  line,  \ve  notice  a  considerable  collection 
of  bronzes,  the  principal  object  of  which  is  a  copy  of  the  monument  to 
Frederick  the  Great  in  Unter  den  Linden  at  Berlin. 

Still  going  west,  along  the  front  line,  we  come  to  the  collective  display 
of  the  toy-makers  of  Nuremberg.  Magdeburg  has  also  a  case  of  toys 
exhibited  through  a  Philadelphia  importer,  who  is  singularly  enou_-li 
named  Doll. 


INTERIOR  OF   THE  MAIN    BUILDING. 


Beyond  the  toys  is  a  fino  display  of  rich  silks  and  satins  of  all  hues, 
and  in  the  next  line  of  cases  Saxony  displays  her  hosiery,  her  yarns,  and 
her  gloves  in  thread,  wool  and  kid.  Still  farther  west,  on  the  front  line, 
is  the  collective  exhibit  of  cloths  made  by  the  manufacturers  of  the  Rhine 
land,  and  beyond  this  Elberfeld  makes  a  collective  exhibit  of  Italian 
cloth  and  tailors'  trimmings.  A  prominent  feature  of  the  Elberfeld 
collection  is  a  case  of.  handsome  prints  illustrative  of  a  new  process  of 
dyeing  goods.  Nuremberg  has  a  spare  on  the  front  line,  just  beyond 
Elberfeld,  in  which  she  shows  a  collection  of  fine  linens  and  damasks. 
Close  by,  Saxony  has  a  similar  collection,  and  that  country  brings  up  the 
rear  of  the  German  line  upon  the  main  aisle  with  an  attractive  exhibit 
of  laces  and  embroidery,  together  with  a  number  of  illustrations  of  the 
process  of  lace  making. 

We  pass  now  from  the  front  line  to  the  aisle  immediately  south  of  it, 


976  APPENDIX. 

and  beginning  at  its  western  end,  work  our  way  eastward  again.  We 
first  notice  some  specimens  of  woven  wire  goods  from  Dresden,  close  by 
which  is  a  handsome  display  of  woollen  articles  from  Berlin.  The  next 
prominent  object  is  a  tall  and  elaborate  ebony  show-case  ornamented  with 
ivory.  It  contains  a  beautiful  exhibit  of  ivory  articles,  showing  the 
different  uses  to  which  that  substance  is  put.  To  the  east  of  this  is  £. 
handsome  case  containing  the  collective  display  of  the  Bavarian  makers 
of  metal-leaf  and  bronze  colors.  A  pyramid  of  printing  inks  stands  at 
the  eastern  end  of  the  aisle,  and  above  and  below  it  two  of  the  Farinas, 
both  hailing  from  the  bad-smelling  city  of  Cologne,  exhibit  their  per- 
fumes. 

Turning  southward,  we  find  a  number  of  cases  along  the  central  tran- 
sept devoted  to  the  collective  exhibit  of  the  German  manufacturing 
chemists.  The  preparations  displayed  are  exceedingly  interesting,  and 
are  among  the  best  of  their  class  in  the  Exhibition. 

Going  wast  from  the  chemicals,  we  notice  a  tall  pagoda  constructed  of 
velvet,  gilt,  and  glass,  containing  a  beautifully  arranged  display  of  bril- 
liant-hued  fabrics  of  cotton-velvet  from  Linden,  in  Hanover.  Opposite 
this  pagoda  is  a  beautiful  collection  of  Berlin  worsteds  and  wools  of  the 
most  exquisite  shades  arranged  in  an  attractive  and  artistic  manner. 

We  have  now  reached  the  western  end  of  the  German  exhibit  once 
more,  and  turning  southward  enter  the  department  of  musical  instruments. 
The  display  of  brass,  reed  and  stringed  instruments  is  quite  large.  Ad- 
joining it  on  the  east  is  a  considerable  exhibit  of  German  pianos.  They 
are  mostly  in  cases  of  ebony,  some  of  which  are  richly  carved.  Two 
makers  exhibit  cabinet  organs,  and  one  a  large  pipe  organ.  Several 
orchestrions  are  also  included  in  the  collection. 

Close  by  are  the  scientific  and  philosophical  instruments,  the  leading 
makers  of  Germany  being  represented.  In  the  rear  of  this,  against  the 
southern  wall,  is  the  collection  of  appliances  illustrating  the  hospital 
system  of  the  German  army.  The  whole  system  of  German  military 
surgery  and  hospital  management  is  well  shown  in  this  little  corner  which 
stands  by  itself. 

Beyond  the  hospital  department  is  a  tower  clock  exhibited  by  a  firm 
from  Hoyerswerda,  in  Upper  Lansitz.  The  bell  is  so  arranged  that  it 
can  be  rung  in  the  usual  style,  and  is  handsomely  chased. 

Adjoining  this  is  the  collective  display  of  the  clock-makers  of 
the  Black  Forest.  Some  of  the  clock  cases  are  finely  carved  and  very 
beautiful. 

To  the  east  of  the  piano  department,  a  Munich  house  exhibits  a  large 
collection  of  church  ornaments  and  figures  of  the  Madonna  and  the  saints. 


APPENDIX.  977 

Eacli  figure  i.<;  gayly  painted,  and  each  is  ticketed  with  its  price  in  true 
business  style. 

Opposite  is  a  fine  display  of  lead  pencils,  crayons  and  colors. 

The  hand.some  pavilion  containing  the  collective  exhibit  of  the  German 
booksellers  stands  at  the  south  side  of  the  German  section,  in  front  of  the 
Cafe  Leland,  and  is  black,  with  ornamental  gilt  lines  and  mouldings. 
The  cases  are  arranged  around  the  outer  walls,  and  upon  entering  through 
either  of  the  four  portals  the  visitor  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  dis- 
play of  books  to  which  the  array  on  the  outer  side  was  but  an  introduc- 
tion. The  exhibit  is  very  extensive  and  very  complete,  and  is  the  only 
thing  in  the  building  that  can  rival  the  display  of  the  American  book 
trade.  All  the  leading  German  publishers  are  represented,  Leipzig  and 
Berlin  contributing  the  greater  part  of  the  collection.  The  collection  is 
miscellaneous  in  its  character. 

The  display  of  leather  goods  is  large  and  excellent.  Leipzig  sends 
some  elegant  furs ;  Stuttgart  many  specimens  of  inlaid  wood  work,  and 
some  fine  furniture  in  ebony  and  oak ;  and  Dresden  some  handsome 
furniture. 

Austria — Hungary. — The  Austrian  section  lies  along  the  main  aisle, 
and  adjoins  that  of  the  German  empire  on  the  west.  Like  the  German 
section  it  is  unenclosed.  It  is  handsome  in  many  respects,  and  much 
resembles  the  display  from  Germany,  but  cannot,  on  the  whole,  be  con- 
sidered a  fair  showing  of  the  great  industries  of  the  Austrian  empire. 
Hungary  is  scarcely  represented  at  all. 

Commencing  at  the  west  end  of  the  front  line  we  notice  a  fine  display 
of  cut  and  stained  glass.  There  are  other  cases  of  fine  glassware  at  other 
points  along  the  front  line,  and  these,  as  is  proper,  are  arranged  as  con- 
spicuously as  possible.  The  glassware  is  mostly  from  Bohemia,  and 
constitutes  one  of  the  largest  portions  of  the  Austrian  exhibit.  It  is 
arranged  on  broad  counters  with  mirror  tops,  and  makes  a  brilliant  and 
attractive  show.  It  is  of  the  finest  and  most  delicate  quality,  and  is 
beautifully  ornamented.  The  colors  are  of  the  rarest  hues,  and  are 
superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  to  be  seen  in  the  building. 

The  next  display  along  the  front  line  is  of  work  in  amber  and  meer- 
schaum. Austria  has  no  rival  in  this  class  of  work.  The  amber  speci- 
mens are  principally  mouth-pieces  for  pipe-stems,  and  the  meerschaum 
work  consists  chiefly  of  ornamental  pipes,  which  are  often  very  artistic 
and  of  great  variety. 

East  of  the  pipes  is  a  handsome  collection  of  porcelain.    It  is  attractive, 
but  cannot  compare  with  the  neighboring  exhibits  in  this  line.     Con- 
tinuing on  our  way  we  notice  sonic  handsome  laces  which  attract  con- 
siderable attention. 
62 


978  APPENDIX. 

This  brings  us  to  the  German  section,  and  we  turn  off  to  the  southward 
and  notice  the  extensive  display  of  gloves  of  kid  and  leather  which  come 
principally  from  Prague.  Close  by  are  the  displays  of  the  Vienna  manu- 
facturers of  articles  in  Russia  leather.  Another  specialty  of  Viennese 
industry  is  the  manufacture  of  dress  buttons,  and  these  are  extensively 
and  handsomely  shown  here.  The  display  of  cloths  is  principally  from 
Moravia,  and  is  well  worth  examination,  but  does- not  fairly  represent  the 
great  Moravian  industry.  The  silk-weavers  of  Vienna  have  a  large  and 
handsome  exhibit,  tastefully  arranged  in  rich  cases  of  ebony  and  gold. 
The  exhibit  of  jewelry  is  small,  but  contains  some  beautiful  ornaments 
and  some  fine  precious  stones.  A  Vienna  house  shows  some  pretty  orna- 
ments of  mother-of-pearl,  and  one  from  Prague  some  splendid  garnets. 
In  the  furniture  department  there  are  a  number  of  iron  sets  worthy  of 
notice.  The  display  of  musical  instruments  is  large  and  showy ;  and  the 
scientific  and  philosophical  instrument  makers  make  a  creditable  exhibit. 
The  carpets  shown  do  not  compare  with  either  England,  France  or  the 
United  States,  but  are  very  good. 

A  considerable  section  is  devoted  to  a  display  of  books,  paper,  litho- 
graphs, and  photographs.  The  principal  feature  of  this  is  the  collective 
exhibit  of  engineering  and  architectural  photographs,  models,  designs, 
and  reports. 

Italy. — The  Italian  section  occupies  the  west  end  of  the  Main  Building, 
and  lies  north  of  the  main  aisle.  The  space  is  enclosed  with  a  light  frame- 
work, with  three  tasteful  arches  fronting  on  the  main  aisle.  Over  the 
central  arch  rises  a  shield  bearing  the  white  cross  of  Savoy  surmounted 
by  a  trophy  of  national  flags,  and  above  each  of  the  other  arches  is  a 
shield  with  the  arms  of  the  kingdom  and  a  trophy  of  flags. 

Entering  the  enclosure  we  notice  first  a  collection  of  fine  bronzes,  some 
of  which  are  half  life-size,  and  are  reproductions  of  ancient  works  of 
art.  Beside  them  is  a  considerable  display  of  furniture.  Some  of  the 
pieces  are  heavy  and  elaborately  carved.  Venice  has  a  case  of  cherubs 
carved  in  wood,  which  are  very  pretty.  Milan  has  a  number  of 
inlaid  tables,  ornamented  with  exquisite  pictures  in  papier-mache. 
One  of  these  represents  the  Milan  Cathedral,  and  another  St.  Mark's,  at 
Venice. 

The  exhibit  of  jewelry  is  not  large,  but  contains  many  handsome  and 
valuable  objects.  Pio  Siotto,  of  Rome,  exhibits  a  case  of  cameos,  show- 
ing the  various  stages  of  cameo-cutting,  from  the  shell  to  the  completed 
gem.  In  this  collection  are  some  of  the  finest  cameos  in  the  Italian 
exhibit. 

Venice  sends  a  number  of  exquisite  specimens  of  her  glassware,  and 


APPENDIX.  979 

also  some  beautiful  mosaics  and  corals.  A  prominent  feature  of  this  col- 
lection consists  of  the  handsome  mirrors  of  all  sizes,  which  are  in  the  best 
style  of  Venetian  workmanship.  There  is  a  pretty  exhibit  of  pottery  and 
majolica  ware.  It  is  not  very  large,  but  is  very  attractive.  Alongside 
of  it  are  a  number  of  statues,  statuettes  and  busts  in  terra  cotta  and 
baked  clay. 

Milan,  Modena,  Turin,  Rome,  Palermo  and  Lucca,  send  a  fine  collec- 
tion of  raw  and  spun  silks  and  silk  goods,  and  Tuscany  sends  a  creditable 
display  of  her  world-renowned  straw  goods. 

A  conspicuous  object  near  the  centre  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  Italian 
section  is  a  large  bell  made  in  Venice  and  delicately  chased.  A  good 
showing  is  made  of  musical  instruments.  Italy  also  sends  a  fair  contri- 
bution of  the  plainer  and  more  necessary  articles  of  household  use,  show- 
ing that  her  genius  is  being  directed  towards  the  more  prosaic  as  well  as 
to  the  fine  arts. 

Along  the  northern  end  the  photographers  make  their  display,  exhibit- 
ing, among  other  pictures,  a  number  of  rich  "moonlight  effects." 

Belgium,  the  busiest  country  in  Europe,  is  well  represented  in  the 
Exhibition.  The  Belgian  section  lies  immediately  west  of  the  Brazilian 
court,  and  north  of  the  main  aisle.  Along  the  front  line  the  glass-makers 
have  the  post  of  honor.  A  number  of  cases  are  filled  with  handsome 
specimens  of  plate  and  colored  glass,  and  several  immense  oval  and  rec- 
tangular mirrors  stand  towering  to  the  ceiling  at  the  very  front  of  the 
section. 

At  the  western  end  of  the  front  line  stands  a  large  wooden  pulpit 
elaborately  and  beautifully  carved  with  scenes  in  the  life  of  the  Saviour 
and  figures  of  the  saints. 

Back  of  the  front  line  we  enter  a  region  devoted  to  cloths  and  woollen 
fabrics,  of  which  a  large  and  excellent  exhibit  is  made.  Close  by  are  the 
ebony  and  gilt  cases  filled  with  snowy  linens  from  Brussels.  The  skill 
and  artistic  taste  of  the  Belgian  wood-carvers  is  shown  in  a  collection  of 
carved  furniture  and  a  massive  mantelpiece,  and  in  some  excellent  statues 
of  this  material. 

Belgium  is  largely  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  fire-arms,  and  con- 
sequently her  display  in  this  department  is  extensive  and  valuable. 

Near  the  centre  of  her  section  Belgium  displays  a  model  of  one  of  her 
public  schools.  The  building  is  about  twenty  feet  in  height,  is  con- 
structed of  native  pine,  and  is  divided  into  several  apartments.  The 
school  is  admirably  arranged,  and  gives  one  a  clear  and  comprehensive 
understanding  of  the  system  of  primary  education  in  Belgium. 

Close  by  the  school-house  are  some  marble  mantels  of  beautiful  work- 


980  APPENDIX. 

manship.  They  arc  in  both  white  and  colored  marble.  We  notice  here, 
also,  a  number  of  marble  slabs,  on  which  some  curious  landscapes  and 
figures  are  etched  with  aqua-fortis. 

A  fine  display  is  made  of  articles  of  embossed  leather,  a  number  of 
paintings  upon  wood,  jewelry,  priests'  vestments  of  cloth  of  gold  em- 
broidered with  silk,  and  fancy  articles. 

A  small  court  is  formed  of  the  cases  containing  the  laces  of  Brussels 
and  Mecklin.  The  display  is  large  and  magnificent,  and  excels  anything 
of  the  kind  in  the  building.  The  fabrics  are  of  an  infinite  variety  in 
form  and  texture,  and  range  from  the  most  delicate  laces  to  curtains  heavy 
with  embroideries. 

An  excellent  display  of  books  and  scientific  and  philosophical  apparatus 
is  made,  and  musical  instruments  form  a  small  part  of  the  exhibit  of  the 
"  republican  kingdom." 

The  iron  and  steel  exhibit  is  not  entirely  satisfactory.  It  consists  of  a 
few  car-wheels,  a  small  display  of  bar-iron,  and  principally  of  small 
sections  of  rail  bars,  steel  ingots,  and  iron  girders  for  bridges. 

An  exhibit  is  made,  close  by  the  iron,  of  liquors  and  cordials  manu- 
factured in  the  kingdom. 

At  the  upper  end  of  the  section  are  a  number  of  beautiful  tapestries 
from  Malines,  equal  in  beauty  and  workmanship  to  those  we  have  noticed 
in  our  account  of  the  French  exhibit.  One  of  them  is  a  portrait  of 
Rubens;  another  a  portrait  of  Cousin  in  Arabian  costume;  and  a  third  a 
full-length  painting  in  the  style  of  Louis  XVI.  Eight  panels,  grouped 
together,  represent  the  eight  gods  of  Olympus,  with  all  their  attributes. 

The  Netherlands. — The  Dutch  section  lies  on  the  north  side  of  the  main 
aisle,  between  the  Brazilian  and  Mexican  courts.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
ornamental  in  the  building,  and  is  enclosed  with  a  light  arched  frame- 
work, painted  in  cream-color  and  gold,  and  hung  with  heavily  draped 
curtains  of  maroon-colored  velvet.  There  are  three  entrances  in  the  front 
line  and  several  at  the  sides. 

In  the  section  devoted  to  the  department  of  public  works  a  number  of 
finely  executed  plans,  models  and  photographs  are  shown,  from  which  one 
can  learn  how  the  work  of  reclaiming  land  from  the  ocean  is  carried  on, 
and  the  system  by  which  the  little  kingdom  is  protected  from  the  inroads  of 
the  sea.  Models  are  exhibited  which  show  at  a  glance  the  change  t/hat 
has  been  made  in  the  surface  of  the  kingdom.  The  docks,  railroads, 
bridges  and  other  public  works  of  the  kingdom  are  shown  by  a  series  of 
photographs,  drawings  and  models. 

Passing  out  of  the  department  of  public  works  into  the  general  exhibit 
of  the  kingdom,  we  notice  near  the  entrance  some  beautiful  specimens  of 


APPENDIX.  981 

inlaid  furniture.  One  of  these  is  a  screen  decorated  with  scenes  from 
Faust,  in  papier-mache. 

Delft  sends  a  fine  collection  of  carpets  woven  each  in  a  single  piece,  in 
imitation  of  the  Smyrna  carpets,  and  softer,  thicker  and  richer  in  color 
than  those  famous  fabrics.  Alongside  of  these  is  a  collection  of  fine 
blankets,  some  of  which  are  nearly  an  inch  in  thickness,  and  all  as  soft 
and  delicate  as  down.  With  them  are  displayed  coverlets,  thickly  wadded 
and  delicately  quilted,  which  are  the  housewife's  delight.  The  display 
of  woollen  and  cotton  cloths,  of  mattings  and  nettings,  is  also  exception- 
ally good.  Jute  goods  form  a  specialty  of  this  collection. 

The  Dutch  army  exhibits  samples  of  the  fire-arms  used  by  it.  A  col- 
lectio.i  of  tiles  and  oil  cloths  is  also  shown,  in  which  the  different  marbles 
and  woods  are  perfectly  imitated. 

The  agricultural  system  of  the  kingdom  is  displayed  by  the  exhibition 
of  a  model  farm  in  miniature.  It  is  no  doubt  well  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  country,  but  shows  few  details  that  our  own  farmers  will  care  to 
copy.  A  number  of  models  of  Dutch  houses  are  exhibited,  among 
which  is  the  model  of  an  eating-house,  showing  the  whole  interior 
arrangement. 

A  special  pavilion  is  used  for  the  exhibit  of  the  Dutch  publishers. 
Here  are  to  be  seen  a  number  of  fine  illustrated  works. 

The  exhibit  of  school  apparatus,  text-books,  desks,  maps,  etc.,  is 
admirable,  and  shows  what  good  work  Holland  is  doing  in  the  cause  of 
knowledge. 

The  colonial  department  is  exceedingly  interesting  and  very  complete. 
All  the  colonies  are  represented,  and  the  products  of  each  are  shown.  The 
collection  includes  grains,  woods,  barks,  fruits,  oils,  metals  and  other 
minerals  in  great  abundance.  The  weapons  and  clothing  of  the  native 
tribes  are  also  shown,  and  include  curious  filigrees  and  some  rich  silks  and 
embroideries  and  silver  cloths.  The  principal  display  is  from  Java,  and 
the  cinchona  trade  of  that  colony  is  illustrated  profusely  by  means  of 
photographs,  specimens  of  bark,  leaves,  etc.  Coffee  forms  a  large  part  of 
the  exhibit. 

Switzerland. — The  Swiss  section  lies  on  the  north  side  of  the  main 
aisle,  between  France  and  Belgium.  On  the  front  line  is  arranged  a 
large  collection  of  watches,  the  most  important  article  of  the  Swiss  export 
trade.  Nearly  all  the  leading  makers  are  represented,  and  back  of  these 
cases  are  displayed  the  tools  by  which  the  watches  are  made.  A  number 
of  clocks,  including  a  large  electrical  clock,  form  a  part  of  this  exhibit. 
Musical  boxes  and  mathematical,  scientific  and  philosophical  instruments 
come  next,  and  the  display  of  these  is  excellent  and  extensive.  They  are 


982 


APPENDIX. 


of  the  finest  quality,  the  Swiss  being  as  proficient  in  the  manufacture  of 
them  as  they  are  in  the  making  of  watches. 

Back  of  this  line  is  a  large  pavilion,  the  entrance  to  which  is  through 
an  archway  in  the  front.  On  one  side  of  the  arch  is  a  splendid  map  of 
the  geological  survey  of  Switzerland,  and  on  the  other  a  fine  geographical 
map,  each  richly  worthy  of  study.  The  pavilion  is  devoted  to  an  exhibi- 
tion of  the  educational  system  of  Switzerland,  and  consists  of  charts, 
models  and  apparatus  used  in  the  system  of  object-teaching.  Drawings, 
text-books  and  specimens  of  the  pupils'  work  in  the  common  schools  are 
also  shown.  The  Swiss  publishers  make  their  exhibit  here,  and  in  this 
pavilion  are  displayed  fine  photographs  of  scenery  and  of  the  cities  and 


EASTERN   ENTRANCE  TO  THE   SWEDISH   COURT. 

public  works  of  Switzerland.  One  of  the  most  notable  features  of  the 
Swiss  exhibit  is  the  display  of  embroidered  lace  curtains  from  the  canton 
of  St.  Gall.  These  curtains  are  made  by  hand  ;  the  patterns  are  rich  and 
artistic,  the  workmanship  of  the  finest  quality,  and  the  completed  fabric 
constitutes  a  genuine  work  of  art.  A  large  exhibit  is  made  of  coarse 
woollen  goods  for  peasant  wear,  and  some  good  silks  and  fine  straw  work 
are  shown.  The  wood-carvers,  who  are  so  numerous  in  Switzerland  and 
R»  famous  for  their  skill,  make  a  large  and  attractive  display. 

Sweden. — The  Swedish  court  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  main 
aisle,  to  the  west  of  the  space  occupied  by  the  British  colonies.  It  is 
enclosed  along  the  sides,  but  the  front  is  open  and  is  marked  merely  by  & 
series  of  tall,  ornamental  flag-staffs,  bearing  banners  of  blue  with  the 
Swedish  cross  in  yellow.  Festoons  of  blue  and  yellow  streamers  are 


APPENDIX.  983 

suspended  between  the  flag-staffs,  and  give  to  the  entrance  a  light  and 
graceful  appearance. 

Six  groups  of  figures  are  placed  at  the  sides  of  the  entrances  to  the 
court,  illustrating  some  of  the  habits  and  the  dress  of  the  peasantry.  The 
.  igures  in  all  the  groups  are  life-size,  and  are  clad  in  the  national  dress 
jf  the  classes  they  represent.  The  faces  preserve  the  characteristics  of 
each  class. 

The  Swedish  exhibit  is  one  of  the  most  complete  and  tastefully  ar- 
ranged in  the  Exhibition. 

At  the  entrance  stands  a  rich  display  of  beautiful  porcelain.  The 
articles  are  delicate  and  the  tints  exquisite.  Floral  decorations  are  much 
used  in  these,  and  with  more  than  ordinary  taste.  The  exhibit  of 
pottery  and  glassware  is  also  attractive.  Furs  and  leather  goods  form  a 
considerable  and  interesting  part  of  the  display. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  features  of  the  Swedish  collection  is  the 
exhibit  of  Bessemer  steel,  in  which  the  principal  part  is  taken  by  the 
Sandvik  &  Fagaster  works.  The  articles  exhibited  cover  a  wide  range. 
The  largest  is  a  piston-rod  fifteen  feet  in  length,  for  a  five-ton  steam 
hammer,  and  the  smallest  a  delicately-polished  hand-mirror  for  a  lady's 
toilette-table.  The  workmanship  in  all  these  articles  is  masterly.  The 
remarkable  bending  power  of  the  Bessemer  steel  under  a  great  strain 
is  shown  by  a  railway  axle  five  inches  in  diameter,  double  cold,  which 
was  bent  under  a  fifteen-ton  hammer. 

Match-making  is  a  prominent  industry  in  Sweden,  and  is  represented 
by  an  extensive  display  of  safety  matches  from  Johnkoping. 

The  educational  exhibit  is  well  arranged,  and  a  number  of  illustrated 
works  are  shown  as  specimens  of  Swedish  printing.  A  fine  map  of  the 
geological  survey  of  the  kingdom  and  a  large  topographical  map  are 
included  in  this  display.  The  woollen  manufactures  of  the  kingdom 
make  a  fair  exhibit,  and  the  show  of  silks  is  especially  good. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle,  diagonally  opposite  her  principal 
exhibit,  Sweden  has  an  additional  space,  between  the  Japanese  and 
Danish  sections,  in  which  she  displays  her  military  equipment.  Here 
are  several  wax  figures  showing  the  costume  of  her  men-at-arms  in  the 
time  of  the  great  Gustavus,  and  the  .uniforms  of  the  officers  of  several 
branches  of  her  service  at  the  present  time.  Here  are  exhibited  samples 
of  the  cannon  and  small  arms  used  in  the  Swedish  army,  and  the  equip- 
ments of  the  artillery  and  hospital  services.  In  the  rear  of  the  military 
exhibit  she  displays  specimens  of  the  work  of  the  pupils  of  her  technical 
schools,  and  illustrates  in  a  happy  manner  the  admirable  operations  oj 
these  establishments. 


384  APPENDIX. 

Norway. — The  Norwegian  court  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the 
main  aisle  between  the  Swedish  and  Italian  sections.  The  space  is 
enclosed  by  a  handsome  framework  of  native  pine  ornamented  with  red 
lines.  Over  the  entrance  from  the  main  aisle  is  the  name  "  Norway," 
and  a  trophy  formed  of  the  national  arms  and  colors. 

At  the  front,  immediately  within  the  enclosure,  are  three  handsome 
cases  containing  a  fine  display  of  jewelry  and  silverware.  Here  are  some 
beautiful  specimens  of  filigree- work  from  Christiana,  which  would  not 
shame  Venice  itself. 

Immediately  back  of  these  .cases  are  two  groups  of  figures  similar  to 
those  in  the  Swedish  court.  Back  of  these  figures  is  a  small  but  beauti- 
ful collection  of  glassware  from  Christiana.  Adjoining  it  Norway 
exhibits  several  home-made  pianos,  and  then  comes  an  exhibit  of  cloths, 
both  cotton  and  woollen,  cordage,  threads  and  skins.  There  is  also  a  case 
of  fine  shoes,  another  of  silverware,  another  of  ancient  coins  and  medals, 
and  an  imposing  display  of  cod-liver  oil.  Specimens  of  ancient  armor 
and  weapons  form  a  most  interesting  exhibit,  and  contrast  strikingly  with 
the  handsomely-carved  modern  furniture  which  stands  near  them.  The 
iron  manufacturers  make  a  large  and  interesting  exhibit,  showing  both 
the  ores  and  the  manufactured  iron  in  various  forms.  A  large  case  of 
silver  ingots  stands  near  by,  and  opposite  are  several  queer  little  Nor- 
wegian carriages,  each  with  a  perch  behind  in  which  the  postilion  sits, 
and  sometimes  stands,  to  drive.  A  model  of  a  Norwegian  school  is  shown, 
with  books  and  apparatus  illustrating  the  mode  and  course  of  tuition,  and 
a  map  of  the  geological  survey  of  the  kingdom  is  close  by. 

Denmark. — The  Danish  section  lies  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle, 
immediately  west  of  the  Turkish  court,  and  is  enclosed  by  a  triple  court. 
The  entrance  to  the  first  court  consists  of  a  triumphal  arch  richly  decor- 
ated. The  pavilions  are  draped  with  warm  red  curtains,  which  give  to 
them  a  rich  effect. 

The  front  or  northern  court  is  devoted  to  a  display  of  Etruscan  imita- 
tions in  terra  cotta.  These  are  exquisite  works,  and  are  generally  admired. 
Here  also  is  a  fine  collection  of  silverware  by  a  Copenhagen  silversmith. 
The  principal  object  is  a  large  vase  of  solid  silver  valued  at  $4290  gold 
and  the  duty.  The  vase  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  the  building. 

o 

In  the  central  court  some  handsome  furniture  made  of  the  wood  of  i 
pear  tree  is  exhibited.  Here  is  shown  a  collection  of  Esquimaux  clothing, 
and  in  the  southern  court  is  a  model  of  an  Esquimaux  house  and  an 
Esquimaux  boat,  all  from  Greenland.  The  exhibit  includes  specimens 
of  the  woollen  manufactures  of  Denmark,  a  collection  of  furs  and  skins, 
chemicals,  geographical  charts,  and  native  Danish  woods. 


APPENDIX. 


985 


Spain. — The  Spanish  section  extends  from  the  main  aisle  to  the  south 
wall  of  the  building,  and  adjoins  the  Egyptian  court  on  the  east.  It  is 
enclosed  by  an  elaborately  ornamented  wall  finished  in  imitation  of  gran- 
ite, with  two  tall  archways  on  each  side.  The  fa9ade  which  stands  upon 
the  main  aisle  is  one  of  the  most  imposing  structures  in  the  building.  A 
triple  arch  painted  in  imitation  of  porphyry  supports  a  heavy  entablature 
which  is  decorated  with  shields  emblazoned  with  the  arms  of  all  the 
Spanish  provinces,  with  the  arms  of  the  kingdom  over  the  central  arch. 
Standards  and  trophies  of  the  national  colors  complete  the  ornamentation 
of  the  top  of  the  structure.  The  arches  are  hung  with  rich  curtains  of 


ENTRANCE  TO   THE  SPANISH   COUBT. 

velvet.  The  \vord  "  Espana  "  is  blazoned  across  the  entablature  in  gilt 
capitals. 

In  the  show-cases  at  the  sides  of  the  central  portal  are  rich  specimens 
of  silver  and  gold  work,  and  ornamental  work  in  iron  and  steel,  with 
fragments  of  armor  and  photographs  of  the  government  museums  of 
ancient  armor.  In  the  show-cases  built  in  the  walls  of  the  court  are 
specimens  of  the  mineral  ores  of  the  kingdom,  silver,  copper,  lead,  iron 
and  coal,  and  samples  of  Spanish  marbles,  all  admirably  arranged.  , 

The  woollen,  cotton  and  silk  fabrics  displayed  here  arc  attractive  as  a 
rule,  and  many  of  them  very  elegant.  A  sumptuous  exhibit  is  made  of 
tapestries,  velvets,  brocades,  laces,  shawls,  scarfs  and  light  dress  goods. 
They  are  distinct  from  those  of  either  France  or  Belgium,  and  the 
elegance  and  beauty  which  characterize  them  are  peculiarly  their  own. 


986  APPENDIX. 

A  considerable  display  is  made  of  glassware  and  pottery  of  excellent 
qualities,  and  the  painted  porcelain  tiles  in  this  group  are  noticeably  well 
executed.  Chemicals  are  also  exhibited  in  great  abundance  and  variety; 
and  marbles,  building  stones,  and  large  blocks  of  coal  show  that  this 
branch  of  the  wealth  of  the  kingdom  is  still  vigorous  after  so  many 
centuries  have  dawned  upon  it.  There  are  a  number  of  specimens  of 
arms,  works  in  metal  and  inlaid  work,  the  principal  display  being  made 
by  the  province  of  Catalonia,  the  people  of  which  are  the  most  enter- 
prising of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula.  Hats,  shoes,  fine  woollen 
blankets,  articles  of  wearing  apparel  and  carpets  are  also  shown. 

Egypt. — The  Egyptian  court  stands  south  of  the  main  aisle  and  to  the 
east  of  the  Danish  section.  It  is  enclosed  by  a  high  wooden  structure 
resfimbling  an  ancient  temple  of  the  land  of  the  Nile,  and  the  facade  is 
massive  and  attractive.  It  is  painted  in  imitation  of  stone,  and  resembles 
the  portal  of  a  temple.  Upon  the  sides  of  the  entrance  are  inscribed  the 
words :  "  Egypt — Soodan — the  oldest  people  of  the  world  sends  its  morn- 
ing greeting  to  the  youngest  nation." 

As  you  enter,  you  notice  on  your  right  a  small  model  «f  the  great 
Pyramid  of  Gizeh,  and  opposite  this  is  a  plaster  head  of  Rameses  II.,  who 
is  declared  by  all  the  great  masters  of  Egyptian  science  and  history  to  be 
the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  the  new  king  which  knew  not  Joseph.  Around 
the  walls  of  the  court  are  hung  plain  and  colored  photographs  and  draw- 
ings of  places  and  scenery  in  Egypt. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  court  is  a  case  containing  magnificent  saddles 
and  furniture  for  horses.  These  were  formerly  used  by  the  pashas  of 
Egypt,  and  are  now  the  property  of  the  Khedive.  They  are  used  only 
upon  occasions  of  the  greatest  ceremony.  Their  hangings  are  of  crimson 
velvet,  covered  with  heavy  embroideries  of  gold.  The  harness  and 
trappings  are  of  pure  bullion,  and  are  heavy  and  costly. 

A  fine  exhibit  is  made  of  oriental  and  drawing-room  furniture,  a 
prominent  object  of  which  is  a  cabinet  of  ebony  beautifully  inlaid  with 
ivory  and  mother-of-pearl,  the  designs  being  in  imitation  of  those  in  the 
ancient  mosques.  The  display  of  ornaments  for  the  household  and 
person  is  very  rich,  and  includes  a  large  quantity  of  jewelry,  precious 
stones,  work  in  iron  and  copper,  both  ancient  and  modern ;  fancy  articles 
dress  adornments,  fans,  walking-canes,  sun-shades,  and  pipes  of  ever} 
description,  many  of  which  are  ornamented  with  jewels. 

Two  large  cases  contain  a  collection  of  stuffs  woven  of  silk  and  gold 
and  silver  thread.  These  are  of  the  most  gorgeous  and  brilliant  character, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  convey  in  words  an  accurate  idea  of  them. 

Between  these  cases  lies  stretched  at  full  length  a  large  crocodile  oi 
the  Nile. 


APPENDIX. 


987 


Close  by  are  a  number  of  dromedary  saddles;  and  near  these  a  number 
of  specimens  of  red  pottery-ware.  There  are  cases  of  beautiful  and  curious 
Arabic  books  and  manuscripts,  some  of  them  bound  in  covers  of  velvet, 
embroidered  with  gold  thread.  Articles  of  ivory,  horn,  and  metal  for 
household  use  are  shown,  and  a  number  of  native  musical  instruments. 
rJne  of  the  rear  courts  contains  a  fine  exhibit  of  Egypt's  chemical  products. 
A  good  display  of  porcelain  and  table-ware  of  solid  gold  is  made. 

We  next  notice  an  exhibit  of  silk  and  silken  fabrics,  an  industry  which 
is  carried  on  upon  a  large  scale  in  Egypt,  A  prominent  feature  is  a 
display  of  coc9ons,  arranged  in  neat  patterns  according  to  tints. 

The  rugs  and  carpets  of  Egyptian  manufacture  form  an  interesting  part 
of  the  exhibit,  and  will  compare  well  with  those  of  Turkey. 


ENTRANCE  TO  THE   EGYPTIAN  COURT. 


The  Khedive  makes  a  collective  exhibit  of  over  two  thousand  samples 
of  native  cotton,  representing  the  crops  of  eight  years. 

A  collection  of  photographs  exhibits  the  Egyptian  system  of  public 
works,  bridges,  railroads,  etc.,  and  is  of  great  interest  and  value.  The 
nigar,  leather,  gums,  barks,  nuts,  wheat  and  other  grains  and  the  grasses 
if  Egypt  are  shown  by  numerous  well-arranged  samples.  A  large  col- 
lection is  shown  of  the  rude  arms  and  armor,  the  rough  wooden  sandal-, 
the  hats  woven  of  reeds,  the  noisy  tomtoms,  and  a  barbaric  canopy  for  the 
chief  or  monarch  of  the  tribes  of  Soudan  in  Central  Africa.  The  educa- 
tional system  pursued  in  the  schools  established  by  the  Khedive  is  shown 
by  a  collection  of  Arabic  text-books  and  mechanical  instruments  executed 
by  the  pupils  of  the  Polytechnic  School  at  Cairo. 


988  APPENDIX. 

Japan. — The  Japanese  section  is  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle, 
east  of  the  Chinese  court,  and  immediately  opposite  the  Swedish  section. 
It  is  enclosed  with  a  light  bamboo  framework,  and  is  ornamented  with  a 
profuse  display  of  Japanese  flags. 

Just  within  the  entrance  from  the  main  aisle  is  a  display  of  superb 
Dronzes  and  cf  porcelain  ware.  A  number  of  bronze  vases  are  included 
in  this  collection.  They  are  of  beautiful  shapes,  and  are  ornamented  with 
such  a  profusion  of  engraving  and  chasing — the  conceptions  of  which  are 
so  droll  and  intricate — that  a  photograph  would  be  necessary  to  give  an 
accurate  idea  of  them.  The  work  is  unique  and  cannot  be  reproduced  by 
the  most  skilful  artificer  in  either  Europe  or  America.  The  cheaper 
vases  are  cast,  but  the  more  elaborate  ones  are  worked  out  with  the  hand. 
The  art  is  peculiar  to  Japan,  and  has  flourished  there  for  several  centuries. 
It  is  carried  on  in  sixteen  different  places  in  the  empire. 

The  porcelains  of  the  Japanese  department  are  fully  equal  to  the  bronzes. 
This  is  an  old  art,  and  attained  perfection  in  Japan  long  before  it  was 
known  in  Europe.  The  Japanese  designate  their  works  of  this  kind  by 
the  names  of  the  cities  in  which  they  were  manufactured,  or  by  the 
peculiarities  of  manufacture  or  decoration.  The  display  of  porcelains  in 
this  single  department  surpasses  in  beauty  of  forms  and  ornamentation  the 
combined  exhibit  of  every  other  nation  in  the  building. 

The  display  of  lacquered  ware  is. immense,  and  one  of  the  marvels  of 
the  Exhibition.  The  manufacture  of  this  ware  is  a  specialty  in  Japan, 
and  has  attained  perfection.  The  articles  displayed  here  range  from  the 
tiniest  trays,  which  may  be  bought  for  about  fifty  cents,  to  large  and 
costly  cabinets.  The  gem  of  the  collection  is  a  cabinet  said  to  be  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  old,  which  is  as  exquisitely  beautiful  and  as  free 
from  signs  of  wear  as  on  the  day  it  came  from  its  maker's  hands.  It  is 
valued  at  $5000.  There  are  some  curious  vases  made  of  elephants'  tusks 
ornamented  with  lacquered  work,  and  some  other  fine  work  in  ivory. 

The  inlaid  work  is  very  fine,  and  a  large  collection  of  cabinets,  work- 
boxes  and  European  furniture  ornamented  in  this  manner  is  shown. 
These  articles  are  not  as  expensive  as  the  lacquered  wares,  but  equal  them 
in  beauty  and  delicacy  of  finish.  A  considerable  display  is  made  of  richly 
carved  furniture,  wood-carving  being  an  art  in  which  the  Japanese  excel. 

Going  southward  we  come  now  to  the  display  of  screens.  These  are 
of  silk  on  light  frames,  and  are  painted  and  embroidered  with  scenes  in 
the  daily  life  of  the  people.  The  outlines  of  the  figures  and  the  landscapes 
are  painted,  and  the  costumes,  faces,  animals,  and  houses,  etc.,  are  worked 
out  in  relief  with  embroidery.  One  may  find  in  these  screens  abundant 
means  for  a  study  of  Japanese  life  and  manners. 


APPENDIX. 


989 


A  fine  collection  of  rich  silks  and  embroideries  is  shown,  one  exhibit 
from  Yokohama  being  superb.  Cotton  and  woollen  goods  are  exhibited 
of  an  admirable  quality.  Samples  of  matting,  which  is  largely  manu- 
factured in  Japan,  are  also  to  be  seen.  Specimens  of  the  papers  made  in 
the  empire,  the  leathers,  the  inks,  and  the  coloring  materials  of  Japan  are 
shown,  as  are  also  samples  of  the  woods,  grains,  and  grasses  of  the 
country.  The  mineral  products  are  also  shown  by  numerous  specimens, 
and  the  native  animals  and  birds  are  treated  in  the  same  way. 

Immediately  behind  it  is  an  enclosure  in  which  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment exhibits  its  educational  system.  Here  are  models  of  the  desks  and 
school  apparatus  used,  the  work  of  the  pupils,  the  text-books,  philosoph- 
ical instruments,  and  photographs  and  colored  sketches  of  the  principal 
schools.  Compositions  by  the  pupils  in  English,  French,  German,  and 
Japanese  are  shown,  and  one  is  made  fairly  acquainted  with  the  progress 
made  by  the  empire  in  its  effort  to  introduce  the  learning  and  civilization 
of  Europe. 

China. — The  Chinese  section  is  not  quite  half  as  large  as  that  of  Japan, 
and  lies  immediately  west  of  it  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle,  extend- 
ing buck  to  the  south  wall  of  the  building.  It  is  enclosed  by  a  pavilion, 
the  entrance  to  which  is  a  copy  of  the  portal  of  a  celestial  pagoda,  gaudily 
painted  and  ornamented  with  hideous  curled-up  dragons,  which,  though 
ugly,  are  well  carved. 

Every  part  of  the  enclosure  is  of  the  gaudiest  character,  and  here  and 
there  rise  tall  pagodas  and  towers  ornamented  with  the  most  brilliant 
colors.  At  the  front  entrance  is  a  collection  of  fine  vases  of  exquisite 
China  ware,  and  opposite  these  a  row  of  screens  of  the  finest  silk,  covered 
with  designs  in  embroidery,  and  having  richly  carved  frames.  Close  by 
these,  begins  the  display  of  inlaid  tables  and  stands  and  other  articles  of 
household  use  which  runs  through  the  whole  exhibit. 

Just  within  the  enclosure  is  a  tall  show-case  in  the  form  of  a  pagoda,  in 
which  are  displayed  some  superb  silks,  gold  cloths  and  embroideries.  The 
silks  are  of  the  most  delicate  shades  of  color,  and  are  of  the  finest  quality. 

There  is  a  large  exhibit  of  carved  furniture,  all  in  the  Chinese  style. 
The  carvings  are  both  artistic  in  design  and  well  executed. 

The  display  of  porcelain  and  pottery  is  large  and  handsome,  and  fully 
sustains  the  reputation  of  the  celestials  for  skill  in  this  branch  of  their 
industry.  The  lacquered  wares  shown  are  also  very  beautiful,  but  are 
not  equal  to  those  in  the  Japanese  collection.  The  bronzes,  many  of 
which  are  old  and  curious,  make  up  an  extensive  and  interesting  collec- 
tion, and  there  is  also  an  exhibit  of  rare  old  Chino.se  coins. 

A  tall  pagoda  or  joss-house,  in  imitation  of  such  buildings  in  China, 


900  APPENDIX. 

forms  a  conspicuous  part  of  the  display.  Near  it  are  some  fine  porcelain 
tiles  ornamented  with  queer  Chinese  figures.  Cotton  and  hemp  cloths, 
and  cotton  prints,  stockings,  Chinese  shoes,  hats,  articles  of  clothing; 
fancy  leather  work,  trunks  and  toilette-- boxes,  and  samples  of  native  paper, 
musical  instruments,  minerals,  specimens  of  native  woods,  wines,  grains, 
flour,  honey,  wax,  cotton,  hemp,  wool  and  hair  make  up  a  large  and 
interesting  exhibit. 

The  Orange  Free  State. — The  Orange  Free  State  is  a  Dutch  republic 
situated  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Africa.  Its  section  in  the  Exhibition 
hall  lies  back  of  the  Peruvian  court,  in  the  southwestern  corner  of  the 
building.  It  is  enclosed  by  a  handsome  pavilion  decorated  with  the 
national  colors  of  white  and  yellow,  and  red,  white  and  blue  streamers. 

The  exhibit  is  entirely  governmental,  and  is  handsomely  and  com- 
pactly arranged,  rendering  the  little  court  one  of  the  brightest  and  most 
pleasing  nooks  of  the  "  great  show."  The  design  is  to  show  the  resources, 
products  and  natural  wealth  of  the  country.  Specimens  of  minerals, 
grains,  leather  and  skins,  and  samples  of  mohair,  native  woods,  specimens 
of  coal,  and  samples  cf  wool  make  up  the  principal  part  of  the  exhibit. 
Cases  of  stuffed  birds  of  rare  and  beautiful  plumage,  and  collections  of 
insects  are  placed  at  various  points  in  the  court,  and  a  number  of  superb 
ostrich  plumes  are  exhibited.  An  interesting  feature  is  a  case  of  the  cream 
tartar  fruit.  There  are  also  to  be  seen  specimens  of  ivory,  including  two 
enormous  elephant  tusks,  and  a  collection  of  pipes  and  other  articles  of 
native  manufacture. 

Tunis. — The  Tunisian  court  stands  in  the  rear  of  the  Danish  and 
Turkish  sections  on  the  south  side  of  the  building.  It  is  small,  but  is 
brilliantly  ornamented,  the  principal  structure  being  a  large  show-case  at 
the  rear  end  of  the  court  on  which  the  goods  are  arranged.  The  exhibit 
is  largely  the  property  of  the  Bey  of  Tunis.  His  Highness  exhibits  some 
pretty  gilt  furniture,  a  collection  of  fine  woollen  blankets  and  shawls, 
woven  silks,  jewelry,' national  costumes,  native  arms  richly  ornamented, 
some  superb  decorated  saddles,  resembling  those  of  the  Egyptian  collec- 
tion. In  the  Exhibition  grounds  he  also  exhibits  two  Arab  tents, 
illustrating  the  domestic  life  and  customs  of  the  Arab  sheiks  and  Bedowin. 
The  Bey  also  sends  a  number  of  antique  relics  dug  from  the  ruins  of  old 
Carthage,  which  is  situated  in  his  dominions. 

Mexico. — The  space  assigned  to  the  Mexican  republic  lies  on  the  north 
side  of  the  main  aisle,  and  adjoins  that  of  the  United  States  on  the 
west.  It  is  enclosed  by  a  handsomely  ornamented  pavilion  of  light 
wood,  painted  in  a  s'oft  cream  color,  and  designed  in  the  Aztec  style  of 
architecture, 


APPENDIX.  go! 

The  Mexican  exhibit  is  not  as  large  as  had  been  hoped.  A  very  consid- 
erable part  of  the  display  consists  of  Mexican  historical  remain*  of  the 
most  interesting  character. 

The  mineral  exhibit  is  very  large  and  very  good,  and  shows  the  wealth 
of  the  leading  mines  of  the  country.  A  large  specimen,  weighing  1300 
pounds,  and  composed  of  quartz  and  bromide  of  silver,  is  a  prominent 
object  in  this  collection,  and  large  lumps  of  lead  ore,  iron  ore,  specimens 
cf  coal,  native  marble,  a  sample  of  a  new  mineral  called  libinstone,  and 
specimens  of  the  matter  thrown  up  by  the  volcano  of  Ceboruco  during 
a  recent  eruption,  and  specimens  of  native  woods  are  tastefully  arranged 
and  constitute  an  instructive  display.  There  is  a  considerable  exhibit  of 
ready-made  clothing,  dressed  and  undressed  leather,  kid  gloves,  straw 
hats,  woollen  and  cotton  cloths,  and  papers ;  and  some  porcelain  is  shown 
which  marks  the  beginning  made  by  Mexico  in  this  beautiful  art.  There 
are  also  some  pretty  silks  in  the  collection.  A  full  display  is  made  of  the 
medicinal  plants  of  Mexico,  and  of  the  fibres  of  all  the  varieties  of  the 
aguave.  The  native  wines  and  cordials  are  also  well  represented.  A 
great  variety  of  ancient  and  modern  national  costumes  is  shown,  including 
those  of  the  Indians  and  mixed  races.  A  number  of  educational  and 
scientific  works  illustrate  the  efforts  being  made  to  diffuse  knowledge 
among  the  Mexican  people. 

Brazil. — The  Brazilian  court  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  main 
aisle  between  the  Dutch  and  Belgian  sections.  It  is  enclosed  by  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  noticeable  structures  in  the  building.  It  is  a 
pavilion  built  in  the  Moorish  style,  and  consists  of  a  colonnade  of  wooden 
pillars,  with  brightly  ornamented  capitals  and  arches,  supporting  a  super- 
structure of  wood  painted  in  various  bright  colors.  This  colonnade  sur- 
rounds the  entire  Brazilian  section.  The  pavilion  is  painted  in  the  gayest 
colors,  the  principal  being  the  national  colors,  green  and  yellow,  and  red 
and  blue.  Brazilian  flags  and  streamers  are  draped  along  the  front  and 
fly  from  the  prominent  points  of  the  structure. 

At  the  entrance  stands  a  very  large  show-case  placed  on  a  square 
ppace  paved  with  marble.  It  contains  a  beautiful  display  of  artificial 
flowers  made  of  the  gay  and  brilliant  plumage  of  the  birds  of  Brazil, 
arid  near  it  is  a  collection  of  butterflies  and  brilliant  insects.  Around  the 
court  are  displayed  photographs  showing  the  geological  formation  and  thj 
scenery  of  the  empire,  and  a  series  of  topographical  maps.  The  public 
works  are  exhibited  in  a  number  of  finely-executed  charts  and  plans. 
The  native  -nod net?  of  the  empire  are  largely  represented,  and  among 
them  coffee  holds  the  chief  place,  being  the  great  staple  of  the  country. 
Rice,  cocoa,  mandioc,  ginger,  yams,  sarsaparilla,  and  many  other  tropical 


992 


APPESDIX. 


products,  are  shown  in  great  abundance.  The  native  woods  are  also 
largely  shown,  and  among  them  we  find  the  castor  tree,  rosewood,  Brazil- 
wood,  caoutchouc,  cedars,  logwood  and  mahogany.  An  excellent  display 
of  furniture  is  also  made,  and  the  specimens  are  both  wooden  and 
wicker. 

The  rising  manufactures  of  the  empire  are  shown  in  the  fine  exhibit  ot 
woollen  and  cotton  cloths,  dress  goods,  laces,  embroideries,  silks  and  straw 
a  id  wool  hats.  A  considerable  display  is  also  made  of  chemical  manufac- 
tures. The  display  of  porcelain  and  glassware  is  small.  Leather,  boots 
and  shoes,  saddles  and  skins,  form  a  considerable  part  of  the  collection. 


ESTRAXCE  TO  THE  B&AXTLIAX  COrKT. 

There  are  also  a  number  of  antiquities ;  and  the  Indian  tribes  are  repre- 
sented by  hammocks  and  other  articles  peculiar  to  themselves  and  their 
ancestors  for  centuries. 

Argentine  Confederation, — The  section  assigned  to  the  Argentine  Con- 
federation is  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle  and  next  to  its  western 
end.  It  is  enclosed,  and  at  the  front  stands  a  handsome  circular  pavilion. 

The  mineral  exhibit  includes  the  ores  of  gold,  silver,  lead,  copper,  and 
iron,  galena,  kaolin,  sulphate  of  lime,  quartz,  marbles,  coal,  building 
stones,  gypsum,  clays  for  the  manufacture  of  crockery,  tiles  and  bricks, 
graphite,  soapstones,  and  other  varieties.  Specimens  of  the  principal 
metals  are  also  shown.  There  is  a  large  collection  of  chemical  mannfao- 


APPENDIX.  993 

tures,  and  a  small  one  of  glassware,  porcelain  and  pottery.  The  depart- 
ment of  textile  fabrics  includes  cotton  and  woollen  goods,  mats  woven  by 
State  prisoners,  fabrics  made  by  Indians  from  native  plants,  clothing, 
laces,  and  embroideries.  Silk  spun  and  in  cocoons  is  also  exhibited  in 
considerable  quantities.  Wool  hats,  and  boots,  shoes,  and  other  leather 
goods,  and  samples  of  leather  and  skins  make  up  a  large  part  of  the 
collection.  The  bows,  arrows,  clubs,  and  lances  of  the  various  Indian 
tribes,  slings  used  by  the  hunters  to  catch  cattle  and  alpaca  on  the 
"  plains,"  and  lassos  used  by  the  hunters  of  Buenos  Ayros  are  also  shown. 
A  number  of  figures  of  Argentine  peasants  form  an  interesting  part  of 
the  exhibit. 

Chili. — The  Chilian  section  stands  at  the  western  end  of  the  Main 
Building,  on  the  south  side  of  the  main  aisle.  At  the  front,  which  faces 
the  main  aisle,  is  a  circular  pavilion,  gayly  painted,  around  the  sides  of 
which  are  arranged  show-cases  containing  an  extensive  and  valuable 
collection  of  the  minerals  of  the  republic.  The  animals  of  the  country 
are  represented  by  stuffed  hides  of  the  cougar,  jaguar,  llama,  guanaco,  and 
monkeys.  There  is  also  an  exceedingly  valuable  and  interesting  display 
of  old  pottery  and  domestic  utensils,  agricultural  implements,  and 
weapons  of  war  used  by  the  Indian  tribes.  Specimens  of  Chilian  silks, 
ra\y  and  manufactured,  are  shown,  and  also  some  fine  worsted  work.  A 
classified  exhibit  is  made  of  the  vegetable  products,  the  native  wines,  and 
the  leather  of  Chili. 

Peru. — The  Peruvian  court  is  enclosed  by  a  neat  and  tasteful  pavilion 
decorated  with  the  arms  of  the  republic  and  the  national  colors,  and 
stands  at  the  western  end'  of  the  building,  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the 
Chilian  and  Argentine  sections.  The  entrance  is  from  the  west.  Around 
the  sides  of  the  pavilion  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  republic  is  faintly 
shown  by  a  number  of  specimens.  Gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones  are 
included  in  the  collection.  Quicksilver,  copper,  iron,  lead,  sulphur, 
faltpetre,  and  salt  are  exhibited  in  a  variety  of  forms.  The  principal 
manufactures  shown  are  leather,  soap,  and  sugar.  The  native  wines  and 
liquors  are  also  extensively  displayed.  Cotton,  cocoa,  coffee,  cinnamor, 
pimento,  pepper,  tobacco,  Peruvian  bark,  indigo,  sarsaparilla,  vanilla, 
caoutchouc,  and  a  variety  of  drugs  and  dyestuffs  are  shown.  There  is  a 
large  display  of  ancient  pottery,  the  work  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitant, 
of  Peru,  showing  that  they  were  far  advanced  in  the  arts  and  customs  of 
civilization ;  and  by  the  side  of  these  is  an  exhibit  of  the  dresses  and 
.  weapons  of  the  Indian  tribes. 

Hawaii.— The  kingdom  of  Hawaii,  better  known  as  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  has  a  handsome  pavilion,  with  two  arched  entrances,  situated 
63 


994  APPENDIX. 

against  the  south  wall  of  the  building,  immediately  back  of  the  Tunisian 
court.  The  exhibit  includes  several  specimens  of  native  sugar,  coffee, 
and  native  woods.  The  fibres  of  a  number  of  trees— strong  and  tough  ~ 
are  also  shown,  and  a  considerable  quantity  of  straw  work  makes  up  the 
display.  There  are  a  number  of  specimens  of  lava  thrown  out  by  the 
volcano  of  Kilauea,  the  largest  now  in  action  in  the  world.  Manufac- 
tured articles  from  the  native  woods,  and  calabashes  used  by  the  natives 
to  hold  their  food  are  among  the  articles  exhibited.  A  fine  collection  of 
specimens  of  lava,  mosses,  and  ferns  is  shown,  and  was  made  by  Mr. 
Hitchcock,  the  special  commissioner,  during  a  residence  of  fourteen  years 
in  the  islands.  There  are  cases  of  beautiful  native  birds,  and  a  rich 
display  of  pink  and  white  corals,  .hells,  and  seaweed.  Queen  Emma 
exhibits  a  case  of  fans  and  feather-work,  native  millinery,  and  historical 
curiosities.  Photographs  of  scenes  in  the  islands  are  displayed  about  the 
enclosure. 

Russia. — The  Russian  space  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  main 
aisle,  between  the  Spanish  and  Austrian  sections,  and  extends  back  to  the 
south  wall  of  the  building.  It  is  unenclosed,  and  but  little  effort  has 
been  made  to  ornament  it. 

At  the  western  end  of  the  front  line,  Sazikoflf,  of  Moscow,  has  two 
handsome  cases  containing  a  magnificent  display  of  gold  and  silver 
articles  for  table  service,  personal  use,  and  household  ornament.  They 
are  richly  carved,  and  some  of  them  are  enamelled  in  a  masterly  manner. 
There  are  a  number  of  statuettes  of  solid  silver,  prominent  among  which 
is  one  of  Peter  the  Great.  The  gem  of  the  whole  collection  is  a  superb 
work  in  repousse,  representing  the  "Adoration  of  the  Magi."  It  is  one 
of  the  most  perfect  specimens  of  this  school  of  art  in  the  Exhibition. 

Near  the  east  end  of  the  front  line,  P.  Ouchinnikoff,  of  Moscow  and 
St.  Petersburg,  makes  an  equally  handsome  display  of  richly  chased 
articles  in  gold  and  silver  and  enamels  on  gold  and  silver.  Prominent 
in  the  collection  is  a  fine  altar-piece,  representing  the  Saviour  with  the 
Gospel  in  his  hand. 

At  the  east  end  of  the  line,  Felix  Chopin,  of  St.  Petersburg,  displays  a 
collection  of  fine  bronzes  in  the  best  style  of  the  art.  They  represent 
scenes  from  the  life  of  the  Russian  peasantry,  and  are  much  admired. 
Opposite  is  a  gilt  clock  of  peculiar  design,  about  four  feet  high. 

Along  the  eastern  border  of  the  Russian  section,  Messrs.  Hoessrich 
and  Woerffcl,  of  St.  Petersburg,  have  an  extensive  and  valuable  display 
of  articles  in  malachite  and  lapis  lazuli.  These  are  of  an  infinite  variety, 
consisting  of  cabinets,  mantels,  tables,  statuettes,  clocks,  caskets,  cande- 
labra, and  some  beautiful  jewelry  and  small  articles  for  personal  use. 


APPENDIX. 


995 


Just  back  of  the  front  line  is  a  rich  and  large  display  of  silks  and 
velvets  magnificently  embroidered  with  gold,  and  cloth  of  gold  with 
decorations  of  silver  worked  into  it.  These  fabrics  are  superb,  and  are 
equal  to  anything  in  the  Egyptian  or  Turkish  exhibits. 

Back  of  these  is  a  large  exhibit  of  furs,  equal  in  quality  and  beauty  to 
•anything  in  the  building ;  and  stuffed  specimens  of  fur-bearing  animals 


THE  SPANISH   BUILDING. 


are  shown  in  connection  with  this  display.  There  is  a  good  exhibit  of 
cotton  and  linen  goods,  and  of  hats  and  military  caps. 

In  the  centre  of  the  section,  the  Russian-American  Rubber  Company, 
ot  St.  Petersburg,  have  a  fine  octagonal  pavilion  of  ebony  and  plate-glass, 
containing  a  handsome  collection  of  their  goods. 

The  exhibit  of  mathematical  and  philosophical  instruments  is  small  but 
very  interesting,  and  is  located  near  the  southwest  corner  of  the  court. 
Immediately  to  the  east  of  it  is  a  case  of  ornamental  cast-iron  work.  The 


996  APPENDIX. 

collection  consists  of  a  number  of  statuettes,  busts,  vases,  etc.,  the  principal 
object  being  a  copy  of  the  statue  of  Peter  the  Great,  at  St.  Petersburg. 

The  paper  makers  have  a  small  exhibit,  and  close  by  is  an  extensive 
and  valuable  collection  of  the  minerals  of  the  Russian  empire.  At  the 
south  end  of  the  court  is  a  case  of  inlaid  caskets,  boxes,  waiters,  etc.,  the 
work  upon  which  is  exceedingly  beautiful.  In  the  next  case  a  book--, 
binder  shows  specimens  of  his  work.  The  books  are  merchants'  account 
books,  and  show  the  Russian  system  of  bookkeeping.  At  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  court  is  a  fine  carved  oaken  billiard  table,  one  of  the  hand- 
somest in  the  Exhibition.  There  is  an  excellent  though  small  exhibit  of 
cutlery,  and  several  excellent  pianos  form  a  part  of  the  Russian  exhibit. 
A  number  of  carved  oaken  cabinets  stand  along  the  eastern  line,*  where 
also  may  be  seen  a  case  of  rich  embroideries,  worked  on  colored  cloths 
with  gold  and  silver  threads.  There  is  a  small  exhibit  of  perfumes  and 
soaps,  and  a  few  pieces  of  porcelain  and  majolica-ware  complete  the 
display. 

Portugal. — The  section  assigned  to  Portugal  is  on  the  south  side  of  the 
hall,  and  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the  Turkish  and  Egyptian  courts. 
It'  is  enclosed  with  a  line  of  handsome  show-cases  of  wood,  stained  in 
imitation  of  black  walnut,  with  entrances  at  the  north,  east,  and  west  ends. 

Along  the  southern  wall  the  Portuguese  department  of  public  works 
exhibits  a  collection  of  topographical  and  geological  maps  and  charts  of 
the  kingdom,  with  drawings  of  the  principal  harbors.  In  this  section 
of  the  space  is  the  display  of  glassware,  pottery,  and  porcelain,  which, 
though  not  large,  is  very  good.  Some  fine  dyes  and  specimens  of  woollen 
fabrics  dyed  in  them  are  also  shown.  The  cases  which  form  the  east  and 
west  sides  of  the  enclosure  are  filled  with  cotton  and  woollen  goods, 
generally  of  a  coarse  texture.  The  blankets  shown  here  are  very  good. 
A  good  display  is  made  of  silk  fabrics  of  various  kind  ,  and  a  c  .se  is 
also  shown  of  cocoons  and  raw  silk.  Some  of  the  silks  are  beau/  (fully 
embroidered.  A  number  of  excellent  specimens  of  w<  od-carvi  jg  are 
shown,  and  a  series  of  photographs  of  places  in  Portu  *al  sho1  /  some 
admirable  work  in  this  line.  A  case  containing  flowers  ,  basket  ,  ships, 
and  other  objects  made  of  the  fibre  of  the  fig  tree,  from  <  he  islai  d  of  St. 
Michael,  in  the  Azores,  attracts  great  attention.  The  mater;  il  is  ex- 
quisitely beautiful  and  the  work  very  fine.  There  ai  )  a  n  imber  ol 
statuettes  in  colored  plaster,  representing  different  type  ;  of  J  'ortuguese 
brigands  and  peasants.  At  the  northern  end  of  the  secti  n  is  t  collection 
of  tinware,  showing  the  fine  quality  of  the  native  tin  <  f  PC  rtugal,  and 
here  is  to  be  seen  the  finest  porcelain  and  glassware  of  tl  is  e?  hibit. 

The  Mineral  Annex. — The  space  in  the  main  hall  beiu  j  fil'  ad,  a  couple 


0.13  APPENDIX. 

of  long,  narrow  wooden  buildings  were  erected  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Main  Building.  In  these  structures  is  shown  a  large  and  interesting 
collection  of  the  minerals  of  the  United  States,  prominent  in  which  are  a 
number  of  immense  blocks  of  coal  taken  from  the  mines  of  Pennsylvania 
and  some  of  the  Western  States. 

The  Carriage  Annex. — The  annex  to  the  Main  Building,  devoted  to 
the  display  of  carriages  and  other  articles,  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Avenue  of  the  Republic,  just  north  of  Memorial  Hall.  It  is  built  of 


INTERIOR  OF  A   PARLOB  CAR  EXHIBITED  IN  THE  CARRIAGE  BUrLDINQ. 

corrugated  iron  and  glass,  and  is  346  feet  long  and  231  feet  deep.  The 
greater  part  of  the  space  is  taken  up  by  American  exhibitors. 

The  display  of  carriages  in  the  American  department  is  very  fine,  and 
includes  vehicles  of  all  classes,  and  several  old-fashioned  Concord  stages. 
Wheels,  hubs,  spokes,  harness,  carriage  hardware  and  fixtures,  springs, 
etc.,  are  displayed  here,  and  make  a  handsome  showing.  The  collection 
of  carriages  for  children  is  also  very  pretty. 

A  number  of  railroad  cars  are  exhibited  in  this  building.     The  Pull- 


APPENDIX.  999 

man  Palace  Car  Company  show  one  of  their  handsomest  parlor  cars,  and 
a  .superb  hotel  ear,  to  both  of  which  visitors  arc  admitted.  The  latter 
shows  the  entire  arrangement  for  providing  passengers  with  meals  cooked 
to  order  while  the  train  is  in  motion.  Several  magnificent  street  railway 
cars  stand  by  the  side  of  the  larger  coaches,  and  are  beautiful  specimens 
of  workmanship. 

A  large  part  of  the  American  department  is  devoted  to  an  exhibition 
of  stoves  and  heating  apparatus  of  various  kinds,  tin  and  ironware,  and 
house-furnishing  goods.  These  make  up  a  pretty  and  attractive  display, 
and  draw  many  visitors. 

In  the  English  department  we  notice  several  fine  drags  of  the  most 
elaborate  style,  and  a  number  of  broughams,  coup6s  and  a  species  of  one- 
horse  barouche.  The  English  vehicles  are  all  substantially  made  and  are 
elegant  and  tasteful. 

Canada  exhibits  her  fine  sleighs,  which  are  much  admired. 

Italy  sends  two  specimens  of  a  curious  little  closed  carriage. 

Machinery  Hall  is  next  to  the  Main  Building  in  size.  It  stands  west 
of  the  intersection  of  Belmont  and  Elm  avenues,  on  a  line  with  the  prin- 
cipal building  and  542  feet  from  it.  The  building  consists  of  the  Main 
Hall,  1402  feet  long  by  360  feet  wide,  and  an  annex  of  208  by  210  feet. 
It  contains  about  fourteen  acres  of  floor  space.  The  principal  portion  of 
the  edifice  is  one  story  in  height.  The  main  cornice  is  forty  feet  from 
the  ground.  The  aisles  are  forty  feet  in  height  in  the  interior,  and  the 
height  of  the  central  avenue  is  seventy  feet  froru  the  floor  to  the  ven- 
tilators. The  main  entrances  are  finished  with  handsome  facades  rising 
to  a  height  of  seventy  feet.  The  building  is  constructed  of  glass  and 
iron.  Along  the  south  side  is  the  boiler-house  and  other  buildings.  A 
special  room  is  set  apart  for  the  display  of  steam  and  rotary  pumps  and 
turbine  water-wheels. 

The  building  is  fitted  up  with  especial  care  for  the  comfort  and  con- 
venience of  visitors.  Water-closets  are  placed  at  the  east  and  west  ends, 
with  attendants.  Rolling-chair  stations  are  located  at  the  main  entrances, 
and  telegraph  offices  are  established  at  prominent  points.  Stands  for  the 
sale  of  the  official  catalogue  are  placed  in  the  central  aisle,  and  letter- 
boxes* are  scattered  throughout  the  building.  The  fire  service  is  perfect 
alarm  stations  being  placed  at  regular  intervals,  each  with  its  proper 
number,  and  Babcock  extinguishers  are  scattered  over  the  building  read' 
for  instant  use.  At  the  north  end  of  the  transept  is  a  restaurant,  the 
proprietor  of  which  promises  to  furnish  a  good  dinner  for  the  moderate? 
sum  of  fifty  cents.  Adjoining  the  restaurant  is  a  confectionery,  and  by 
the  side  of  this  the  pop-corn  man  has  a  tasteful  stand,  from  which  he 


1000 


APPENDIX. 


1001 


does  a  thriving  business  in  this  peculiarly  American  eatable.  Soda- 
fountains  are  placed  at  several  points  in  the  building,  and  are  under  the 
same  management  as  those  in  the  other  halls. 

The  interior  decorations  are  simple,  the  rcof  and  pillars  being  painted 
in  light  colors,  the  object  being  to  render  the  interior  as  light  ao 
possible. 

Machinery  Hall  was  the  first  completed  of  all  the  Exhibition  build 
ings.     It  cost  $542,300.     From  the  gallery  one  looks  down  upon  a  bu.-v 
scene.     The  great  engine  in  the  centre  drives  several  miles  of  shafting 
and    belting,  and    the  hall   resounds  with  the  hum  and   click  of  the 
machinery  in  motion. 

No  fires  or  furnaces  are  allowed  in  the  hall.  The  boilers  of  the 
great  Corliss  engine  are  placed  in  a  separate  building  on  the  south 
side  of  the  hall,  and  steam  is  introduced  into  the  hall  by  a  service 
of  pipes. 

The  motive  power  for  all  the  machinery  in  motion  in  this  vast  hall  is 
a  double-acting  duplex  vertical  engine,  erected  by  Mr.  George  H.  Corliss, 
of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  its  inventor.  It  stands  in  the  centre  of  the 
hall,  and  is  built  upon  a  platform  fifty-six  feet  in  diameter,  and  three  and 
one-half  feet  above  the  floor  of  the  hall.  The  engine  rises  to  a  height  of 
forty  feet  above  the  platform,  and  is  the  most  conspicuous  object  in  the 
hall.  "It  has  cylinders  of  forty-four  inches  in  diameter  and  ten  feet  stroke, 
the  peculiar  variable  cut-off'  arrangement  being  actuated  by  the  governor, 
as  common  in  the  Corliss  engines.  Between  the  vertical  engines  is  a  fly- 
wheel of  fifty-six  tons  weight,  thirty  feet  in  diameter  and  twenty-four 
inch  face;  it  makes  thirty-six  revolutions  per  minute,  the  rate  being  kept 
equal  by  means  of  the  governor  cut-off,  which  immediately  responds  to 
any  change  in  duty,  owing  to  the  throwing  off  or  on  of  machines  either 
singly  or  embraced  in  a  whole  section  of  the  building.  The  tubular 
boilers  are  twenty  in  number,  in  a  separate  building,  and  each  represents 
a  nominal  power  of  seventy  horses,  the  work  of  the  engine  at  sixty 
pounds  pressure  being  about  1400  horse-power.  The  fly-wheel  has  <•• 
on  its  periphery,  which  match  with  cogs  on  a  pinion  which  rotates  a  Hue 
of  underground  shafting,  and  this  by  means  of  mitre-gearing  rotates  othri 
underground  shafts,  so  that  motion  is  communicated  to  eight  points  in 
the  ground-plan  at  the  transept,  at  which  are  pulleys  from  which  belt* 
rise  through  the  floor  and  thence  pass  around  primary  pulleys  on  the 
eight  principal  lines  of  shafting,  which  reach  from  the  transept  to  the 
extremities  of  the  east  and  west  end  of  the  building.  The  sunk  shafting, 
its  mitre-gears,  pillow-block?  and  pulleys,  weigh  200  tons."  The  w^rk 
on  the  engine  was  completed  on  the  10th  of  April,  the  day  promised  by 


1002 


APPENDIX. 


its  inventor,  and  the  entire  cost  of  its  construction — $200,000 — was  borne 
by  Mr.  George  H.  Corliss. 

Eight  main  lines  of  shafting  are  provided  for  the  machinery  in  the 
avenues  and  aisles,  the  larger  portion  being  speeded  to  120  revolutions 
per  minute,  and  one  line  to  240  revolutions  per  minute,  principally  for 
the  wood-working  machines,  which  occupy  the  larger  part  of  the  west  end 
of  the  southern  aisle.  With  the  subsidiary  lines,  the  length  of  shafting 


THE  CORLISS  ENGINE  IN  MACHINERY  HALL. 

is  estimated  at  10,400  feet,  each  main  line  of  650  feet  transmitting  180 
horse-power  to  the  various  machines  connected  with  it. 

The  United  States.' — The  space  occupied  by  the  United  States  coverc 
about  three-fourths  of  the  area  of  Machinery  Hall,  and  extends  from  the 
western  end  entirely  across  the  hall  to  a  point  nearly  half  way  between 
the  transept  and  the  eastern  docvs.  The  machinery  displayed  covers 
a  wide  range,  extending  from  the  most  delicate  machines  for  the  manu- 
facture of  watches  to  the  most  powerful  trip-hammers  and  rolling-mill). 


APPENDIX.  1003 

We  begin  our  inspection  at  the  west  end  of  the  building,  and  start  from 
the  western  end  of  the  south  aisle  and  pursue  our  way  eastward  along 
this  aisle.  On  the  south  side  we  notice  an  extensive  collection  of  gas 
meters  and  kindred  machines.  The  whole  system  of  registering  the 
consumption  of  gas  is  shown.  A  large  collection  of  machines  for  making 
illuminating  gas  from  naphtha  is  shown  beyond  the  gas  meters. 

Beyond  the  gas  machines  the  Hagner  Drug  Milling  Company,  of 
Philadelphia,  exhibit  a  pair  of  double-run  flaxseed  chasing  mills,  which 
attract  considerable  attention  by  their  size  and  excellent  workmanship. 
To  the  east  of  this  is  a  large  frame  model  of  an  anthracite  coal-breaker, 
showing  the  process  of  crushing  coal  and  separating  the  different  sizes  for 
the  market. 

A  fine  display  of  steam-drills  comes  next,  and  below  these  is  a  blast- 
furnace, with  plans  showing  its  operation.  A  capital  display  is  made  of 
steam-engines,  stationary  and  portable.  The  Atlantic  Mills,  of  Phila- 
delphia, show  some  powerful  machinery,  and  below  these  the  scroll-saw 
men  are  at  work  with  their  machines,  cutting  out  scroll  work  in  wood. 
Some  of  these  saws  are  driven  by  steam  and  some  by  foot-power. 

We  have  now  reached  the  transept,  and  turn  back  to  examine  the 
display  along  the  north  side  of  the  aisle.  We  are  attracted  at  once  by  the 
exhibit  of  barrel,  hoop  and  stave-making  machinery  in  operation.  These 
machines  cut  out  the  staves  and  hoops  and  set  up  the  barrels  and  head 
them  in  an  exceedingly  short  space  of  time. 

Close  by  is  an  automatic  shingle-maker,  which  can  turn  out  25,000 
shingles  in  a  day.  Beyond  these  machines  William  Cramp  &  Son,  of 
Philadelphia,  exhibit  two  fine  marine  engines.  In  the  next  space  J.  W. 
Griffiths,  of  New  York,  exhibits  a  machine  for  bending  wood,  and  shows 
by  its  operation  the  process  of  bending  stout  wooden  beams  for  ships' 
frames,  or  for  arches. 

We  are  at  the  west  end  once  more,  and  pass  into  the  south  avenue. 
As  we  move  down  this  avenue  we  confine  our  inspection  to  its  south  side, 
and  notice  first  a  large  road  steam-engine  of  American  make.  Adjoining 
this  space  is  one  occupied  by  Wm.  Andrews,  of  Williamsport,  Pennsyl- 
vania, who  exhibits  a  number  of  circular  and  straight  saws  of  the  best 
workmanship. 

We  now  reach  an  extensive  collection  of  saws,  moulding-machines  and 
.^team-engines,  noticeable  among  the  latter  being  the  splendid  automatic 
cut-off  and  throttling  steam-engines  of  the  Buckeye  Company,  of  Salem, 
Ohio.  In  the  midst  of  this  group  Cornell  University  displays  some  of 
the  results  of  her  department  of  mecli.-'.nical  engineering  in  the  work  of 
her  students  and  in  a  fine  collection  of  machinery.  Here  are  a  foot- 


1004  APPENDIX. 

lathe,  magneto-electrical  machine,  measuring  machine  and  steam-engine, 
all  of  which  are  handsome  pieces  of  workmanship. 

Having  reached  the  end  of  the  avenue,  which  is  here  closed  in  by  the 
space  assigned  to  an  exhibitor,  we  notice  on  the  north  side  a  section  of 
the  first  steam-engine  ever  introduced  into  the  United  States. 

Leaving  the  south  avenue  at  its  western  end,  we  pass  around  into  the 
central  aisle  and  continue  our  inspection  on  the  south  side  of  that  aisle. 
We  pass  a  number  of  vertical  and  other  steam-engines,  and  pause  to 
examine  the  immense  high  speed  blowing  engine  erected  by  the  Weimar 
Machine  Works,  of  Lebanon,  Pennsylvania.  This  fine  engine  has  a 
capacity  of  5000  cubic  feet  per  minute  at  ten  pounds  pressure.  The  same 
company  also  exhibit  a  section  of  an  apparatus  for  charging  a  blast 
furnace. 

Below  this  is  a  display  of  fire-engines,  three  of  which  are  handsome 
steamers,  and  a  case  of  firemen's  hats,  overhauls,  etc.  Beyond  the  engines 
a  fine  hook  and.  ladder  carriage  is  placed.  Several  old-fashioned  hand- 
engines  are  included  in  the  display,  and  look  odd  indeed  beside  the 
glittering  steamers.  Passing  on  we  come  to  the  display  of  chemical  fire 
extinguishers. 

Farther  on,  I.  P.  Morris  &  Co.,  of  the  Port  Richmond  Iron  Works, 
Philadelphia,  exhibit  a  large  and  complete  blast  furnace,  which  towers  to 
the  roof,  high  above  all  the  surrounding  objects.  Near  the  intersection 
of  the  aisle  with  the  transept,  E.  M.  Boynton,  of  New  York,  has  a 
handsome  pavilion  of  black  walnut,  velvet  and  gilt,  ornamented  with 
specimens  of  his  saws. 

The  north  side  of  the  central  aisle,  from  the  transept  westward,  is 
taken  up  almost  entirely  by  the  exhibit  of  the  sewing  machine  manufac- 
turers. All  the  sewing  machines  of  the  country  are  represented  here,  and 
the  display  made  by  them  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  features  of  the 
Exhibition.  The  spaces  occupied  by  the  various  manufacturers  stand 
side  by  side,  and  are  fitted  up  in  the  handsomest  style.  Rich  native 
woods  and  costly  hangings  are  used  in  the  construction  of  the  enclosures 
and  pavilions  of  the  various  manufacturers,  and  neither  expense  nor  taste 
has  been  spared  to  render  these  as  brilliant  and  imposing  as  possible. 
Each  firm  exhibits  its  best  machines,  finished  in  the  handsomest  style, 
?..nd  displays  conspicuously  samples  of  fine  needlework  done  by  its 
Dperators.  The  machines  are  operated  by  a  number  of  young  ladies, 
and  are  shown  to  all  who  are  disposed  to  examine  them, 

To  the  west  of  the  sewing  machines  are  the  knitting  machines,  the 
workings  of  which  attract  much  attention  ;  and  beyond  these  is  a  hand- 
some model  of  a  steam  tug,  with  an  exhibit  of  improved  screw  propellers 


APPENDIX.  ]005 

for  steam  vessels,  and  we  enter  once  more  the  space  devoted  to  steam- 
engines.  Among  these  we  notice  a  machine  for  ditching  and  draining, 
exhibited  by  Randolph  Brothers,  of  New  Jersey.  Several  sizes  of  this 
machine  for  horse  and  steam  power  are  made.  The  largest  size  will  dig 
eight  cubic  yards  per  minute  in  clay  soil,  or  as  much  as  a  single  man  c:i; 
dig  in  a  day.  The  next  space  is  occupied  by  Pusey,  Jones  &  Co.,  of 
Wilmington,  Delaware,  with  a  large  display  of  machinery  of  various 
kinds ;  and  just  beyond  N.  W.  Twiss  &  Co.,  of  New  Haven,  exhibit  a 
number  of  beautiful  vertical  engines. 

We  are  at  the  west  end  of  the  aisle,  and  pass  around  to  the  north 
avenue,  at  the  western  end  of  which,  on  the  south  side,  Messrs.  Poole  & 
Hunt,  of  Baltimore,  have  a  large  display  of  machines  of  various  kinds. 
Eastward  of  this  exhibit,  on  the  same  side  of  the  avenue,  the  steam- 
engines  stretch  away  for  a  considerable  distance.  Beyond  these  the 
American  Iron  Works  of  Pittsburgh  make  an  extensive  display  of  wheels, 
shafting,  pulleys,  bar,  sheet,  plate  iron  and  T  rails. 

Below  the  American  Iron  Works  is  one  of  the  handsomest  displays  in 
the  hall.  It  is  the  exhibit  of  the  John  A.  Roebling's  Sons  Company,  of 
Trenton,  New  Jersey,  manufacturers  of  wire  rope  and  suspension  bridge 
cables.  Here  are  shown  sections  of  the  cables  of  the  suspension  bridges 
over  the  Niagara  at  Niagara  Falls,  and  those  over  the  Ohio  at  Pittsburgh 
and  Cincinnati,  which  were  made  by  this  firm.  Handsome  drawings  of 
these  bridges  are  displayed. 

Beyond  this  space  is  an  enormous  direct  acting  steam  and  hydraulic 
cotton  press,  from  the  Taylor  Iron  Works,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 
It  is  constructed  entirely  without  pumps,  and  has  but  a  single  valve. 
It  is  the  most  powerful  cotton  press  in  the  world,  and  among  its  other 
feats  is  said  to  have  recompressed  a  bale  of  cotton  into  two-thirds  of  its 
original  size. 

We  now  enter  a  region  of  looms  and  cotton  machinery,  and  pause  to 
notice  the  process  of  making  and  winding  spool  cotton  as  shown  by  the 
Willimantic  and  Hopedale  Companies,  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island. 
Beyond  these  machines  a  large  power-loom  is  weaving  corsets  for  the 
United  States  Corset  Company.  A  lady  operates  the  machine,  and  a 
number  of  her  sex  are  generally  interested  lookers-on.  Next  dooi  a 
larger-sized  loom  is  weaving  jute  cloth.  Both  of  these  machines  are  the 
Lyall  Positive  Motion  Loom,  the  accuracy  and  rapidity  of  the  work  of 
which  are  wonderful. 

Next  below  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  exhibits  in  the  hall.  The 
American  Watch  Company,  of  Waltham,  Massachusetts,  have  a  work- 
shop, in  which  a  number  of  their  most  experienced  and  skilful  workers 


1006  APPENDIX. 

i 

are  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  watches  by  machinery.  Every  part 
of  the  process  is  illustrated  by  the  work  done  here.  The  machines  used 
are  of  the  most  delicate  and  perfect  character,  and  the  operations  are 
marked  by  an  accuracy  and  skill  which  elicit  the  warm  praise  of  the 
interested  spectators  who  surround  the  workshop.  The  Waltham  watches 
have  long  been  regarded  as  the  best  of  American  manufacture,  and  the 
universal  testimony  of  all  who  have  used  them  is  that  they  are  unexcelled 
by  any  in  the  world. 

The  transept  is  reached  again,  and  we  turn  back  westward  again.  On 
the  right,  opposite  the  Waltham  shop,  the  Nonotuck  Silk  Company,  of 
Florence,  Massachusetts,  show  the  process  of  labelling  spools  and  winding 
machine  twist  and  sewing  silk  for  the  market.  In  the  next  space  beyond 
William  Wood  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  have  a  loom  at  work  weaving 
cotton  cloths ;  and  above  this  the  Monitor  Carpet  Mills,  of  Philadelphia, 
have  a  power-loom  at  work  weaving  carpets  without  the  use  of  a  shuttle. 
Two  power-looms  are  engaged,  beyond  this  one,  weaving  Brussels  carpets. 
The  Falls  of  Schuylkill  Carpet  Mills  operate  one  of  these  looms,  and 
thus  illustrate  the  process  by  which  the  beautiful  carpets  displayed  by 
them  in  the  Main  Building  are  woven.  Going  westward  we  pass  several 
looms  engaged  in  weaving  cloth,  and  a  number  of  wool-carding  machines, 
and  notice  a  fine  Murkland  power-loom  at  work  weaving  ingrain  carpets 
for  Messrs.  John  Bromley  &  Sons,  Philadelphia.  The  rapidity  with 
which  this  loom  does  its  work  is  surprising.  With  a  competent  operator 
it  will  run  off  thirty-five  yards  of  carpeting  in  a  working  day.  Beyond 
this  is  the  Garnett  machine,  which  takes  the  waste  of  woollen  factories 
and  works  it  up  into  fibre  again,  washing  it  clean  at  the  same  time. 

An  interesting  display  is  made  of  meters  for  registering  the  consump- 
tion of  water ;  and  the  exhibit  of  steam-gauges  is  both  large  and  hand- 
somely arranged. 

From  the  western  end  of  the  avenue  we  have  been  traversing  we  pass 
into  a  small  aisle  to  the  north  of  it.  The  first  notable  exhibit  is  that  of 
the  Backus  Water  Motor,  which  would  seem  to  be  the  long  desired  motive 
power  for  running  sewing  machines.  Beyond  this  is  a  most  interesting 
exhibit  of  asbestos,  a  mineral  which  has  the  peculiar  property  of  being  a 
non-conductor  of  heat.  Farther  on  the  Westinghouse  Air-brake  and 
Henderson's  Hydraulic  Brake  for  railroad  cars  make  large  and  interesting 
displays  of  the  merits  of  their  respective  machines.  At  the  lower  end  of 
the  aisle,  on  the  south  side,  is  a  tall  machine  for  drying  paper  collar  stock, 
and  below  this  machines  for  drying  cotton  and  worsted  dyed  goods. 

We  have  reached  the  transept  once  more,  and  enter  upon  the  section 
devoted  to  the  display  of  locomotives,  wl>>ch  is  one  of  the  most  prominent 


APPENDIX.  1007 

as  well  as  one  of  the  most  attractive  features  of  the  Exhibition.  About 
ten  locomotives  built  by  the  Baldwin  Works,  the  Pennsylvania  ami 
Heading  Railroad  Companies,  and  other  well-known  manufacturers,  make 
up  the  collection,  in  which  the  latest  improvements  and  the  highest  skill 
in  this  branch  of  the  mechanic  arts  are  shown.  A  narrow  gauge  loo  - 
motive  and  one  for  mining  purposes  are  included  in  the  collection.  Tiu 
finishing  of  these  splendid  machines  is  handsome,  but  substantial.  They 
are  no  finer  in  appearance  than  is  usual,  and  represent  faithfully  the 
superior  appearance  as  well  as  construction  of  the  American  locomotive. 

Leaving  the  locomotives  behind,  we  pass  to  the  north  aisle,  where  we 
notice  a  large  display  of  machinery  for  mills  by  J.  T.  Noye  &  Son,  of 
Buffalo,  New  York,  beyond  which  is  an  immense  hoisting  engine  for 

'  '  «/  O  O 

mines,  and  a  display  of  mining  machinery,  including  a  powerful  Cornish 
pumping  engine  made  by  the  Dickinson  Manufacturing  Company,  of 
Scranton,  Pennsylvania. 

Both  sides  of  the  aisle  are  now  occupied  by  the  display  of  the  scale 
makers.  All  the  principal  manufacturers  are  represented,  and  this  de- 
partment is  one  of  the  largest  and  handsomest  in  the  hall.  Then  follows, 
on  both  sides  of  the  aisle,  a  collection  of  car-wheels,  trucks,  springs,  rail- 
road iron  and  rails,  switches,  seats  for  cars,  and  other  railroad  material. 
On  the  left  hand  side,  above  the  Wharton  Switch,  the  Baxter  Steam- 
Engine  Company  make  a  handsome  exhibit  of  their  famous  engines.  On 
the  north  side  of  the  aisle,  at  the  western  end  of  the  building,  is  a  huge 
vacuum  pan  for  clarifying  sugar,  exhibited  by  the  Col  well  Iron  Works, 
of  New  York.  It  towers  to  a  height  of  thirty-five  feet  above  the  floor 
of  the  hall,  and  the  vacuum  pan  has  a  diameter  of  ten  feet.  There  are 
two  platforms  or  stories  one  above  the  other.  The  whole  apparatus  is 
of  the  most  complete  description,  and  is  a  fair  sample  of  the  vacuum 
pans  used  in  the  largest  sugar  refineries  in  Cuba  or  Louisiana. 

We  pass  around  into  the  north  aisle  and  start  eastward  again,  noticing 
first,  on  the  right,  or  south  side  of  the  aisle,  a  large  collection  of  washing, 
wringing  and  mangling  machines  of  every  kind  and  description,  to  run  by 
hand  or  by  steam-power.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  aisle  a  large  machine 
for  printing  wall  paper  is  shown  by  Messrs.  Ilowell  &  Brothers,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, the  largest  manufacturers  of  wall  paper  in  the  United  States. 
The  left  hand  side  of  the  aisle  is  taken  up  for  a  considerable  distance  by 
machinery  for  making  paper  in  operation,  and  on  the  other  side  a  cracker- 
making  machine  is  at  work.  Below  the  last  are  several  machines  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  fine  candy  bon-bons,  and  beyond  these,  on  both 
sides  of  the  aisle,  we  notice  machines  for  butchers,  bakers  and  flour 
mills. 


1008  APPENDIX. 

Opposite  these,  on  the  north  side  of  the  aisle,  is  a  small  model  of  an 
old  Virginia  tobacco  factory.  All  the  operations  of  manufacturing 
chewing  tobacco  are  shown  here,  with  the  exception  of  the  flavoring 
process. 

Below  the  tobacco  factory  is  a  pretty  display  of  small  mills  for  grinding 
coffee  and  spices,  below  which  the  butchering  machinery  greets  us  again 
and  still  farther  east,  on  the  north  side,  the  process  of  making  India 
rubber  shoes  is  illustrated  by  machinery  at  work. 

The  south  side  of  the  aisle,  opposite  the  tobacco  and  India  rubber 
works,  is  occupied  by  an  exhibit  of  French  burr  millstones  and  wheat- 
cleaning  machines.  Below  these  is  a  large  centrifugal  sugar  draining  and 
ilrying  machine  in  operation.  Diagonally  opposite,  on  the  north  side  of 
the  aisle,  below  the  rubber  works,  Messrs.  Whitman  &  Son,  the  well- 
known  Philadelphia  confectioners,  make  a  practical  exhibit  of  their 
process  of  preparing  their  bon-bons  and  fine  candies.  These  are  made  and 
sold  here  daily. 

We  cross  the  transept,  and  continue  on  our  way  down  the  north  aisle. 
On  the  east  side  of  the  transept  and  extending  eastward  along  the  north 
aisle  for  some  distance  is  the  exhibit  of  the  Massachusetts  marine  prepared 
by  the  Commissioners  of  that  State.  It  occupies  a  large  stand  hand- 
somely draped  with  flags  and  streamers,  and  consists  of  models  of  all  the 
various  kinds  of  sailing  and  steam  vessels,  both  old  and  new  style,  owned 
in  the  ports  of  Massachusetts. 

Passing  on  we  enter  the  department  of  printing  machinery.  Here  are 
presses  of  all  kinds  and  of  every  make,  from  the  little  hand  press  designed 
for  amateurs,  to  the  great  Bullock  machines  which  strike  off  20,000  copies 
of  the  New  York  Herald  in  an  hour.  The  presses  .stand  on  both  sides 
of  the  aisle,  and  extend  over  to  the  north  avenue. 

In  a  prominent  space  near  the  northern  wall  we  notice  a  splendid  six 
roller  stop  cylinder  press,  a  roller-drum  press,  and  a  perfecting  press  for 
illustrated  cut  work,  all  made  and  exhibited  by  Messrs.  Cottrell  & 
Babcock,  of  New  York. 

We  are  now  at  the  end  of  the  American  department,  and  pass  into  the 
north  avenue  to  complete  our  examination  of  the  printing  machinery, 
W^e  notice  two  large  presses  at  the  eastern  end  of  that  avenue  made  by  the 
Bullock  Printing  Press  Company.  They  are  in  daily  operation,  anc 
every  afternoon  a  number  of  copies  of  the  New  York  Herald  and  Sun  are 
struck  off  from  stereotype  plates  sent  over  from  New  York  in  the 
morning.  The  papers  are  distributed  among  the.  visitors.  These  presses 
have  a  capacity  of  20,000  impressions  per  hour. 

Paper-cutting  machines  stand  on  the  north  side  of  the  avenue,  and  in 


APPENDIX.  1009 

this  department  are  book  binders'  machinery,  presses  for  steel  and  copper 
plate  and  lithographic  printing,  and  machinery  for  stereotyping  and 
electrotyping  and  for  type  founding. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  aisle  Messrs.  R.  Hoe  &  Co.,  of  New  York, 
show  several  of  their  improved  presses,  one  of  which  is  engaged  in 
printing  the  fine  illustrations  contained  in  "  Picturesque  America,"  thus 
giving  a  practical  demonstration  of  its  excellence;  and  at  the  western 
end  of  their  space  is  the  venerable  hand  press  at  which  Benjamin 
Franklin  worked  as  a  journeyman  printer  during  his  first  visit  to 
London. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  avenue  opposite  these  presses  is  a  fine  ice 
yacht,  a  peculiarly  American  institution,  and  above  it  an  American  double 
life-boat  with  its  equipments,  beyond  which  is  a  collection  of  boats  and 
shells,  and  a  half-size  model  of  the  famous  Monitor  life-raft.  Beyond 
this  is  a  full-sized  steam  yacht  exhibited  by  Baird  &  Huston,  of  Philadel- 
phia, showing  an  improvement  in  the  arrangement  of  the  propeller. 

At  the  head  of  the  north  avenue,  and  along  the  transept,  John  Roach 
&  Sons,  the  famous  shipbuilders  of  New  York  and  Chester,  Pennsyl- 
vania, exhibit  a  handsome  collection  of  models  of  the  noted  iron-steam- 
ships they  have  built  for  the  Pacific  Mail  Company  and  other  shippers, 
and  models  of  the  ironclads  Puritan  and  Miantonomoh,  built  by  them  for 
the  United  States.  They  exhibit  also  a  sample  of  armor  plating,  and 
other  work  for  iron  vessels. 

Passing  along  the  transept  into  the  central  aisle,  we  notice  a  number 
of  models  of  vessels,  life-saving  apparatus,  rafts,  etc.,  and  turn  into  the 
central  aisle. 

To  the  eastward  of  this  stand  we  enter  a  region  of  machinery  of  various 
kinds  for  weaving  cotton,  woollen  and  silk  cloths.  On  the  left  hand 
side  of  the  aisle  the  Phoenix  Manufacturing  Company,  of  Paterson,  New 
Jersey,  have  a  Jacquard  loom  at  work  weaving  Centennial  badges  in 
silk. 

Opposite  the  loom  A.  F.  Prentice  &  Co.,  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts, 
exhibit  a  fine  collection  of  machinists'  tools,  with  a  number  of  presses, 
dies,  and  other  machines  for  working  in  metal.  On  the  left  hand  side 
of  the  aisle,  the  Dan  forth  Machine  Company,  of  Paterson,  New  Jersey, 
exhibit  three  fine  machines  for  spinning  silk  thread.  All  the  stages  of 
the  manufacture  of  this  article,  from  the  raw  silk  to  the  complete  thread, 
are  shown  here. 

Below  this  is  a  self-feeding  machine  for  the  manufacture  of  pa]>€r 
envelopes.  The  machine  is  almost  entirely  automatic,  and  cuts,  folds, 
gums  and  counts  120  envelopes  per  minute.  By  the  side  of  this  machine 
64 


1010  APPENDIX. 

is  another  for  printing  envelopes,  which  prints  60,000  per  day.*  A  third 
machine  is  engaged  in  making  paper  collars. 

On  the  next  space  below,  the  process  of  making  paper  boxes  by 
machinery  is  shown,  and  farther  on  is  a  brick-making  machine  which 
works  the  clay,  moulds  the  bricks  and  turns  them  out  ready  for  baking. 

At  the  end  of  the  aisle,  William  Sellers  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  make 
an  extensive  exhibit  of  powerful  machinery  for  certain  lines  of  work. 
They  have  a  complete  machine  shop,  which  could  at  any  moment  be 
started  upon  the  most  difficult  and  the  heaviest  work.  In  the  next  space 
Pratt  &  Whitney,  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  exhibit  a  number  of 
machinists'  tools,  somewhat  similar  to,  but  of  a  smaller  class  than,  those 
of  Sellers-&  Co.  We  are  now  at  the  end  of  the  American  department, 
and  pass  over  to  the  south  avenue,  and  work  our  way  westward  along  it. 
On  the  right  is  the  machine  shop  of  Sellers  &  Co.,  and  on  the  left  an 
extensive  exhibit  of  valves  and  steam  pipe  connections,  steam-fittings  of 
various  kinds,  and  nuts,  bolts  and  screws.  Immediately  on  the  west  of 
the  Sellers  machinery,  the  Midvale  Steel  Works,  of  (Nicetown)  Phila- 
delphia, make  a  splendid  display  of  specimens  of  steel,  including  large 
axles  and  shafts  of  finely  forged  metal,  and  twisted  and  cold  chilled  bars. 
An  axle  is  shown  which  was  tested  at  the  United  States  navy  yard  at 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  which  required  a  strain  of  122,300  pounds  to 
the  square  inch  to  snap  it.  Diagonally  opposite,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
avenue,  the  Pittsburgh  foundry  shows  some  fine  rollers  of  chilled  iron  for 
rolling  brass,  with  a  broken  section  of  a  roller,  showing  the  depth  of 
crystallization. 

Both  sides  of  the  aisle  are  now  taken  up  with  a  collection  of  machinery 
of  various  kinds.  On  the  north  side  of  the  aisle  the  Pennsylvania  Tack 
Works,  of  Norristown,  have  six  of  their  machines  at  work  cutting  tacks 
out  of  thin  strips  of  metal.  The  machines  used  are  "  Weaver's  patent," 
which  make  400  tacks  per  minute,  and  over  2500  different  kinds  and  sizes. 
In  the  next  space  below,  the  Duncannon  Iron  Company  of  Philadelphia 
show  the  process  of  making  nails  by  a  machine  operated  by  a  nail  cutter. 
Immediately  back  of  this  is  an  automatic  nail  cutter,  which  does  not 
require  the  services  of  a  man  to  turn  the  metal  plate  as  in  the  ordinary 
machine.  The  remainder  of  the  aisle  is  taken  up  with  machinery  for 
charging  soda-fountains. 

Having  now  finished  our  inspection  of  the  American  department  in  the 
main  hal^  J^e  go  back  to  the  Corliss  engine,  and  examine  the  Hydraulic 
Annex,  wi-yvii  is  a  prolongation  of  the  south  transept,  as  we  have  stated 
elsewhere 

On  the  ricjht  hand  of  the  aisle,  the  Silsby  Manufacturing  Company 


APPENDIX. 

of  Seneca  Falls,  New  York,  display  several  handsome  steam  fire-engine*, 
and  horse  and  hand  hose-carriages,  and  close  by  the  same  company  have 
one  of  their  famous  rotary  steam-pumps. 

The  central  portion  of  the  annex  is  occupied  by  a  sunken  tank,  106  feet 
long  by  sixty  feet  wide,  which  is  filled  with  water  to  a  depth  of  about  ten 
feet.  At  the  south  end  of  this  tank  is  a  smaller  tank  raised  about  forty 
feet  from  the  floor  of  the  hall,  from  which  a  steady  sheet  of  water-'pours 
in  a  cascade  down  into  the  pool  below.  The  water  is  raised  by  two 
rotary  pumps,  driven  by  a  steam-engine  of  150  horse-power,  which  raise 
30,000  gallons  of  water  per  minute  to  the  upper  tank.  The  effect  is  very 
fine,  and  the  cascade  forms  one  of  the  principal  attractions  of  the  hall. 

The  pumps  and  hydraulic  machines  are  grouped  around  the  lower  tank, 
and  discharge  steady  streams  of  water  into  it.  Here  are  hydraulic  rams, 
presses,  steam  and  hand  pumps,  pumps  for  mines,  sugar  refineries,  and 
other  special  uses,  turbine  water-wheels  and  blowing  machines  and  ven- 
tilating apparatus.  Great  Britain  and  several  foreign  nations  participate 
in  the  exhibit,  their  machines  being  located  on  the  east  side  of  the  annex. 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland. — The  space  assigned  to  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  covers  about  one-third  of  the  area  occupied  by  the  foreign  exhibits. 
Banners  of  red  with  letters  of  white  suspended  from  the  roof  mark  the 
British  section.  We  begin  our  tour  through  it  in  the  southern  aisle,  at 
its  eastern  end,  just  above  the  German  section. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  aisle  are  two  of  the  famous  traction  engines 
made  by  Aveling  &  Porter,  of  Rochester,  England.  They  attract  much 
attention,  and  have  no  superiors  in  the  world.  Across  the  aisle  Messrs. 
Howard  &  Bullough  exhibit  some  fine  cotton  machinery,  including  a 
large  carding  machine.  In  the  next  space  is  a  display  of  submarine  armor 
and  diving  apparatus,  made  by  Siebe  &  Gorman,  of  London. 

We  cross  now  to  the  south  avenue,  on  the  south  side  of  which  several 
steam-hammers  are  displayed  by  B.  &  S.  Massey,  of  Manchester.  This 
firm  exhibit  also  steam-stamps,  and  circular-saws  for  cutting  hot  iron  and 
steel.  A  section  of  nine-inch  iron  armor-plate  is  also  exhibited,  in  which 
are  several  deeply-indented  shot  holes,  which  show  tbe  severity  of  the  test 
to  which  it  was  subjected.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  avenue  is  another 
section  of  iron  plate,  21|  inches  in  thickness,  which  is  polished  on  one 
face.  The  outer  edge  shows  the  manner  of  building  up.  plate  upon  plate 
to  gain  the  required  thickness.  On  the  south  side  of  the  avenue  we  pass 
a  group  of  machinery  for  weaving  cotton  cloths,  and  come  upon  two  im- 
mense steam-cranes  made  by  Appleby  Brothers,  London.  Opposite  the 
cranes,  Thomas  Gadd,  of  Manchester,  has  a  fine  machine  for  printing 
salicoes,  which  prints  eight  colors  at  once,  and  an  engine  for  running  it ; 


1012  APPENDIX. 

and  below  this,  Clarke,  Stanfield  &  Co.,  of  London,  show  a  pretty  model 
of  a  floating  dry-dock,  with  a  steamship  drawn  up  on  one,  to  illustrate 
its  workings. 

We  are  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  British  section  once  more,  and  pass 
northward  into  the  central  aisle,  and  turn  westward  again.  On  the  north 
side  of  the  aisle  Messrs.  Newton  &  Wilson,  of  London,  make  a  large  dis- 
play of  their  sewing  machines,  many  of  which  are  operated  by  the  hand 
instead  of  the  foot,  a  style  very  popular  in  England.  The  machines  are 
handsome,  and  are  displayed  in  an  attractive  manner.  On  the  opposite 
side  of  the  aisle,  a  Jacquard  loom  is  weaving  badges  of  silk,  and  above 
the  loom  is  another  exhibit  of  sewing  machines.  Immediately  on  the 
west  of  these  machines,  the  well-known  cotton-spinners,  J.  &  P.  Coats, 
of  Paisley,  Scotland,  have  machines  at  work  winding  and  spooling  cotton 
thread,  which  finds  a  ready  sale  to  visitors  to  the  hall. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  British  section  in  this  aisle  we  notice  a  large 
table  on  which  Messrs.  Brierly  Sons  &  Reynolds,  of  London,  have  a 
beautiful  model  of  a  railway  junction,  by  means  of  which  they  illustrate 
the  English  system  of  managing  railway  switches  and  signalling  the  move- 
ments of  trains.  A  similar  exhibit  is  made  immediately  north  of  this 
one  by  Messrs.  Saxby  &  Farmer,  of  London,  who  also  show  photo- 
graphs and  drawings  of  the  workings  of  the  switch  system  of  the  great 
depots  of  London. 

Adjoining  Saxby  &  Farmer's  model,  the  Inman  Steamship  Company 
exhibit  a  full-rigged  model  of  their  fine  steamer,  the  City  of  Berlin.  To 
the  east  of  the  railway  model,  Mr.  John  Walter,  of  the  London  Times, 
exhibits  the  printing  press  which  bears  his  name.  It  is  a  fine  machine 
and  a  worthy  rival  of  the  great  American  presses.  It  prints  a  daily  edition 
of  the  New  York  Times,  and  attracts  much  attention  from  visitors. 

On  the  east  of  the  Walter  press,  Messrs.  Mirlees,  Tait  &  Watson,  of 
Glasgow,  make  an  extensive  display  of  machinery  in  motion,  consisting 
of  a  sugar  mill,  and  a  valveless  engine  working  an  air-pump  for  a  vacuum- 
pan,  and  driving  centrifugal  machines.  This  is  one  of  the  largest  exhibits 
in  the  hall,  and  the  machinery  is  all  of  the  largest  class. 

Canada. — Canada,  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  make  a  collective 
exhibit  under  one  general  title,  as  above.  They  have  planing  and  mould- 
ing  machines,  two  kinds  of  turbine  wheels,  horizontal  and  radial  boring 
mills,  from  Dundas,  stationary,  vertical,  horizontal,  and  portable  steam- 
engines,  and  seamless  lead  trap  machines  from  Montreal ;  car-wheels, 
soda-water  apparatus,  and  marbles,  from  Toronto ;  and  railway  signals 
from  Belleville,  in  Canada.  Nova  Scotia  sends  quartz-crushers  from 
Halifax :  and  New  Brunswick,  vertical  steam-engines  and  circular-saws 


APPENDIX. 


1013 


from  St.  John's.  Lathes,  drills,  brick-making  machinery,  a  steam  fire- 
engine,  sewing  machines,  from  Canada,  canoes,  and  boats  of  various  kinds, 
make  up  the  remainder  of  the  exhibit.  The  Canadian  section  is  at  the 
eastern  end  of  Machinery  Hall,  and  in  the  centre  of  the  building. 

Germany. — The  German  section  occupies  the  southeast  corner  of  Ma- 
chinery Hall,  and  is  about  one-half  as  large  as  that  assigned  to  Great 
Britain.  The  German  display  is  neither  very  large  nor  very  varied,  and 
does  not  give  the  visitor  a  fair  idea  of  the  resources  of  Germany,  or  the 
progress  made  by  her  in  mechanics. 

Upon  entering  the  southeastern  doors  of  Machinery  Hall,  the  visitor's 
attention  is  at  once  drawn  to  two  immense  breech-loading  siege  guns  that 
are  mounted  on  carriages  of  a  peculiar  construction.  These  are  the  famous 
1200-pounder  breech-loud  ing  Kruppguns,  from  the  foundry  of  that  maker, 
at  Essen.  A  number  of  smaller  rifled  steel-guns  of  the  same  maker,  for 
field  uses,  are  grouped  about  the  base  of  these  monsters. 

On  the  north  of  the  Krupp  guns  is  a  tall  column  of  exhibits  from  the 
iron  mine  from  which  the  metal  for  these  guns  is  drawn.  The  base  of 
the  column  is  of  crude  iron  ore,  and  the  shaft  of  the  smelted  ore.  It  is  a 
conspicuous  object  in  this  part  of  the  hall.  To  the  north  of  it  is  a  fine 
collection  of  copper  and  iron  wire  piled  in  pyramidal  form.  On  the  south 
side  of  the  space  occupied  by  the  Krupp  guns  a  large  machine  is  at  work 
making  full-sized  bricks  of  a  fine  quality.  It  is  exhibited  by  C.  Schlick- 
eysen,  of  Berlin.  Prussia  makes  a  fine  exhibit  of  sulphur  and  copper 
ores,  and  on  the  south  of  this  are  a  number  of  railroad  car-wheels,  a  rail- 
road switch,  and  machinery  for  railroad  cars.  Along  the  south  aisle 
several  gas-engines  of  a  peculiar  construction  are  i^  operation,  showing 
how  a  steady  motive  power  is  derived  from  the  explosive  force  of  ordinarv 
burning  gas.  They  are  exhibited  by  the  Gas  Motor  Factory,  of  Deutz 
At  the  eastern  end  of  the  German  section  a  collection  of  steam  gauges 
from  Hamburg  and  Magdeburg  is  shown.  The  German  sewing  machine 
manufacturers  make  a  collective  display,  and  Aix  la  Chapelle  shows  her 
needles  in  handsome  style.  There  are  printing  presses  from  Leipzig, 
steam-engines  from  Bremerhaven,  and  machinery  of  various  kinds  from 
Hamburg  and  Berlin  in  the  remainder  of  the  collection. 

France. — The  French  section  occupies  the  northeastern  corner  of  Ma 
shinery  Hall,  and  is  equal  in  size  to  that  of  Germany.  At  the  eastern 
end  of  the  north  avenue  of  the  building,  A.  Gurnet  &  Co.,  of  Lyons,  have 
a  loom,  for  the  illustration  of  the  process  of  weaving  silk  ;  and  beyond 
the  loom  E.  Secretan,  of  Paris,  has  an  exceptionally  elaborate  pavilion, 
constructed  of  brass  and  copper,  in  v\hich  he  exhibits  specimens  of  his 
work  in  those  ruetals.  To  the  north  of  this  pavilion,  the  French  choco- 


1014  APPENDIX. 

late  and  bon-bon  makers  are  at.work,  making  and  selling  their  finest  con- 
fections ;  and  the  same  firm  have  a  set  of  machines  turning  out  their 
fine  soaps,  which  find  a  ready  market. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  aisle,  near  the  east  door,  F.  Arbey,  of  Paris, 
exhibits  a  collection  of  wood- working  machinery,  and  to  the  west  of  this 
Morane,  of  Paris,  exhibits  some  admirable  machinery  for  making  stearine 
candles. 

In  the  north  aisle,  near  the  western  end  of  the  French  section,  P. 
Alauzet  &  Co.,  of  Paris,  have  a  series  of  lithographic  printing  machines. 
One  of  these  is  a  railway  printing  machine,  the  'bed  of  which  is  carried 
on  wheels,  which  run  on  tracks.  Around  the  sides  of  their  space  are 
displayed  specimens  of  their  lithographic  printing. 

The  remainder  of  the  French  exhibit  consists  of  a  variety  of  machines. 
A  fine  apparatus  for  making  beet- root  sugar  is  shown  by  Beyer  Brothers, 
of  Paris.  A  Charleville  house  exhibits  portable  forges ;  Sascole,  of  Paris, 
has  an  interesting  machine  for  making  illuminating  gas ;  D.  Scgat,  of 
Paris,  exhibits  a  machine  for  sewing  straw  hats ;  E.  Comely,  of  Paris, 
a  machine  for  embroidering;  E.  Carr6,  also  of  Paris,  a  machine  for 
making  ice ;  and  Leon  Edoux,  of  Paris,  a  special  system  for  mountain 
railways. 

Belgium. — The  Belgian  exhibit  is  small,  but  very  complete,  and  occupies 
a  space  about  one-third  as  large  as  that  of  Great  Britain.  It  is  situated 
on  the  north  side  of  the  hall,  immediately  west  of  the  French  section. 

One  of  the  largest  single  machines  in  the  hall  is  a  Belgian  well-borer, 
exhibited  by  Joseph  Chamlron,  of  Brussels.  It  is  an  enormous  leg  of 
iron,  with  a  foot  having  a  row  of  chisels  on  the  side,  used  to  stamp  holes 
into  the  ground. 

Louvain  sends  a  fine  exhibit  of  railway  car-wheels  and  axles ;  Marie- 
mont,  railway  stock  of  various  kinds;  Verviers,  wool-cleaning  and  card- 
ing machines  and  looms;  and  Brussels,  embroidering  and  sewing  machines. 
Auguste  De  Tomboy,  of  Marcinelle,  near  Charleroi,exhibits  the  model  of 
a  trip-hammer  and  one  of  steam  shears,  and  close  by  is  a  collection  of 
machinery  for  making  bolts.  Ernile  Van  Flaecht,  of  Haercn,  near 
Brussels,  shows  some  beautiful  models  of  fat-rendering  works,  with 
samples  of  stearine  and  oleine.  One  of  the  finest  of  the  Belgian  exhibits 
is  that  of  P.  Van  der  Kerchove,  of  Ghent,  and  consists  of  a  beautiful 
horizontal  Corliss  engine,  built  for  the  Belgian  mint,  at  Brussels,  and  a 
smaller  one  with  Rider  valves.  Verviers  sends  beautiful  machines  for 
working  in  wool ;  and  Celestine  Martin,  of  the  same  city,  has  a  ring  and 
traveller  spinner.  Brussels,  Namur  and  La  Louviere  send  multitubular 
filters,  rotary  pumps  and  punching  machines. 


APPENDIX.  1015 

Sweden. — The  Swedish  space  is  less  than  a  third  as  large  as  that  of 
Belgium,  and  lies  along  the  north  side  of  the  north  aisle,  immediately 
opposite  the  Belgian  space.  The  tall  sfoves  of  the  country  form  con- 
spicuous portions  of  the  exhibit.  The  machines  for  working  in  wood  and 
,metal  are  among  the  very  best  in  the  hall,  and  there  are  quite  a  number 
:)f  them.  Norway  has  some  fine  machinery  for  the  same  purpose,  her 
collection  being  shown  with  that  of  Sweden.  There  are  several  trip- 
hammers in  this  section,  and  machines  for  making  bricks  of  peat ;  also 
two  stationary  horizontal,  and  one  vertical  steam-engine.  Sewing  ma- 
chines, a  fire-engine,  railway  axles  and  springs,  and  fire-escaping  apparatus 
are  exhibited.  A  small  narrow  gauge  locomotive,  called  the  "  Nyhammer,' 
stands  at  the  western  end  of  the  Swedish  space,  and  is  a  singular-looking 
machine. 

Russia. — Russia  does  not  make  much  of  a  display  in  Machinery  Hall 
She  has  two  sections,  one  of  which  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the 
north  aisle,  on  the  west  of  the  Swedish  space,  where  she  displays  some 
fine  brass  mortars  and  naval  guns ;  and  another  between  the  central  aisle 
and  northern  avenue,  and  between  the  American  and  British  sections,  in 
which  some  interesting  machinery  is  shown. 

Brazil. — The  Brazilian  section  lies  between  the  north  avenue  and  nortl. 
aisle,  to  the  west  of  the  Belgian  space.  It  contains  one  of  the  most  com- 
plete displays  made  by  any  of  the  foreign  nations  in  this  hall.  One  of 
the  most  conspicuous  objects  of  the  collection  is  a  stationary  engine  of 
very  peculiar  construction,  which  can  be  constructed  for  either  high 
pressure  or  low  pressure,  and  is  said  to  be  very  simple  and  easy  to  keep 
in  order.  There  are  also  several  models  of  marine  engines. 

There  are  models  of  men-of-war,  representing  different  styles.  One  of 
these  is  to  represent  a  ship  carrying  a  square  battery  amidships,  being 
almost  as  wide  as  the  vessel  itself,  and  pierced  for  four  guns,  one  on  each 
face.  The  second  carries  amidships  a  turret  that  is  flat  on  the  sides  and 
circular  on  the  ends,  at  one  of  which  is  the  porthole  for  the  single  gun  it 
carries. 

The  machine  shop  at  the  arsenal  of  Marinha,  at  Bahia,  is  here  beauti- 
fully represented  by  a  miniature  model,  in  which  are  represented  the 
engines  and  boilers  and  all  the  different  pieces  of  machinery.  Here  we 
?an  see,  all  arrange:!  in  methodical  order,  planes,  upright  drills,  borin. 
machines  and  several  lathes.  Small  as  these  latter  are,  and  all  are  madu 
to  scale,  they  show  every  part  as  perfect  as  in  the  larger  machines.  Be- 
sides the  engines  and  boilers  and  the  shafting,  there  are  twenty-one  dif- 
ferent machines  represented,  and  also  the  rail  tracks  with  the  two 
turn-tables  and  two  trucks.  There  are  also  two  models  of  stone  dry 


1016 


APPENDIX.  1017 

docks,  l>eing  made  to  scale  from  those  at  Santa  Cruz  and  the  Imperial 
dry  dock. 

A  pin-making  machine  is  shown,  completed,  and  a  series  of  the  different 
pieces  are  also  shown,  both  complete  and  in  section,  so  as  to  give  a  per- 
fect idea  of  the  entire  construction.  A  couple  of  the  machines  used  in 
the  Imperial  mint  are  also  shown,  one  of  which  is  for  stamping  the  coin. 

The  army  and  navy  of  Brazil  are  represented  by  full  suits  of  the  uni- 
forms of  the  several  grades  of  the  service,  a  large  case  full  of  the  various 
small  arms,  rifles,  carbines,  swords  and  pistols,  and  a  number  of  pieces  of 
artillery  ready  for  service. 

Quite  a  number  of  brass  pumps  are  here  on  exhibit,  as  well  as  two  or 
three  stationary  fire-engines. 

On  the  south  side  of  Machinery  Hall,  and  west  of  the  Hydraulic  An- 
nex, are  three  substantially  built  structures,  smaller  than,  but  similar  in 
outward  appearance  to,  the  principal  edifice.  These  are  the  Annexes  for 
the  display  of  boilers  and  quartz-crushing  machinery,  which  may  be  seen 
in  operation  here. 

The  Agricultural  Hall  lies  north  of  the  Horticultural  Building,  on  the 
eastern  side  of  Belmont  avenue.  It  is  constructed  chiefly  of  wood  and 
glass,  and  consists  of  a  long  nave  crossed  by  three  transepts;  nave  and 
transepts  being  all  composed  of  truss-arches  of  Gothic  form.  The  length 
of  the  nave  is  820  feet;  its  width  125;  and  its  height  from  the  floor  to 
the  point  of  the  arch«  seventy-five  feet.  The  central  transept  is  of  the 
same  height  and  is  100  feet  wide.  The  two  end  transepts  are  seventy 
feet  high  and  eighty  feet  wide. 

At  the  point  of  intersection  of  the  nave  and  central  transept  a  hand- 
some cupola  rises  from  the  roof,  surmounted  by  a  weather  vane.  The 
nave  and  transepts  are  co.nposed  of  Howe  truss-arches  of  a  Gothic  form. 

The  height  of  the  nave  and  central  transept  from  the  floor  to  the  point 
of  the  arch  is  seventy-five  fe«t ,  the  two  end  transepts  are  seventy  feet  in 
height  to  the  point  of  the  arch. 

The  interior  of  the  hall  is  simply  decorated,  the  roof,  arches  and  col- 
umns being  covered  with  a  plain  coating  of  whitewash,  which  color  :: 
much  to  the  air  of  spaciousness  which  is  a  characteristic  of  the  hall.  The 
view  is  broken  at  intervals  by  the  bases  of  the  Howe  truss-arches  an  1 
slender  columns  of  wood.  Overhead  is  a  bewildering  network  of  trusses 
and  beams. 

The  ground-plan  of  the  building,  including  the  courts  and  corner 
spaces,  is  a  parallelogram  of  820  by  540  feet,  covering  an  area  of  about 
ten  acres. 

The  contract  for  the  erection  of  the  building  was  made  on  the  26th  of 


1018  APPENDIX. 

July,  1875,  and  the  work  was  begun  in  the  following  September,  and 
finished  about  the  middle  of  April,  1876.  The  cost  of  the  building  was 
$2CO,000. 

Stock-yards  for  the  exhibition  of  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  swine,  poultry, 
etc.,  are  provided  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Exhibition  grounds. 

Tha  display  collected  within  this  hall  is  the  largest  and  most  complete 
ever  attempted  at  any  of  the  World's  Fairs,  and  is  by  many  considered 
the  most  striking  and  original  feature  of  the  whole  Exhibition. 

We  enter  the  building  at  the  north  door  of  the  nave,  and  turning  to 
the  left  make  our  first  inspection  in  the  northeastern  quarter  of  the  hall, 
which  is  devoted  exclusively  to  a  display  of  agricultural  machinery  and 
fanning  implements. 

Near  the  north  door  is  a  handsome  display  of  famous  plows,  each  of 
which  is  brought  to  the  highest  stage  of  perfect  workmanship  and  artistic 
finish. 

Passing  the  plows  we  enter  the  line  of  wheat-cleaning  machinery,  fans, 
etc.,  which  brings  us  to  the  eastern  end  of  the  building.  Here  is  a  hand- 
some exhibit  of  spades,  shovels,  rakes,  and  hoes. 

We  turn  into  the  court  to  the  north  of  the  first  transept,  and  return 
towards  the  nave.  We  pass  through  a  row  of  drills,  horse-rakes  and 
threshing  machines,  and  notice  a  fine  machine  for  taking  up  hay  and 
loading  it  on  the  wagon  in  the  harvest  field. 

We  are  now  at  the  nave  again,  and  turn  into  ihe  northeast  transept 
and  follow  it  eastward.  Here  is  a  fine  display  of  plows,  in  the  midst  of 
which  is  a  venerable  plow  made  in  Connecticut  in  the  year  1756.  The 
contrast  between  this  and  the  splendid  plows  exhibited  by  this  company 
is  striking. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  transept  we  notice  a  collection  of  threshing 
machines  and  portable  steam-engines  for  operating  them.  A  collection 
of  butchers'  and  meat-packers'  machinery  occupies  the  eastern  end  of  the 
transept,  and  passing  through  this  we  reach  the  eastern  door,  and  turn 
off  to  the  right  into  the  court  immediately  south  of  the  northeast  transept. 
A  little  way  down,  on  the  left,  is  a  large  space  devoted  to  the  display  of 
reapers  and  threshers.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  court  are  steam- 
threshers  and  corn-planters.  We  are  at  the  nave  again,  and  turn  off"  into 
the  next  court  on  the  south  and  go  eastward  again.  On  the  north  side 
of  the  court  is  a  large  and  handsome  display  of  reapers  and  mowers. 
One  of  these  machines  is  so  arranged  that  it  can  be  used  either  as  a 
mower  or  as  a  reaper  at  the  pleasure  of  the  operator.  A  most  ingenious 
and  valuable  improvement  to  some  of  these  machines  is  the  automatic 
binder,  by  which  bundles  of  grain  are  taken  up  from  the  cradle  of  the 


APPENDIX.  1019 

machine,  bound,  and  distributed  at  regular  distances.  The  remainder  of 
the  court,  on  both  sides,  is  taken  up  with  harvesting  machines  of  various 
kinds. 

We  are  now  at  the  east  door,  where  a  horizontal  engine  is  at  wor!: 

7  O 

supplying  power  to  the  line  of  shafting  which  turns  the  agricultural 
machinery  in  this  quarter  of  the  building.  We  pass  by  it  and  enter  the 
next  court  on  the  south.  This  court,  like  the  preceding  one,  is  filled 
with  harvesting  machines  of  various  kinds,  cultivators  and  sulky  plows. 

Being  at  the  nave  again,  we  pass  to  the  central  transept  and  go  east, 
noticing  on  the  left  a  handsome  exhibit  of  horse-rakes.  Passing  through 
a  collection  of  reapers  and  rakes,  we  come  to  a  handsome  pavilion  of 
black  velvet,  ornamented  with  pitchforks,  hoes,  rakes,  scythes,  cutting- 
knives,  etc. 

Harvesting  machinery  occupies  the  transept  to  the  eastern  end. 

We  are  now  at  the  east  wall  again,  and  pass  into  the  court  on  the 
south  of  the  central  transept.  At  the  eastern  door  of  this  court  is  a 
vertical  engine  for  running  the  machines  in  the  southeastern  section  of 
the  building. 

On  the  south  side  of  this  court,  at  its  eastern  end,  is  an  immense  cider- 
mill  in  operation.  The  apples  are  ground  by  a  grating  machine  which 
has  a  capacity  of  five  hundred  bushels  an  hour.  It  is  claimed  for  this 
press,  which  is  the  most  powerful  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  that  it  extracts 
more  of  the  juice  of  the  apples  than  any  other.  The  whole  process  of 
cider-making  is  shown  here.  Beyond  the  cider-mill,  on  the  south  side 
of  the  court,  is  a  display  of  portable  steam-engines,  and  farm  saws  for 
steam  or  horse-power  ;  and  to  the  west  of  these  is  a  collection  of  meat- 
chopping  machinery.  On  the  south  side  of  the  aisle,  opposite  the  scales, 
is  an  exhibit  of  ice-cream  freezers,  churns  and  wooden  ware;  and  fronting 
these,  on  the  north  side  of  the  aisle,  is  a  collection  of  lawn-mowers  of 
various  patterns.  These  make  up  a  pretty  display,  and  bring  us  to  the 
nave  once  more. 

We  turn  into  the  next  court  on  the  south  and  go  east  again.  On  the 
north  side  of  the  court  is  a  handsome  exhibit  of  a  model  stable  of  three 
stalls,  and  a  quantity  of  ornamental  iron-work  for  farm  and  stable  use. 
Above  the  stable  is  a  collection  of  machinery  for  making  ice-cream  1>\ 
steam  power,  churns,  butter  tubs  and  other  wooden  ware ;  and  on  tin, 
south  side  of  the  court,  immediately  opposite,  is  a  display  of  threshing- 
machines.  A  farm  saw-mill  is  shown  on  the  north  side  of  the  aisle;  and 
above  this  an  improved  press  for  baling  hay,  straw,  broom-corn,  hemp, 
cotton,  wool  and  hair.  It  may  be  operated  by  either  hand,  horse,  or 
steam-power.  At  the  eastern  end  of  the  court  is  a  fine  iron  stable,  with 


1020  APPENDIX. 

a  patent  flooring.  It  is  complete  in  every  detail,  and  has  stalls  for  four 
horses.  Immediately  opposite,  on  the  south  side  of  the  court,  is  a  collec- 
tion of  the  largest  and  finest  power-threshing  machines  and  horse-powers 
in  the  hall. 

Having  reached  the  east  wall  again,  we  pass  into  the  next  court  on  the 
south.  On  the  south  side  of  this  court  are  the  Canadian  and  Liberia n 
exhibits,  the  north  side  of  the  court  being  the  limit  of  the  American 
department  in  this  quarter  of  the  building.  It  is  an  unbroken  line  of 
threshing  machines  for  steam  and  horse-power,  and  of  portable  engines. 
Passing  by  these,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  nave  once  more. 

We  turn  northward  now  and  pass  up  the  nave  towards  the  north  door. 
For  a  while  our  inspection  is  confined  to  the  east  side,  as  the  opposite 
side  is  taken  up  with  several  foreign  departments.  We  enter  at  once 
upon  the  exhibit  of  the  native  wines  of  the  United  States.  These  are 
handsomely  displayed  in  bottles,  each  wine-grower  having  his  own  booth, 
or  stall,  some  of  which  are  finely  fitted  up.  Here  are  the  wines  of  Cali- 
fornia, Ohio,  Missouri,  and  central  New  York,  consisting  of  champagne, 
still  and  sparkling  wines,  port  and  claret.  The  exhibit  here  is  most 
encouraging. 

At  the  intersection  of  the  nave  and  the  central  transept  stands  a  hand- 
some bronze  fountain,  which  throws  its  waters  almost  to  the  roof. 

North  of  the  fountain  the  American  department  extends  along  both 
sides  of  the  nave.  The  western  side  is  occupied  by  the  exhibits  of  the 
starch-makers.  The  Glen  Cove  Company  have  a  beautiful  Moorish 
pavilion  with  an  imitation  stained  glass  roof  and  tile-work  at  the  base, 
one  of  the  handsomest  structures  in  the  building,  in  which  are  displayed 
in  a  most  attractive  manner  specimens  of  their  starch,  and  illustrations 
of  the  process  of  manufacture.  Above  the  starch-makers  is  a  display  of 
extracts  of  hops  and  malt,  and  a  line  of  canned  goods,  all  tastefully 
shown.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  nave  is  an  exhibit  of  cologne  spirits 
and  whiskeys,  in  glass  and  wood.  Diagonally  opposite,  on  the  west  side 
of  the  nave,  is  an  extensive  assortment  of  famous  canned  meats,  fish, 
shell-fish,  fowls  and  soups.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  nave  the  bakers 
make  one  of  the  handsomest  exhibits  in  the  hall.  Their  crackers,  cakes, 
bread,  biscuit  and  other  products  are  displayed  in  ornamental  cases,  and 
are  often  arranged  in  tasteful  and  sometimes  artistic  designs. 

A  large  windmill  stands  in  the  nave  at  this  point.  It  is  built  in  the 
old  style,  is  about  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  its  sails  reach  nearly  to  the 
roof  of  the  hall.  It  bears  the  date  1776,  and  is  complete  in  all  its 
arrangements.  If  a  sufficient  force  of  wind  could  be  obtained  in  the 
it  could  be  put  to  work  at  any  moment. 


APPENDIX. 


1021 


Along  the  eastern  side  of  the  nave  is  a  large  exhibit  of  stuffed  animals 
and  birds.  Some  of  these  are  American,  others  are  natives  of  foreign 
countries).  Here  are  a  large  Bactrian  camel,  a  giraffe  thirteen  feet  high, 
and  a  number  of  casts  of  celebrated  fossils.  The  collection  is  the  best  of 
its  kind  in  the  Exhibition,  and  is  deeply  interesting  to  the  masses  as  well 
<ts  to  the  student  of  natural  history.  North  of  the  windmill,  on  the  ea^t 
side  of  the  nave,  the  confectioners  make  a  handsome  display  of  their 
wares.  North  of  this  is  a  display  of  chocolates,  cocoa  and  broma  prepar- 


ations.    On  the  opposite  side  of  the  nave  the  macaroni  and  oatmeal 
makers  exhibit  their  goods. 

We  are  now  at  the  north  door,  and,  turning  to  the  left,  enter  the  north- 
west section  of  the  building.  We  pass  along  the  first  court  on  the  north, 
pausing  to  notice  the  handsome  display  of  the  mustard  and  spice  grinders. 
In  a  large  space  close  by  is  an  exhibit  of  crude  India  rubber  and  elastic 
gums,  with  specimens  of  the  trees  from  which  they  are  obtained.  An 
exhibit  of  fertilizers  occupies  the  opposite  or  north  side  of  the  court, 


1022  APPENDIX. 

extending  to  the  western  end  of  the  building.  Along  the  western  wall  is 
a  row  of  aquaria  containing  the  food  fishes  of  our  rivers,  lakes  and  the 
sea.  We  pass  to  the  next  court  on  the  south.  The  Norwegian  fishery 
exhibit  occupies  the  south  side  of  this  court  for  a  short  distance.  Fertil- 
izers occupy  the  northern  side  for  a  considerable  space,  and  are  followed 
by  samples  of  the  native  woods  of  the  United  States,  among  which  is  a 
collection  of  forty-eight  specimens  of  different  kinds  of  wood  found 
growing  in  a  space  of  an  acre  and  a  half  in  New  Jersey,  not  far  from 
Philadelphia. 

We  now  enter  the  section  devoted  to  the  tobacco  exhibit.  It  is  very 
large,  and  occupies  a  considerable  portion  of  this  section  of  the  hall, 
extending  over  to  and  beyond  the  northwest  transept.  The  various 
manufacturers  have  exerted  all  their  ingenuity  to  render  this  section  as 
attractive  as  possible.  It  is  entirely  unique,  and  many  of  the  exhibits 
are  displayed  with  originality  as  well  as  taste.  The  collection  embraces 
the  virgin  leaf,  manufactured  tobacco  of  every  kind  for  chewing  and 
smoking,  and  snuff. 

Passing  the  tobacco  exhibit,  and  continuing  along  the  court,  we  enter 
the  exhibit  of  flour,  which  is  well  arranged  and  attractive.  It  occupies 
the  remainder  of  the  court  to  the  nave. 

We  enter  the  northwest  transept  from  the  nave.  The  eastern  part  of 
it  is  occupied  on  both  sides  by  a  display  of  pickles,  preserves  and  canned 
goods  of  various  kinds.  From  these  we  pass  through  the  tobacco  exhibit 
again,  and  beyond  it,  on  the  north  side  of  the  transept,  notice  a  decayed 
tree  covered  with  Southern  moss.  This  is  the  natural  state  of  the 
growing  moss,  which  is  here  exhibited  by  the  Delta  Moss  Company,  of 
New  Orleans,  who  also  show  several  bales  of  the  cured  nioss,  which  is 
now  being  extensively  used  in  the  place  of  curled  hair  for  upholstering 
purposes. 

From  the  western  end  of  the  transept  we  turn  into  the  next  court  on 
the  south.  On  the  right  hand  side  of  the  court  the  State  of  Oregon 
makes  a  collective  exhibit  of  her  agricultural  products.  A  large  part  of 
the  display  is  made  up  of  specimens  of  the  native  woods  of  the  State, 
which  are  among  the  finest  in  the  world.  The  grains  and  other  products 
of  the  State  are  well  shown,  and  a  specialty  is  dried  fruits,  of  which  large 
quantities  are  produced  in  Oregon  and  shipped  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Beyond  Oregon,  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  make  collective  exhibits  of  their 
agricultural  products,  the  chief  feature  of  their  displays  being  specimens 
of  the  splendid  grains  which  they  produce.  Ears  of  corn  are  shown 
which  are  of  astonishing  size,  and  every  kernel  is  as  perfect  as  the  most 
ardent  farmer  could  desire.  Opposite  these,  on  the  left  hand  side  of  the 


APPENDIX.  1023 

f-otirt,  Massachusetts  shows  her  agricultural  products  and  also  specimens 
of  her  beneficial  birds. 

At  its  eastern  end  the  court  is  occupied  by  the  pickle  and  preserve 
makers  and  canned  goods  packers  again.  Passing  into  the  next  court, 
on  the  south,  we  notice  a  display  of  pickles,  prepared  mustards  and 
sauces,  on  both  sides.  The  north  side  of  the  court  below  this  is  occupied 
by  the  collective  exhibits  of  the  States  of  Michigan,  Indiana,  Connecticut 
and  New  Hampshire,  and  the  Territory  of  Washington.  These  are  all 
displayed  in  a  tasteful  manner,  each  State  occupying  an  enclosed  court 
and  laying  especial  weight  upon  the  products  in  which  it  excels.  The 
Western  States  exhibit  wheat  and  corn  that  cannot  be  surpassed.  New 
Hampshire  shows  her  native  woods,  and  some  exceptionally  fine  samples 
of  wool.  She  also  exhibits  two  stuffed  hogs  of  enormous  size.  A  large 
plow,  thirteen  feet  long,  is  also  exhibited  by  the  New  Hampshire  State 
College  of  Agriculture.  It  was  made  by  Daniel  Webster,  who  delighted 
in  large  things,  and  it  was  one  of  his  greatest  delights  to  guide  it.  Four 
oxen  were  required  to  draw  it. 

On  the  south  side  of  the  court,  opposite  the  Indiana  display,  the  Cotton 
Exchange,  of  New  Orleans,  exhibits  a  number  of  fine  varieties  of 
Southern  cotton  in  the  bale  and  by  sample.  Adjoining  this  is  an  exhibit 
of  wool  from  New  England. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  north  side  of  the  court  is  the  fishery  exhibit  of 
Massachusetts.  In  a  large  tank  float  a  number  of  models  of  the  fishing 
craft  of  1776  and  1876.  Projecting  into  the  water  is  a  fac-simile  in 
miniature  of  the  wharf  of  a  century  ago,  and  one  of  the  wharf  of  to-day, 
with  its  extensive  fish-house,  with  men  and  women  engaged  in  preparing 
the  fish  for  packing. 

This  brings  us  to  the  west  wall  of  the  building,  and  we  pass  into  the 
next  court  on  the  south.  At  the  head  of  this  court,  on  the  north  side,'is 
u  large  case  containing  a  number  of  specimens  of  California  silk-worms  at 
work.  On  the  same  side  of  the  court  the  native  woods  of  California  are 
shown,  also  the  native  birds  and  a  number  of  the  agricultural  products 
of  that  State.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  court  the  Central  Pacific 
Railway  exhibit  a  number  of  large  photographs  of  scenery  on  their  road. 
On  the  north  side  of  the  court  the  States  of  New  Jersey  and  Delaware 
exhibit  their  agricultural  products,  and  on  the  opposite  side  similar  ex- 
hibits are  made  by  the  States  of  Ohio  and  Nebraska.  Beyond  the 
Nebraska  exhibit  is  the  display  of  the  seedsmen,  whose  cases  extend 
across  to  the  central  transept  and  almost  to  the  nave.  The  eastern 
cud  of  the  court  is  taken  up  with  a  large  display  of  oakum  and  curled 
hair, 


1024  APPENDIX. 

Between  the  court  and  the  central  transept  the  space  along  the  nave  is 
occupied  by  the  collective  exhibit  of  the  pork-packers  of  Cincinnati. 

We  pass  into  the  central  transept,  on  the  south  side  of  which  is  the 
Spanish  exhibit.  On  the  north  side  is  an  extensive  and  handsome  dis- 
play of  seeds  for  the  garden  and  farm. 

Beyond  these  the  State  of  Iowa  makes  a  beautiful  display  of  her  agri 
cultural  products,  a  prominent  feature  of  which  is  a  large  and  complete 
collection  of  fruits  under  glass.    Beyond  this  is  an  exhibit  of  the  minerals 
of  Nevada,  and  at  the  west  end  of  the  transept  Iowa  exhibits  specimens 
pf  her  soils  in  tall  glass  columns. 

We  are  now  at  the  end  of  the  American  department,  and  in  turning 
our  attention  to  the  exhibits  of  foreign  nations  give  the  first  place  to  the 
mother  country. 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland. — The  British  section  is  in  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  hall.  The  display  is  small.  Scarcely  any  of  the  English 
agricultural  machinery  is  to  be  found  here,  and  the  exhibit  is  far  from 
doing  justice  to  England  as  an  agricultural  country. 

The  post  of  honor  on  the  front  line  of  the  section  is  given  to  the 
makers  of  pickles,  potted  meats,  mustards  and  extracts.  On  the  front 
line  also  is  a  handsome  display  of  extracts  of  various  kinds.  To  the 
south  of  the  extracts  is  an  exhibit  of  bee-hives  and  bee-furniture,  and  in 
the  adjoining  space  are  samples  of  wool  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  At 
the  south  end  of  the  front  line  is  a  tasteful  pavilion  in  which  are  shown 
some  superior  Irish  whiskeys  in  wood  and  glass. 

Having  finished  the  front  line  along  the  nave,  we  go  back  to  the 
southeast  transept  and  continue  our  examination  along  its  south  side. 
Here  is  a  handsome  display  of  fine  chocolates  and  cocoas.  Farther  on, 
on  the  south  side  of  the  transept,  is  an  exhibit  of  a  fine  article  of  Irish 
oatmeal,  which  sh:>ws  the  appearance  of  the  meal  at  the  different  stages 
of  grinding.  To  the  right  of  the  oatmeal  is  an  exhibit  of  meat  extracts, 
soups  and  potted  meats.  The  Colonial  Produce  Company,  of  London, 
exhibit  specimens  of  their  patent  tea,  milk  and  sugar,  and  patent  coffee, 
milk  and  sugar.  These  are  reduced  to  a  powder  and  wrapped  in  air- 
tight gelatine  envelopes,  which  readily  dissolve  with  the  powder  in  hot 
water.  A  package  will  make  three  cups  of  tea  and  coffee. 

An  exhibit  of  ginger  ales  and  aerated  waters  now  follows,  beyond 
which  is  a  display  of  the  well-known  Burton  ale.  In  the  next  space  is 
one  of  Aveling  &  Porter's  road  steam-engines  which  we  noticed  in 
Machinery  Hall.  By  the  side  of  it  is  a  large  wagon  for  road  locomotives. 
Farther  on  is  an  exhibit  of  ornamental  iron  work  for  farm  and  stable, 
ase.  From  the  east  end  of  the  transept  we  pass  to  the  next  court  on  the 


APPENDIX.  102o 

south.  Half  way  down  this  is  a  portable  engine  for  farm  use,  different 
in  style  from  those  used  in  this  country  and  occupying  less  space.  Below 
it  the  exhibit  of  ales  is  continued.  On  the  south  or  opposite  side  of  the 
court  is  a  collection  of  reaping-hooks  and  other  edge  tools  used  in  agri- 
culture. Lower  down  are  the  confectioners,  who  show  their  goods  in 
handsome  cases,  and  to  the  south  of  them  is  an  exhibit  of  the  world- 
famed  Worcestershire  sauce.  Passing  to  the  most  southern  court  of  all 
we  notice  a  handsome  case  of  walnut,  containing  a  large  display  of  ales, 
Dublin  stout  and  whiskey.  Farther  eastward  is  an  apparatus  for 
suckling  young  calves,  sheep  and  pigs.  Beyond  this  a  potter,  too  late  for 
a  place  in  the  Main  Building,  exhibits  a  collection  of  porcelain  and  plain 
whiteware.  Then  follow  some  ornamental  work,  ditching  tiles,  drains, 
etc.,  in  terra  cotta,  and  several  French  burr  millstones  for  hulling  rice 
and  grinding  flour. 

Canada. — The  Canadian  section  lies  in  the  southwest  quarter  of  the 
hall,  opposite  that  of  Great  Britain,  and  extends  from  the  nave  back  to 
the  Liberian  section.  The  front  line  along  the  nave  is  taken  up  with  an 
extensive  display  of  the  agricultural  products  of  the  Dominion,  consist- 
ing of  the  grains,  beans,  peas,  roots  and  flour  grown  and  made  in  Canada. 
Immediately  back  of  these  is  an  exhibit  of  Canadian  wool.  The  quality 
is  very  fine,  and  the  length  of  the  wool  is  notable. 

In  the  next  line,  going  eastward,  is  a  row  of  tall  cases,  in  which  are 
shown  prepared  specimens  of  the  birds,  animals  and  insects  of  Canada.  The 
exhibit  of  insects  is  by  the  Entomological  Society  of  London,  Ontario ; 
the  birds  and  animals  are  exhibited  by  individuals  from  London,  Toronto 
and  Halifax.  In  the  rear  of  these  collections  is  a  number  of  fine  fleeces, 
showing  a  remarkable  length  and  thickness  of  wool.  Then  follows  an 
exhibit  of  vinegar  in  barrels,  native  fruits,  macaroni,  flour,  salt,  pickles, 
cheese,  cured  fish  and  canned  goods  of  various  kinds,  which  take  up  con- 
siderable space,  and  show  the  progress  of  the  efforts  of  our  Northern 
cousins  in  this  direction. 

A  pyramidal  stand,  of  considerable  size,  contains  a  display  of  the 
agricultural  products  of  British  Columbia.  Some  very  fine  wheat  is 
included  in  this  exhibit,  and  samples  of  this  grain  and  oats  on 
the  stalk  show  the  size  and  vigor  which  they  attain  in  this  high  north- 
ern latitude.  Specimens  of  the  woods  and  barks  of  the  country  are 
also  shown,  and  there  are  two  blankets  of  variegated  colors,  woven  by 
the  Indians. 

We  now  enter  the  department  of  agricultural  machinery,  in  which  over 
one  hundred  exhibitors  take  part.  The  collection  is  similar  to  that  in 
the  American  department,  and  is  particularly  rich  in  reapers,  mowers, 
65 


1026  APPENDIX. 

plows,  "harrows,  root  and  straw-cutters  and  horse-powers.  The  variety 
in  plows  is,  if  anything,  greater  than  our  own,  but  the  number  of  plows 
is  much  smaller.  The  collection  includes  also  portable  engines,  cider- 
presses,  potato-diggers,  snow  plows  for  breaking  winter  roads,  grain-dr;lls 
•uul  hay-loaders. 

France. — The  French  section  lies  west  of  the  nave  and  along  the 
southwest  transept.  The  most  prominent  feature  of  the  French  exhibit 
is  the  display  of  wines.  Every  grade  of  wine  made  within  the  limits  of 
the  French  republic  is  shown  here.  We  find  champagnes  in  abundance, 
and  the  dainty  and  delicious  wines  of  the  south  of  France  are  well  repre- 
sented. Here  are  Burgundies,  clarets,  red  and  light  wines,  and  brandies 
and  liquors  of  every  description. 

The  front  line  along  the  nave  is  occupied  by  a  row  of  handsome  show- 
cases, principally  of  ebony  and  gilt,  in  which  are  displayed  champagnes, 
brandies,  liquors  and  olive  oils,  and  fine  chocolates. 

Immediately  back  of  the  front  line,  the  south  side  of  the  section  is 
occupied  for  some  distance  by  a  triple  row  of  handsome  oak  stalls,  in 
which  the  great  Paris  seedsmen,  "Vilmorin  &  Andrieux,  exhibit  photo- 
graphs of  flowers,  vegetables  and  plants,  and  samples  of  seeds.  Passing 
this  we  reach  the  principal  exhibit  of  wines,  brandies,  liquors,  cordials  in 
glass  bottles  and  small  stone  jugs,  which  takes  up  the  entire  space  south 
of  the  transept,  back  to  the  Dutch  section.  On  the  north  side  of  the 
transept  is  an  extensive  collection,  by  a  number  of  exhibitors,  of  the 
famous  pate  de  foigras  of  Strasburg,  pickles,  preserves,  mustards,  jellies 
and  prepared  food  of  various  kinds.  Preserved  fish  and  sardines  in  oil 
form  a  prominent  part  of  the  collection,  and  candied  fruits,  dried  fruits 
and  vegetables,  and  prepared  soups  are  extensively  displayed.  A  number 
of  French  burr  millstones  of  a  fine  quality  are  shown  near  the  northern 
border  of  the  court,  and  near  these  are  some  fine  crucibles,  and  specimens 
of  various  kinds  of  cements,  hydraulic  lime  and  artificial  stone.  The 
Roquefort  cheese  factory  exhibits  specimens  of  its  famous  cheese;  the 
tanners  have  an  extensive  exhibit  of  leather;  and  the  silk-growers  of 
southern  France  show  their  raw  silk  in  cocoons.  Artificial  manures, 
phosphates  and  animal  charcoal  are  also  shown. 

Geiinany. — The  German  section  lies  on  the  south  of  France  and 
extends  to  the  south  wall  of  the  building.  It  fronts  on  the  nave  and 
extends  westward  to  the  Austrian  court.  At  the  nave  the  Rhenish 
Sparkling  Wine  Company,  of  Schielstein,  have  a  large  pavilion  in  which 
they  display  their  famous  wines.  Back  of  this  pavilion  is  the  collective 
exhibit  of  Rhine  wines,  in  which  the  finest  as  well  as  the  ordinary  grades 
are  shown.  Alongside  of  these  wines  the  German  brandies,  liquors,  ex- 


APPENDIX.  1027 

tracts  and  essences  are  displayed.  A  fair  exhibit  is  also  made  of  Bavarian 
and  Prussian  beer  and  hops,  and  of  samples  of  the  malt  from  which  these 
are  made.  The  confectioners,  makers  of  wax.  and  manufacturers  of 
smoking  and  fine-cut  tobacco  for  chewing,  cigars  and  cigarettes,  make  a 
large  display ;  and  there  is  a  fair  exhibit  of  prepared  mustard,  sugar  and 
starch.  Frankfort  sends  samples  of  curled  hair,  and  Prussian  Silesia 
some  fine  wool.  The  wines  are  the  strong  feature  of  the  German  exhibit, 
and  no  effort  has  been  made  to  show  the  agricultural  system  or  resources 
of  that  country. 

Austria — Hungary. — The  Austrian  section  is  situated  immediately  west 
of  the  German  court.  The  display  is  not  large,  but  is  interesting.  On 
the  eastern  border  of  the  court,  fronting  Germany,  is  a  collection  of 
raisins  and  other  dried  fruits,  beer,  wine,  vinegar  and  mustards  from 
Bohemia.  Beyond  this  space  is  an  exhibit  of  Austrian  and  Hungarian 
wines;  and  at  the  north  end  of  the  court  a  fine  collection  of  the  fruits  and 
nuts  of  Hungary  and  the  Danubian  provinces.  To  the  north  of  this 
collection  is  a  display  of  candied  fruits  from  Vienna,  near  which  are 
specimens  of  hemp  of  an  excellent  quality  grown  in  Hungary.  Samples 
of  fine  Hungarian  wool  are  also  shown;  and  near  the  west  end  is 
a  collection  of  the  grains  of  all  the  different  provinces  of  the  Austrian 
empire.  Specimens  of  flax  from  Austria  and  Hungary  are  included 
in  the  exhibit,  and  a  number  of  samples  of  leather  from  Austria  and 
Bohemia. 

Russia. — The  Russian  court  lies  on  the  south  side  of  the  central 
transept,  immediately  west  of  the  Spanish  court,  and  extends  back  to  the 
western  wall.  It  is  unenclosed,  and  occupies  about  one-third  as  much 
space  as  France.  It  is  filled  with  one  of  the  handsomest  and  most  in- 
teresting collections  in  the  Agricultural  Building,  and  one  that  is  richly 
worth  studying  carefully.  The  wheat,  oats,  barley,  rye  and  other  grains 
of  the  empire  are  shown  in  the  most  tasteful  manner.  They  are  arranged 
upon  pyramidal  stands,  bags  of  the  grains  being  collected  about  the  base 
of  the  stands,  while  stalks  with  the  ripened  ears  are  placed  in  handsome 
majolica  vases  at  the  top.  Large  frames  are  filled  with  hemp  suspended 
from  the  top  of  the  frame,  in  order  to  show  the  length  of  the  fibre.  The 
agricultural  products  of  the  various  portions  of  the  empire  are  shown 
according  to  a  systematic  classification,  and  many  illustrations  of  Russian 
farm-life  are  given.  A  number  of  the  agricultural  implements  of  the 
country  are  exhibited.  Candied  and  dried  fruits,  preserves,  crackers  and 
confections  are  exhibited  in  glass  cases,  and  the  liquors  and  wines  of  the 
country  are  also  shown. 

Italy. — The  Italian  court  is  situated  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the 


1028  APPENDIX. 

hall,  and  covers  but  a  small  space.  Along  the  east  wall  are  samples  of 
raw  and  combed  hemp,  and  adjoining  these  are  a  number  of  specimens 
of  leather  and  boots  and  shoes.  The  principal  portion  of  the  exhibit 
consists  of  wines,  liquors,  cordials  and  olive  oil,  representing  all  the 
grades  of  these  articles  made  in  the  Italian  Peninsula  and  in  Sicily. 
They  are  exhibited  in  bottles,  and  make  an  attractive  display.  In  the 
southeast  corner  of  the  court  the  soap-makers  have  a  creditable  display. 
Large  blocks  of  Castile  and  olive  oil  soap  are  among  the  most  con- 
spicuous objects  in  the  court.  A  collection  of  grains,  peas,  beans  and 
nuts,  principally  from  Sicily  and  central  Italy,  is  arranged  along  the 
southern  side  of  the  court,  and  rice  from  Piedmont  is  also  shown  here. 
There  is  a  handsome  display  of  confectionery  and  candied  fruits  from 
Turin ;  and  a  case  of  the  minerals  found  in  the  Peninsula  is  shown  near 
the  centre  of  the  court.  At  the  western  end  of  the  court  are  a  number 
of  specimens  of  manganese  and  iron  ores  from  the  mines  at  Monte 
Argentine,  in  Tuscany.  Milan  sends  Parmesan  and  Gorgonzola  cheese ; 
Ancona  and  Turin,  leather  and  hides;  Palermo,  Rome  and  Sienna, 
honey;  Bologna,  her  world-renowned  sausages  and  salted  meats;  Naples 
and  Sicily,  macaroni  and  dried  fruits;  Syracuse,  nuts;  and  the  other 
Sicilian  cities,  oranges,  lemons,  olives  and  figs.  Sicily  also  makes  an 
exhibit  of  a  case  of  the  essential  oils  of  fruits,  and  of  some  fijie  liquorice. 
Sardines  are  to  be  seen  here  in  quantities,  and  in  glass  and  tin,  in  oil  and 
pickled.  Along  the  northern  side  of  the  court  are  several  plows  from 
Ancona,  Cremona  and  Pisa,  and  a  harrow  from  Venice.  They  are  heavy 
and  clumsy  in  appearance,  and  in  striking  contrast  with  the  fine  plows 
to  be  seen  in  the  American  or  Canadian  departments. 

Spain. — The  Spanish  court  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  central 
transept,  and  extends  from  the  nave  back  to  the  Russian  section.  As  in 
the  Main  Hall,  Spain  makes  here  one  of  the  handsomest  exhibits  in  the 
building.  Her  section  is  surrounded  with  a  high  wall  of  yellow  wood, 
in  the  sides  of  which  are  set  small  glass-covered  panels,  which  are  filled 
with  collections  of  the  grains,  beans,  peas,  nuts,  fruits,  and  other  agricul- 
tural products  of  the  Spanish  kingdom. 

Entering  the  court  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most 
extensive  and  best  arranged  collections  in  the  hall.  Immense  logs  of 
mahogany  and  rosewood  lie  on  the  ground,  and  festoons  of  tobacco  leaves 
and  sheaves  of  grain  ornament  the  pillars,  while  from  the  roof  along  the 
sides  of  the  court  are  suspended  specimens  of  skins  and  Spanish  leather. 
On  each  side  of  the  entrance  stand  pyramids  of  the  finest  wools  of  Spain, 
and  along  the  sides  of  the  court  the  rich  wines  of  the  country  are  displayed 
in  bottles  arranged  on  shelves  rising  one  above  another.  At  the  south- 


APPENDIX.  1029 

east  corner  of  the  court  the  Valencian  Society  of  Agriculture  show  a  col 
lection  of  the  agricultural  products  of  that  province.  There  is  a  large 
display  of  Manilla  hemp,  and  cordage  made  from  it,  from  the  Philippine 
islands,  In  the  centre  of  the  court  is  a  rustic  structure  of  rough  wood, 
containing  specimens  of  resinous  pine  and  the  gums  and  resins  extracted 
from  it;  and  to  the  east  of  this  the  agricultural  products  of  the  Philippine 
islands  are  exhibited  in  glass  jars.  Near  the  south  end,  the  cigar-makers 
of  Havana  and  Manilla  have  a  large  and  handsome  exhibit  of  cigars, 
cigarettes  and  tobaccos.  They  are  displayed  in  ornamental  cases  of 
mahogany  mounted  upon  standards.  A  large  collection  of  chocolates 
occupies  the  northwest  corner  of  the  court,  and  close  by  it  is  a  tall  metal 
stand  containing  large  jars  and  bottles  of  olive  oil. 

Portugal. — The  Portuguese  exhibit  fairly  rivals  that  of  Spain  both  in 
size  and  variety.  It  is  distributed  in  two  parts  of  the  hall.  The  principal 
section  assigned  to  Portugal  lies  on  the  south  and  west  of  the  Spanish  court, 
and  is  filled  with  a  large  and  varied  exhibit  of  the  products  of  the  kingdom. 
In  the  section  on  the  south  of  the  Spanish  court,  the  little  kingdom  displays 
her  oils  and  wines;  the  south  side  of  this  section  being  entirely  taken  up 
with  bottles  of  Port  and  Madeira  wines.  Here  also  are  to  be  seen  the  raw 
silk  and  cocoons,  which  form  a  part  of  the  Portuguese  exhibit.  In  the 
section  to  the  west  of  the  Spanish  court  is  a  very  extensive  collection  of  the 
agricultural  products  of  the  kingdom,  arranged  on  shelves  and  in  glass  jars. 
These  consist  of  the  grains,  roots,  fruits,  nuts,  olives,  raisins,  dried  fruits, 
and  spices  of  the  different  provinces  of  Portugal.  Some  very  large  potatoes 
and  turnips  are  preserved  in  alcohol.  Pickles,  preserves,  and  canned  meats, 
vegetables,  and  fish  are  exhibited  in  large  quantities.  The  products  of  the 
Portuguese  colonies  are  displayed  in  a  similar  manner  in  a  small  court  in 
the  southeast  corner  of  the  hall,  between  the  Italian  and  English  sections. 

The  Netherlands. — The  section  assigned  to  the  Netherlands  lies  south 
of  the  southwest  transept.  Starting  from  the  west  end  of  the  section  we 
notice  the  collective  exhibits  by  the  agricultural  societies  of  Guelderland 
and  Zealand,  of  the  products  of  those  provinces,  including  seeds,  speci- 
mens of  grain,  plants,  dye-woods,  photographs  of  cattle,  beans  and  peas, 
and  a  model  of  a  thatched  hay-cock.  In  this  exhibit  are  shown  the 
wooden  shoes  worn  by  certain  classes  of  the  Dutch  peasantry.  Close  by 
is  an  exhibit  of  a  peculiar  kind  of  flour  which  has  the  property  of  keeping 
pure  and  sweet  for  years.  Adjoining  this  is  the  exhibit  of  the  makers  of 
chocolate  and  cod-liver  oil.  A  collection  of  round  Edam  cheeses  is  shown 
to  the  east  of  these ;  and  then  come  specimens  of  fine  flax.  Opposite 
the  flax  is  the  exhibit  of  cigars  and  manufactured  tobacco.  On  the  north 
side,  of  the  court  are  a  number  of  models  of  old  and  new  style  Dutch 


1030  APPENDIX. 

fishing  vessels,  from  Scheveningen,  with  a  collection  of  fishing-tackle. 
Large  seines  for  deep-water  fishing  are  suspended  overhead.  We  come 
next  to  the  collection  of  pickles,  canned  meats,  fish  and  vegetables,  which 
is  large  and  well  displayed.  Adjoining  this  are  jars  containing  samples 
of  different  grades  of  beet -sugar  from  the  Beet -Sugar  Factory  of 
Arnhem.  The  remainder  of  the  section  is  taken  up  with  the  exhibit  of 
Holland  gin,  cordials  and  liquors,  which  is  very  large.  The  principal 
display  is  made  by  the  liquor-makers,  who  occupy  a  handsome  pavilion 
of  wood  ornamented  in  maroon-color  and  gilt.  Opposite  this  pavilion, 
on  the  north  side  of  the  section,  the  Dutch  Agricultural  Society  make  a 
collective  exhibit  of  all  the  agricultural  products  of  Holland. 

Norway. — The  Norwegian  court  lies  immediately  west  of  that  of 
Brazil,  and  is  enclosed  with  a  light  and  tasteful  railing.  Along  the  front 
line  is  a  collection  of  heavy,  clumsy-looking  plows,  such  as  are  used  for 
breaking  the  rugged  soil  of  this  northern  land.  The  exhibit  is  small, 
but  consists  of  pale  ales  and  a  strong  liquor  called  punch,  which  is  much 
used  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  as  a  stimulant  against  the  intense  cold  of 
those  countries.  Wines,  brandy,  cordials,  tobacco,  cigars,  confectioneries, 
essences,  and  canned  meats  and  fish  make  up  the  display.  There  is  a  fine 
exhibit  of  leather  at  the  back  of  the  court,  and  specimens  of  the  water- 
birds  of  Norway  are  shown. 

In  the  northwest  section  of  the  building,  Norway  has  another  space 
enclosed  with  a  light  railing  and  handsomely  draped  with  seines  and  the 
national  colors.  Here  she  makes  an  exhibit  of  the  products  of  her 
fisheries,  and  shows  models  of  her  fishing  vessels  of  all  kinds  and  their 
equipments,  specimens  of  fishing-tackle,  and  samples  of  dried  and  pre- 
served fish,  anchovies,  etc.,  as  they  are  prepared  for  the  market.  For  the 
purposes  of  this  display,  some  of  the  larger  kinds  are  preserved  in  alcohol. 

Sweden. — The  Swedish  court  lies  immediately  west  of  that  of  Norway. 
Along  the  north  side  are  a  number  of  fine  plows,  every  part  being  of 
metal.  They  are  intended  for  deep  plowing,  and  seem  capable  of  doing 
good  work.  The  liquors,  especially  bottled  punch,  are  a  strong  feature 
of  the  display.  Here  are  also  confections,  prepared  coffee,  crackers, 
snuffs  and  chewing  tobacco.  Towards  the  west  end  of  the  space  are 
models  of  the  various  kinds  of  vessels  used  in  the  Swedish  fisheries, 
with  samples  of  fishing-tackle,  and  overhead  are  suspended  the  seines  used 
by  the  Swedish  fishermen.  Specimens  of  the  fish  of  the  country  are 
exhibited  in  alcohol.  A  number  of  samples  of  leather  hang  against  the 
wall.  The  exhibit  of  native  woods  is  complete  and  interesting.  The 
grains  of  the  country  are  shown  in  glass  jars  and  also  in  the  stalk  and 
sir,  and  close  by  are  a  number  of  covered  earthen  jars  containing  samples 


APPENDIX.  1031 

of  flour  made  in  Sweden.  Sardines,  anchovies,  herrings,  and  potted  meats, 
scythes,  and  dairy  utensils  complete  the  collection. 

Denmark. — The  Danish  section  lies  west  of  the  Norwegian  and  south 
of  the  Swedish  court.  It  is  small,  and  the  exhibit  is  made  up  of  Danish 
punch,  grains  in  the  blade  and  in  small  canvas  bags,  brandies,  pickles, 
preserves,  and  potted  meats  and  fish. 

Belgium. — The  Belgian  section  lies  wesfc  of  the  nave,  and  immediately 
east  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  courts.  The  exhibit  is  very  small, 
but  thirty-eight  persons  taking  part  in  it.  It  comprises  chiccory,  raw, 
in  the  pod,  and  manufactured,  chocolate,  and  the  details  of  chocolate 
manufacture,  specimens  of  fine  leathers  and  kid,  candies,  cordials,  gin, 
flax,  wool,  and  millstones. 

Japan. — The  Japanese  court  is  situated  in  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
hall,  immediately  west  of  the  Austrian  section,  and  is  divided  into  small 
passage-ways  by  canvas  screens.  Along  the  south  wall,  samples  of 
native  tobacco  are  shown  ;  but  the  greater  part  of  this  section  of  the  court 
is  devoted  to  an  exhibit  of  the  teas  of  Japan.  Specimens  of  tea  are  shown, 
and  the  process  of  tea-culture  is  illustrated  by  a  number  of  drawings  of 
the  different  stages  of  the  growth  of  the  plant.  Along  the  west  wall  is  a 
display  of  the  fishing-tackle,  nets,  etc.,  used  in  Japan,  with  specimens  of 
cured  fish,  some  of  which  are  put  up  in  canvas,  like  bacon.  Fishing-nets 
are  suspended  overhead,  and  a  part  of  the  space  along  the  west  wall  is 
given  to  an  exhibit  of  the  few  simple  agricultural  implements  used  in 
Japan,  a  primitive-looking  plow  and  harrow,  a  scythe  and  cradle.  Oil 
the  north  side  of  the  south  aisle  of  this  court  is  a  beautiful  exhibit  of  the 
culture  of  silk  as  carried  on  in  Japan.  It  is  shown  by  specimens  of  the 
worm  and  cocoon,  and  of  floss  silk,  and  by  models  and  drawings  with 
explanations  in  English.  In  the  next  aisle  on  the  north  is  a  large  col- 
lection of  skins  of  fish  and  animals,  and  of  shells,  also  samples  of  cotton 
from  the  government  manufactory. 

In  the  last  aisle  on  the  north  the  grains  and  other  agricultural  products 
of  Japan  are  shown  according  to  a  systematic  classification,  and  on  the 
southern  wall  of  this  aisle  is  a  display  of  the  native  woods  of  the 
empire. 

Brazil. — The  Brazilian  section  lies  west  of  the  nave  and  extends  back 
to  the  Norwegian  court.  In  front  of  the  court  in  which  the  principal 
display  is  made  stands  one  of  the  most  unique  structures  in  the  building. 
It  is  a  rustic  pavilion,  the  posts  and  rafters  of  which  are  wrapped  in 
native  cotton,  giving  to  it  at  a  distance  the  effect  of  an  immense  house  of 
snow.  The  different  grades  of  Brazilian  cotton  are  shown  in  bales 
arranged  around  the  sides  of  the  pavilion.  Within  the  pavilion  die 


1032 


APPENDIX. 


different  grades  of  Brazilian  coffee  are  shown  in  jars  and  boxes  of  fanciful 
design,  the  Mocha  and  Rio  being  conspicuous  among  the  other  grains. 
Samples  of  native  leaf  tobacco  are  also  shown  in  this  pavilion.  The 
principal  court  lies  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the  cotton  pavilion,  and  is 


THE  WISCONSIN  STATE  BUILDING. 


enclosed  by  a  brilliantly  ornamented  railing,  decorated  with  streamers 
of  green  and  yellow  and  national  flags.  The  collection  of  native 
woods  comprises  over  one  thousand  different  woods,  among  which  rose- 
wood and  mahogany  are  conspicuous,  and  is  arranged  along  the  entire 
court.  A  considerable  display  is  also  made  of  leather  and  skins,  which 


APPENDIX.  1033 

are  suspended  overhead  around  the  court.  The  wines  and  liquors  of  the 
empire  are  shown,  though  these  do  not  as  yet  constitute  a  very  prominent 
Brazilian  industry.  Twelve  different  kinds  of  sugar  are  shown  in  this 
court.  The  exhibit  includes  cocoa  in  the  nut  and  prepared  for  the 
market;  rice  from  Maranhao;  starches;  rubber,  ready  for  the  market 
and  in  the  crude  gum ;  ninety  different  varieties  of  edible  beans;  Brazil 
ian  teas,  the  culture  of  which  is  as  yet  in  its  infancy ;  gums,  resins,  canned 
goods;  hemp,  vegetable  fibres  for  making  rope,  and  a  finer  fibre  which 
can  be  worked  up  into  a  sort  of  wool ;  wax,  pickles  and  preserves.  The 
tobacco  exhibit  is  large,  and  besides  smoking  tobaccos,  cigars  and  cigar- 
ettes, includes  fourteen  different  kinds  of  snuff.  The  Brazilian  silk-worm 
and  its  habits  are  shown  in  an  admirable  manner. 

Venezuela. — The  Venezuelan  exhibit  arrived  so  late  that  it  could  not 
6e  given  a  place  in  the  Main  Exhibition  Building,  and  was  assigned  a 
section  in  Agricultural  Hall.  This  section  lies  in  the  southwest  quarter 
of  the  hall,  north  of  Japan  and  west  of  Austria.  It  is  enclosed  by  a 
tasteful  railing,  ornamented  in  red  and  blue.  The  collection  is  almost 
entirely  agricultural  in  its  character,  and  includes  the  grains,  vegetables, 
fruits  and  barks  of  the  republic.  A  large  exhibit  of  coffee  is  made,  and 
cochineal  forms  a  considerable  part  of  the  display.  A  collection  of  oils, 
balsams,  rum  and  bitters  is  also  exhibited.  The  skins  of  the  native 
animals  of  Venezuela  are  suspended  overhead,  and  samples  of  native 
tobacco  are  affixed  to  the  pillars  of  the  court.  Pine-apples  and  other 
large  fruits  are  shown  in  alcohol.  A  cabinet  of  very  rich  gold-bearing 
quartz  and  other  minerals  stands  on  the  north  side  of  the  section,  arid 
on  this  side  are  also  exhibited  specimens  of  Venezuelan  printing  and  book- 
binding, chocolates,  boots  and  shoes,  fruits  in  wax,  embroideries,  leather, 
and  flowers  made  of  the  feathers  of  native  birds.  Samples  of  sugar  and 
dye-woods  complete  the  collection. 

The  Argentine  Republic. — The  section  assigned  to  the  Argentine 
Republic  lies  back  of  Portugal  and  south  of  the  Russian  court.  It  is 
enclosed  with  a  light  wooden  railing,  ornamented  with  the  national 
colors.  Festoons  of  the  leaf  of  the  native  tobacco  are  hung  about  the 
court,  and  the  skins  of  the  native  wild  animals  of  the  country  are  sus- 
pended overhead.  The  collection  is  very  large,  and  comprises  the  native 
woods,  barks,  gums,  resins,  dye-woods  and  seeds  of  forest  products  ;  the 
grains,  sugars,  beans,  peas,  fruits,  tobacco,  coffee,  chocolate,  wines,  dried 
fruits,  nuts,  liquors,  leather,  starch,  flour,  wax,  honey,  cotton  and  wool  of 
the  country.  An  exhibit  is  made  of  the  silk  grown  in  the  republic,  and 
several  grades  of  sugar  are  shown. 

£t6eria. — The  Liberian  section  is  located  at  the  east  end  of  the  hall, 


1034  APPENDIX. 

north  of  the  southeast  transept,  and  to  the  east  of  the  Canadian  section. 
It  is  the  only  display  made  by  Liberia  in  the  entire  Exhibition,  and  is  due 
entirely  to  the  energy  of  Messrs.  E.  S.  Morris  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  who 
are  extensive  growers  of  coffee  in  that  far-off  land.  All  the  proceeds  of  the 
sales  of  Liberian  coffee  at  this  stand  during  the  Exhibition  are  devoted  to 
the  building  of  school-houses.  Messrs.  Morris  &  Co.  intend  to  supply 
the  deficiency  from  their  own  means.  They  hope  to  make  Liberia  a 
great  coffee-growing  country,  and  to  extend  the  production  of  that  article 
among  the  native  tribes  of  the  interior  of  Western  Africa. 

The  collection  exhibited  here  consists  of  coffee  principally.  This  is  of 
an  excellent  quality,  as  the  writer  can  testify  from  a  personal  knowledge 
of  it.  Palm  soap  is  the  next  exhibit  in  importance.  Palm  oil  is  shown 
in  glass  jars  hermetically  sealed.  Lime-juice,  chocolate,  arrow-root,  sugar, 
indigo,  ivory  and  iron  ore  make  up  the  list  of  Liberian  products.  A 
coffee-hulling  machine  forms  a  part  of  the  exhibit,  and  there  are  a 
good  many  curiosities  in  the  way  of  implements  and  clothing  made  by 
the  native  tribes.  The  cap  and  robes  of  an  African  king  are  also 
shown. 

The  Pomological  Annex. — To  the  east  of  the  Agricultural  Hall  is  a 
large  wooden  building  intended  for  the  various  displays  of  ripe  fruits 
t»nd  vegetables  which  are  to  be  made  from  time  to  time  during  the 
progress  of  the  Exhibition. 

The  Wagon  Annex  is  situated  to  the  north  of  Agricultural  Hall,  and 
is  simply  a  series  of  rough  sheds,  whitewashed.  It  contains  a  fine  display 
of  farm  wagons  and  carts,  bakers'  and  milk  carts  and  ice  wagons. 

The  Horticultural  Building  is  the  smallest  of  the  five  principal  edifices 
of  the  Exhibition.  It  stands  on  the  Lansdowne  terrace,  a  short  distance 
north  of  the  Main  Exhibition  Building,  from  which  it  is  separated  by 
the  Lansdowne  valley.  The  design  of  the  building  is  in  the  Mauresque 
style  of  architecture  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  edifice  being 'constructed 
principally  of  iron  and  glass.  The  exterior  is  painted  in  variegated  colors, 
which  give  to  the  building  a  light,  fairy-like  aspect,  in  perfect  keeping 
with  its  graceful  design.  The  length  of  the  building  is  383  feet,  the 
width  193  feet,  and  the  height  to  the  top  of  the  lantern,  sixty-nine  feet. 

The  main  floor  is  occupied  by  the  central  conservatory,  230  by  eighty 
feet,  and  fifty-five  feet  high,  surmounted  by  a  lantern  170  feet  long, 
.wenty  feet  wide  and  fourteen  feet  high.  Running  entirely  around  this 
conservatory,  at  a  height  of  twenty  feet  from  the  floor,  is  a  gallery  five 
feet  wide.  On  the  north  and  south  sides  of  this  principal  room  are  four 
forcing-houses  for  the  propagation  of  young  plants,  each  of  them  100  by 
thirty  feet,  covered  with  curved  roofs  of  iron  and  glass.  Dividing  the 


55  w 

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£  -a 

S  i 


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gi 


1035 


1036 


APPENDIX. 


two  forcing-houses  in  each  of  these  sides  is  a  vestibule  thirty  feet  square. 
At  the  centre  of  the  east  and  west  ends  are  similar  vestibules,  on  either 
side  of  which  are  the  restaurants,  reception  room,  offices,  etc,  From  the 
vestibules  ornamental  stairways  lead  to  the  internal  galleries  of  the  con- 
servatory, as  well  as  to  the  four  external  galleries,  each  100  feet  long  and 
ten  feet  wide,  which  surmount  the  roofs  of  the  forcing  houses.  These 
external  galleries  are  connected  with  a  grand  promenade,  formed  by  the 


STAIRWAY  IN   HORTlCtJLTtTRAL  HALL. 


roofs  of  the  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  which  has  a  superficial  area  o:f 
1 800  square  yards. 

The  east  and  west  entrances  are  approached  by  flights  of  blue  marble 
steps  from  terraces  eighty  by  twenty  feet.  In  the  centre  of  each  stands 
an  open  kiosque,  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  Each  entrance  is  adorned  with 
ornamental  tile  and  marble  work,  and  the  angles  of  the  main  conservatory 
are  provided  with  eight  ornamental  fountains, 


APPENDIX.  1037 

The  basement  is  of  fire-proof  construction,  and  contains  the  kitchen, 
the  heating  apparatus,  store-rooms,  coal -houses,  etc. 

Mounting  the  marble  steps  and  passing  through  the  vestibule  to  which 
they  lead,  the  visitor  finds  himself  in  the  main  conservatory,  a  spacious 
and  beautiful  hall,  which  elicit*  the  admiration  of  every  beholder.  In 
the  centre  of  the  hall  is  a  large  fountain  of  marble,  executed  by  Miss 
Margaret  Foley,  an  American  artist,  in  Rome.  From  the  fountain  walks 
radiate  to  the  north,  east,  west  and  south,  and  divide  the  floor  of  the 
conservatory  into  beds.  Around  the  hall  is  a  row  of  corridors,  from 
which  the  arches  which  support  the  inner  gallery  open  into  the 
conservatory. 

The  Horticultural  Building  is  the  property  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
and  will  remain  a  permanent  ornament  of  the  park  after  the  close  of  the 
Exhibition.  It  cost  $300,000,  which  sum  was  defrayed  by  appropriations 
by  the  City  Councils.  The  ground  was  graded  and  the  foundations  laid 
on  the  1st  of  May,  1875,  and  the  building  was  completed  April  1st,  1876. 
It  covers  an  area  of  about  an  acre  and  a  half. 

The  conservatory,  or  main  hall,  of  the  building  is  filled  with  a  superb 
collection  of  rare  and  luxuriant  tropical  trees  and  shrubs.  The  side 
spaces  of  the  hall  are  filled  with  statuary. 

The  collection  of  plants  is  deeply  interesting,  and  is  deserving  of 
careful  study.  Here  are  the  broad  fan  palm,  the  sago,  date  and  cocoa 
palms,  all  of  full  size,  and  as  graceful  as  a  dream  of  Eastern  romance. 
The  orange  and  lemon  trees,  with  their  rich  golden  fruit,  the  camphor 
tree,  with  its  luxuriant  growth  of  sharply  cut  leaves ;  the  eucalyptus, 
which  is  said  to  have  the  property  of  neutralizing  the  malarial  poisons  of 
the  air;  the  guava;  the  mahogany,  and  the  India  rubber  tree,  with  its 
thick,  heavy  leaves,  all  make  up  a  rich  and  beautiful  display  of  foliage, 
which  is  charming  from  whatever  part  of  the  hall  it  is  viewed.  A 
banana,  with  its  fat,  sturdy  branches  of  fruit,  forms  a  conspicuous  object 
of  the  collection,  and  a  number  of  fine  cacti  are  scattered  through  the 
hall. 

The  rooms  at  each  end  of  the  building  are  handsomely  frescoed,  and 
are  filled  with  a  variety  of  horticultural  appliances.  The  room  on  the 
north  side  of  the  western  entrance  is  the  office  of  the  chief  of  the  Bureau 
of  Horticulture. 

About  twenty-five  acres  of  ground  immediately  around  the  Horticul- 
tural Hall  have  been  laid  off  as  an  ornamental  garden  by  Mr.  C.  H. 
Miller,  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau.  These  grounds  are  filled  with  a  beau- 
tiful display  of  native  and  foreign  flowers,  which  give  to  them  an 
exceedingly  brilliant  and  charming  appearance.  A  broad  sunken  garden 


1038  APPENDIX. 

leads  from  Belmont  avenue  to  the  western  door  of  the  Horticultural 
Building.  It  is  bright  with  flowers  of  a  thousand  different  hues,  and 
sparkles  with  handsome  fountains.  The  flowers  of  England,  France, 
Germany  and  the  tropics  grow  side  by  side  with  those  of  our  own  country 
in  the  beautiful  garden,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  grand  Conservatory 
stands  like  a  central  jewel  in  the  midst  of  a  thousand  gems  of  various 
hues. 


THE  FOKCINO-HOUSE,   HORTICULTURAL  HALL. 

At  the  north  3ide  of  the  Horticultural  Building  is  a  large  tent-like 
structure,  consisting  of  a  series  of  wooden  arches  covered  with  canvas. 
It  is  designed  for  the  exhibition  of  flowers  in  bloom. 

The  Art  Gallery  or  Memorial  Hall  is  located  north  of  the  Main  Exhi- 
bition Building.  It  is  situated  on  the  most  commanding  portion  of  the 
Lansdowne  plateau,  116  feet  above  the  Schuylkill  river,  and  looks  down 
over  the  lower  park  and  the  city.  It  is  built  in  the  style  of  the  modern 
renaissance.  It  is  intended  to  remain  as  a  permanent  art  gallery  after 
the  Exhibition  is  closed,  and  is  therefore  constructed  in  the  most  substan- 


APPENDIX.  1039 

tial  manner.  The  materials  are  granite,  iron  and  glass,  no  wood  being 
used,  in  order  that  the  edifice  may  be  as  nearly  fire-proof  as  possible.  The 
building  is  365  feet  long,  210  feet  wide,  and  59  feet  high.  From  the 
central  portion  of  the  roof  a  graceful  dome  rises  to  a  height  of  150  feet. 
The  dome  is  surmounted  by  a  colossal  ball  upon  which  stands  a  figure  of 
Columbia  with  protecting  hands.  At  each  corner  of  the  base  of  the  dome 
stands  a  gigantic  figure  typifying  one  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe. 

In  the  centre  of  the  south  or  principal  front  of  the  edifice  is  situated 
the  main  entrance,  consisting  of  three  colossal  arched  doorways  of  equal 
proportions.  At  each  end  is  a  pavilion  connected  with  the  centre  by 
arcades.  The  main  entrance  is  approached  by  thirteen  massive  steps 
seventy  feet  wide.  The  entrance  is  by  three  arched  doorways,  each  forty 
feet  high  and  fifteen  feet  wide,  opening  into  a  hall.  Between  the  arches 
of  the  doorways  are  clusters  of  columns  terminating  in  emblematic  designs 
illustrative  of  science  and  art.  The  doors  are  of  iron,  and  are  relieved  by 
panels  of  bronze  having  the  coats  of  arms  of  all  the  States  and  Territories 
of  the  Union.  The  coat  of  arms  of  the  United  States  is  in  the  centre  of 
the  main  frieze.  The  cornice  is  handsome  in  design,  and  is  surmounted 
by  a  balustrade  with  candelabra.  At  each  end  is  an  allegorical  figure 
representing  science  and  art.  In  the  front  of  each  pavilion  is  a  window 
thirty  feet  high  and  twelve  wide.  Each  pavilion  is  also  ornamented  with 
tile  work,  wreaths  of  oak  and  laurel,  thirteen  stars  in  the  frieze,  and  a 
colossal  eagle  at  each  corner.  The  arcades  are  designed  to  screen  the  long 
walls  in  each  gallery,  and  give  an  air  of  lightness  and  grace  to  the  front. 
They  consist  of  five  groined  arches  and  four  promenades  looking  outward 
over  the  grounds  and  inwards  over  open  gardens  which  extend  back  to 
the  main  wall  of  the  building.  These  garden  flats  are  each  ninety  feet 
long,  thirty-six  feet  deep,  and  are  ornamented  in  the  centre  with  fountains. 
They  are  designed  for  the  display  of  statuary.  From  the  gardens  a  stair- 
way leads  to  the  upper  line  of  the  arcades,  where  there  is  a  magnificent 
promenade  thirty-five  feet  above  the  ground.  It  is  protected  by  a  balus- 
trade ornamented  with  vases  and  designs  for  statues.  The  building 
covers  an  acre  and  a  half  of  ground. 

The  main  entrance  opens  into  a  hall  decorated  in  the  renaissance  style, 
eighty  feet  long  by  sixty  feet  wide.  The  sides  form  two  long  galleries 
over  200  feet  in  length.  The  cost  of  this  superb  edifice  was  $1,500,000. 
The  hall  will  be  seen  to  most  advantage  after  the  Exhibition  is  over, 
when  the  other  structures  are  cleared  away,  and  its  main  front  is  seen 
across  a  broad  level  lawn  covered  with  verdure  and  flowers. 

The  work  on  Memorial  Hall  was  begun  on  the  4th  of  July,  1874,  and 
the  building  was  completed  on  the  1st  of  March,  1876. 


1040 


APPENDIX. 


At  an  early  period  of  the  work  on  Memorial  Hall  it  was  found  that 
the  applications  for  space  in  it  were  so  numerous  that  the  building  would 
not  accommodate  the  works  of  art  to  be  exhibited  in  it.  An  extension, 
or  annex,  was  therefore  built  immediately  north  of  the  hall.  It  is  of 
brick  and  iron,  and  harmonizes  well  with  the  principal  building  in 
design  and  color.  It  is  intended  to  be  permanent.  The  principal  build- 
ing gives  75,000  feet  of  wall  space  for  painting,  and  20,000  feet  of  floor 
space  for  statuary,  etc.  The  annex  affords  60,000  square  feet  of  wall 
space  for  paintings,  and  contains  thirty  galleries,  each  forty  feet  square, 
besides  four  galleries  each  one  hundred  feet  long  by  fifty-four  feet  wide, 
and  two  transverse  central  corridors  twenty  feet  wide.  The  exhibition 
of  photographs  is  so  large  that  a  third  building  was  provided  for  it. 
From  the  main  entrance  the  visitor  passes  into  the  south  hall  or 

vestibule  of  the  building.  The 
wainscoting  is  of  colored  marble, 
but  the  remainder  of  the  hall  is 
finished  in  simple  white.  It  is  in 
the  modern  renaissance  style,  and 
is  elegant  and  tasteful.  A  magni- 
ficent crystal  chandelier  hangs  from 
the  ceiling.  At  the  north  side 
three  massive  arches  open  into  the 
central  hall,  and  at  the  east  and 
west  sides  doors  lead  to  the  gardens 
lying  within  the  arcades  of  the 
southern  front  of  the  building. 

The  hall  is  filled  with  statuary  in 
marble  and  bronze. 

The  gardens  and  arcades  on  the 
east  and  west  sides  of  the  main  entrance  are  prettily  ornamented  with 
flowers,  and  contain  a  small  collection  of  statuary.  In  the  eastern 
arcades  is  a  fine  bust  of  Dante,  and  another  of  Michael  Angelo.  In  the 
garden  on  the  west  side  are  some  interesting  specimens  of  statuary  and 
vases  in  spelter. 

Passing  through  the  arches  at  the  north  end  of  the  south  hall,  we  enter 
the  central  hall,  a  spacious  and  beautifully  proportioned  apartment 
lighted  from  the  dome  overhead.  It  is  finished  in  simple  white,  and  it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  its  beauties  were  not  enhanced  by  a  judicious  use  of 
color  in  its  decorations.  The  hall  is  devoted  to  statuary. 

The  halls  on  the  east  and  west  of  the  central  hall  are  divided  by  parti- 
tions into  smaller  apartments,  which  are  assigned  to  the  various  countries 


EAGLE  USED  IN  ORNAMENTATION  OF 
MEMORIAL  HALL. 


APPENDIX.  1041 

taking  part  in  the- Exhibition.  The  corridors  which  lead  east  and  west 
from  the  central  hall  are  thus  merely  temporary.  They  are  lined  with 
paintings. 

It  will  not  be  possible  to  give  a  complete  list  of  the  works  of  art  in  the 
Memorial  Hall  and  the  annex,  nor  to  describe  them.  Such  a  task  would 
require  a  volume.  We  can  only  state  that  in  the  American  department 
the  exhibit  consists  of  several  thousand  pictures  by  the  best-known  artists 
of  our  country;  and  while  it  contains  works  that  have  been  the  objects  of 
much  hostile  criticism,  it  can  also  boast  many  of  which  the  country  has 
reason  to  be  proud.  The  English  collection  is  placed  entirely  in 
Memorial  Hall,  and  occupies  two  rooms  and  the  northwest  corridor  lying 
between  them.  It  is  in  every  respect  the  best  and  most  judiciously 
arranged  portion  of  the  Art  Exhibition.  No  such  showing  of  English 
art  has  ever  been  made  before  in  any  foreign  country.  It  is  a  better 
display  than  was  made  by  England  at  Paris  in  1867,  or  at  Vienna  in 
1873." 

The  French  section  occupies  several  galleries  in  Memorial  Hall  and  in 
the  annex.  But  few  of  the  leading  artists  of  France  are  represented,  and 
the  collection  contains  none  of  her  great  names  in  art.  It  has  a  number 
of  fine  pictures,  however. 

The  German  collection  is  confined  to  Memorial  Hall,  and  is  good  in 
many  respects.  It  is  not  very  large,  but  embraces  some  pictures  that  are 
richly  worth  studying. 

The  Austrian  collection  occupies  the  eastern  gallery  of  Memorial  Hall, 
and  consists  of  163  paintings,  etchings,  and  statues.  It  is  very  good  as  a 
rule. 

Italy  sends  a  large  number  of  pictures,  and  scarcely  any  -.vorthy  of 
note.  The  collection  of  Italian  statuary  is  very  large  and  embraces  many 
excellent  works  by  the  most  famous  modern  sculptors.  In  the  northeast 
section  of  Memorial  Hall  Italy  has  several  small  rooms  which  are  occu- 
pied with  the  famous  Castellani  collections  of  classic  and  medieval 
antiquities.  These  consist  mainly  of  ancient  marbles,  bronzes,  Italian 
majolica,  gold  work,  and  personal  ornaments.  The  collections  are  unique 
in  many  respects,  and  are  among  the  richest  and  most  valuable  in  the 
world.  Our  limits  do  not  allow  a  description  or  even  complete  list  of 
the  treasures  here  exhibited.  They  comprise  seventeen  portrait  busts  and 
heads  in  marble  from  the  Greek  mythology;  twelve  of  the  exceedingly 
rare  bronze  dressing-cases  of  the  Etruscan  ladies,  of  which  there  are  but 
one  hundred  now  in  existence ;  a  large  and  valuable  collection  of  old 
porcelain  and  majolica  ware,  the  glory  of  which  is  a  case  of  superb  Gubbio 
ware;  and  many  gold  ornaments  and  gems  of  Phoenician,  Etruscan  and 
66 


1042  APPENDIX. 

Greek  workmanship.  Some  of  the  gems  aie  unequalled  by  anything  in 
.nodern  art. 

Spain  makes  a  small  exhibit,  including  a  few  works  of  her  great 
masters;  and  Sweden,  Norway,  the  Netherlands,  Belgium  and  Denmark 
are  each  well  represented  by  the  works  of  their  best  modern  artists. 
Brazil  and  Mexico  also  show  a  few  pictures  which  give  promise  of  future 
excellence  in  this  department. 

The  Photographic  Annex. — The  space  in  Memorial  Hall  and  the  annex 


ITALIAN  STATUARY  IN  THE  ANNEX  TO  THE  ART   GALLERY. 

being  taken  up,  a  third  building  was  erected  for  the  exhibition  of  photo- 
graphs. It  is  of  wood,  stuccoed,  and  is  situated  on  the  Avenue  of  the 
Republic,  east  of  Memorial  Hall  and  north  of  the  Main  Exhibition 
Building.  It  contains  a  large  collection  of  fine  photographs  from  the 
United  States,  Great  Britain,  Germany,  Austria,  France,  Italy,  Russia, 
Canada,  Denmark,  Sweden  and  Mexico.  Many  of  these  are  views  of  the 
scenery  of  the  countries  to  which  they  belong.  The  collection  may  not 
fairly  represent  the  progress  made  by  foreign  nations  in  the  photographic 


1043 


1044  APPENDIX. 

art,  but  such  as  it  is,  it  shows  the  United  States  far  in  advance  of  all  the 
competing  countries.  A  specialty  of  the  American  display  is  the  series 
of  splendid  views  of  the  scenery  of  the  Pacific  coast. 

A  large  exhibit  is  also  made  of  photographic  apparatus  and  material, 
and  magic  lanterns  of  the  better  class. 

Next  in  size  and  importance  to  the  five  Exhibition  buildings  already 
described  is  the  edifice  erected  and  controlled  by  the  general  government 
of  the  United  States. 

It  is  located  on  Belmont  avenue,  north  of  Machinery  Hall,  from  which 
it  is  separated  by  the  lake.  It  is  constructed  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  with 
offices  built  in  the  concavities  of  the  angles.  The  main  stem  of  the  cross, 
or  nave  of  the  building,  is  four  hundred  and  eighty  feet  long,  and  the 
arms,  or  transept,  three  hundred  and  forty  feet  long.  This  is  clear  of  the 
entrance,  which  will  protrude  ten  feet  farther  on  each  end.  The  building 
rises  to  a  height  of  two  stories  in  the  main  portions  of  the  cross,  the  upper 
story  having  for  its  sides  long  rows  of  windows  which  act  as  skylights 
for  the  building. 

The  outside  is  handsomely  painted,  the  prevailing  tints  being  brown 
and  wood-color.  The  lower  portion,  or  main  body  of  the  structure,  has 
a  stripe  of  red  at  the  top ;  beneath  this  are  the  windows,  which  are  con- 
tinuous all  around.  Then  comes  a  broad  band  of  wood-color,  with  a  neat 
yellow  figure  placed  at  intervals  in  it;  next  a  band  of  dark  red,  and  then 
the  lower  band  plain.  The  dome  is  of  wood-color,  and  these,  with  the 
black  composition  roof,  give  a  subdued  but  pleasing  effect  at  a  distance. 
The  prevailing  color  inside  is  wood-color,  all  the  lower  part  being  so; 
but  it  is  relieved  by  small  red  bands,  interspersed  with  neat  geometrical 
figures.  The  ceilings  of  both  the  building  and  dome  are  painted  a  dark 
blue.  The  main  feature,  however,  consists  of  the  sides  of  the  building, 
which  are  divided  into  panels,  and  these  again  are  subdivided  into  dia- 
mond shape.  Each  panel  covers  much  space,  and  in  the  centre  of  each 
of  its  diamonds  or  lozenges  is  painted  the  emblem  of  the  department  of 
the  government  there  represented. 

The  main  entrance  is  quite  handsome.  It  rises  to  a  peak,  and  has  an 
immense  window  and  circular  top.  Columns  stand  on  each  side,  resting  on 
large  pedestals.  In  the  columns  are  panels,  and  on  these,  in  relief,  is  a 
group  of  standards  crossed  over  a  drum,  on  each  side  of  which  are 
cannon  balls.  The  doors  of  the  main  entrance  stand  out  from  the  build- 
ing, and  are  fifteen  feet  high.  This  edifice  is  designed  for  the  exhibition 
of  the  resources  of  the  United  States  as  a  war-power  and  its  internal 
resources  in  time  of  peace. 

The  grounds  around  the  building  are  handsomely  laid  off.     The  space 


APPENDIX.  1045 

immediately  adjoining  the  edifice  is  occupied  with  a  display  of  heavy 
ordnance  and  other  objects  too  large  for  exhibition  within  the  building. 

Near  the  southeastern  corner  of  the  building  the  Post-Office  Depart- 
ment exhibits  two  postal-cars,  one  of  the  style  used  by  the  New  York 
'Central,  the  other  the  car  used  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  Thesa 
show  the  style  of  car  used  by  the  great  trunk  roads  of  the  Union  for  the 
fast  mail  service,  and  illustrate  the  entire  method  of  assorting,  receiving 
and  delivering  the  mails  while  the  train  is  in  motion. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  building  the  engineer  section  of  the  War  De- 
partment makes  an  interesting  exhibit  of  a  bridge  train,  with  pontoons, 
wagons,  etc.,  and  a  large  display  of  army  wagons  is  made  by  the  quarter- 
master's branch  of  the  service.  On  the  east  side  of  the  building  the 
"NVur  Department  exhibits  its  heavy  ordnance. 

At  the  northeast  corner  of  the  building  are  two  vertical  engines  which 
supply  the  motive  power  for  the  machinery  within  the  hall. 

The  cost  of  the  building  and  of  the  display  of  the  articles  it  contains 
was  provided  for  by  an  appropriation  by  Congress  on  the  3d  of  March, 
1875.  The  amount  appropriated  was  $505,000,' and  it  was  expressly 
provided  that  not  more  than  $150,000  should  be  expended  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  building.  The  actual  cost  of  the  edifice  was  $110,000. 

Entering  the  building  we  find  it  one  of  the  handsomest  and  most 
attractive  of  the  great  halls  of  the  Exhibition.  It  is  tastefully  painted, 
as  has  been  said,  and  is  gayly  dec-orated  with  flags  and  streamers,  draped 
and  festooned  overhead. 

The  Post-Office  Department. — Commencing  our  tour  of  exploration  at 
the  south  door,  we  give  our  attention  first  to  the  Post-Office  Deportment, 
which  occupies  a  portion  of  the  southeastern  section  of  the  building.  It 
lies  east  of  the  transept,  but  does  not  reach  quite  to  the  nave  of  the 
ouilding. 

The  principal  portion  is  taken  up  with  the  Post-Office  of  the  Centeimhif 
Exhibition.  It  is  constructed  of  black  walnut  and  plate  glass,  and  is 
fitted  up  in  the  handsomest  style.  All  letters  for  the  army  of  exhibitors 
and  employes  engaged  within  the  grounds  are  received  and  delivered 
from  this  office.  There  is  a  system  of  lock-boxes,  a  general  delivery  and 
a  carrier's  department,  each  of  which  is  designed  as  a  specimen  of  this 
branch  of  the  service. 

The  Topographical  Division  exhibits  a  series  of  splendid  railway  an  1 
general  postal  route  maps,  and  maps  showing  the  location  of  the  momy 
order  offices.  The  Division  of  Books  ami  Muni:*  exhibit.-  specimens  of  all 
the  books,  blanks,  etc.,  letter  scales,  marking  and  rating  stamps  u-ed  by 
the  department.  The  Mail  Equipment  Division  exhibits  leather  pouches 


ORNAMENTAL  FOUNTAIN  IN  THF  MAIN   BUILDING. 


1046 


APPENDIX.  1047 

for  letter  mails,  canvas  bags  for  printed  and  miscellaneous  matter ;  also 
registered  tetter  mail  bags,  mail  locks  of  the  pattern  now  in  use,  and  those 
which  were  formerly  used  but  have  been  thrown  aside  by  the  depart- 
ment. From  the  Stamps,  Stamped  Envelope  and  Postal  Card  Division 
we  have  a  complete  exhibit  of  all  the  stamps,  stamped  envelopes  and 
postal  cards  ever  used  by  the  department,  and  specimens  of  registered 
letter  envelopes  and  post-office  official  envelopes  now  in  use. 

The  Agricultural  Department. — The  exhibit  of  the  Agricultural  De- 
partment is  large  and  exhaustive,  and  is  made  mainly  in  handsome  glass 
show-cases  of  large  size. 

The  Statistical  Division  exhibits  large  outline  maps  of  the  United  States, 
.showing  forest  areas ;  the  extent  and  value  of  farming  lands,  and  amount 
of  production,  by  counties;  charts  and  diagrams ^sho wing  the  amount  of 
special  products,  by  sections,  and  statistics  of  farm  animals,  and  other 
matters  relating  to  the  agricultural  industries  of  the  country.  The 
Chemical  Division  exhibits  specimens  of  soils  arranged  in  the  order  "of 
their  geological  formation,  comprising  marls,  calcareous  earths,  green 
sand  and  phosphatic  marls.  Then  come  phosphatic  rocks,  animal  and 
vegetable  fertilizers,  and  a  combination  of  the  three  in  a  manufactured 
state.  The  next  feature,  the  utilization  of  vegetable  products,  is  illus- 
trated by  means  of  specimens,  beginning  with  the  product  in  its  natural 
state  and  proceeding  through  the  various  stages  of  manufacture  to  the 
finished  article."  The  Botanical  Division  is  perhaps  the  richest  and  most 
complete  in  the  department.  The  display  of  the  wood  growth  of  the 
country  is  exhaustive.  At  the  foot  of  the  cases  stand  many  hundred 
sections  of  logs,  overhead  in  the  case  being  specimens  of  the  foliage  of 
their  respective  trees.  Next  to  Horticultural  Hall  and  grounds  this  spot 
affords  the  botanist  the  greatest  delight  which  the  Centennial  can  give 
him.  From  the  subtropical  growth  of  the  Gulf  and  Southwestern  States 
up  to  the  hardy  conifers  of  Maine  and  the  Northwest  there  is  not  a  tree 
of  importance  which  is  not  here  represented.  The  Microscopical  Division 
exhibits  a  series  of  water-color  drawings  representing  the  family  of  cryp- 
togamia,  with  magnified  spores,  showing  the  several  stages  of  the  various 
diseases  to  which  they  are  subject;  also  preparations  illustrating  the 
characteristics  of  poisonous  and  edible  mushrooms  common  to  the  United 
States;  illustrations  displaying  the  varied  character  of  the  starch  granules 
of  plants ;  drawings  and  illustrations  explaining  the  method  of  distin- 
guishing vegetable  and  animal  fibres,  their  kind  and  quality ;  drawings 
displaying  vegetable  and  animal  cellulose  and  starches,  and  illustrating 
methods  of  detecting  them  in  organizations.  The  Entomological  Division 
contains  collections  of  models  of  the  fruits  and  vegetables  of  the  United 


1048  APPENDIX. 

States;  stuffed  specimens  of  birds,  beneficial  and  injurious  to  farmers  and 
orchardists;  stuffed  specimens  of  the  various  types  of  poultry  of  this 
country  ;  a  collection  of  the  grains  and  cereals  of  the  Union  ;  a  collection 
of  the  textile  fabrics  of  the  United  States,  with  specimens  of  their  manu- 
facture; specimens  of  tobacco  from  different  tobacco-producing  sections 
of  the  United  States;  and  a  mounted  collection  of  beneficial  and  injurious 
insects.  The  Hwticultural  Division  exhibits  specimens  of  economic  and 
utilizable  plants,  showing  methods  of  growth,  culture,  etc.,  grapes,  cotton, 
tobacco,  flax,  broom  corn,  jute,  corn,  sorghum,  yucca  fibres,  etc. 

The  Interior  Department. — The  exhibit  of  the  Interior  Department  occu- 
pies the  southwest  section  of  the  building,  and  is  large  and  interesting. 
The  most  of  the  articles  are  shown  in  glass  cases.  The  Patent  Office. — The 
display  made  by  this,  the  oldest  and  best  known  branch  of  the  Interior 
Department,  is  large  and  exceedingly  interesting.  First  of  all  are  shown 
the  publications  of  the  office,  consisting  of  the  annual  reports,  official 
gazette ;  index  to  patents,  general  and  yearly ;  volumes  of  patents, 
monthly  and  weekly;  decisions  of  the  Commissioner  of  Patents;  mechan- 
ical dictionary;  and  official  classification.  A  selected  series  of  60,000 
drawings  of  models,  and  a  selected  series  of  5000  models,  all  carefully 
chosen  from  the  vast  collections  of  the  Patent  Office,  are  shown  to  serve 
in  illustration  of  the  work  of  the  office. 

The  National  Museum  makes  a  deeply  interesting  exhibit  of  a  case  filled 
with  relics  of  the  illustrious  Father  of  his  Country.  They  consist  of  the 
camp  equipage  and  other  articles  used  by  General  Washington  during  the 
Revolution.  They  are  just  as  he  left  them  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and 
were  given  to  the  general  government  for  safe-keeping  after  his  death. 

The  Pension  Office  exhibits  its  annual  reports,  and  the  statistics  of  its 
operations,  together  with  some  collections  of  historical  interest  relating  to 
the  war  of  the  Revolution.  The  General  Land  Office  exhibits  its  annual 
reports,  volumes  of  the  laws  of  Congress  relating  to  the  public  lands, 
digests  of  the  decisions  of  the  Commissioner,  and  other  documents.  It 
displays  also  maps,  charts,  and  atlas  of  surveys,  miscellaneous  collections, 
and  instruments  and  processes  employed  in  the  land  survey.  The  Indian 
Office  makes  the  largest  and  most  interesting  exhibit  in  this  section  of  the 
building.  It  embraces  the  reports  and  other  publications  of  the  office, 
maps  of  the  Indian  reservations,  photographs  and  paintings  of  the  Indians, 
their  mode  of  life,  habits,  etc.,  costumes  of  males  and  females,  weapons 
of  war,  models  of  wigwams,  tents,  canoes,  domestic  utensils,  and  specimens 
of  the  arts  and  manufactures  of  the  tribes.  The  Education  Office  is  in 
charge  of  its  Commissioner,  General  John  Eaton.  It  makes  an  interesting 
exhibit  of  models  of  country  and  town  school-houses  of  the  past  and 


APPENDIX.  1049 

present  times,  and  college  buildings;  specimens  of  school  furniture  ami 
apparatus ;  a  collection  of  school  text-books,  showing  the  progress  made 
in  these  works  from  those  used  at  the  opening  of  the  century  to  those  in 
use  to-day ;  catalogues  of  colleges,  schools,  and  charitable  and  benevolent 
institutions;  statistics  of  education  in  the  United  States;  the  reports  and 
publications  of  the  office;  and  a  number  of  other  matters  of  interest  con- 
nected with  the  progress  and  present  condition  of  the  educational  systems 
of  this  and  other  countries.  The  Census  Office  exhibits  a  complete  sot 
of  the  Decennial  censuses  of  the  United  States  from  1790  to  1870,  with 
the  "  Statistical  Atlas  of  1870."  The  Geological  and  Geographical  Sur- 
vey of  the  Territories  is  shown  by  the  reports  and  bulletins  of  the  various 
expeditions,  topographical  and  geographical  atlases,  wall-maps  and  charts, 
panoramic  photographs,  paintings,  etc.  The  windows  in  this  section  of 
the  hall  are  filled  with  photographs  of  the  scenery  and  geological  forma- 
tions of  the  vast  region  between  the  Rocky  and  Sierra  Nevada  mountains. 
The  geological  formation  of  noted  peaks,  plateaux,  and  valleys  of  this 
region  is  shown  by  means  of  topographical  plaster  work,  variously  colored, 
the  colors  being  numbered  with  reference  to  an  explanatory  schedule. 
There  are  also  models  of  the  present  condition  of  the  ancient  cliff  habita- 
tions of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico  and 
models  of  the  same  restored. 

The  Smithsonian  Institution  and  Commission  on  American  Food  Fishes. — 
The  exhibit  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  is  full  of  interest  to  the 
ordinary  sight-seer,  as  well  as  to  the  scholar.  The  publications  of  the 
institution,  its  contribution  to  general  knowledge,  and  its  method  of 
exchange  with  foreign  institutions  are  shown.  Then  follows  an  exhibit 
of  the  Collection  to  Illustrate  the  Animal  Resources  of  the  United  Stales. 
This  is  very  complete,  and  is  in  charge  of  Mr.  G.  Browne  Goode.  The 
exhibit  is  divided  into  four  sections.  The  first  section  includes  North 
American  animals  which  are  directly  beneficial  or  injurious  to  man.  The 
species  which  supply  food,  clothing,  shelter,  implements,  materials,  or 
amusement,  are  classed  as  useful,  while  those  which  endanger  the  life  or 
personal  comfort  of  man,  or  destroy  those  animals  or  plants  which  are  of 
direct  benefit  to  him,  are  considered  injurious. 

In  addition  to  a  full  display  of  water  and  land  animals  there  are  also 
exhibited  the  various  means  employed  in  their  pursuit  and  capture 
by  hunters,  trappers,  and  fishermen  of  North  America,  aboriginal  and 
civilized.  This  collection  may  be  regarded  as  a  monograph  of  all  matters 
relating  to  the  chase  and  the  fisheries  of  the  country. 

The  Collection  to  Illustrate  the  Fishery  Resources  of  the  United  States  is 
exhibited  in  connection  with  the  display  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 


1050  APPENDIX. 

and  is  partly  covered  by  tne  collection  just  described.  It  is  very  large 
and  valuable,  as  it  embraces  photographs  or  plaster  casts  of  almost  all  the 
fishes  found  in  the  lakes,  rivers,  streams,  buys,  and  coasts  of  North 
America.  All  the  apparatus  used  in  the  capture  of  these  animals  is 
exhibited  in  another  part  of  the  building,  and  this  display  includes 
angling  tackle  of  all  kinds,  from  the  delicate  fly  to  the  shark  gear,  set 
tackle,  such  as  surface,  floating  trowl,  and  bottom  set  lines,  together  with 
all  the  parts  and  accessories  of  angling  apparatus  and  of  harpoon  and 
seine  lines.  A  most  interesting  subdivision  of  this  department  is  a  collec- 
tion of  boats  used  in  fishing.  These  include  birch  canoes  and  the  whaling 
canoes  used  by  the  Indians  of  the  northwest  coast,  Kyaks,  Umiaks,  Indian 
raft-boats,  launches,  ancient  "dug-outs,"  scows,  oyster-boats,  seine-boats 
for  lake  and  sea  use,  Potomac  seine-boats,  dorys,  sharpnis,  dingies,  the 
Italian  fishing-boats  now  used  in  California,  Adirondack,  and  Alexandria 
bay  boats,  and  mackerel  and  oyster  smacks.  In  one  large,  handsome  case 
is  exhibited  by  models  the  means  of  pursuit  and  capture  of  the  whale, 
and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  prepared  for  market.  In  the  centre  of  a 
green,  wavy  surface,  representing  the  o^ean,  is  a  beautiful  model  of  a  full- 
rigged  whaler,  while  a  little  farther  off  is  a  whale-boat  and  a  crew  in 
pursuit  of  their  prey. 

The  Collection  to  Illustrate  the  Ethnology  of  the  United  States  is  exhibited 
conjointly  with  that  of  the  Indian  Bureau  of  the  Interior  Department, 
and  is  in  charge  of  Dr.  Charles  Row.  It  comprises  objects  of  flaked  and 
chipped,  and  pecked,  ground  and  polished  stone,  used  by  the  primitive 
inhabitants  of  America,  such  as  arrow  and  spear-heads,  perforators  and 
scrapers,  cutting  and  sawing  implements,  chisels,  gouges,  axes,  hammers, 
adzes,  ceremonial  weapons,  stone  vessels,  pipes,  tubes,  ornaments  and 
sculptures;  objects  of  copper,  bone,  shell,  pottery  and  terra  cotta  ware; 
carvings  on  wood  ;  skulls ;  mummies ;  samples  of  food,  and  models,  draw- 
ings and  samples  of  articles  of  common  use  to  illustrate  the  habits,  daily 
life,  pastimes,  religion  and  warfare  of  the  ancient  Indian  tribes. 

The  Collection  to  Illustrate  the  Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States  is 
in  charge  of  W.  P.  Blake.  The  principal  objects  of  this  collection  of  the 
useful  ores  and  minerals  of  the  country  have  been  to  illustrate:  1st.  The 
nature  and  variety  of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  United  States  ;  2d.  The 
geographical  distribution  and  geological  associations  of  the  minerals;  3d. 
The  extent  to  which  they  have  been  utilized;  4th.  The  mechanical, 
metallurgical,  and  chemical  processes  by  which  they  are  extracted  or  con- 
verted into  useful  products;  5th.  The  inherent  and  comparative  qualities 
of  the  extractive  products.  A  portion  of  the  collection  is  arranged 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  objects,  irrespective  of  locality,  hut  the 


1051 


1052  APPENDIX. 

bulk  of  the  exhibition  is  grouped  geographically  by  States.  There  is  also 
a  section  devoted  to  models  and  drawings,  and  one  to  geological  maps 
and  graphic  charts.  This  collection  occupies  the  northeast  portion  of  the 
Government  Building,  upon  the  right  of  the  main  aisle. 

The  Treasury  Department. — The  exhibit  of  the  Treasury  Department 
is  small,  and  is  located  in  the  north  end  of  the  building.  It  is  confined 
chiefly  to  the  Revenue  Departments.  Specimens  of  all  the  treasury  notes, 
fractional  currency  and  other  bills  issued  by  the  government,  and  notes  of 
various  denominations  issued  by  national  banks,  are  displayed  by  the 
Bureau  of  Engraving  and  Printing.  In  a  small  but  handsomely  fitted- 
up  court  the  Supervising  Architect  of  the  Treasury  exhibits  a  fine  plaster 
model  of  the  Custom  House  and  Post-Office  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  and 
drawings  of  the  custom  houses  and  post-offices  of  the  principal  ports  of 
entry  of  the  Union.  Here  is  a  case  of  all  the  medals  struck  at  the  United 
States  Mint  at  Philadelphia,  and  here  are  samples  of  all  the  revenue 
stamps  used  by  the  Treasury  in  its  various  branches.  Samples  of  liquors 
in  barrels,  and  tobacco  in  packages  are  exhibited,  in  order  to  show  the 
mode  of  collecting  the  revenue  upon  these  articles  ;  and  here  are  samples 
of  the  testing  apparatuses  and  scales,  and  the  locks  used  by  the  depart- 
ment. The  Coast  Survey  Office  exhibits  maps  and  charts  of  the  coast  and 
the  various  rivers,  bays,  harbors,  etc.,  of  the  country,  with  models  of  the 
appliances  by  which  the  work  of  this  branch  of  the  public  service  is 
carried  on.  The  Lighthouse  Board  exhibits  specimens  of  the  various 
lights  used  on  our  coast,  and  of  the  means  employed  to  supply  the  various 
light  stations  both  ashore  and  afloat. 

The  Navy  Department. — The  Navy  Department  occupies  the  southeast 
section  of  the  Government  Building,  and  makes  a  large  and  attractive 
display  of  the  workings  of  its  various  branches.  At  the  western  end  of 
the  section,  fronting  the  transept,  are  two  powerful  marine  engines,  one  a 
compound  screw  engine  of  800  horse-power,  the  other  a  back-acting  con- 
densing engine  of  500  horse-power.  Immediately  in  the  rear  of  these 
are  two  compound  marine  boilers,  each  eight  feet  in  diameter;  and  close 
by  are  specimens  of  the  cutter  engine  with  vertical  boiler.  These  are 
exhibited  by  the  Steam  Engineering  Branch  of  the  Department.  The 
Ordnance  Branch  displays  its  publications  and  reports,  which  hold  a  high 
rank  among  professional  men.  It  exhibits  a  number  of  torpedoes,  both 
automatic,  stationary  and  movable.  This  branch  also  exhibits  specimens 
and  models  of  the  various  guns  used  in  the  naval  service,  and  of  small 
arms.  Prominent  in  the  formidable  array  of  heavy  guns  are  the  Catling 
battery  gun,  firing  from  sixty  to  eighty  shots  a  minute;  and  the  terrible, 
raking  Billinghurst  battery,  consisting  of  a  horizontal  layer  of  twenty- 


APPENDIX.  1053 

five  guns,  which  are  all  fired  simultaneously.  Near  these  is  an  immense 
area  of  wall  covered  with  shelving,  upon  which  are  specimens  of  all  the 
varieties  of  guns  used  now  or  ever  used  by  the  United  States  marines; 
scabbards  and  swords,  modern  and  ancient,  handsome  and  ludicrously 
odd  ;  also  an  almost  endless  variety  of  murderous-looking  shells,  grape- 
shot,  canister  and  solid  round  shot — some  new,  others  having  been  fired, 
but  retaining  perfect  shape,  and  still  others  cracked,  broken  in  pieces, 
dented  or  battered,  the  lot  having  doubtless  maimed  many  a  goodly  ship, 
made  daylight  shine  through  stone  walls  and  carried  off  many  a  poor  tar's 
head.  Elsewhere  there  are  large  and  handsome  glass  cases,  containing 
thousands  of  models  of  forts,  batteries,  ordnance  and  weapons  of  all  kinds 
used  in  naval  service,  torpedoes  and  the  rigging  and  machinery  of  men- 
of-war.  The  two  most  curious  features  of  the  section  are  rusty  and  half- 
decayed  weapons  obtained  from  sunken  war  ships,  and  full  uniformed 
figures  representing  Jack  Tar  in  all  the  transformations  he  has  undergone 
during  the  last  hundred  years.  Instruments  for  inspecting  heavy  guns 
and  for  gauging  and  inspecting  shot  and  shell  are  shown  ;  also  samples 
of  gunpowder,  percussion  powder,  cartridges,  rammers,  scrapers,  sponges, 
grenades,  war  rockets,  and  all  the  various  articles  which  are  used  for  the 
armament  of  a  fighting  ship,  the  old  and  new  styles  being  shown  side  by 
side  in  many  cases.  The  ordnance  branch  also  exhibits  papier-mach6 
figures  clad  in  the  dress  of  the  sailors  and  marines  of  the  navy  at  the 
various  periods  of  its  history;  and  a  number  of  interesting  and  valuable 
naval  relics. 

The  Navigation  Branch  exhibits  navy  bunting  and  navy  flags. 

Specimens  of  logs  to  be  used  by  hand  or  steam,  with  an  exhibit  of  the 
miprovements  in  Sir  William  Thomson's  Sounding  Machine,  and  the 
various  devices  for  detaching  sinkers  and  bringing  up  specimens  of 
bottom,  water,  etc.  An  ingenious  apparatus  for  displaying  signal-lights 
at  night  is  also  shown,  and  close  by  are  cases  of  compasses  for  various 
uses,  instruments  for  testing  them,  adjustable  binnacles,  sextants,  quad- 
rants, and  the  various  apparatus  used  for  determining  latitude  and  longi- 
tude. The  observatory  having  for  some  time  past  been  intimately  con- 
nected with  Arctic  expeditions,  and  Rear-Admiral  Davis,  Superintendent 
of  the  Naval  Observatory,  being  engaged  in  preparing  an  official  narra- 
tion of  the  expedition  of  the  "  Polaris,"  a  design  was  formed  and  carried 
out  for  a  collection  of  relics  of  the  celebrated  Arctic  and  Antarctic  ex- 
plorers. The  Hydrographic  Office  exhibits  the  charts,  books  and  other 
publications  issued  by  it,  which  are  of  interest  chiefly  to  professional 
seamen.  The  Yard  and  Docks  Branch  exhibits  handsome  and  carefully 
prepared  plans  of  the  ns  x  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire, 


1054 


APPENDIX.  1055 

Boston,  New  York,  Washington,  Norfolk,  Ponsacola,  and  Mare  Island, 
California.  Here  are  also  plans  of  the  machinery  in  use  at  the  principal 
navy-yards,  photographs  of  the  buildings,  and  perfect  and  elaborate!  v 
executed  models  of  the  dry-docks  at  the  Boston,  Ne\v  York,  Norfolk  and 
Mare  Island  navy-yards.  The  Equipment  and  Recruiting  Branch  ex- 
hibits a  specimen  of  Young's  Ship  Galley,  with  utensils  for  cooking  for 
five  hundred  men  ;  life-lwats,  lanterns,  and  the  various  articles  needed 
for  the  fitting  up  of  a  ship.  The  Construction  and  Repair  Branch  ex- 
hibits against  the  eastern  wall  models  of  the  hulls  of  the  "  Constitution" 
and  a  number  of  the  other  famous  vessels  of  the  navy,  and  in  the  nave 
fronting  the  War  Department  is  a  full-rigged  model  of  the  United  States 
sloop-of-war  "Antietam."  The  model  is  forty-one  feet  in  length ;  is 
perfect  from  water-line  to  rail ;  is  fully  rigged  with  sails,  and  carries 
twenty-two  broadside  guns.  The  Medical  and  Surgical  Branch  makes  a 
complete  exhibit  of  the  medicines  and  hospital  stores  used  in  the  navy. 
Here  are  cases  of  the  surgical  instruments  supplied  in  the  service;  cots 
and  stretchers  for  the  transportation  of  the  wounded  in  action;  beds  with 
woven  wire  mattress;  arrangements  for  ventilating  the  holds  of  ships;  a 
model,  one  thirty-second  part  the  size  of  the  original,  of  the  "sick  bay" 
of  the  famous  ship  "  Hartford,"  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
Farragut's  flagship  during  the  late  civil  war.  On  the  south  wall  of  the 
section  are  photographs  of  the  naval  hospitals  of  the  United  States,  and 
of  the  homes  for  disabled  sailors  and  marines.  A  sectional  model  of  the 
hospital  ship  "Idaho,"  showing  all  three  decks,  is  included  in  this  Col- 
lection. The  Pay,  Provision  and  Clothing  Branch  exhibits  clothing  and 
materials  for  making  the  same  issued  in  the  navy  ;  a  package  showing  the 
manner  of  packing  clothing  for  sea  ;  and  specimens  of  rations  and  stores 
of  all  kinds  issued  to  the  men.  Here  also  are  specimens  of  the  blanks, 
books,  iron  safes  and  locks  used  in  the  Paymaster's  department. 

The  War  Department. — The  exhibit  of  the  War  Department  occupies 
the  northeast  section  of  the  building.  It  is  quite  large  and  includes  every 
branch  of  the  military  service,  the  thoroughness  and  efficiency  of  which 
were  so  well  tested  during  the  late  civil  war. 

The  Signal  Service  claims  our  attention  first.  The  exhibit  is  in  charge 
of  Lieutenant  Grugan,  and  the  principal  part  of  it  is  a  signal  or  weather 
station  fully  equipped  and  in  operation,  with  recording  instruments,  tele- 
graph wires,  a  printing  press  and  a  full  corps  of  observers.  One  set  of 
instruments  will  be  in  actual  service,  and  other  instruments  will  record 
changes  in  the  weather,  which  are  wholly  artificial,  exaggerating  their 
natural  action  so  as  to  show  the  principle  upon  which  they  work. 

The  field  work  of  the  Signal  Service  is  of  little  consequence  in  time 


1056  APPENDIX. 

of  peace,  but  during  a  war  it  is  of  the  highest  importance,  as  it  is  by 
means  of  it  that  distant  portions  of  the  army  communicate  with  each 
other  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy.  The  display  of  it  is  made  partly  in 
the  building  and  partly  in  the  grounds  to  the  westward  of  the  building. 
The  Quartermaster's  Department  exhibits  a  number  of  figures  clothed  in 
the  uniforms  used  at  various  times  in  the  American  army  from  the 
Revolution  to  the  present  day.  In  this  section  are  shown  the  tents, 
cooking  utensils  and  tools,  musical  instruments,  blankets  and  beds, 
and  machinery  for  cutting  out  clothing  and  making  shoes  used  in  the 
army.  Here  also  are  the  portable  forges,  and  the  horse-shoes,  in  use 
at  present,  and  a  complete  exhibit  of  the  system  of  farriery  practised 
in  the  service.  The  wagon  train  is  placed  out  of  doors  to  the  north 
of  the  building,  and  lias  been  already  referred  to.  The  Engineer  Corps 
make  one  of  the  most  interesting  exhibits  in  the  building.  Maps 
and  drawings  of  the  great  works  constructed  on  the  coast,  the  improve- 
ments of  rivers,  lakes  and  harbors,  from  1776  to  1876,  are  shown. 
A  complete  display  is  made  of  the  various  articles  needed  for  the 
equipment  of  the  Engineer  Corps  of  the  army  in  active  service.  The 
pontoon  train  is  exhibited  in  the  grounds  north  of  the  building.  In  the 
hall  are  field  photographic  instruments,  siege  and  mining  tools,  and 
reconnoissance  instruments.  The  Ordnance  Service  exhibits  its  large 
guns  outside  of  the  building,  as  has  been  stated.  The  display  within  the 
hall  is  large,  and  merits  the  most  careful  study.  The  manufacture  of 
arms  is  shown  in  the  most  admirable  manner.  Here  is  seen  in  practical 
operation  all  the  rifle-making  machinery  which  the  Government  Armory 
at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  could  crowd  into  the  limited  space.  The 
skilful  men  operatives  begin  with  the  round  bars  of  steel  and  the  long 
blocks  of  black  walnut,  turning  out  complete  the  handsome  weapons  of 
death  almost  as  rapidly  as  the  latter  could  be  made  to  end  human  lives. 
In  the  adjoining  section  the  manufacture  of  cartridges  and  bullets  is  in 
progress.  Here  are  models  of  gun-plants  and  forges,  illustrating  the 
whole  process  of  cannon-making.  Gatling  and  other  battery  guns  are 
shown,  and  small  models  of  field  artillery  as  well  as  the  guns  themselves. 
Caissons  and  artillery  forges,  models  of  sea-coast  and  siege  guns,  showing 
the  manner  of  using  them  in  barbette  and  casemate  batteries,  and  a  series 
of  "Whitworth,  Sutcliffe,  Mann,  Moffat,  and  Hotchkiss  breech-loading 
field  rifle-guns  are  exhibited.  Along  the  wall  is  arranged  a  collection  of 
all  the  various  styles  of  guns  and  pistols  ever  used  in  the  United  States 
army,  from  the  old  flint-lock  of  the  Revolution  up  to  the  splendid 
breech-loading  rifle  of  to-day.  Pyramids  of  shot  and  shell  stand  about 
the  section,  showing  all  the  various  projectiles  used  in  warfare.  Here 


APPENDIX.  1057 

are  mountain  howitzers,  their  carriages  and  also  ammunition  chests — all  on 
pack-saddles — -just  as  they  are  carried  over  mountains  or  bad  roads  on  the 
backs  of  mules;  stuffed  uniformed  figures  of  cavalrymen  on  the  backs  of 
papier-mache  horses;  the  mortal  and  stuffed  remains  of  the  famous  trotter 
George  M.  Patchen,  hitched  to  a  carriage  containing  a  Gatling  gun;  a 
Hotchkiss  revolving  cannon  (for  field  use,  discharging  eighty  rounds  of 
shells  or  can  iste. '-shot  per  minute),  and  a  section  of  oak  which  stood 
inside  the  iutrenchments  near  Spottsylvania  Court  House,  and  was  cut 
down  by  musket  balls  in  an  attempt  to  recapture  the  works  previously 
carried  by  the  Second  Corps,  Army  of  the  Potomac,  May  12th,  1864. 
Plans  of  the  United  States  arsenals  are  exhibited,  and  at  the  western  end 
of  the  section  is  a  handsome  model  of  the  arsenal  and  grounds  at  Rock 
Island,  Illinois. 

The  Pott  Hospital. — The  Medical  Section  of  the  army  makes  no  exhibit 
in  the  Government  Building,  but  confines  its  display  to  the  Post  Hos- 
pital, which  stands  in  the  government  grounds  to  the  north  of  the 
principal  building.  The  hospital  is  a  plain  but  neat  frame  structure,  two 
stories  in  height,  with  a  wide  piazza  running  all  around  it.  It  is 
designed  to  show  a  complete  post  hospital  of  twenty-four  beds  of 
full  size. 

The  Laboratory. — Between  the  Government  Building  and  the  Post 
Hospital  is  a  small  frame  building  intended  for  a  laboratory  for  the 
manufacture  of  cartridges  and  other  dangerous  compounds.  It  forms  a 
part  of  the  exhibit  of  the  Ordnance  Department. 

The  Lifjhthouse. — In  addition  to  the  display  made  in  the  Government 
Building,  the  Lighthouse  Board  of  the  Treasury  Department  has  erected 
opposite  the  northeast  corner  of  that  building  an  iron  lighthouse,  such  as 
is  used  on  the  dangerous  shoals  of  our  coast.  In  the  centre  of  this  tower 
is  placed  a  revolving  or  flash-light  of  the  fourth  grade,  and  over  one  of 
the  dormer  windows  is  suspended  a  fog-bell  weighing  4950  pounds.  The 
light  is  revolved  and  the  bell  is  struck  by  clock-work,  the  flashes  of  the 
light  and  strokes  of  the  bell  being  regulated  at  the  will  of  the  light- 
keeper. 

Near  the  lighthouse  is  "The  Syren,"  or  fog-horn,  which  is  simply  an 
enormously  long  horn  blown  by  steam.  It  emits  a  most  deafening 
sound,  and  has  been  heard  for  a  distance  of  thirty-five  miles.  A  smaller 
horn  is  also  shown.  It  is  operated  by  a  caloric  engine,  and  is  intended 
for  a  light-ship. 

The  Woman's  Building  owes  its  existence  entirely  to  the  efforts  of  a 
number  of  ladies  known  as  the  "  Women's  Centennial  Executive  Com- 
mittee." It  is  devoted  exclusively  to  the  exhibition  of  the  results  of 
67 


.1058 


APPENDIX.  1050 

v/oman's  labor.  The  building  stands  on  Belmont  avenue,  at  tlic  western 
end  of  the  Horticultural  grounds.  It  covers  an  area  of  30,000  square 
feet,  and  is  formed  by  two  naves  intersecting  each  other,  each  11)2  feet 
long  and  sixty-four  feet  wide.  At  the  end  of  these  there  is  a  porch  eiurht 
by  thirty-two  feet  in  size.  The  corners  formed  by  the  intersection  of  the 
two  naves  are  filled  out  by  four  pavilions  which  are  included  in  the  hall.' 
Each  of  these  pavilions  is  forty-eight  feet  square.  The  whole  structure 
is  of  wood,  the  architecture  being  of  the  modern  style.  The  centre  of  the 
edifice  is  twenty-five  feet  higher  than  the  rest  of  the  building,  and  is  sur- 
mounted by  a  lantern  with  a  cupola  on  top  of  the  same,  giving  to  this 
part  of  the  building  a  total  height  of  ninety  feet.  The  most  striking 
feature  of  the  plan  is  that  there  are  in  the  whole  interior  but  f  >ur  sup- 
porting columns  to  the  roof,  all  the  rest  being  trussed  over  from  the 
outside  walls.  The  exterior  is  painted  a  light  bluish  gray  color,  and  the 
interior  is  finished  in  the  softest  shade  of  light  blue. 

Work  upon  the  building  was  begun  about  the  middle  of  October, 
1875,  and  it  was  turned  over  to  the  "  Women's  Committee,"  completed, 
early  in  January,  1876.  The  cost  of  the  building  and  its  internal  ar- 
rangements was  $30,000,  which  sum  was  raised  through  the  exertions  of 
the  ladies  having  the  enterprise  in  charge. 

At  the  north  side  of  the  building  is  the  engine  house,  in  which  a 
Baxter  portable  engine  of  six  horse-power  supplies  the  motive  power  for 
a  number  of  spinning  frames  and  power  looms  in  the  hall,  which  are 
constantly  at  work,  in  charge  of  female  operatives.  It  runs  also  a 
small  Hoe  cylinder  press,  on  which  the  journal  issued  from  this  build- 
ing is  printed. 

The  display  within  the  hall  is  quite  large,  and  includes  nearly  every- 
thing of  woman's  work  or  invention  that  could  be  collected.  I'aintiiurs 
and  statuary  by  female  artists  arc  shown  in  the  northern  section  of  the 
hall,  but  the  collection  falls  short  of  illustrating  the  highest  triumphs 
achieved  by  the  sex  in  these  departments  of  art. 

A  most  interesting  exhibit  is  made,  in  the  southeastern  section  of  tiie 
building,  of  the  inventions  of  women  in  machinery  and  other  fields 
of  labor.  The  majority  of  these  are  designed  to  economize  household 
labor. 

In  the  southeastern  section  is  a  large  collection  of  embroideries  by 
iiand,  the  most  of  it  in  glass  cases.  Here  are  a  number  of  portraits 
worked  in  silk  or  embroidered  in  worsted.  In  the  northwestern  section 
there  are  some  fine  wood-carvings  by  ladies,  and  sets  of  chamber  furni- 
ture designed  by  them.  Close  by  are  sets  of  porcelain  ornamented  by 
lady  artists,  some  of  which  are  very  beautiful. 


1060 


APPENDIK. 


The  southwestern  section- of  the  hall  is  taken  up  almost  entirely  by 
exhibits  from  foreign  countries.  The  hulies  of  Great  Britain,  Canada, 
Sweden,  France  and  the  Netherlands,  and  other  countries  have  sent  con- 
tributions to  this  department,  which  are  among  the  handsomest  articles 
displayed  in  the  hall.  The  Royal  School  of  Art  and  Needlework,  under 
I. ic  patronage  of  her  Majesty  the  Queen  of  England,  the  exhibit  of  which 
we  noticed  in  our  account  of  the  Main  Exhibition  Building,  has  here 
several  cases  of  superb  embroideries  and  needlework. 

Egypt  also  sends  several  specimens  of  rich  embroideries  in  gold  and 
silver  thread.  Here  are  a  set  of  velvet  covers  for  doors  richly  em- 
broidered in  quaint  designs  with  gold  thread,  by  the  wife  of  the  Bey  of 


MARYLAND  STATE  BUILDING. 

Tunis.  They  are  among  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  needlework  in 
the  entire  Exhibition.  From  the  Netherlands  are  some  beautiful  silk 
embroideries  and  some  feather-work,  and  from  France  silk  embroideries 
and  specimens  of  the  drawings  of  the  pupils  of  the  female  art  schools 
of  Paris. 

In  the  Canadian  department  are  a  number  of  finely  executed  and  beau- 
tiful specimens  of  needlework,  including  a  picture  in  worsted  of  the 
Lord's  Snpper,  and  cases  of  silk  dresses,  flowers,  and  a  carved  picture- 
irame.  There  are  also  in  this  exhibit  many  handsome  pieces  of  straw- 
work,  silk  flower-work,  laces,  anti-macassar  and  cretonne  work. 

Norway  and  Sweden  each  send  embroideries,  flowers,  and  articles 
made  from  fish-scales,  articles  ornamented  with  moss,  clothing,  and 
articles  of  household  use.  Their  displays  resemble  each  other  very 
closely. 


1061 


10G2 


APPENDIX. 


Japan  fully  sustains  her  reputation  by  her  display  here  of  articles  in 
the  manufacture  of  which  the  women  of  that  country  have  attained 
great  skill. 

The  ladies  of  Brazil  make  a  handsome  exhibit  of  table  covers,  embroi- 
dery, and  fancy  work,  many  of  the  articles  being  the  contributions  of  the 
inmates  of  the  Brazilian  Orphan  Asylums.  Among  these  the  most 
noticeable  exhibit  is  a  cabinet  of  gold  lace-work.  / 


DELAWARE   STATE   BUILDING. 


Near  the  centre  of  the  building  is  a  small  printing  office  in  which 
female  compositors  are  engaged  in  setting  up  the  tyjx?  of  The  New  Century 
for  Women,  a  journal  conducted  entirely  by  women,  and  issued  from  this 
building. 

The  State  Buildings  were  erected  by  the  commissioners  of  the  respective 
States  to  which  they  belong,  the  cost  being  defrayed  by  appropriations  by 


APPENDIX. 


1063 


the  Legislatures  of  those  States.  The  majority  are  located  on  State 
avenue,  in  the  northwestern  portion  of  the  Exhibition  grounds,  but  a  few 
are  in  other  parts  of  the  enclosure.  All  but  the  Ohio  building  are  con- 
structed of  wood.  They  contain  the  offices  of  the  State  Commissioners, 
^and  reception  rooms  for  the  governors  of  the  respective  States,  and  parlors 
for  ladies  and  gentlemen.  They  are  handsomely  furnished,  and  are 


PENNSYLVANIA   STATE  BUILDING. 


designed  as  places  of  rendezvous  for  visitors  from  the  various  States,  to 
whom  special  facilities  are  offered  without  any  charge.  The  States  thus 
represented  in  the  Exhibition  are  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachu- 
setts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  West  Virginia,  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  Missouri, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Michigan,  Iowa,  Kansas  and  Col- 


1064 


APPENDIX. 


orado,  and  California  and  Nevada.  The  States  of  West  Virginia,  Arkansas, 
Kansas,  Colorado,  Missouri  and  Maryland  make  special  exhibits  in  their 
building?  of  their  agricultural  and  mineral  resources. 

All  the  State  Buildings  have  large  registers  in  which  visitors  from  the 
respective  States  may  record  their  names  and  addresses.  Nearly  all  are 
provided  with  files  of  the  State  newspapers,  and  with  baggage  and  coat 


COLORADO  AND  KANSAS  STATE  BUILDING. 


rooms,  where  visitors  may  leave  their  valises,  bags,  and  useless  wraps, 
without  charge.  A  number  have  special  j*ost-offices,  and  at  all  visitors 
may  find  facilities  for  writing  and  despatching  letters.  They  can  also 
liave  their  letters  sent  to  their  State  Buildings  during  their  visits  to  the 
Exhibition. 

Several  of  the  foreign  nations   have  erected    handsome  edifices  within 
the  grounds.     The  most  elaborate  of  these  is  St.  Georyes  House,  situated 


APPENDIX. 


lOCo 


on  the  slopes  of  George's  Hill,  south  of  the  State  Buildings,  and  consti- 
tute the  head-quarters  of  the  Commissioners  from  Great  Britain  and  her 
colonies.  They  stand  in  their  own  grounds,  which  are  enclosed  with  a 
pretty  rustic  fence,  and  in  the  yard  before  the  principal  edifice  is  a  tall 
flagstaff  from  which  floats  a  large  English  ensign. 

The  French  Government  Building  stands  north  of  the  Main  Building 
and  east  of  Memorial  Hall,  near  the  entrance  gate  which  faces  the  Reading 
Railroad  Depot.  It  is  sixty  feet  long  by  forty  feet  wide,  and  is  built 
entirely  of  brick  and  iron,  the  facing  being  highly  ornamental.  The  top 
is  of  glass  and  iron,  and  the  entrance  is  finished  with  iron.  The  building 
is  intended  for  an  exhibit  of  the  public  works  of  the  French  Republic, 
and  the  articles  displayed  within  it  consist  of  models,  charts,  and  drawings 
of  bridges,  aqueducts,  railways,  docks,  and  improvements  to  navigation. 


THE   BRITISH   BUILDINGS. 


The  German  Government  Building  stands  on  the  northern  slope  of 
Lansdowhe  valley,  at  its  head,  and  east  of  Belmont  avenue.  It  is  built 
of  brick,  and  is  stuccoed  in  imitation  of  stone.  A  spacious  portico  leads 
into  the  main  hall,  which  is  handsomely  finished  in  stucco  work,  and  the 
Avails  and  ceiling  are  highly  frescoed.  This  hall  serves  as  a  reception 
and  reading-room.  On  one  side  of  it  are  the  offices  of  the  German  Com- 
mission, and  on  the  other  the  ladies'  and  gentlemen's  parlors.  Ths 
building  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  Imperial  German  Commission,  and  is 
intended  as  a  rendezvous  for  visitors  from  the  German  Empire. 

The  Spanish  Government  Building  is  a  large  frame  structure,  situated 
on  the  slopes  of  George's  Hill,  west  of  the  Total  Abstinence  Fountain. 
It  is  a  large  wooden  edifice  with  a  basement  beneath  it,  and  is  eighty  by 
one  hundred  feet  in  size.  It  contains  a  handsome  display  of  models  and 


1066 


APPENDIX.  1067 

drawings  of  the  public  works,  fortifications,  and  historical  buildings  of 
Spain,  exhibited  by  the  Spanish  government.  It  is  similar  to  the  French 
exhibit  referred  to  above.  The  Spanish  Guard  Home  adjoins  this  hall, 
is  constructed  of  wood,  and  is  occupied  by  a  detachment  of  Spanish 
engineers,  who  have  charge  of  the  various  exhibits  of  the  kingdom. 

The  Portuguese  Government  Buildiny  is  a  plain  wooden  cottage,  and  is 
situated  on  the  southern  slope  of  the  Lansdowne  valley,  east  of  Agricul- 
tural avenue.  It  is  furnished  simply,  and  serves  as  the  head-quarters  of 
the  Portuguese  Commission,  and  as  a  place  of  resort  for  visitors  from 
Portugal. 

The  Swedish  School-House  is  a  pretty  little  building  constructed  of 
native  woods.  It  was  built  in  Sweden  and  brought  over  to  this  country 
in  sections.  It  is  one  story  in  height,  and  is  situated  west  of  the  Carriage 


BUILDING   OF  THE  GERMAN   EMPIRE. 

Building  and  north  of  the  building  of  the  Department  of  Public  Comfort. 
No  paint  is  used  in  the  building,  but  the  native  wood  shows  everywhere, 
fresh  and  brought  to  a  high  polish.  The  building  is  a  model  of  the 
public  or  national  schools  of  Sweden.  It  is  fitted  up  with  the  furniture 
used  in  such  buildings,  and  with  the  philosophical  and  other  apparatus 
prescribed  for  the  higher  schools.  Specimens  of  the  text-books  and  books 
of  reference  used  are  shown,  and  there  are  models  exhibited  here  of  the 
great  schools  of  the  cities  of  Sweden. 

The  Canadian  Log  House  is  exhibited  by  the  government  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  It  is  situated  near  the  British  Buildings,  and  is 
constructed  of  logs  and  timber  of  every  variety,  and  represents  the  portaJ 
of  a  classic  temple. 


1068 


APPENDIX. 


The  Brazilian  Government  Building  stands  on  a  wooded  knoll  on 
Agricultural  avenue,  east  of  the  German  Government  Building.  It  is 
built  of  wood,  octagonal  in  form,  and  has  a  light  open  piazza  around  it, 
the  roof  of  which  forms  a  balcony.  The  main  entrance  faces  the  south, 
and  opens  into  a  large  hall  which  extends  the  whole  depth  of  the  building. 
Two  rooms  open  upon  the  hall  on  each  side.  They  are  used  for  the 
offices  of  the  Brazilian  Commission  and  reception-rooms  for  visitors. 
/  The  Japanese  Dwelling  is  situated  on  the  eastern  slope  of  George's 
Hill,  north  of  the  Spanish  Buildings.  It  is  built  of  wood,  is  a  low  struc- 
ture, two  stories  in  height,  and  is  covered  with  a  roof  of  heavy  tiles  of  an 
ornamental  shape.  The  sides  of  the  building  arc  made  of  movable 
panels,  over  the  entrances  are  curiously  carved  timbers,  and  the  grain  and 


:DISH  SCHOOL-HOUSE. 


finish  of  the  wood  are  very  beautiful.  The  interior  is  richly  furnished. 
The  building  is  the  private  residence  of  the  Japanese  Commissioners,  and 
visitors  are  not  admitted  to  it. 

The  Japanese  Bazaar  stands  immediately  north  of  the  building  of  the 
Department  of  Public  Comfort.  The  grounds  around  it  are  enclosed,  and 
are  laid  off  as  a  garden  in  the  Japanese  style.  The  building  is  a  low, 
rambling  structure  built  around  three  sides  of  a  court,  is  constructed 
entirely  of  carved  wood,  and  is  covered  with  a  roof  of  heavy  corrugated 
earthen  tiles.  The  ceilings,  walls  and  floors  are  painted  in  imitation  of 
tile  work,  and  many  of  the  counters  on  which  the  goods  are  displayed 
are  richly  ornamented  and  grotesquely  carved.  The  building  is  intended 
for  the  sale  of  Japanese  articles,  consisting  chiefly  of  antique  bronzes. 


APPENDIX. 


10C9 


curious  specimens  of  porcelain  and  pottery,  wood  and  ivory  carvings,  and 
lacquered  ware. 

The  Turkish  Coffee  Home  and  Bazaar  is  located  on  the  Avenue  of  the 
Republic,  north  of  Machinery  Hall.  It  is  a  large  and  richly  ornamented 
pavilion,  with  a  dome-like  roof  surmounted  by  the  crescent  and  the  star. 
Opening  upon  the  porches  are  four  small  bazaars,  in  which  a  large  stock 


THE  JAPANESE  DWELLING. 

of  pipes,  carpets,  rich  dresses,  swords,  daggers,  jewelry,  and  other  articles 
from  the  Turkish  empire  are  sold.  The  cafe*  occupies  a  large  and  well- 
lighted  room  in  the  centre  of  the  building,  like  which  it  is  octagonal  in 
shape.  Coffee  is  made  and  served  here  in  the  peculiar  Turkish  style,  the 
cups  being  the  most  fragile  shells  of  exquisite  porcelain,  placed  in  silver 
holders.  Turkish  liquors  and  preserves  are  also  sold  here.  The  attend- 


1070 

ants  arc  all  Turks  and  dress  in  their  native  costume.     The  building  is 
under  the  control  of  the  Turkish  Commission. 

^  The  Tunisian  Coffee  House  and  Bazaar  stand  on  the  north  side  of 
Fountain  avenue,  north  of  Machinery  Hall.  The  coffee  house  is  octagonal 
in  shape,  and  is  ornamented  with  odd  designs.  The  cafe"  is  an  elaborately 
ornamented  room,  supplied  with  tables,  chairs  and  divans,  and  at  one 


RESTAURANT  OF  THE  TROIS   FRERE3  PROVEN^EAUX. 


end  is  a  raised  and  cushioned  platform,  on  which  musical  performances 
are  given.  Coffee  is  made  and  served  here  in  a  manner  similar  to  that 
employed  in  the  Turkisli  cafe.  The  attendants  are  Tunisians,  and  wear 
their  native  dress. 

The  Bazaar  adjoins  the  cafe"  on  the  west,  and  is  a  smaller  structure— a 
mere  shed  supported  by  slender  pillars. 


1071 

On  the  opposite  side  of  Fountain  avenue,  a  kittle  to  the  west  of  the 
Tunisian  buildings,  are  three  small  wooden  booths.  These  are  Eastern 
bazaars  on  a  small  scale.  In  the  last  two  some  enterprising  Syrian  mer- 


GRAXD  AMERICAN   RESTAURANT. 


chants  offer  for  sale  articles  of  olive  wood  and  mother-of-pearl  from  the 
Holy  Land. 

The  United  States  Centennial  Commifision  Offices  are  located  on  the 
right  of  the  main  entrance  to  the  Exhibition  grounds  at  Elm  and  Belmonf 
avenues.  They  are  established  in  a  low  cne-story  frame  building  with  a 
wide  piazza  running  around  it. 

The  Centennial  Board  o/  Finance  Building  is  situated  on  the  left  of 


PHILADELPHIA    U.S.  AMERICA 


the  main  entrance  to  the  grounds,  immediately  opposite  the  Centennial 
Commission  building,  and  is  an  exact  copy  of  that  structure.  It  contains 
the  business  offices  of  the  Board  of  Finance. 


APPENDIX. 


The  Judges'  Hall. — This  is  a  large  and  handsome  wooden  pavilion, 
one  hundred  and  fifty-two  by  one  hundred  and  thirteen  feet  in  size,  and 
is  situated  on  the  Avenue  of  the  Republic,  north  of  the  Main  Exhibition 
Building.  It  is  tastefully  ornamented  without,  and  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  attractive  structures  connected  with  the  Exhibition.  The  interior 
U  handsomely  fitted  up.  The  building  is  for  the  use  of  the  international 
juries  charged  with  the  determination  of  the  prizes  to  be  awarded  by  the 
Centennial  Commission. 

The  Restaurants. — Besides  the  restaurants  and  lunch-rooms  in  the 
Exhibition  buildings,  there  are  seven  first-class  restaurants  located  within 


THE  SOUTHERN  RESTAURANT. 

the  grounds.  These  are  among  the  largest  and  most  completely  appointed 
eating-houses  in  the  United  States,  and  are  required  by  the  Centennial 
Commission  to  conduct  their  affairs  in  such  a^  manner  that  visitors  to  the 
Exhibition  may  be  able  to  obtain  the  best  fare  at  moderate  prices.  They 
are  "The  American "  and  " The  Southern,"  representing  the  American 
system ;  the  Restaurant  of  the  Trois  Fr&res  Provengeaux,  and  the  Res- 
taurant Lafayette,  repiesenting  the  French  system ;  and  Lauber's 
Restaurant,  representing  the  German  system.  Besides  these  the  George's 
Hill  Restaurant  is  intended  to  meet  the  wants  of  Israelitish  visitors. 
The  Vienna  Bakery  and  the  Dairy  make  up  the  1st. 

The  Shoe  and  Leather  Building. — This  building  was  erected  by  the 
6hoe  and  Leather  Trade  of  the  United  States.     It  is  built  of  wood,  is 


APPENDIX.  1073 

very  plain  in  design,  is  one  story  in  height,  ami  is  300  by  160  feet  in 
size.  It  is  situated  south  of  Machinery  .Fill,  and  the  main  entrance 
faces  the  grand  plaza  between  Machinery  Hall  and  the  Main  Building. 
At  this  end  of  the  building  are  the  offices  and  committee  rooms.  The 
building  contains  a  large  hall,  at  each  end  of  which  is  a  gallery,  and 
.smaller  rooms  at  each  extremity  of  the  edifice.  The  hall  contains  a  com- 
plete exhibit  of  all  the  materials  which  enter  into  this  large  American 
industry,  from  the  heavy  and  intricate  machinery  for  cutting  and  finish- 
ing the  leather  down  to  the  blacking  for  polishing  it. 

The  Brewers'  Industrial  Exhibition  Building  is  situated  near  the  north- 
eastern corner  of  the  Exhibition  grounds,  and  immediately  east  of  the 
Agricultural  Building.  It  is  272  feet  in  length  and  ninety-six  feet  in 
width,  and  was  erected  at  a  cost  of"  $30,000.  It  is  a  large  and  conspicu- 
ous wooden  building.  Hop  vines  are  trained  along  the  south  front,  and 
the  grounds  on  this  side  are  tastefully  laid  off  as  a  hop  vineyard.  The 
building  is  devoted  to  a  display  of  the  processes  of  making  malt,  and 
brewing  beer,  ale  and  porter.  Samples  of  hops,  barley  and  other  cereals 
from  which  malt  liquors  are  made,  are  shown,  one  firm  displaying  five 
varieties.  Samples  of  malt  liquors  of  all  kinds,  in  glass  and  wood,  are 
also  exhibited. 

The  Butter  and  Cheese  Factory  is  a  large  wooden  building  situated 
near  the  northeastern  end  of  the  Exhibition  grounds  and  east  of  the 
Brewers'  Building.  It  is  116  by  100  feet  in  size,  and  is  two  stories  in 
height.  It  contains  a  special  exhibit  of  the  dairy  products  of  the  United 
States,  and  illustrations  of  the  processes  of  making  butter  and  cheese. 

The  Department  of  Public  Comfort  is  a  peculiar  and  very  important 
branch  of  the  great  Exhibition.  As  its  name  indicates,  it  is  designed  to 
supply  additional  comforts  and  conveniences  to  visitors  to  the  Exhibition. 
The  principal  building  of  the  Department  of  Public  Comfort  stands  on 
the  corner  of  the  Avenue  of  the  Republic  and  Agricultural  avenue.  The 
central  building  is  used  by  the  department,  and  contains  a  large  re- 
ception-room for  visitors,  which  is  abundantly  supplied  with  chairs  and 
sofas,  and  is  free  to  all  who  choose  to  avail  themselves  of  its  facilities. 
A  register  is  kept  here,  free  of  charge,  in  which  visitors  may  enter  their 
names,  address  in  the  city,  and  date  of  intended  departure,  so  that  friends 
may  readily  learn  of  their  whereabouts.  Special  arrangements  may  be 
made  for  the  reception  of  visitors'  letters  addressed  to  the  care  of  the 
Department  of  Public  Comfort.  These  will  be  kept  until  called  for,  or 
forwarded  to  any  desired  point.  Reserved  scats  at  the  theatres  and  prin- 
cipal places  of  amusement  in  the  city  may  be  obtained  here.  At  the 
north  end  of  the  reception-hall  is  a  lunch-counter,  at  which  refreshments 
68 


1074 


1075 

are  sold  at  moderate  prices.  Stands  for  the  sale  of  fancy  articles,  news- 
papers, periodicals,  etc.,  are  to  be  found  in  the  wept  ion-room,  and 
attached  to  it  are  barber-shops  for  gentlemen,  dressing-rooms  for  ladies, 
water-closets,  lavatories,  boot-blacking  rooms,  and  mil  uiul  baggago- 
rooms,  where  baggage  and  other  small  articles  may  be  left  at  a  snui! 
cost,  the  owner  receiving  a  check  for  his  property. 

The  eastern  wing  is  occupied  by  the  General  Telegraph  Office  of  tht. 


THE  SINGER  SEWING   MACHINE  BUILDING. 


Exhibition,  aleo  under  the  control  of  the  Department  of  Public  Com  for* 
Messages  may  be  sent,  from  here  to  all  parts  of  the  world.     The  root, 
contains  an  exhibit  of  the  various  instruments  used  in  telegraphing,  the 
greater  number  of  which  may  be  seen  in  operation. 

The  Singer  flaring  ^^<tc/linc  Building  is  a  pretty  frame  cottage  erected 
on  the  south  slope  of  the  Lansdowne  valley,  north  of  Memorial  Hall,  by 
the  Singer  Manufacturing  Company,  at  a  cost  of  $20,000.  It  is  haiul- 


107G  APPENDIX. 

somely  frescoed  within,  and  is  fitted  up  in  elegant  style.  It  is  devoted  to 
a  special  exhibit  of  the  Singer  Sewing  Machine. 

The  Pennsylvania  Bible  Society  Pavilion  is  located  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Lansdowne  valley  and  south  of  the  Horticultural  Hall.  Bibles  and 
Testaments,  in  all  the  written  languages  of  the  world,  are  sold  here 
at  cost. 

The  Centennial  Photographic  Association  Building  is  the  property  of 
the  company  the  name  of  which  it  bears.  It  is  a  one-story  frame  build- 
ing with  a  wide  balcony  around  it,  and  is  situated  on  the  east  side  of 
Belmont  avenue,  north  of  the  grand  plaza.  It  is  150  by  thirty  feet  in 
size,  and  contains  one  room  for  the  exhibition  of  photographs,  and  three 
rooms  for  photographic  manufacture.  The  company  have  the  exclusive 
right  of  making  photographs  of  the  buildings  and  exhibits,  which  are  on 
sale  here  and  at  various  points  in  the  buildings  and  within  the  grounds. 
This  is  the  only  place  where  visitors  can  have  their  pictures  taken  at  the 
Exhibition. 

The  American  Railroad  Ticket  Office  is  a  handsome  building,  octagonal 
in  shape  and  constructed  of  wood,  and  is  situated  on  the  northeast  corner 
of  Belmont  avenue  and  the  Avenue  of  the  Republic,  immediately  west 
of  the  Judges'  Hall.  It  is  used  as  a  general  ticket  office  for  the  four 
great  trunk  lines  of  the  country — the  Pennsylvania,  Baltimore  &  Ohio, 
Erie,  and  New  York  Central  Railroads.  Tickets  are  sold  to  all  points  in 
the  United  States,  and  information  furnished  respecting  routes  of  travel, 
rates  of  fare,  etc. 

The  Bankers'  Building  is  a  handsome  cottage,  painted  in  dark  rich 
colors,  and  situated  east  of  the  Art  Gallery,  between  the  Photographic 
annex  and  the  Vienna  Bakery.  It  is  designed  for  the  exhibition  of  coins 
and  currency,  and  as  a  place  of  rendezvous  for  bankers  and  their  families 
while  visiting  the  Exhibition. 

The  Empire  Transportation  Company's  Building  is  a  plain  wooden 
structure,  seventy  by  sixty  feet  in  size,  situated  on  the  Avenue  of  the 
Republic,  north  of  the  east  end  of  the  Main  Exhibition  Building.  It  is 
built  in  the  style  of  a  railroad  freight  station-house,  and  is  devoted  to  an 
exhibit  of  the  method  of  transporting  "fast  freight,"  as  practised  by  the 
Empire  Transportation  Company  and  its  connections. 

Pennsylvania  Educational  Hall. — In  addition  to  her  State  building; 
Pennsylvania  has  erected  a  separate  structure  for  the  display  of  her 
schools  and  educational  system.  It  is  situated  immediately  to  the  west 
of  Memorial  Hall,  and  is  circular  in  shape,  with  a  dome  rising  in  the 
centre  of  the  roof.  The  interior  consists  of  a  central  hall  lying  imme- 
diately under  the  dome,  and  an  miter  corridor  or  hall  running  entirely 


APPENDIX.  ]077 

around  it.  This  outer  hall  is  divided  into  a  number  of  sections  or  stall*, 
in  which  the  exhibits  are  arranged  according  to  a  regular  system.  The 
central  hall  is  unbroken  and  opens  into  the  outer  hall  by  several  doors. 

Entering  by  the  south  door,  the  attention  of  the  visitor  is  drawn  to  the 
exhibit  of  the  Kindergarten  system  which  stands  on  his  right.  This  is 
one  of  the  most  complete  showings  of  Froebel's  system  in  the  Exhibition, 
and  is  deeply  interesting.  The  next  section  on  the  right  shows  the 
primary-school  system  of  Pennsylvania.  Then  follow  the  secondary, 
grammar  and  high  school,  each  in  regular  succession,  after  which  the 
normal  school  and  college  systems  are  shown,  the  whole  ending  with  the 
exhibit  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  exhibit  is  made  by 
showing  the  text-books,  furniture,  scientific  and  philosophical  apparatus 
used  in  the  schools,  and  by  specimens  of  the  pupils'  work,  such  as  we 
have  alluded  to  in  our  account  of  the  school  exhibits  in  the  Main  Build- 
ing. No  State  makes  such  an  elaborate  display  as  is  to  be  seen  here,  this 
magnificent  exhibit  being  under  the  charge  of  Professor  Wickershatu, 
who  is  the  State  Superintendent  of  Schools.  Models,  drawings  and 
photographs  of  the  State  schools  of  various  grades  and  of  several  of  the 
colleges  are  shown,  and  the  educational  statistics  of  the  State  are  displayed 
by  means  of  charts.  The  technical  schools  show  drawings,  casts  ami 
models,  the  various  apparatus  used  by  them  and  specimens  of  the  work 
of  the  pupils.  The  display  includes  the  schools  for  the  blind,  the  feeble- 
minded, the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  the  orphans  of  the  soldiers  and  sailois 
of  Pennsylvania  who  died  in  defence  of  the  Union  during  the  late  civil 
war.  Specimens  of  their  work  in  the  industrial  departments  are  exhibited, 
and  a  full  showing  is  made  of  the  course  pursued  in  them.  There  is  also 

O  L 

an  exhibit  of  Sunday-school  material,  such  as  maps,  charts,  forms  and 
models. 

Starr's  Iron  Work  are  located  southwest  of  Machinery  Hall,  near  the 
fence  which  separates  the  Exhibition  grounds  from  Elm  avenue.  They 
are  the  property  of  Messrs.  Jesse  W.  Starr  &  Son,  of  Camden,  New 
Jersey.  The  display  consists  of  iron  pipes  for  water  and  gas,  fire 
hydrants,  stop  valves,  lamp  posts,  etc. 

The  Glass-Works  are  situated  west  of  Machinery  Hall,  near  the  Fifty- 
second  street  entrance  to  the  grounds.  The  building  is  one  story  in 
height,  and  contains  a  large  brick  furnace  and  chimney  in  the  centre,  li 
is  gayly  decorated  with  globes  and  other  objects  of  colored  gla>s.  All 
the  various  processes  of  pressing,  blowing  and  cutting  glass  are  carried  on 
here  by  a  corps  of  experienced  workmen. 

The  CamjibcU  Printing  Press  Jlnit<lin</  is  situau-d  immediately  west  of 
Machinery  Hall.  It  is  built  of  wood;  is  two  stories  in  height;  is  ono 


1078 


APPENDIX. 


hundred  and  forty-four  by  eighty-eight  feet  in  size,  and  is  handsomely 
decorated.  It  is  the  property  of  the  Campbell  Printing  Press  and  Manu- 
facturing Company,  of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  who  here  exhibit  all  their 
specialties  in  printing  presses,  from  the  immense  and  splendid  "  Rotary" 
to  the  smallest  card  printing  presses.  The  company  have  the  exclusive 
right  to  do  printing  for  the  exhibitors  and  other  persons  connected  with 
the  great  fair,  and  offer  them  peculiar  facilities  in  this  respect. 

Fuller,  Warren  &  Co.'s  Stave  Building  is  a  handsome  one-story  frame 
pavilion,  situated  at  the  east  end  of  Machinery  Hall  and  opposite  the 
Total  Abstinence  Fountain.  It  is  devoted  to  an  exhibition  of  stoves, 
heaters  and  ranges  in  operation. 


THE  AMERICAN  NEWSPAPER  BUILDING. 

The  Liberty  Stove  Works  is  the  name  of  an  ornamental  wooden  struc- 
ture west  of  Machinery  Hall  and  south  of  the  Total  Abstinence  Fountain, 
ft  is  occupied  with  a  display  of  stoves,  heaters  and  ranges,  manufactured 
by  Charles  Noble  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia. 

The  Pavilion  of  the  Boston  "Herald"  and  Bozfon  Daily  "Advertiser" 
,s  a  small  one-story  frame  building,  situated  on  Fountain  avenue,  north 
of  the  western  end  of  Machinery  Hall. 

The  American  Newspaper  Building  is  a  handsome  two-story  frame 
structure,  seventy  by  forty-six  feet  in  size,  and  is  situated  on  Fountain 
avenue,  north  of  the  lake  and  south  of  the  United  States  Government 


1U79 


1080  APPENDIX. 

Building.  The  edifice  is  thirty-three  feet  in  height,  and  the  style  of 
architecture  is  light  and  graceful,  affording  a  pleasing  contrast  to  the  great 
buildings  of  the  Exhibition.  It  is  painted  in  cool  and  pleasant  neutral 
tints,  and  has  a  most  attractive  and  inviting  appearance.  From  the 
exterior  it  appears  to  be  two  stories  in  height,  but  the  central  hall  rises 
clear  to  the  roof.  A  long  table  extends  down  the  middle  of  this  hall,  and 
en  it  are  arranged  copies  of  all  the  newspapers  published  in  the  United 
States.  Chairs  and  sofas  are  scattered  about  the  hall  for  the  convenience 
of  visitors,  who  are  cordially  welcomed  and  made  to  feel  at  homo  by  the 
courteous  manager  and  his  assistants.  All  visitors  are  invited  to  come 
and  read  the  local  papers  from  their  distant  homes,  and  the  building  is 
thus  one  of  the  most  convenient  of  all  the  features  of  the  Exhibition. 

On  each  side  of  the  reception  hall  are  long,  narrow,  but  well-lighted 
alcoves,  in  the  innumerable  pigeon-holes  of  which  are  files  of  all  the  daily 
and  weekly  papers  published  in  the  United  States.  The  admirable  system 
upon  which  the  establishment  is  conducted  renders  it  easy  for  the  attend- 
ants to  find  at  once  any  paper  of  any  date  that  the  visitor  may  desire  to 
»ee.  The  building  and  its  contents  are  the  property  of  Messrs.  George 
P.  Rowell  &  Co.,  of  New  York. 

The  New  York  "Tribune"  Pavilion  is  a  tasteful  one-story  structure,  and 
stand  on  the  west  side  of  Belmont  avenue,  near  the  north  end  of  the 
lake. 

The  World's  Ticket  Office. — The  well-known  firm  of  Cook,  Son  & 
Jenkins  have  erected  a  handsome  building  of  wood,  hexagonal  in  form, 
and  sixty  feet  square,  and  situated  on  Belmont  avenue,  immediately  north 
of  the  eastern  end  of  Machinery  Hall.  The  interior  consists  of  a  main 
hall  extending  to  the  roof  and  four  private  offices.  Counters  are  arranged 
around  the  hall,  at  which  tickets  to  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  are 
sold.  A  number  of  articles  of  olive  wood  made  in  Palestine  are  offeree) 
for  sale  in  the  hall,  and  in  the  vestibule  leading  from  the  western  en- 
trance a  number  of  Eastern  curiosities  are  on  exhibition.  Among  these 
is  the  inumnly  of  an  Egyptian  priestess  or  princess  of  the  age  of  the 
Pharaohs.  In  the  grounds  in  the  rear  of  the  building  Messrs.  Cook, 
Son  &  Jenkins  show  a  model  of  the  camp  which  they  provide  for  persons 
journeying  through  Palestine  under  their  charge. 

Frank,  Leslie's  Building  is  a  pretty  one-story  frame  pavilion  on  tlic.. 
east  shore  of  the  lake,  just  north  of  the  World's  Ticket  Office. 

The  Women's  School-House,  or  Kindergarten,  is  situated  northeast  of 
the  Woman's  Building  and  a  few  yards  distant  from  it.  It  is  a  one-story 
Gothic  cottage,  one  of  the  most  charming  and  attractive  structures  on  tin- 
grounds.  It  is  thirty-five  by  eighteen  feet  in  size,  and  is  built  of  pine 


APPENDIX. 

wood,  which  is  brought  to  a  beautiful  hue  by  varnishing  and  polishing. 
Not  a  particle  of  paint  is  to  be  seen  about  the  building,  but  the  native 
wood  shows  everywhere  bright  and  rich  in  color.  The  interior  consists 
of  a  large  hall  with  an  alcove  at  the  side  for  spectators.  The  system 
used  is  that  of  Frederick  Froebel,  the  inventor  of  the  Kindergarten.  A 
low  table  stands  in  the  centre  of  the  room,  and  around  it  are  a  number 
of  little  rocking-chairs  for  the  little  pupils.  Every  Mondav,  Tuesday 
and  Wednesday  the  operations  of  the  Froebel  system  are  shown  from  ten 
until  half-past  twelve  o'clock. 

The  American  Kindergarten  is  a  small  frame  building  lying  imme- 
diately north  of  the  Carriage  Annex  to  the  Main  Building.  It  is  in 
charge  of  Miss  E.  M.  Coe,  of  New  York,  an  experienced  teacher,  whose 
system  is  said  to  be  an  improvement  upon  Froebel's,  or  rather  an  adapta- 
tion of  his  system  to  American  wants.  A  school  for  the  training  of 
Kindergarten  teachers  constitutes  a  distinctive  feature  of  this  establish- 
ment. It  is  open  daily. 

The  New  England  Fawner's  Home  and  Modern  Kitchen  constitute  one 
of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  Exhibition.  They  are  situated  on 
State  avenue,  west  of  Agricultural  avenue,  and  not  far  from  the  Woman's 
Building.  The  New  England  Farmer's  Home  is  a  plain  one-story  log 
house,  and  is  built  and  arranged  in  the  style  of  the  New  England  farm- 
houses of  a  century  ago.  It  contains  a  parlor,  or  "settin'-room/'  a 
kitchen,  and  bed-rooms,  all  of  which  are  furnished  with  veritable  heir- 
looms contributed  by  the  people  of  New  England.  Many  of  the  articles 
are  exceedingly  valuable  for  their  historical  interest.  In  the  "settin'- 
room  "  is  a  chair  made  for  Governor  Endicott,  who  led  the  first  coloniza- 
tion of  Massachusetts  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago.  In  one  of  the 
chambers  is  the  Fuller  cradle  in  which  was  rocked  little  Peregrine  White, 
the  child  who  was  born  on  board  the  "  Mayflower"  on  the  voyage  of  the 
Pilgrims  to  Plymouth.  Here  is  John  Aldeu's  writing-desk,  and  an 
ancient  spinning-wheel  which  is  known  to  have  belonged  to  Plymouth 
for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  and  which  may  be  the  very  one  which 
Priscilla,  the  Puritan  maiden,  whirled  so  deftly  that  poor  John  A  Idea 
could  find  no  way  out  of  the  web  she  wove  about  him.  Here  is  the 
dressing-case  of  the  Ilcv.  Samuel  Hopkins,  the  first  minister  in  Rhode 
Island,  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  years  old;  and  against  the  wall 
hangs  the  first  clock  brought  to  Andover,  Massachusetts.  Adjoining  the 
farm-house  is  a  frame  building  fitted  up  as  a  Modern  New  England 
Kitchen.  It  contains  all  the  improvements  of  the  present  age,  and  shows 
the  progress  of  the  century  in  this  department  of  domestic  industry. 

The  Averill  Chemical  Paint  Company's  Building  is  situated  on  Fountain 


1082  APPENDIX. 

avenue,  east  of  the  saw-mill.  It  is  a  handsome  pavilion  of  wood,  and  is 
ornamented  with  colored  panels  showing  the  various  colors  and  qualities 
of  the  paints'  manufactured  by  this  company.  Specimens  of  the  paints 
are  on  exhibition  within  the  building. 

The  Sheet  Metal  Pavilion  stands  on  the  north  slope  of  the  Lansdowne 
.  illcy,  south  of  and  opposite  the  German  Government  Building.  It  is  a 
Handsome  and  elaborate  edifice  constructed  entirely  of  sheet  metal.  A 
massive  balustrade,  ornamented  with  eagles  and  vases  with  flowers,  all  of 
metal,  extends  around  the  roof.  The  building  is  the  property  of  Mar- 
shall Brothers  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  manufacturers  of  metal  roofing 
sheets,  and  the  Kittredge  Cornice  and  Ornament  Company,  of  Salem, 
Ohio,  manufacturers  of  architectural  sheet  metal  and  ornaments.  The 
building,  which  is  itself  a  beautiful  specimen  of  the  work  of  these  firms, 
contains  a  large  exhibit  of  the  wares  manufactured  by  them. 

The  Caffe  do  Brazil  is  situated  on  Fountain  avenue,  north  of  the  lake. 
It  is  a  small  one-story  pavilion  of  wood,  and  is  conducted  as  a  coffee 
house  by  a  firm  of  Brazilian  merchants. 

The  United  States  Life-Saving  Station  is  a  handsome  two-story  building, 
situated  on  the  north  shore  of  the  lake,  immediately  west  of  the  Trois 
Freres  Provenqeaux  Restaurant.  It  is  intended  to  show  the  system  in 
use  at  the  life-saving  stations  established  by  the  general  government  at 
the  dangerous  points  along  our  coast,  and  is  provided  with  a  full  equip- 
ment of  the  articles  necessary  to  this  purpose. 

The  Elevated  Railway  spans  the  Belmont  valley,  and  connects  the 
Agricultural  and  Horticultural  Halls.  It  rests  upon  a  series  of  pillars 
which  have  foundations  of  masonry  placed  in  the  bed  and  on  the  side's 
of  the  valley.  It  consists  of  one  upper  rail  and  two  lower  ones  placed  in 
a  triangular  position,  the  lower  rails  being  about  four  feet  and  a  half 
below  the  central  or  upper  rail.  The  car  rests  on  the  central  rail,  on 
which  the  principal  wheels  work,  and  it  extends  down  to  the  level  of  the 
lower  rails,  thus  making  it  a  two-story  structure.  Horizontal  wheels  re- 
volve on  the  lower  rails,  and  thus  keep  the  car  steady  and  prevent  it 
from  jumping  the  track  or  being  thrown  off.  The  car  is  divided  into 
three  compartments,  one  upper  and  two  lower  ones.  The  locomotive  is 
provided  with  La  France  rotary  engines,  and  has  an  ordinary  horizontal 
boiler.  It  carries  its  fuel  and  water  in  the  compartments  below  the 
centre  rail.  It  conveys  passengers  across  the  Belmont  valley  for  the 
moderate  sum  of  three  cents. 


APPENDIX. 


108:> 


Tlie  Live-Stock  Displays. — The  arrangements  for  the  display  of  Live- 
Stock,  in  connection  with  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  were  intrusted  by 
the  Executive  Committee  to  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture.  The  grounds 
assigned  for  the  Live-Stock  displays  were  situated  about  five  hundred 
yards  south  of  the  main  Exhibition  enclosure.  They  comprised  twenty 
acres  in  the  form  of  a  trapezium  with  the  wider  end  in  front,  bounded 
on  the  north  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  on  the  south  by  Westminster 
avenue,  on  the  east  by  Forty-first  street,  and  on  the  west  by  Boliwmt 
avenue.  They  were  surrounded  by  a  high  wooden  fence,  containing  three 
groups  of  entrances  similar  to  those  at  the  main  Exhibition  enclosure. 


VIEW   OF   THE   INTERIOR  OF  THE  WOMKX's  PAVILION. 

Two  of  these  groups  were  on  Belmont  avenue,  and  the  other  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Westminster  avenue  and  Forty-first  street.  The  buildings  and 
improvements  cost  over  $25,000.  There  were  826  stalls  for  cattle  and 
540  stalls  for  dogs.  All  these  were  comprised  in  twenty-nine  frame 
buildings,  each  170  by  14  feet  in  size,  and  having  a  roof  projecting  four 
feet  on  each  side  and  end.  The  offices  of  the  superintendent  and  the 
judges  were  in  a  frame  building  fronting  on  Belmont  avenue,  and  two 
stands  for  the  judges  were  erected  in  the  centre  of  the  largo  area  between 
the  sheds.  This  area  was  left  open  for  the  purpose  of  exercising  the 
animals  and  exhibiting  their  performances  to  the  judges  and  spectators. 
The  Horse  Show. — The  exhibition  of  horses,  mules,  and  asses  was 


1084 


APPENDIX. 


opened  on  the  1st  of  September,  and  was  closed  on  the  14th  of  that 
month.  The  palm  was  worthily  borne  off  by  the  Canadian  exhibitors, 
whose  stalls  were  located  immediately  on  the  left  of  the  entrance.  The 
animals  here  exhibited  consisted  mainly  of  Clydesdale  and  English 
draught  horses,  which  are  a  specialty  of  Canadian  stock-raising.  There 
are  two  branches,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  of  the  Clydesdale  breed.  One 
of  these  is  known  as  the  English  Clyde,  the  other  as  the  Scotch.  Both 
branches  are  originally  from  Scotland,  but  the  English  breeders  have 
made  certain  modifications  in  the  horse.  Both  branches  were  well  repre- 
sented at  the  Exhibition.  All  the  animals  exhibited  there  in  the  imported 
class  were  of  the  very  best  specimens  of  the  breed. 


INTERIOR  OF   THE   UNITED    STATES  GOVERNMENT    BUILDING. 

The  exhibit  of  horses  from  the  United  States  was,  on  the  whole,  very 
creditable,  and  included  not  only  draught  horses,  but  trotters  and 
thoroughbreds  of  the  best  blood.  Prominent  among  these  was  a  small 
hut  beautiful  Arabian,  a  very, light  gray,  almost  white,  delicate  in  all 
his  proportions,  but  perfection  in  form.  There  were  a  number  of  trotters 
worthy  of  mention,  but  our  space  forbids  us  to  name  them.  The  display 
of  draught  horses  was  very  fine.  The  most  noticeable  was  the  Duke  de 
Chartres,  probably  the  finest  Percheron  stallion  ever  imported,  light 
dapple  gray  in  color,  sixteen  and  a  half  hands  high,  weight  2,050  pounds, 
lirnbs  and  muscles  of  enormous  size,  but  perfect  symmetry,  and,  despite 
his  enormous  size,  active  as  a  mustang. 


APPENDIX.  1085 

At  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  again  at  four  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, during  each  day  of  the  horse  show,  the  animals  were  led  out  in  the 
ring,  and  were  there,  either  in  harness,  or  under  the  charge  of  attendants, 
put  through  the  performances  best  calculated  to  show  their  speed  and 
display  their  most  attractive  and  valuable  qualities.  The  sight  at  such 
times  was  beautiful  and  inspiriting,  and  drew  large  numbers  of  persons 
to  witness  it.  The  number  of  horses  entered  was  246,  of  which  170 
belonged  to  the  United  States ;  the  remainder  to  Canada. 

The  Dog  Show. — The  dog  show  was  opened,  according  to  arrangement, 
on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  September,  and  was  closed  on  the  evening 


THE  STARCH  PAVILION,   IN  AGRICtTLTtTRAL  HALL. 

of  the  8th.  It  was  a  perfect  success,  and  was  pronounced,  by  competent 
judges,  the  most  complete  and  satisfactory  exhibition  of  its  kind  ever 
held.  The  entries  numbered  722,  of  which  681  were  American,  twenty- 
six  English  and  Irish,  and  fifteen  Canadian  dogs.  The  collection  cm- 
braced  sporting  and  fancy  dogs,  imported  and  domestic  English  and  Irish 
Jordan  setters,  and  pointers  of  fifty  pounds  weight  over  and  under. 
Harriers,  beagles,  Chesapeake  Bay  dogs,  Irish  water  spaniels,  and  A  large 
variety  of  hounds  and  terriers  of  all  sizes  and  colors  made  up  the  list, 
with  a  liberal  display  of  Newfoundlands,  St.  Bernard's,  mastiffs,  bull- 
dogs, poodles,  etc.  The  different  breeds  were  classified  according  to 
sections,  and  by  reference  to  the  catalogue  the  visitor  was  enabled  to 


108G 


APPENDIX. 


familiarize  himself  with  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  breeds. 
W'th  the  list  of  entries  was  incorporated  a  description  of  typical  charac- 
teristics, and  a  scale  of  points  such  as  is  made  use  of  in  judging  dogs  in 
.England. 

The  Cattle  Show. — The  display  of  horned  cattle  began  on  the  21st  of 
September  and  lasted  until  the  4th  of  October.  The  entries  numbered 
550  head  of  cattle,  and  the  display  was  a  gratifying  success.  Among 
the  animals  on  exhibition  were  four  large  buffaloes  from  Colorado,  which 
were  especially  noticed  by  reason  of  their  immense  size.  The  largest 
animal  displayed  was  the  General  Grant,  whose  weight  was  almost  five 


GENERAL  VIEW  OP  THE  INTERIOR  OF  AGRICULTURAL  HALL. 

thousand  pounds.  There  were  also  shown  two  steers,  one  from  Kentucky, 
the  other  from  Canada,  whose  weight  was  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Gen- 
eral. Two  rows  of  sheds  were  set  apart  for  draught  cattlo,  of  which  a 
fine  display  was  made.  All  the  oxen  on  exhibition  were  thoroughly 
trained  to  the  voice  of  the  driver,  and  the  greater  part  of  them  belonged 
to  the  finest  breeds  of  this  country.  Among  the  entries  were  150  Jersey 
milch 'cows  from  various  parts  of  the  United  States,  and  twelve  from 
England;  about  seventy  Shorthorns  from  Canada  and  Pennsylvania, 
principally  for  beef;  fifty  Ayrshires,  for  dairy  purposes;  a  large  number 
of  Devons,  intended  for  both  the  dairy  and  the  meat  market;  and  a 
number  of  fine  specimens  of  Hereford,  Galloway,  Kerry,  Holstein,  and 


APPENDIX.  1087 

Dutch  breeds,  most  of  which  were  bred  for  the  market.  The  display  of 
fat  cattle  for  beef  was  also  fine,  although  the  entries  from  each  State  was 
small.  A  number  of  the  more  valuable  Shorthorns  were  imported  from 
England  by  a  well-known  Kentucky  cattle-raiser.  They  were  valued  at 
from  $4,000  to  $9,000  apiece,  and  one  of  them,  a  gigantic  bull,  \v;i« 
valued  at  §10,000. 

The  Display  of  Sheep,  Swine,  and  Goals,  began  on  the  10th  of  October, 
and  lasted  until  the  18th.  The  entries  were  as  follows:  sheep,  400  j 
swine,  375.  The  American  animals  were  exhibited  by  prominent  breeders 
in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Connecticut,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Wis- 
consin, Iowa,  Illinois,  Massachusetts,  and  Virginia.  Canada  sent  a  con- 
siderable number  of  sheep  of  the  breeds  of  Cotswolds,  Leicester,  South- 
downs,  and  Oxford-downs,  and  some  fine  swine  of  the  Suffolk,  Yorkshire, 
Berkshire,  Essex,  and  Chester  white  breeds.  Among  the  Southdowns 
were  some  of  the  most  valuable  specimens  of  sheep  in  existence,  some  of 
which  were  valued  as  high  as  $6,000  apiece.  One  of  the  largest  was  a 
breeding  ram  weighing  400  pounds,  whose  hire  for  a  single  season  is 
about  $250  gold.  Mr.  Russell  Swanwick,  of  England,  exhibited  some 
noticeable  Cots  wold  sheep,  the  average  weight  of  which  reached  the  rare 
figure  of  300  pounds,  a  weight  not  often  attained  by  this  breed. 

Among  the  swine  the  finest  animals  were  imported  Berkshires,  all  of 
which  are  said  to  have  carried  off"  premiums  at  various  European 
exhibitions. 

The  Poultry  Shoiv. — The  exhibition  of  poultry  was  held  in  the  Porno- 
logical  Annex  to  the  Agricultural  Building,  and  was  opened  on  the  27th 
of  October,  and  closed  on  the  6th  of  November.  The  large  hall  was 
specially  fitted  up  for  the  occasion  with  long  rows  of  coops.  Above  those 
were  placed  a  number  of  cages  containing  Canaries.  The  entries  of 
chickens,  turkeys,  ducks,  geese,  and  birds  amounted  to  more  than  six 
thousand,  but  the  fowls  present  fell  short  of  this  number.  The  finest 
displays  were  from  Pennsylvania,  New  Y"ork,  New  Jersey,  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  Michigan.  A  considerable  number  of 
fine  fowls  from  Canada  and  England  were  also  on  exhibition.  The 
majority  of  the  States  of  the  Union  were  well  represented,  and  the  visitor 
was  afforded  a  fair  idea  of  the  excellence  and  variety  of  the  fowls  raised 
in  this  country. 

The  State  Days. — In  order  to  add  to  the  attractiveness  of  the  Exhibi- 
tion, and  more  especially  to  carry  out  the  design  of  making  it  a  mi-im- 
of  celebrating  the  Centennial  period  of  our  National  history,  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  at  an  early  day  determined  to  inaugurate  a  series  of 
"  State  Days,"  on  each  of  which  a  special  celebration  should  be  held  in 


1088 


APPENDIX. 


the  Exhibition  grounds  in  honor  of  the  State  of  the  Union  to  which  the 
day  should  be  assigned.  It  was  decided  that  the  ceremonies  on  these 
occasions  should  consist  of  an  address  devoted  to  a  review  of  the  history 
and  progress  of  the  State  holding  the  celebration,  a  reception  by  the 
Governor  of  such  State  at  the  State  building  in  the  Exhibition  grounds, 
and  such  other  festivities  as  should  be  decided  upon  by  the  committee. 
It  was  understood  that  these  celebrations  would  of  necessity  be  confined 
to  the  States  nearest  Philadelphia,  as  it  would  be  comparatively  easy  for 
their  people  to  be  present  in  force  on  such  occasions. 

New  Jersey  Day. — The  first  State  to  engage  in  these  special  celebrations 


INTERIOR  OF  THE  BRAZILIAN  COURT,  IN  THE  MAIN  BUILDING. 


was  New  Jersey,  to  which  Thursday,  the  24th  of  August,  was  assigned. 
The  day  was  bright  and  fair.  All  through  the  morning  trains  were  arriv- 
ing from  points  in  New  Jersey,  bringing  thousands  of  visitors,  and  other 
thousands  came  by  way  of  Camden,  the  Delaware  river  ferries,  and  the  city 
car  lines.  By  eleven  o'clock  the  grounds  were  thronged,  and  the  various 
buildings  of  the  Exhibition  were  filled  with  a  merry,  eager  crowd  of  "Jer- 
sey folks,"  bent  on  seeing  the  beauties  and  wonders  of  the  "Centennial." 
About  twelve  o'clock  Governor  Bedle,  accompanied  by  his  staff  and  a 
number  of  distinguished  citizens  of  New  Jersey,  reached  the  grounds, 
escorted  by  the  Centennial  authorities,  headed  by  President  Hawley  and 
Mr.  John  Welsh.  The  procession  repaired  to  Judges'  Hall,  where  an 


APPENDIX.  108g 

eloquent  address  upon  the  history  of  New  Jersey  was  delivered  by  the 
Hon.  Abram  Browning.  At  the  close  of  the  address  the  company  re- 
paired to  the  New  Jersey  State  building,  where  a  public  reception  was 
held  by  the  Governor.  The  day  was  a  success  in  every  respect.  The 
total  attendance  was  67,053.  The  receipts  were  $28,063.75. 

Connecticut  Day. — The  day  selected  by  the  authorities  of  Connecticut 
for  their  State  celebration  was  Thursday,  September  7th.  On  the  6th 
Governor  Ingersoll  reached  Philadelphia.  The  7th  was  an  exceedingly 
disagreeable  day.  A  dull  and  cheerless  rain  fell  all  through  the  day, 
and  compelled  the  abandonment  of  a  portion  of  the  ceremonies  that  had 
been  determined  upon.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  the  crowd  of  visitors 
poured  steadily  through  the  gates,  and  long  before  twelve  o'clock  the 
principal  buildings  and  all  the  main  avenues  were  thronged.  At  one 
o'clock  Governor  Ingersoll  held  an  informal  reception  at  the  Connecticut 
State  building  on  State  avenue,  which  was  largely  attended.  It  was 
estimated  that  fully  ten  thousand  citizens  of  Connecticut  were  present  at 
the  Exhibition  during  the  day.  The  attendance  was  75,044 ;  the  receipts 
were  $30,853.75. 

Massachusetts  Day. — Thursday,  September  14th,  was  Massachusetts 
Day.  The  chief  interest  of  the  occasion  centred  about  the  Massachusetts 
building,  on  State  avenue.  All  the  surrounding  buildings,  American 
and  foreign,  displayed  their  bunting,  while  from  the  cupola  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts house  floated  the  old  Pine  Tree  flag,  an  emblem  of  colonial  days, 
with  the  national  colors  from  the  flagstaff  in  front,  and  a  pretty  collection 
of  many  colored  ensigns  tastefully  arranged  above  the  main  entrance. 
The  doorways  of  the  interior  were  decorated  with  flags.  During  the 
afternoon  an  orchestra,  stationed  in  the  hall,  furnished  the  music  for  the 
occasion,  while  from  the  towers  of  Machinery  Hall  the  chimes  rang  out 
the  national  airs,  and  gave  a  salute  on  the  bells  thirteen  times,  in  honor 
of  the  day.  At  one  o'clock  Governor  Rice,  attended  by  his  staff,  took 
his  stand  in  the  Governor's  room  of  the  building,  and  held  a  formal 
reception,  which  was  largely  attended.  It  was  estimated  that  fully  ten 
thousand  visitors  from  Massachusetts  were  present  in  the  grounds  during 
the  day.  The  attendance  was  97,868  ;  the  receipts  were  $41,193. 

New  York  Day. — Thursday,  the  21st  of  September,  was  set  apart  for 
New  York  Day,  the  fourth  of  the  scries  of  State  celebrations.  It  was  a 
beautiful  day.  Thousands  of  visitors  came  from  New  York  city  and 
other  points  in  the  Empire  State,  and  by  noon  the  grounds  were  crowded. 
At  one  o'clock  Governor  Tilden  arrived  at  the  Exhibition  grounds  in  a 
carriage,  and  was  received  by  the  Centennial  authorities  and  escorted  to 
the  New  York  State  building.  He  was  greeted  with  a  tremendous  out- 
69 


1090 


APPENDIX. 


burst  of  enthusiasm  by  the  multitude  in  the  grounds.  Arriving  at  the 
State  building  he  held  a  formal  reception,  which  he  was  obliged  to  bring 
to  an  end  in  the  course  of  an  hour  in  consequence  of  fears  that  the  build- 
ing was  not  strong  enough  to  stand  the  strain  put  upon  it  by  the  crow1; 
that  poured  in  to  welcome  the  Governor.  At  the  close  of  the  reception 
the  Governor  inspected  the  various  Exhibition  buildings,  and  reviewed 
visiting  detachment  of  the  New  York  City  Police.  It  was  estimated  that 
forty  thousand  persons  from  New  York  were  present  in  the  grounds 
during  the  day.  The  attendance  was  134,588  ;  the  receipts  were  §59,986. 
Pennsylvania  Day. — Thursday,  the  28th  of  September,  was  set  apart 
by  the  Centennial  authorities  for  the  celebration  of  the  State  of  Penn- 


fJENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE  INTERIOR  OF  HORTICULTURAL  HALL. 

sylvania.  The  day  was  particularly  well  chosen,  inasmuch  as  it  was  the 
one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  adoption  of  the  first  Constitution  of 
Pennsylvania.  It  was  declared  by  special  proclamation  of  the  Governor 
of  the  State  to  be  ailegal  holiday,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  State  prepara- 
tions were  set  on  foot  and  enthusiastically  carried  out  to  make  it  the  most 
memorable  occasion  in  the  history  of  the  Exhibition.  It  was  not  doubted 
that  the  State  which  had  been  the  mainstay  of  the  Exhibition  in  all  its 
trials,  and  which,  more  than  any  other,  had  carried  it  through  to  success, 
would  eagerly  avail  itself  of  this  opportunity  of  testifying  emphatically 
and  unitedly  its  approval  of  the  manner  in  which  the  great  enterprise 
had  been  carried  out. 


1091 


1092 


APPESDIX. 


With  the  rising  of  the  sun  on  the  morning  of  September  the  28th  the 
city  of  Philadelphia  was  astir.  Business  was  generally  suspended,  and 
thousands  of  citizens  and  visitors  sojourning  in  the  city  took  the  early 
trains  for  the  Exhibition.  All  through  the  day  the  steam  and  horse  rail- 
roads, and  the  various  vehicles  engaged  in  the  work  of  transporting  pas- 
sengers, were  crowded  to  their  utmost  capacity.  Trains  were  arriving  all 
the  forenoon  from  distant  points  in  the  State,  each  bringing  hundreds  of 
visitors  to  swell  the  great  throng.  The  entrances  to  the  Exhibition 
grounds  were  opened  at  half-past  eight  o'clock,  and  at  one  o'clock  the 
reports  from  the  turn-stiles  showed  that  175,000  paying  visitors  had 
passed  the  gates,  and  still  the  crowd  kept  pouring  in. 

Various  entertainments  were  offered  to  the  visitors  during   the  day. 


THE  CHINESE  COURT,  IN  THE  MAIN  BUILDING. 

There  were  concerts  and  musical  recitals  at  the  music  stand  in  the  Main 
Building,  and  performances  upon  the  great  organs.  The  various  exhib- 
itors of  musical  instruments  gave  performances  at  their  respective  stands. 
The  chimes  of  Machinery  Hall  were  rung  at  frequent  intervals,  patriotic 
and  other  airs  being  executed  upon  the  bells  by  Professor  Widdowcs. 
The  little  folks  were  amused  by  the  frequent  ascent  of  paper  balloons 
from  the  open  space  in  the  rear  of  Agricultural  Hall.  The  day  was 
glorious,  the  beautiful  autumn  weather  being  all  that  could  be  desired. 

At  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  Governor  Hartranft  left  his  quarters  at 
the  Globe  Hotel,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  distinguished  citizens  of 
the  State,  and  proceeded  to  the  Exhibition  grounds,  under  the  escort  of  the 
.First  Regiment  of  Pennsylvania  Infantry.  The  Governor's  party  and  his 


APPENDIX. 

escort  entered  the  Exhibition  grounds  by  the  principal  gates  on  Belmont 
avenue,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  the  Pennsylvania  State  building. 
There  they  were  formally  received  by  President  Hawley  and  Mr.  John 
Welsh,  on  behalf  of  the  Centennial  authorities,  and  were  at  once  conducted 
to  Judges'  Hall,  where  in  the  presence  of  a  brilliant  and  numerous  audi- 
ence a  number  of  speeches  were  made,  and  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Harris 
Brewster,  the  orator  of  the  day,  delivered  a  lengthy  oration  upon  the 
history  and  resources  of  Pennsylvania. 

Later  in  the  day,  Mrs.  Gillespie  and  the  ladies  of  the  Women's  Cen- 
tennial Executive  Committee  held  a  reception  in  Judges'  Hall,  which  was 


GENERAL  VIEW  OF  THE   INTERIOR  OF  MACHINERY   II ALL. 

largely  attended,  many  of  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  country 
being  present. 

In  the  afternoon  Governor  Hartranft  held  a  reception  at  the  State  build- 
ing, which  was  attended  by  more  than  10,000  persons,  and  was  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  features  of  the  day.  The  Mayor  of  Philadelphia  also 
held  a  formal  reception  at  the  Municipal  building,  near  the  Horticultural 
Hall. 

At  night  a  superb  display  of  fireworks  was  given  on  George's  Hill,  by 
Messrs.  Brock  &  Co.,  of  London.  It  was  one  of  the  finest  exhibitions 
ever  seen  in  this  country,  and  was  witnessed  by  about  175,000  people 


1094 


APPESD1X. 


within  the  grounds,  and  a  larger  crowd  outside.  The  Exhibition  grounds 
•were  beautifully  illuminated  by  colored  tires. 

In  spite  of  the  immense  crowd  present  during  the  day  not  a  single  act 
of  lawlessness  or  violence  marred  the  festival.  The  attendance  was  274,- 
019.  The  receipts  were  $118,673.75. 

Rhode  Island  Day. — Thursday,  October  5th,  the  day  appointed  for  the 
Rhode  Island  celebration,  was  cold  and  raw,  but  in  spite  of  this  the  Ex- 
hibition grounds  were  crowded  at  an  early  hour.  The  Rhode  Island 
State  building  was  handsomely  decorated  with  flags  and  bunting.  At 
half-past  eleven,  Governor  Lippett  and  staff  entered  the  grounds,  escorted 


THE  HYDRAULIC  BASIN,  IN  MACHINERY  HALI* 

by  General  Hawley,  Mr.  John  Welsh,  and  the  Centennial  authorities,  and 
proceeded  to  the  Rhode  Island  building.  The  building  being  too  small 
to  accommodate  the  crowd  present,  Governor  Lippett  held  a  reception  on 
the  porch  of  the  house.  He  was  enthusiastically  welcomed.  The  recep- 
tion ended  at  three  o'clock.  Governor  Lippett  and  party  then  repaired  to 
Machinery  Hall,  where  they  were  received  by  Mr.  George  H.  Corliss, 
Centennial  Commissioner  from  Rhode  Island,  who  explained  to  them  the 
construction  and  working  of  the  great  engine.  The  attendance  \vas  100,- 
946.  The  receipts  were  $44,496. 

New  Hampshire  Day. — Thursday,  October  12th,  was  celebrated  as  ISTew 
Hampshire  Day.     At  a   quarter  to  eleven   in  the  morning,  Governor 


APPENDIX. 


HO", 


Cheney  and  staff,  the  latter  being  in  full  uniform,  with  the  Amoskeag 
Veteran  Corps,  numbering  ninety-six  men,  in  Continental  uniform  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Wallace,  as  the  Governor's  body-guard,  the  'entire 
party  being  escorted  by  the  cadets  of  the  Virginia  "Military  Institute 
numbering  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  youths,  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Scott  Ship,  left  the  United  States  Hotel,  where  the  gubernatorial 
•party  were  quartered,  marched  up  Elm  avenue,  entered  the  Exhibition 
grounds  by  the  main  entrance,  and  were  there  received  by  the  Centennial 
authorities,  and  escorted  to  the  New  Hampshire  State  building.  Here 


EXHIBIT  OP  GARDEN  SEED,  IN  AGRICULTURAL  HALL. 

the  Governor  was  introduced  by  General  Hawley  to  the  vast  throng  which 
surrounded  the  building,  and  was  received  with  hoarty  cheers.  He  re- 
sponded in  a  brief  but  eloquent  address.  A  prayer  followed,  and  Professor 
.E.  D.  Sanborn,  of  Dartmouth  College,  delivered  a  lengthy  oration  on  the 
history  of  New  Hampshire.  Brief  addresses  followed  from  ex-Governor 
Straw  and  others,  after  which  the  Governor  took  his  stand  in  the  recep- 
tion-room and  the  formal  reception  of  visitors  began.  It  lasted  a  little 
more  than  an  hour,  and  at  its  close  Governor  Cheney  and  staff  took  part 
in  the  dedication  of  the  Columbus  Monument,  erected  in  the  Exhibition 


1096 


APPENDIX. 


grounds,  by  the  Italian  Societies  of  the  United  States,  and  inaugurated  on 
this  day.     The  attendance  was  113,422.     The  receipts  were  $50,536. 

Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  Day. — The  19th  of  October,  the 
anniversary  of  the  surrender  of  the  army  of  Lord  Corn  wall  is  to  General 
Washington,  at  Yorktown,  was  set  apart  for  the  joint  celebration  of  the 
States  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia.  The  State  government  of  t 
Virginia  declined  to  take  part  in  the  celebration,  so  that  the  participation 
of  the  "Old  Dominion"  in  it  was  purely  informal.  It  was  resolved  by 
the  authorities  having  the  affair  in  charge  that  the  occasion  should  be  one 


SILVER   PITCHER,   EXHIBITED   BY   THE   GORHAM   MANUFACTURING   COMPANY. 

of  the  most  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  Exhibition,  and  extensive 
preparations  were  made  for  it.  A  display  of  fireworks  was  announced 
for  the  night  of  the  18th  of  October,  while  the  19th  was  to  be  taken  up 
with  the  State  celebrations  and  a  grand  tournament  and  ball. 

The  Fireworks. — The  second  grand  display  of  fireworks  was  given  on 
the  night  of  the  18th  of  October,  on  George's  Hill,  by  Messrs.  Brock  & 
Co.,  of  London.  It  was  witnessed  by  about  60,000  persons  within  the 
grounds  and  a  much  larger  number  outside. 

The  Delaware  Celebration. — Thursday,  October  19th,  was  a  beautiful 


APPENDIX.  1097 

day,  and  as  bright  and  balmy  as  the  loveliest  Indian  summer  weather 
could  make  it.  About  eleven  o'clock  the  State  authorities  of  Delaware, 
and  the  city  officials  of  Wilmington,  arrived  at  the  main  entrance  to  tlio 
Exhibition  grounds,  where  they  were  received  by  the  officials  of  the  Cen- 
tennial Exhibition,  and  escorted  by  them  to  the  Delaware  State  buildin-  , 
adjoining  the  Maryland  building  on  the  east,  and  which,  like  the  lattc  , 
was  profusely  and  tastefully  decorated  with  State  and  national  color-. 
Above  each  building  floated  the  flag  of  its  State,  and  the  Delaware  struc- 
ture displayed  the  coats-of-arms  of  the  Old  Thirteen.  The  line  having 
drawn  up  along  State  avenue,  in  front  of  the  Delaware  building,  where 
some  10,000  people  had  assembled,  the  gubernatorial  party  repaired  to  the 
porch,  and  were  greeted  with  cheers.  General  Hawley  then  formally 
welcomed  Governor  Cochran  and  all  the  people  of  Delaware  to  the 
Exhibition,  and  the  Governor  responded  in  an  appropriate  speech.  The 
Hon.  William  G.  Whiteley  then  delivered  an  eloquent  address  upon  the 
history  of  Delaware.  This  being  ended,  Governor  Cochran  began  his 
reception  of  visitors,  receiving  first  the  Centennial  Commission  and  the 
other  prominent  officials  of  the  Exhibition,  and  then  all  who  chose  to  pay 
their  respects  to  him.  The  reception  was  continued  until  some  time  after 
the  exercises  in  the  Maryland  building  had  begun,  when  it  was  brought 
to  a  close. 

The  Maryland  Celebration.— At  a  quarter  past  twelve  o'clock  the  partici- 
pants in  the  Maryland  celebration  entered  the  Exhibition  grounds  by  the 
main  entrance,  and  proceeded  to  the  Maryland  State  building  in  the  follow- 
ing order :  Detachment  of  the  Centennial  Guard,  under  Major  E.  H.  Butler ; 
First  Brigade  Band,  Governor  Carroll  and  staff,  on  horseback,  the  staff' 
being  in  full  uniform  and  the  Governor  in  citizen's  dress;  Second 
Brigade,  Maryland  National  Guard,  under  General  James  R.  Herbert, 
and  composed  of  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Regiments,  commanded,  respectively, 
by  Colonel  H.  T.  Loney  and  Colonel  Clarence  Peters.  As  the  procession 
entered  the  grounds  it  was  reviewed  by  Presidents  Hawley  and  Welsh, 
with  other  representatives  of  the  Centennial  Commission  and  Board  of 
Finance,  who  afterwards  fell  in  line  at  the  head  of  the  people  of  Mary- 
land, who  brought  up  the  rear  of  the  line.  Governor  Carroll  ami  Mall' 
halted  in  front  of  the  Maryland  building  and  reviewed  the  military,  which 
marched  past  and  up  George's  Hill,  the  First  Brigade  Band  performin- 
martial  and  patriotic  airs.  The  marching  of  the  Fifth  was  noticeably 
fine,  and  elicited  great  applause. 

The  Governor  and  staff  then  dismounted,  and  were  received  by  Presi- 
dent Wrelsh  and  other  meml>ers  of  the  Board  of  Finance,  who  escorted 
the  gubernatorial  party  to  the  porch  of  the  Maryland  building,  amid  the 


1098 


APPENDIX. 


strains  of  "  Maryland,  My  Maryland/'  and  the  enthusiastic  cheers  of  the 
crowd.  Governor  Carroll  was  now  joined  by  Governors  Hartranft,  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  Cochran,  of  Delaware,  and  the  exercises  began. 
General  Hawley,  on  behalf  of  the  Centennial  authorities,  welcomed  the 
Governor  and  people  of  Maryland,  and  was  replied  to  in  eloquent  terms 
by  Governor  Carroll.  Mr.  J.  G.  L.  Findlay,  the  orator  of  the  day, 
delivered  an  address  upon  the  history  and  resources  of  Maryland,  and 
was  followed  by  the  Hon.  Thomas  Wilson,  Centennial  Commissioner  of 
the  District  of  Columbia,  who  gave  an  elaborate  review  of  the  history  of 
the  District,  from  its  organization. 

After  the  close  of  Mr.  Wilson's  address,  Governor  Carroll  took  his 


DEPARTMENT  OP  PRINTING  MACHINERY,   IN  MACHINERY   HALL. 

stand  in  the  reception-room,  where  over  5,000  persons  desirous  of  giving 
his  hand  a  friendly  shake  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  do  so. 
About  three  o'clock  Governor  Carroll  was  obliged  to  welcome,  en  masse, 
the  thousands  awaiting  outside  to  grasp  his  hand.  Then  he  and  his  staif 
proceeded  on  horseback  to  witness  the  tournament,  which  had  begun 
some  time  previously  on  the  eastern  slope  of  George's  Hill. 

The  Virginia  Celebration. — The  Virginia  celebration  was  entirely 
informal,  there  being^no  official  representation  of  the  State  at  the  Exhibi- 
tion. At  the  Virginia  building  there  was  open  house  and  lunch  for  nli 
visitors  from  the  Old  Dominion  who  wished  to  partake  of  it.  The  num- 
ber of  Virginians  present  on  the  grounds  was  about  5,000.  In  addition 


APPENDIX. 


1099 


to  these  there  were  about  800  visitors  from  West  Virginia,  who  rendez- 
voused at  their  State  building,  but  took  no  part  in  the  ceremonies  of  the 
day. 

The  Tournament. — The  great  feature  of  the  day  was  the  tournament, 
which  consisted  of  riding  at  a  series  of  rings  by  a  number  of  knights,  in 
regularly  laid-off  lists.  The  tournament  was  held  on  the  slopes  of 
George's  Hill,  and  was  witnessed  by  fully  60,000  persons. 

There  were  fifteen  knights,  representing  the  thirteen  original  States,  the 
Union,  and  the  Centennial,  and  the  day's  work  before  them  was  to  ride 


INTERIOR   OF   ROTUNDA   OP   MEMORIAL   HALL. 

over  a  given  course,  thrust  their  spears  through  diminutive  rings  and  enjoy 
the  plaudits  of  the  multitude.  Thecourse  proper  at  the  foot  of  George's  Hill 
was  about  three  hundred  yards  long  ;  at  intervals  of  fifty  yards  were  threo 
arches,  fifteen  feet  high  by  ten  or  twelve  feet  wide.  From  the  horizontal 
bar  forming  the  top  of  each  frame  hung  a  wooden  rod,  ending  in  a  piece 
of  iron  a  footer  more  in  length,  and  from  each  of  these  three  iron  endings 
was  suspended  a  small  red  ring,  an  inch  and  a  half  or  thereabouts  in 
diameter.  The  rules  of  the  tournament  required  that  each  knight  should 
ride  at  a  full  run,  and  that  each  knight's  spear  should  be  at  least  six 


1100 


APPENDIX. 


feet  long.  Every  rider,  then,  must  start  a  hundred  yards  or  more  from 
the  first  ring,  control  his  horse,  poise  his  spear,  and  be  in  perfect  condi- 
tion when  the  first  arch  was  reached.  To  knock  a  ring  from  its  frail 
fastening  availed  the  knight  nothing;  a  breath  of  wind  or  a  touch  witli 
the  lance  would  do  that;  but  each  rider  must  thrust  his  spear  through  tlu> 
ring,  or  through  all  three  of  them,  if  he  could,  and  bring  it  still  impaled 
upon  his  spear,  to  be  laid  at  the  feet  of  the  judges.  The  rings  used  were 
much  smaller  than  is  customary.  Three  inches  in  diameter,  and  even 
four  inches,  is  not  an  unusual  size,  and  a  two-inch  ring  is  considered 
uncommonly  difficult  to  capture.  But  the  rings  used  on  this  occasion 
were  smaller  than  any  of  these ;  bringing  into  play  all  the  nerve  and 


THE   ITALIAN   DEPARTMENT,    AGRICULTURAL   HALL. 

ekill  that  the  riders  possessed,  and  this  fact  was  not  appreciated  by  the 
seventy  thousand  spectators,  who  could  not  know  the  extreme  difficulty 
of  impaling  so  small  a  ring  when  going  at  full  speed. 

The  exercises  began  shortly  after  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.     The 
riding  was  very  fine,  and  was  heartily  cheered.   The  exercises  lasted  for 

more  than  two  hours,  and  the  prizes  were  won  in  the  following  order : 

RINGS. 

First  prize;  Delaware 8 

Second  prize,  Centennial 6 

Third  prize,  Connecticut 6 

Fourth   prize,  South  Carolina 6 

Fifth  prize,  Maryland •  •   5 


APPENDIX. 


1101 


The  standing  of  the  other  knights  was  announced  as  follows :  New 
Jersey,  five;  New  Hampshire,  five;  Rhode  Island,  four;  Pennsylvania, 
three;  Virginia,  three;  North  Carolina,  three;  New  York,  three; 
Georgia,  two;  Union,  two;  and  Massachusetts,  one. 

The  prizes  contested  for  by  the  knights  consisted  of  gold  and  silver 
tea-sets,  elegant  bronzes,  richly  carved  pitchers,  breech-loading  rifles, 
etc.,  etc. 

The  crowning  of  the  Queen  of  Love  and  Beauty,  by  the  successful 
knight,  took  place  in  the  evening,  at  the  Judges'  Hall,  and  was  witnessed 
by  a  large  and  brilliant  audience.  Miss  Perkins,  of  Buckingham  county, 
Virginia,  was  crowned  Queen  of  Love  and  Beauty  by  the  victorious 
knight  of  Delaware.  The  ceremonies  ended  with  a  ball. 

The  attendance  on  the  19th  of  October  was  176,407,  being,  next 
to  Pennsylvania  Day,  the  largest  number  of  admissions  during  the 
Exhibition.  The  receipts  were  $80,367.50. 


THE  SEWING  MACHINE  SECTION,  MACHINERY  HAUL 

Ohio  Day. — Thursday,  October  26th,  was  assigned  to  the  State  of 
Ohio  for  her  special  celebration.  Governor  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  arrived 
in  Philadelphia  on  the  afternoon  of  the  25th,  and  took  up  his  quarters 
at  the  Transcontinental  Hotel,  opposite  the  Exhibition. 

On  the  morning  of  the  26th  large  crowds  poured  into  the  Exhibition 
grounds,  and  by  ten  o'clock  a  dense  mass  of  people  had  assembled  around 


1102  APPENDIX. 

the  Ohio  State  building  for  the  purpose  of  doing  honor  to  the  Governor 
of  the  Buckeye  State.  It  was  estimated  that  at  least  30,000  people  of 
Ohio  were  present  on  the  occasion.  The  Ohio  building  was  gayly  decor- 
ated with  flags  and  bunting,  and  presented  a  handsome  and  attractive 
appearance, 

At  eleven  o'clock,  Governor  Hayes,  accompanied  by  his  staff,  left  his 
quarters  and  repaired  to  the  main  entrance  to  the  Exhibition  grounds, 
where  he  was  met  by  the  Centennial  authorities,  headed  by  General 
Hawley,  and  escorted  to  the  Ohio  State  building.  He  was  loudly 
cheered  as  he  passed  through  the  grounds,  and  his  appearance  on  the 
portico  of  the  State  building  was  the  signal  for  the  most  enthusiastic 
applause  from  the  crowd  which  surrounded  it.  When  this  had  sub- 
sided, General  Hawley  came  forward  and  introduced  Governor  Hayes  to 
the  multitude.  The  Governor  was  received  with  enthusiastic  cheers,  and 
when  these  had  died  away  delivered  an  eloquent  address,  which  was  fre- 
quently applauded.  The  Governor  then  took  his  stand  in  the  reception- 
room,  and  the  people  filed  in  rapidly,  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  passed 
out.  The  reception  continued  for  two  hours,  and  was  marked  by  the 
greatest  enthusiasm. 

The  reception  being  over.  Governor  Hayes  made  a  tour  of  the  various 
Exhibition  buildings  and  the  grounds,  and  visited  the  reunion  of  the  mer- 
chants of  the  leading  cities  of  the  country,  which  was  being  held  in  the 
Philadelphia  Municipal  building. 

The  attendance  was  135,661  ;  the  receipts  were  $61,029.50. 

Vermont  Day. — The  27th  of  October  was  observed  as  Vermont's  day. 
Governor  Fairbanks,  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  State,  being  unable  to 
attend  through  illness,  deputed  ex-Governor  John  B.  Page  to  represent 
him.  The  Vermont  State  building,  which  was  located  on  the  Avenue 
of  the  Republic,  just  west  of  the  Pennsylvania  building,  ,was  handsomely 
decorated.  At  ten  o'clock  ex-Governor  Page  held  a  reception  at  the 
State  building,  which  was  attended  by  about  two  thousand  citizens  of 
Vermont.  From  the  State  building  the  guests  marched  to  Judges'  Hall, 
where  at  eleven  o'clock,  Hon.  Henry  Clarke,  by  appointment  of  the 
Governor  of  Vermont,  delivered  the  formal  address.  The  orator  stated 
that  the  State  was  the  first  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union  formed  by  the 
original  thirteen,  and  proceeded  to  review  her  history  from  colonial  days 
down  through  the  Revolution  to  the  present  time. 

The  attendance  was  108,080;  the  receipts  were  $47,485. 

Announcement  of  the  Au-ards. — The  awards  of  medals  and  diplomas  to 
successful  competitors  in  the  Centennial  Exhibition  Were  announced  in 


APPENDIX. 


1103 


Judges'  Hall  with  appropriate  ceremonies  on  the  evening  of  the  27th  of 
September.  No  event  during  the  course  of  the  Exhibition  was  looked 
forward  to  with  as  much  interest  by  the  exhibitors  as  this  one.  At  times 
many  of  them  were  impatient  at  the  unavoidable  delays,  and  disposed  to 
murmur  at  the  management  of  this  important  branch  of  the  work;  but 
the  manner  in  which  the  judges  performed  their  duties,  the  discrimination 
with  which  their  reports  were  prepared,  and  the  enhanced  value  of  their 
awards  over  those  made  at  any  former  International  Exhibition,  finally 
caused  all  dissatisfaction  to  disappear.  Gratification  at  the  success  of  the 
new  American  system  of  awards  was  universal.  Judges'  Hall  was  beau- 
tifully decorated  for  the  occasion. 

General  Lewis  E.  Merrill,  U.  S.  A.,  acted  as  master  of  ceremonies,  and 


VIEW  OP  THE  INTERIOR  OP  THE  GLASS-WORKS. 

announced  as  they  entered  the  following-named  bodies  of  gentlemen  :  The 
Centennial  Commission,  the  Board  of  Finance,  and  the  United  States 
Government  Board;  General  Walker,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Awards 
and  the  Board  of  Judges;  the  Director-General  of  the  Exhibition  and 
the  Foreign  Commissioners;  the  officers  of  the  Centennial  Guard,  tin1 
Presidents  of  the  Centennial  Commission  and  the  Board  of  Finawe,  and 
the  Governors  of  States  and  the  Diplomatic  Corps.  After  these  had  nil 
passed  to  the  places  assigned  them,  prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Henry  A.  Boardman,  of  Philadelphia,  in  response  to  which  the  Temple 
Quartette  of  Boston  sang  a  selection  from  Schubert's  Mass  for  male 
voices, 


APPENDIX. 

United  States  Commissioner  Daniel  J.  Morrell,  who  presided,  then 
made  a  short  address. 

The  music  which  followed  consisted  of  selections  from  the  national  airs 
of  many  countries,  performed  by  the  Centennial  orchestra.  Director- 
General  Goshorn  then  delivered  a  brief  address,  reviewing  the  work  of 
the  Exhibition,  and  was  followed  by  President  Hawley,  who  explained 
the  system  of  awards  and  the  work  of  the  Judges,  and  of  the  Centennial 
Commission  in  preparing  them. 

The  names  of  the  several  countries  were  then  called,  and  their  repre- 
sentatives came  forward  and  received  the  lists  of  awards  prepared  by  the 
Centennial  Commission.  Each  one  was  greeted  with  loud  applause. 
Especially  was  this  true  in  the  cases  of  Brazil,  Egypt,  France,  Germany, 
Japan,  Russia,  Turkey,  Great  Britain  and  Victoria,  and  the  United 


MACHINERY  SECTION,  AGRICULTURAL  HALL. 

States.  In  some  instances  the  whole  audience  rose  to  its  feet,  and  the 
slapping  of  hands  and  shouts  of  "Bravo"  continued  for  several  seconds. 
The  exercises  of  the  evening  were  closed  by  the  singing  of  Dudley  Buck's 
Serenade  by  the  Temple  Quartette  Club,  and  music  by  the  First  Brigade 
Band. 

The  method  of  awards  adopted  by  the  American  Centennial  Commis- 
Bion  differs  from  the  preceding  systems.  It  dispenses  with  the  interna- 
tional jury,  and  substitutes  a  body  of  judges,  one-half  foreign,  chosen  in- 
dividually for  their  high  qualifications.  It  dispenses  also  with  the  system 
of  awards  by  graduated  medals,  and  requires  of  the  judges  written  reports 
on  the  inherent  nnd  comparative  merits  of  each  product  thought  worthy 
of  an  award,  setting  forth  the  properties  and  qualities,  presenting  the  con* 


APPENDIX. 


1105 


siderations  forming  the  grounds  of  the  award,  and  avouching  each  report 
by  the  signature  of  their  authors.  Thus  the  volumes  of  reports  will 
form  a  complete  encyclopaedia  of  the  Exhibition,  which  can  be  consulted 
on  all  disputed  questions  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  objects  of  like  char- 
acter, and  will  be  an  authority  to  settle  the  quarrels  of  rival  manufac- 
turers and  inventors  about  the  value  of  their  premiums. 

The  medals  awarded  by  the  Commission  were  of  bronze,  round  iu 


CENTENNIAL  AWARD  MEDAL— (OBVERSE.) 

shape,  four  inches  in  diameter,  very  chaste  in  appear?  .100,  and  the  largest 
of  the  kind  ever  struck  in  the  United  States.  The  stamps  were  engraved 
by  Henry  Mitchell,  of  Boston,  and  the  medals  were  struck  at  the  United 
States  Mint  at  Philadelphia.  In  the  centre  of  the  face  is  a  female  figure, 
representing  America,  seated  on  an  elevation,  and  holding  a  crown  of 
laurels  over  the  emblems  of  industry  that  lie  at  her  feet.  At  equal  dis- 
tances apart  on  the  outside  zone  of  the  fare  are  four  other  female  figures 
in  bas-relief,  which  with  appropriate  symbols  represent  America,  Europe, 
70 


1106 


APPENDIX. 


Asia,  and  Africa,  respectively.  The  reverse  side  has  in  the  centre  the 
words:  "Awarded,  by  the  United  States  Centennial  Commission,"  and, 
on  the  outside  zone:  "International  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia. 
MDCCCLXXVI " — all  in  raised  letters.  The  zone  on  each  face  is  sep- 
arated from  the  inner  area  by  a  wreath  of  laurels. 

All  the  medals  of  award  were  of  the  same  size,  weight,  material,  and 
design.  About  twelve  thousand  were  presented  to  deserving  exhibitors. 

The  Closing  Ceremonies. — The  morning  of  the  10th  of  November,  the 


CENTENNIAL  AWARD  MEDAL — (REVERSE. 


day  appointed  for  the  formal  closing  of  the  Exhibition,  opened  with 
clouds  and  rain,  and  during  the  day  a  cold,  disagreeable  storm  prevailed. 
In  spite  of  this,  however,  the  early  trains  and  street  cars  were  crowded 
with  visitors,  and  every  available  vehicle  was  pressed  into  service  by  the 
multitude.  As  soon  as  the  entrance  gates  were  opened  there  was  a  rush 
for  them  by  the  crowd  that  had  gathered  about  them.  This  stream  of 
people  continued  to  pass  through  the  turn-stiles  until  late  in  the  afternoon 
without  intermission. 


APPEM>1X. 


1107 


It  had  been  intended  to  hold  the  closing  ceremonies  in  the  open  air  at 
the  western  end  of  the  Main  Building,  but  the  steady  rain  which  fell 
during  the  day  rendered  a  change  in  this  part  of  the  programme  imper- 
ative. Judges'  Hall  was  therefore  chosen  as  the  most  suitable  place  for 
these*  exercises.  A  vast  crowd  collected  around  the  hall,  and  the  disap- 
pointment at  not  being'  able  to  witness  the  closing  ceremonies  was  gen- 
eral. A  broad  passageway  was  kept  open  in  front  of  the  building  by 
two  long  lines  of  the  Centennial  Guard,  which  effectually  barred  the 
entrance  of  any  one  unless  provided  with  the  proper  card  of  admission. 

Twelve  o'clock  struck,  but  the  rain  continued  to  fall  steadily,  and  there 
were  no  signs  of  a  change  of  weather,  no  hope  that  the  rain  would  cease 


VIEW.  OF  THE  LOOMS,   MACHINERY  HALT* 

and  permit  the  ceremonies  to  take  place  in  the  open  air.  Word  was 
accordingly  ssnt  to  the  distinguished  personages  to  repair  to  the  Judges* 
Hall,  there  to  participate  in  the  ceremonies  which  were  formally  to  close 
the  grand  Exhibition.  The  arrangements,  everything  consider. -d.  wnv 
admirable.  The  First  City  Troop,  under  Captain  Fairman  Rogers,  anil 
supported  by  a  strong  detachment  of  Centennial  Guards,  kept  back  the 
ever-increasing  crowds,  and  formed  an  avenue  between  the  thousands  of 
visitors  who  were  at  least  determined  to  see  if  they  could  not  hoar;  and 
carriage  after  carriage  rolled  up  to  the  entrance,  and  their  occupants,  pro- 
vided with  the  open  sesame  in  the  shape  of  a  ticket  marked  "Admit  to 
the  Judges'  Pavilion,"  quickly  passed  into  the  interior.  By  two  o'clock 
all  the  visitors  had  arrived,  and  were  in  the  places  assigned  them. 


1108 


APPENDIX. 


On  the  platform  sat  President  Grant.  To  his  right  were  General 
Hawley,  Director-General  Goshorn,  Secretary  of  War  J.  Donald  Cameron, 
and  George  W.  Childs,  Esq.  To  the  left  were  Commissioner  Daniel  J. 
Morrell,  Secretary  of  State  Hamilton  Fish,  Rev.  J.  H.  Seiss,  John  Welsh, 
£sq.,  and  General  Robert  Patterson.  Immediately  back  were  Governor 
Hartranft,  Governor  Rice,  of  Massachusetts  ;  Governor  Bedle,  of  New 
Jersey  ;  Governor  Cochran,  of  Delaware ;  Chief-Justice  Waite,  Asso- 
ciate Justices  Davis  and  Bradley,  and  Mayor  Stokley,  Sir  Edward 


EXHIBIT   OF   SEEDS   IKT   AOKICTTLTtrRAI>   HALL. 

Thornton,  the  British  Minister,  had  donned  his  court  dress  to  do  honor 
to  the  occasion.  General  N.  P.  Banks,  displaying  unaffected  interest, 
stood  near  her  Majesty's  envoy,  Thomas  A.  Scott  chatted  to  Bishop 
Simpson,  whose  fine  features  were  lit  up  with  a  feeling  of  interest  at  the 
scene.  Asa  Packer,  millionnaire  and  philanthropist ;  Frederick  Fraley, 
who  handled  the  Centennial  receipts  with  the  ability  of  an  accomplished 
financier;  U.  S.  Grant,  Jr.r  the  President's  private  Secretary  ;  Aristarchi 
Bey,  saturnine  and  cynical  in  appearance ;  Bayard  Taylor,  the  Centen- 
nial poet  j  ex-Governor  Straw,  of  Kew  Hampshire  ;  Professor  Blake,  of 


APPENDIX.  H09 

the  Smithsonian  Institute;  S.  M.  Felton,  President  of  the  Philadelphia, 
Wilmington  and  Baltimore  Railroad,  and  others,  formed  a  background 
which  was  thoroughly  representative  in  its  character.  To  the  right  -at 
the  members  of  the  staffs  of  the  Governors,  and  a  number  of  distinguished 
army  and  naval  officers,  and  on  the  left  were  accommodated  the  Centen- 
nial Commissioners,  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Finance,  and  a  num- 
ber of  the  Diplomatic  Corps.  In  front,  and  filling  every  vacant  seat, 
were  the  privileged  personages  admitted  to  witness  the  closing  scenes. 

At  two  o'clock  the  Centennial  Inauguration  March,  written  by  the 
great  German  composer,  Professor  Wagner,  for  the  opening  ceremonies 
of  the  Exhibition,  preluded  the  formal  exercises,  and  its  now  familiar 
notes  were  greeted  with  enthusiastic  applause.  When,  on  the  opening 
day,  this  composition  was  for  the  first  time  publicly  performed,  the  effect 
was  rather  disappointing,  as  in  the  open  air  only  the  wind  instruments 
could"  be  clearly  heard.  So  far  as  the  music  was  concerned  the  change  of 
programme  to  the  Judges'  Hall  proved  a  decided  advantage,  for  the 
massive  chords  of  the  "  Centennial  March  "rolled  out  upon  the  air  in 
waves  of  richest  harmony,  while  every  note  of  the  most  intricate  evolu- 
tions was  distinctly  marked.  General  Hawley,  President  of  the  Centen- 
nial Commission,  who  acted  as  the  presiding  officer,  then  introduced  Rev. 
Joseph  A.  Seiss,  who  offered  a  fervent  prayer. 

A  chorale  and  fugue  from  Bach  were  then  performed  by  the  orchestra, 
after  which  the  Hon.  D.  J.  Morrell,  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  United  States  Centennial  Commission,  delivered  a.i  address  review- 
ing the  history  and  career  of  the  Exhibition. 

When  Mr.  Morrell  ceased  Theodore  Thomas  gave  a  signal  to  the  Cen- 
tennial Chorus  in  the  western  balcony,  and  the  orchestra  and  chorus 
rendered,  with  fine  effect,  Dettingen's  Te  Deum. 

The  next  speaker  was  Mr.  John  Welsh,  the  President  of  the  Centen- 
nial Board  of  Finance,  whose  appearance  was  the  signal  for  the  most 
enthusiastic  applause.  When  quiet  was  restored  Mr.  AVelsh  briefly  and 
eloquently  summed  up  the  results  of  the  Exhibition.  Director-General 
Goshorn  then  followed  in  an  address  devoted  to  a  review  of  the  Exhibi- 
tion. As  the  Director-General  concluded,  chorus  and  orchestra  burst 
forth  in  the  glorious  "  Hallelujah  "  from  Handel's  "  Messiah."  At  the 
conclusion  of  the  chorus  President  Hawley  arose  and  delivered  the 
closing  address  with  characteristic  grace  and  eloquence. 

At  the  conclusion  of  General  Hawley's  address  the  audience  and  chorus 
united  in  singing  the  national  anthem,  "  My  country,  'tis  of  thee,"  the 
full  orchestra  accompanying  the  voices.  Never  was  the  sweet  hymn  sung 
with  more  patriotic  fervor  than  yesterday,  for  as  the  simple  yet  majestic 


1110 


APPENDIX. 


Vielody  filled  the  air  the  original  flag  of  the  American  Union,  first  dis- 
played by  Commodore  Paul  Jones  on  the  "Bon  Homme  Richard,"  was 

unfurled  from  a  window 
above  the  stage,  and  as  its 
hallowed  folds  floated  in  the 
air  all  eyes  gazed  upon  the 
relic  with  reverence,  and  while 
a  thousand  throats  sang 
"America"  with  still  deeper 
feeling,  all  present  united  in 
applauding  by  a  brisk  clap- 
ping of  hands  this  most 
happy  addition  to  the  pro- 
gramme. At  twenty-three 
minutes  of  four  o'clock  Gen- 
eral Hawley  announced  that 
General  Ulysses  S.  Grant, 
President  of  the  United 
States,  would  now  formally 
close  the  Exhibition.  The 
President  here  arose  and  said 

"LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:—! 
have  now  the  honor  to  declare  the 
Exhibition  closed." 

The  President  then  turned 
to  the  left,  and  waved  his 
hand  as  the  signal  to  the 
operator  at  the  telegraph  in- 
strument, immediately  behind 
him,  to  give  the  signal  for 
stopping  the  Corliss  engine 
and  the  machinery  in  the 
hall.  Mr.  Robert  B.  Manley, 
the  general  director,  touched 
the  key,  and  the  characters 
"7-6 "were  signalled  to  the 
main  telegraph  office.  The 
same  current  caused  the  ham- 
mer to  strike  the  special  gong 
stationed  alongside  the  Corliss  engine,  which  was  the  signal  to  stop,  and  at 
the  same  time  all  the  gongs  in  the  Machinery  Hall  felt  the  effect  of  the  elec- 


FEATHER,  CONTAINING  THE  FAMOUS 
"  BRUNSWICK  "  DIAMOND,  AND  OVER  600  SMALL 
DIAMONDS,  EXHIBITED  BY  TIFFANY  &  CO. 


APPENDIX. 


1111 


trical  current,  and  gave  notice  to  the  exhibitors  that  the  official  fiat  of  the 
President,  that  the  Exhibition  had  been  declared  closed,  was  promulgated. 
At  the  instant  the  instrument  ticked  in  the  main  telegraph  office,  the  fol- 
lowing despatch  was  placed  on  the  wires  and  sent  to  London,  Liverpool, 
^Paris,  and  the  principal  cities  of  Europe,  the  United  States,  and  Canadas: 

INTERNATIONAL  CENTENNIAL  EXHIBITION  GROUNDS, 

PHILADELPHIA,  November  Wth,  1876. 

The  President  has  this  moment  closed  the  International  Exhibition — 
3.37  P.  M. 

W.  J.  PHILLIPS,  Telegraph  Director, 

U.  S.  International  Exhibition. 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  LOG  CABIN  AND  MODERN  KITCHEN. 

All  present  then  united  in  singing  the  long  metre  doxology  to  the 
words, 

"  Be  Thou,  O  God !  exalted  high, 
And  as  Thy  glory  fills  the  sky, 
So  let  it  be  on  earth  displayed, 
Till  Thou  art  here  a«  there  obeyed." 

And  soon  afterwards  the  assemblage  dispersed.  A  large  crowd  gath- 
ered about  the  pavilion  to  witness  the  departure  of  the  President,  wh*. 
stepped  into  his  carriage  at  about  four  o'clock,  and  drove  back  to  tin 
residence  of  his  host,  Mr.  George  W.  Childs.  Though  the  Exhibition 
was  thus  formally  closed,  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  exhibits  wero 
covered  up,  and  the  grounds  remained  thronged  with  visitors  until 
evening. 


1112 


APPENDIX. 


The  record  of  admissions  by  months  is  as  follows: 


Months. 

May 

June.... 
July. 


Days. 

...19 
...26 
...26 


August 27 

September 26 

October 26 

November 9 

159 


Paid. 

378,980 

695,666 

636,518 

908,684 

2,130,991 

2,334,530 

918,956 

8,004,325 


Total. 

613,495 

952,177 

906,447 

1,175,314 

2,439,689 

2,663,879 

1,038,391 

9,789,392 


Receipts. 

$189,490.35 
347,833.40 
318,199.25 
415,659.25 
928,056.00 

1,160,811.50 
453,700.00 

$3,813,749.75 


A  recapitulation  of  the  above  shows  the  following: 

Number  of  days  open 

Paid  admissions 

Free  admissions 

Total  admissions 

Grand  total  of  receipts , 


159 

8,004,325 

1,785,067 

9,789,392 

5,813,749.75 


THE  PERMANENT  EXHIBITION 

S  the  close  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  drew  near  there  was 
everywhere  expressed  a  feeling  of  regret  that  the  magnificent 
structures  erected  for  it  should  be  torn  down  at  its  close,  and  a 
general  desire  was  manifested  that  as  many  of  them  as  possible 
should  be  preserved  as  memorials  of  the  great  Exhibition.  Some 
of  these  were  destined  to  stand.  Machinery  and  Horticultural  Halls, 
being  the  property  of  the  city,  were  erected  as  permanent  ornaments  to 
Fairmount  Park,  and  the  beautiful  Memorial  Hall  was  to  be  converted 
into  the  Pennsylvania  Museum  of  Industrial  Art  at  the  close  of  the  Ex- 
hibition. The  Main  Building,  however,  was  doomed  to  destruction. 
There  was  a  widespread  desire  that  this  fate  might  be  averted,  and  that 
the  superb  structure  might  be  preserved.  Out  of  this  feeling  grew  the 
suggestion  that  a  second  Exhibition,  permanent  in  character,  and  arranged 
somewhat  after  the  plan  of  the  Crystal  Palace,  at  Sydenham,  in  England, 
might  be  successful,  and  that  the  Main  Building  could  be  used  for  this 
purpose  and  thus  preserved.  The  suggestion  was  eagerly  welcomed  by  the 
public,  and  was  carefully  considered  by  a  number  of  prominent  citizens 
of  Philadelphia,  many  of  whom  were  closely  identified  with  the  Centeii- 


<i~Z.u  4 


r-       a.  «J^. 

ilffl 

O  ;;—  Cg  o  c  o  to 

" 


1113 


1114 


APPENDIX. 


nial  Exhibition,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  scheme  was  practicable  and 
could  be  made  a  success  under  proper  management. 

Three  things  were  necessary :  first,  to  secure  the  consent  of  the  Park 
Commission  to  the  retention  of  the  Main  Building  in  its  present  location; 
second,  to  secure  the  necessary  funds  for  the  purchase  of  the  Main  Build- 
ing and  the  proper  inauguration  of  the  Permanent  Exhibition  ;  and  third, 
to  secure  the  hearty  co-operation  of  exhibitors.  The  consent  of  the  Park 
Commission  was  obtained  after  some  little  trouble,  and  the  use  of  the  land 
,npou  which  the  Main  Building  stands  was  granted  upon  liberal  terms. 
Towards  the  last  of  October,  1876,  the  International  Exhibition  Company 
v;as  organized. 

The  capital  of  the  new  company  was  fixed  at  $600,000,  divided  into 


THE   BRUNSWICK   VASE,    EXHIBITED   IN   MAIN    BUILDING. 

six  thousand  shares  of  $100  each.  Measures  were  set  on  foot  to  secure 
this  sum,  and  several  public  meetings  for  this  purpose  were  held  in  the 
Common  Council  Chamber  at  Philadelphia.  The  replies  of  the  people 
were  prompt.  Before  the  close  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  the  sub- 
scriptions amounted  to  $100,000  in  cash  and  $500,000  in  the  stock  of  the 
Centennial  Board  of  Finance,  rated  at  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar,  making 
the  total  subscription  equal  to  $350,000.  By  the  middle  of  November 
$100,000  additional  in  cash  had  been  subscribed,  and  before  the  close  of 
the  year  other  subscriptions  were  made. 

The  financial  difficulty  being  thus  removed,  the  next  step  was  to  secure 
the  co-operation  of  the  exhibitors.  Circulars  setting  forth  the  nature  and 
objects  of  the  proposed  Exhibition  were  addressed  to  the  exhibitors  taking 


1115 


1116  APPENDIX. 

part  in  the  Centennial  Exhibition.  The  Centennial  Exhibition  had  been 
so  beneficial  to  those  taking  part  in  it,  that  the  responses  to  the  circular 
of  the  new  company  were  so  general  that  long  before  the  close  of  the  year 
every  foot  of  space  in  the  Main  Building  was  disposed  of.  Many  of  the 
new  exhibitors  were  foreign  merchants  or  manufacturers  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  Centennial  Exhibition. 

The  next  step  on  the  part  of  the  managers  was  to  purchase  the  Main 
Building.  On  the  1st  of  December,  1876,  as  required  by  law,  a  number 
of  the  principal  Exhibition  buildings  were  sold  at  auction.  Among  these 
was  the  Main  Building,  which  was  purchased  by  the  Permanent  Exhibi- 
tion Company  for  the  sum  of  $250,000. 

The  necessary  capital  having  been  secured,  the  Main  Building  pur- 
chased, and  the  co-operation  of  exhibitors  pledged,  the  plans  for  the  Ex- 
hibition were  carried  forward  with  great  rapidity. 

The  Permanent  Exhibition  was  formally  opened  on  the  10th  of  May, 
1877.  It  is  contained  entirely  within  the  Main  Building,  and  is  nearly 
as  magnificent  and  a  more  varied  display  than  was  given  in  this  superb 
edifice  during  the  Centennial  Exhibition.  As  many  of  the  articles  then 
on  exhibition  will  remain,  visitors  will  see  much  that  will  recall  to  them 
the  greatest  of  the  World's  Fairs ;  and  there  is  also  much  that  is  new  and 
attractive. 

The  arrangement  of  exhibits  brings  similar  articles  of  the  same  group 
in  close  proximity  to  each  other,  thus  facilitating  comparison  and  study. 
The  building  is  intersected  through  the  centre  lengthwise  by  the  main 
nave  and  crosswise  by  the  centre  transept,  and  is  thereby  divided  into 
four  principal  divisions.  Each  group  of  articles  as  classified  has  a  front- 
age on  either  the  nave,  centre  transept,  or  a  prominent  cross  avenue  lead- 
ing directly  to  the  nave. 

At  the  centre  of  the  building  in  the  north  gallery  is  placed  the  great 
Centennial  organ,  and  immediately  in  front  of  it,  to  be  treated  as  an  au- 
ditorium for  musical  performances,  is  an  area  of  200  feet  in  width,  and 
extending  240  feet  in  length  to  the  centre  of  the  building,  and  having  a 
seating  accommodation  for  8,000  people.  Tiers  of  seats  affording  ample 
provision  for  orchestra  and  chorus  extend  from  the  organ-gallery  down 
to  the  floor. 

The  acoustic  qualities  of  this  portion  of  the  building  proved  during  the 
late  Centennial  Exhibition  to  be  exceptionally  fine,  and  the  facilities  of- 
fered by  the  place  for  musical  festivals,  orchestral  and  vocal  concerts, 
oratorios,  and  for  the  performance  generally  of  both  classical  and  pop- 
ular music,  are  unequalled  by  any  other  concert-room  in  the  United 
States, 


1117 


H18  APPENDIX. 

In  the  centre  of  the  building,  extending  from  the  nave  south,  is  the 
department  devoted  to  painting  and  sculpture,  the  admirable  light  of  the 
building  affording  special  facilities  for  the  display  of  works  of  fine  art. 
These  range  in  a  circular  space  commencing  at  the  column  that  marked 
the  corner  of  the  German  department,  and  extend  around  to  the  hand- 
some enclosure  of  Tiffany  &  Co.'s  display  in  the  old  Exhibition.  At  the 
extreme  end  of  the  line  is  the  grim  bronze  statue  of  Bismarck.  In  the 
eastern  part  are  some  beautiful  agate  marbles,  whose  wave-like  lines  are 
marked  in  shades  of  light  yellowish  brown  and  white  with  crystallized 
portions  that  look  like  quartz.  It  is  known  as  oriental  marble,  comes 
from  Italy,  and  is  very  valuable.  A  slab  about  five  feet  in  length  and 
three  in  breadth,  and  a  little  over  an  inch  thick,  was  sold  for  $1800.  In 
the  rear  of  the  statuary  are  three  large  equestrian  statues,  the  largest  of 
which,  representing  General  Scott,  is  of  colossal  size,  and  another  of 
General  McPherson  of  less  dimensions.  The  third,  which  is  a  bronze  of 
General  Blanco,  President  of  the  United  States  of  Venezuela,  is  of  less 
size,  being  a  little  larger  than  life.  These  stand  at  the  three  angles  of  a 
triangle,  and  in  the  centre  is  a  handsome  fountain. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  Exhibition  consists  of  numerous  foreign 
courts  fronting  on  the  main  nave,  each  of  which  is  formed  by  enclosures 
erected  in  the  style  of  architecture  peculiar  to  the  respective  countries, 
and  which  also  contain  characteristic  exhibits  Owing  to  the  kind  co- 
operation and  interest  manifested  in  the  Permanent  Exhibition  by  the 
various  foreign  commissions  to  the  recent  Centennial  Exhibition,  many 
of  the  foreign  governments  have  presented  their  enclosures  to  the  Inter- 
national Exhibition  Company.  These  structures  arc  rearranged  in  the 
form  of  courts,  and,  together  with  others  to  be  hereafter  added,  will  form 
permanent  attractions. 

In  the  west  wing,  on  the  north  side,  commencing  at  the  west  end,  are 
the  following  courts,  in  the  order  named :  Norwegian,  Swedish,  Danish, 
Tunisian,  Turkish,  Spanish  (Agricultural),  and  Chinese.  On  the  south 
side,  as  follows :  Egyptian  and  Spanish  (industrial).  In  the  cast  wing, 
on  the  north  side:  Japanese,  French  Crystal  Court,  Belgian,  Swiss, 
Mexican,  and  the  superb  Brazilian  Pavilion,  presented  by  his  Majesty, 
Dom  Pedro  II. 

A  special  feature  of  the  Exhibition  is  the  Educational  Department,  in 
which  arc  represented  model  school-rooms,  complete  with  all  their  appli- 
ances and  accessories.  These  rooms  are  the  embodiment  of  the  latest  and 
best  efforts  in  the  cause  of  education,  and  show  standard  appliances  and 
arrangements  for  the  benefit  and  instruction  of  all  persons  interested  in 
educational  matters.  The  exhibits  in  the  Educational  Department  have 


1119 


1120  APPENDIX. 

been  carefully  selected  by  experts  and  instructors  actually  engaged  in  the 
work  of  education.  Adjacent  to  the  Educational  Department  a  large 
space  is  devoted  to  the  display  of  publications  and  objects  of  interest  to 
the  book-trade  generally. 

The  ceramic  art,  specimens  of  which  commanded  such  universal  admira- 
tion at  the  late  Centennial  Exhibition,  is  largely  represented  in  the  Per- 
manent Exhibition,  provision  being  made  for  the  collective  display  in  a 
permanent  location  of  ceramics  from  different  countries.  The  northwest 
section  of  the  building  is  devoted  exclusively  to  agriculture,  including 
agricultural  machinery  in  motion,  and  many  State  collective  exhibits  of 
their  respective  agricultural  and  mineral  resources.  In  the  southwest 
portion  is  the  Machinery  Department  proper,  in  which  are  exhibited  many 
processes  of  manufacture,  the  motive  power  being  obtained  from  boiler- 
houses  erected  adjacent  to  the  building  on  the  north  side.  A  novel  feature 
of  the  Exhibition  is  a  large  aquarium,  covering  15,000  square  feet,  and 
containing  both  ^alt  and  fresh  water  specimens.  In  its  construction 
advantage  was  taken  of  all  the  latest  improvements  to  make  it  both 
attractive  and  instructive.  'For  the  special  convenience  of  visitors,  a 
Department  of  Public  Comfort  has  been  established  on  the  south  side  of 
the  building,  adjoining  the  central  entrance.  This  department  encloses 
a  first-class  restaurant  and  beaufet,  reception  and  retiring  rooms,  telegraph 
office,  barber  shop,  bath  rooms,  facilities  for  checking  and  storing  baggage, 
and  obtaining  rolling-chairs  for  use  throughout  the  building. 

In  the  extreme  northwest  corner  is  the  large  tower  and  windmill  that 
used  to  stand  in  the  Agricultural  Hall  during  the  past  Centennial.  The 
Tunisian  archway  that  used  to  stand  in  the  southeast  part  of  the  hall  has 
been  given  a  prominent  position  in  the  same  section,  near  the  Educational 
Department.  Opposite  the  Spanish  portal  is  part  of  the  enclosure  that 
encompassed  the  Spanish  Agricultural  section.  There  are  in  this  section 
a  very  large  and  fine  collection  of  seeds,  cereals,  and  plants,  and  special 
collections  from  the  different  States. 

It  is  not  doubted  that  the  Permanent  Exhibition  will  rank  among  the 
most  superb  displays  ever -witnessed.  It  will  be  reinforced  by  the  exhibi- 
tions and  other  festivals  which  will  be  held  from  time  to  time  in 
Machinery  Hall ;  by  the  beautiful  grounds  which  were  laid  out  by  the 
Centennial  Commission,  and  which  will  be  kept  in  order  by  the  Park 
authorities;  by  the  grand  conservatory  in  Horticultural  Hall;  by  the 
various  foreign  buildings  donated  to  the  city  of  Philadelphia  by  the 
Commissioners  of  the  European  powers  taking  part  in  the  Centennial 
Exhibition ;  and,  lastly,  by  the  rich  and  beautiful  Museum  of  Art  in 
Memorial  Hall, 

-    T: 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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JUN  1 2 


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MAY  26  ig?B 

FEB 


THE  LTBRARY 

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